Sketch Comedy and the Presidency

Satire & The State Satire & The State focuses on performance-based satire, most often seen in sketch comedy, from 1960 to the present, and explores how sketch comedy has shaped the way Americans view the president and themselves. Numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents have seeped into the American consciousness – Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, and Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush – all worked to shape the actual politician’s public persona. The book analyzes these sketches and many others, illustrating how comedy is at the heart of the health and function of American democracy. At its best, satire aimed at the presidency can work as a populist check on executive power, becoming one of the most important weapons for everyday Americans against tyranny and political corruption. At its worst, satire can reflect and promote racism, misogyny, and homophobia in America. Written for students of Theatre, Performance, Political Science, and Media Studies courses, as well as readers with an interest in political comedy, Satire & The State offers a deeper understanding of the relationship between comedy and the presidency, and the ways in which satire becomes a window into the culture, principles, and beliefs of a country. Matt Fotis is Associate Professor of Theatre at Albright College. He is the author of Long Form Improvisation and American Comedy: The Harold (2014), and coauthor of The Comedy Improv Handbook (2015). Satire & The State Sketch Comedy and the Presidency Matt Fotis First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Matt Fotis to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Date Names: Fotis, Matt, 1979– author. Title: Satire & the state : sketch comedy and the presidency / Matt Fotis. Other titles: Satire and the state Description: New York : Routledge, 2020. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019058341 (print) | LCCN 2019058342 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138338111 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781138338128 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429441851 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Presidents—United States—Humor. | Political satire, American—History and criticism. | United States—Politics and government—20th century—Humor. | United States—Politics and government—21st century—Humor. | Television comedies—United States—History. | Television and politics—United States. Classification: LCC E176.1 .F7655 2020 (print) | LCC E176.1 (ebook) | DDC 792.7/60973—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058341 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019058342 ISBN: 978-1-138-33811-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-33812-8 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-44185-1 (ebk) Typeset in Minion by Apex CoVantage, LLC To my First Family, thanks. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1 From Colony to Country: A Brief Overview of American Political Satire 23 2 JFK 79 3 LBJ and Nixon 101 4 Ford and Carter 122 5 Reagan and Bush 137 6 The Clintons 158 7 Dubbya 186 8 Obama 208 9 Donald J. Trump 231 10 Conclusion 262 Index 276 vii Acknowledgments As with any endeavor, there are many people responsible for this book getting done. First and foremost, thanks to Jeanette and my kids for supporting and encouraging me throughout not only this book but in life. A special thanks to the Albright College Creative Research Experience grant that allowed me to spend two summers researching comedy. Thanks to Joey Love for his research and creative support, from preliminary research to collaborating on the Half-Hour Hour Report, as well as for his comedic insights, Johnny Canal, and overall Philadelphia wisdom. It is indeed too hot in the hot tub. Go Birds! I am fortunate to have colleagues who support and champion my creative and scholarly work – there are not many theatre departments around that put political sketch comedy shows in their mainstage season. This book would not exist without Albright College encouraging me to develop courses in Comedy Studies, specifically “Satire & The State” – so thank you for championing academic inquiry and fostering interdisciplinary study. I’m also grateful to the many students who have taken those classes, for listening to me ramble about these ideas and offering interesting questions, pushing back against my assumptions, and making me dig deeper into the work. Also, thanks to that one student who got up in the middle of class to go get a WaWa hoagie. ix Introduction As long as there have been written records, there has been political satire – and probably before that, too. No doubt cave dwellers were hilarious. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks were fans of unflattering or parodic caricatures of leaders, with the Greek playwright Aristophanes bringing his political satire to the stage. From Horace to Dante to Voltaire to Jonathan Swift to Mark Twain, there is a celebrated history of Western political satire. In America, a country founded on political revolution, there is a long and varied tradition of political satire – from Ben Franklin’s Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One to Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of Donald Trump. The American character seems particularly adapted to this type of humor. Our ingrained mistrust of government creates a questioning of authority that Canadian Lorne Michaels argues is “established in the American DNA.”1 Similarly, a fundamental characteristic of the American DNA is the constant search and fluctuation of what exactly it means to be an American. The American identity has ebbed and flowed for nearly three centuries, and the presidency has come to be a central component of that identity. George Washington was unanimously elected as the first president because every- one could agree on his American credentials. Even if the average citizen could not clearly articulate what exactly it meant to be an American, they knew Washington represented it. Over two centuries later, Donald Trump made his way to the White House with a very distinct vision of what it meant to be an American, specifically who constituted “We the people” and who did not. The presidency has been vital to the creation of the American identity. The president is expected to speak to and for the nation. As Mary Stuckey argues in Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity, presidents have histor- ically reflected and articulated the American character. She writes, “More than for any other participant in the national conversation, the task of articulating the collective culture, like the responsibility for managing the collective action, belongs to the president.”2 Presidents project both who we are at any one point in history, and what we aspire to be. They remind us of our values in moments of national crisis, that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” appeal to “the better angels of our nature,” and point us toward the “New Frontier” of the future. Presidents have also used fear, warning of “American carnage,” and have defined our identity 1 2 Introduction by declaring who we are not, long excluding marginalized communities from the American experience. Our country’s history is often presented as a singular story from a majority point of view. In reality, the American experience is multifaceted and plural. The 2016 election (and others before it) laid bare the deep divisions in America that are rooted in our collective (mis)understanding of our national identity. As the American character changed during the 20th century, presidents have worked to include more voices in the American story. The election of Barack Obama seemed like a culmination, but was brought to a screeching halt with the election of Donald Trump. While much of America’s identity building comes from the president, one factor that has been central to the relationship between presidents and Americans goes the other way – satire. If presidents speak for the nation, satirists are often the ones talking back. Americans have looked to the presidency to see their values reflected and promoted. Depending on their perceived reflec- tion of those values, satirists have made Americans laugh with or laugh at the president. Sketch comedy has become an integral part of that national conversation. While sketch comedy hasn’t fundamentally changed the presidency or the men who have occupied the office, it has shaped the way Americans view the office, the occupant, and themselves. There are numerous sketch comedy portrayals of presidents and politicians that have seeped into the American consciousness. Sometimes sketch comedy does a better job of packaging and presenting a politician than the politicians themselves, as their impression has a stronger impact than the person. Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush, Will Ferrell’s George W. Bush, and Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin all worked to shape the actual politician’s public persona. Darrell Hammond’s Al Gore was so devastating that Gore’s campaign made Gore watch Saturday Night Live’s debate sketch to see how poorly he was communicating with the American public – and Gore adjusted his presentation accordingly. The relationship between satire and the presidency has become fundamental to the health and function of American democracy.

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