Campaign Heightens Humor's Liberal Bent

Comedy is taking a prominent place in the US election, and may be leaning even more leftward than usual, the Boston Globe reports. Tina Fey and David Letterman have brought the highest ratings in years with mockery of Sarah Palin and John McCain. And Jon Stewart, a savage critic of conservatives, always thrives in election years. Is there something liberal about comedy?

Some think so. “A joke has to feel like it's overcoming some kind of norm, some kind of inhibition. I think Republicans are always better at norms and inhibitions than Democrats,” says one professor who’s written on the subject. Though efforts at conservative comedy have tanked, it may be that jokes are best when aimed at whoever’s in power. (More Election 2008 stories.)