When Jokes Won’t Do: Affective Shifts in U.S. Late-Night Comedy
The news these days seems dire, so much so that people are opting out. News avoidance is a rapidly increasing phenomenon, mainly because a growing number of people are overwhelmed by the sheer onslaught of negativity. Simultaneously, we have seen the continued rise in popularity of an entire genre of media whose job it is to find the funny in what many feel to be too much to bear. We are, of course, talking about late-night comedy. In times of exceptional turmoil, many audiences turn to their favorite late-night host to experience some form of catharsis or distraction and slowly begin the process of making sense and making meaning out of tragedy. And yet, all too often, in moments of crisis, they are met with unusually somber or emotional monologues. Just think of Trevor Noah’s statements after the George Floyd killing, Jimmy Kimmel’s tearful speech in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre or—more recently—Jon Stewart’s emotional response to the killing of Renee Good. All of these constitute what we have coined “affective shifts,” a rhetorical …
