I believe most comedic television shows do not tackle controversial issues because they want to keep the content light-hearted and fun to keep their audience smiling and laughing. Sometimes when comedic television shows start to approach controversial issues instead of sticking to their typical topics, they can lose their audience following who do not want politics and social issues taking over every aspect of their life. One comedy I can think of that approached controversial subjects in a funny way was The Office. Various scenes throughout the show discuss controversial issues in a way that would be scene as politically incorrect in today’s society. One scene in particular that deals with the topic of homosexuality, uses humor and Michael Scott’s outrageously inappropriate, yet funny, behavior to approach the subject. Michael finds out that Oscar is gay and wants to let everyone in the office know that he supports him and his choice to be gay, but in announcing it to the office, he not only outs Oscar to an office full of people who did not know he was gay, but he also tries to show his openness and support by giving Oscar an unwarranted kiss on the mouth. In later episodes, Michael attempts to roast Oscar solely on the premise that he is gay. This openly politically incorrect way of dealing with homosexuality is not seen as insulting since it is coming from the knowingly inappropriate character Michael Scott. By handling various controversial issues in funny politically incorrect ways, The Office gets away with insulting almost everyone, so that no one person can be offended.

 

I have never really been a fan of satirical news shows such as The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or the “Weekend Update” part of Saturday Night Live. I find that these shows try too hard to make political news seem funny by insulting everyone involved and only really reporting their own political views, or the political views of the television network they work for. Late-night TV show hosts such as Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel are more effective because they discuss mainly current events in a comedic fashion rather than solely focusing on politics. Personally, I find comedic news funnier when the discussions are about various celebrities, current events, and trending movies and TV shows rather than strictly politics. I think it is important for comics to talk about the news in a humorous way to an extent, to bring a light-hearted element to the always serious professional journalists on prime-time news shows. When political views start getting involved, I think things can get messy and they lose part of the humor aspect because people will start to tune out opinions that maybe differ from theirs and will deem that comedian irrelevant or against their political views. I think certain controversial topics should not be joked about such as Kathy Griffin’s enormous faux pas of joking about killing the president. No matter what your political views are, there are some things that you just should not joke about. Satirical news can be effective in certain cases, but when politics are involved, I believe it loses its comedic edge.