Strange Bedfellows

by Peterson, Russell L.

• ISBN13: 9780813542843
• ISBN10: 0813542847
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-30
• Publisher: Rutgers Univ Pr

Summary

In the bleary late-night haze the twenty-four-hour urgency of CNN, Fox, and MSNBC blurs into the bubbling frivolity of Jay and Dave and The Daily Show in a strangely intimate way. Late-night comedy does more than simply induce apathy and dumb down our discourse. It adds its own dimensions to the interpretation of current events, even as it shuts out others.

Author Biography

Russell L. Peterson is currently a visiting assistant professor of American Studies at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Losing Our Religion	p. 5
"Showmen Is Devoid of Politics": The Roots of Pseudo-Satire and the Rise of the Comedy-Industrial Complex	p. 21
Film at 11:00, Jokes at 11:30: Topical Comedy and the News	p. 39
The Personal and the Political	p. 62
Pay No Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain	p. 88
Truth versus Truthiness; or, Looking for Mr. Smith	p. 125
For Whom the Bell Dings	p. 146
Laughing All the Way to the White House	p. 170
Irony Is Dead...Long Live Satire?	p. 194
Acknowledgments	p. 209
Notes	p. 211
Index	p. 245
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