Latest news with #politicalcomedy
Forbes
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Stephen Colbert, ‘South Park' And The Return Of Political Comedy
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert during Mondays June 13, 2022 show. Last week, CBS canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. While the three-decade franchise is among the most-watched late-night programs, CBS said it was 'purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night." However, over the last week, many have become convinced that it had to do with Colbert's comedic takes against Donald Trump (specifically his commentary on his parent company and their 60 Minutes settlement with the president) and the government's review of Paramount's merger with Skydance. Colbert's isn't the only anti-Trump content making waves for Paramount. South Park dedicated its 27th season premiere to mocking Trump. While South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed that they received notes on the episode from the network, the episode comes after a $1.5 billion deal between the show's creators and Paramount. These two news stories raise questions about political comedy, profitability and the role of comedians during a second Trump presidency. Comedy has long been a tool against unpopular regimes. From Charlie Chaplin's 1940s send up of Adolph Hitler The Great Dictator to Egyptian comedian Abu Zaid's 2018 arrest after working on a satirical news show, comedy and politics have often overlapped in important ways. Many have championed comedy as a means of political commentary. During the first Trump presidency, satire was not only popular but profitable (or at least it drove ratings for many tv shows.) However, as the second Trump presidency loomed, questions circled over the place of political comedy. Furthermore, many saw comedy as part of the reason Trump was reelected. Many comedians including Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Jimmy Fallon have spoken out in support of Colbert. Stewart and Oliver with their history with Colbert and political comedy more generally feel like obvious boosters; however, Fallon is more surprising. The NBC host isn't known for political commentary and his vocal support may even reach viewers not usually looking for political comedy content. Similarly, while South Park has a long history of skewering politicians, it hasn't been as synonymous with satire as it was earlier in its run. Millennials of a certain age may remember South Park for its take downs of George W. Bush regime, but it hasn't made political waves in recent years. In 2018, The Washington Post even called South Park 'the ultimate #bothsides show' and mentioned its ties to the Alt-Right and right-of-center politics. Leftist comedians haven't gone away or stopped talking politics; however, their reach has ebbed and flowed over multiple presidencies. The reality of this moment has more to do with a-political or not specifically-vocally-left comedians and their reactions. For many years Colbert was synonymous with political comedy. With nine seasons of The Colbert Report, he became one of America's most recognized satirists. However, since the show ended in 2014 and he took the reins of The Late Show in 2015, while still at times political, the focus of his comedy has shifted. It is hard to say if Colbert's cancellation or even South Park's reentry into the political comedy conversation will shift political comedy left or lead to more anti-Trump comedy. However, the closeness of these events to each other and to an essential time between Paramount and the administration seems like a step towards a return to a reinvigorated era of political comedy.
Telegraph
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
This political comedy about a struggling British-Asian MP sounds all too familiar
Shaan Sahota's impressive but uneven debut play, The Estate, about a lowly, initially likeable British-Asian MP negotiating the snake-pit of Westminster and a nest of intrigue closer to home as he vies to become opposition leader represents a sparky fusion of backbiting political comedy and knives-out family drama. The casting adds to its curiosity value. The endearing Adeel Akhtar – who broke through with Chris Morris's 2010 jihadi satire Four Lions – takes the lead as Angad Singh, a study in aspiration and mounting exasperation. The play's ambition – as it shifts from lighter moments to vexed concerns about equality, race, patriarchy and trauma – is refreshing. But Sahota covers so much terrain that Daniel Raggett's production sometimes stumbles when the mood shifts and the piece becomes hobbled in terms of plausibility by its plot-motoring twists. It's a frustration that while we infer that Singh is batting for the Tories, the lack of specifics facilitates a broad swipe at 'uniparty' politics but deprives us of the intellectual meat of political intent. Still, there's ample to savour. Initially, we might be in a low-key version of The Thick of It. Amid a rather distractingly elaborate set, which discloses different interiors, Humphrey Ker's lordly opposition whip drops in on Akhtar's charismatically earnest Singh and his entertainingly gossipy team of assistants to ensure that this Rural Affairs no-mark will be smoothing the anointment of a new leader. He scoffs at the idea that Singh himself might be a good candidate. But a desire for the top job is bubbling away – as is a decent backstory: he's the son of a lowly Sikh Punjabi baggage handler, who grew a retail and property empire in Southall from scratch. The tactical leaking of the frontrunner's shameful peccadillos puts Singh in pole position but the death of his father and revelation that the will made no provision for his two sisters gives rise to Succession-esque sibling wrangling that destabilises the leadership bid. Sahota catches the grimly recognisable way that bereavement can often usher in calculation and recrimination; the trio's competing claims on the money are partly invested with a sense of longstanding emotional debts, but are also straightforwardly grasping. And she grants us fascinating insights into the pressures facing an immigrant family where paternalism has entailed sexist assumptions, resulting in schisms that cut across generations and genders. The short-changed daughters – tartly played by Shelley Conn and Thusitha Jayasundera – grew up feeling like also-rans, so they demand money in recompense. The favoured son feels no less aggrieved by the expectations placed on him and, with a baby on the way, thinks he deserves full payback; a tragic paradox emerges – that he may have to channel the worst aspects of his domineering dad to be his own man. In a complex role, Akhtar shines – and just about holds our sympathies – as an underdog as often buckling as rallying, prone to asthma attacks and wilting at the memory of humiliations endured at public school and home. But his politics never seem sufficiently fleshed out, while an ugly lapse into atavistic violence smacks of contrivance too. In the end, Sahota leaves you wanting more in the way of finessed detail – but of her baseline talent, and promise, there's no doubt.
New York Times
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
5 Animated Political Satire Series to Stream
The state of American politics can feel so exaggerated and far-fetched that one of the best ways to represent it is through a medium made for such absurdity. Animated satirical series can depict our country's political figures and moments at their most bizarre, sometimes taking aim at a particular party or politician, and sometimes lambasting the general idea of America as a fair, free and democratic nation. What follows is a guide to animated satires of American politics and politicians from the first Bush administration to the Biden administration. #1 Happy Family USA (2025- ) This new series, created by the comedian Ramy Youssef and the writer Pam Brady, depicts a Muslim Egyptian American family in New Jersey who must learn to properly code-switch and project the image of a nonthreatening, properly assimilated family in order to carry on in the midst of the prejudice and jingoism of post-9/11 America. Much of the series focuses on the exploits and misadventures of Rumi (voiced by Youssef), who tries to find his place among his middle school peers. But beyond the more standard adolescent story lines, '#1 Happy Family USA' hilariously skewers the likes of Fox News and George W. Bush, and also offers a stringent critique of how American beliefs and values shifted at the expense of many Muslim citizens and people of color after 9/11. Streaming on Amazon Prime. American Dad! (2005- ) The series creator Seth MacFarlane (who also created 'Family Guy') has said that 'American Dad!' was inspired by his frustration with the 2000 presidential election and the Bush administration. The sitcom stars the Smith family, the patriarch of which, Stan, is a jingoistic far-right Republican who works for the C.I.A. Conservative politics take many of the satire's hits, but characters like Stan's hippie daughter and her boyfriend then husband represent leftist targets that get mocked regularly. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Japan Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
LGBTQ Thai ghost story wins prize in Cannes
Film director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, who won a top prize at the Cannes Festival on Wednesday, recruited a major influencer for his off-the-wall gay comedy with a political punch. In "A Useful Ghost," Davika "Mai" Hoorne — a model and actor with 18 million followers on Instagram — plays a woman who returns from the dead and haunts a vacuum cleaner to comfort her husband. The film features sexy ghosts and a brawl between electrical appliances, but is also a meditation on sweeping unpleasant political events under the carpet. It won the top prize in the Critics' Week sidebar section of the Cannes film festival on Wednesday. In Thailand, LGBTQ love or coming-out stories are common, Ratchapoom said during the festival. "But I want queer characters to do more than that, to do more politics as well," he said. "We need more diverse queer stories to be told." In his wacky satire, the ghost's in-laws are at first deeply displeased that she has returned, but then they put her to work hunting down another lost soul disturbing the family factory. A minister takes note of her talent, and brings her in to find and terminate the dissident ghosts that are haunting his home, including people killed in real-life deadly protests. In 2010, more than 90 people were killed, the vast majority of them civilians, when the army cracked down on so-called "Red Shirt" protests demanding new elections after former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a coup. After the demonstrations, there was "a lot of debris, mess on the street and the city of Bangkok started this campaign to cleanse" it, the filmmaker said. People with water and brooms appeared out of nowhere "to cleanse the blood, the dirt ... all the evidence, and I found it pretty weird." He recounted once reading a story about authorities cutting down a mango tree to ensure no one would remember an officer executing a suspected Communist under it. "In Thailand, the state always tries to erase something they don't like," he said. The film's lead actress Davika — who also starred as a ghost more than a decade ago in Thailand's highest-grossing film "Pee Mak" — is among his fans. You have to be "very brave to shoot this kind of story, to speak up globally," she said. "Because in Thailand, most of us are not allowed to say this," she added, without elaborating. Thaksin, some of whose supporters were killed in 2010, returned from exile to Thailand in 2023, with his party taking over government that year and his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra becoming prime minister the following year. He remains popular with his support base, but he has long been disliked by Thailand's pro-royalist and military establishment. Thaksin is due to appear in court in July in a royal defamation case. Thailand legalized same-sex marriage in January, the largest nation in Asia to do so.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
John Oliver Mocks Trump's Comments About Dolls: 'Every Single Way This Man Refers To Girls Makes My Skin Want To Turn Inside Out'
As President Donald Trump prepares Americans for economic hardship amid a looming trade war, Last Week Tonight's John Oliver zeroed in on the GOP leader's multiple comments about dolls, which came about as he enlisted a clumsy and ever-changing metaphor to discuss how girls of varying ages may now need to buy anywhere between two to five dolls instead of 30 or 37. 'Every single way this man refers to girls makes my skin want to turn inside out,' the political comic quipped. 'That said, I did also want to see him keep going there, just to see how many variations of ages and numbers he could cycle through.' More from Deadline 'Shogun' Showrunner Celebrates BAFTA Win By Declaring: Good TV Is "Borderless" Amid Trump Tariff Threat Jonathan Pryce Worries He Could Be Denied Entry To U.S. For Speaking Mind On Trump's Tariff Plan "There Is No Future In Forgetting": Watch Great Americans Medal Recipient Ava DuVernay's Smithsonian Speech Oliver then rattled off one of his signature high-speed asides, mimicking how the president might continue upping the ages of the girls mentioned ('45-year-old girl, but still young at heart') and increasing the doll count ('12 dolls, 12 Apostles, 12 Days of Christmas, 12 Angry Men — Henry Fonda, great guy, right? The other men — very angry, very angry men, that's what we've got to get out of this country that's coming over illegally. Or you know what — 13 dolls, that's my final offer.') After reiterating his initial 'frivolous' comments a second time during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, in which he posited that an 11-year-old 'beautiful baby girl' would not need so many dolls, Trump's second reiteration aboard Air Force One upped the figurative doll-owning age to 15. 'He thinks 15-year-old girls play with dolls. Has he ever met a 15-year-old girl? That's a dumb question, of course he has — he was friends with Jeffrey Epstein,' Oliver said, flashing a picture of the two on screen and eliciting huge exclamations of 'whoa' from the audience. Elsewhere, Oliver also threw a zinger at Jeanine Pirro following her appointment as interim U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., calling her the 'meanest drunk aunt.' He also made some lighthearted jokes about the election of Chicago-hailing Robert Prevost to the head of the Catholic Church as Pope Leo XIV. 'So if you're wondering: 'Is Trump's stupid trade war about to hurt a lot of people?' Well, is the pope Catholic and now also some guy named Bob from Chicago? The answer is, obviously, yes,' he said. Best of Deadline All The Songs In Netflix's 'Forever': From Tyler The Creator To SZA 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
