How President Trump ruined political comedy

The New York Times

"From 1996 until the second term of the George W. Bush administration, The Daily Show was effectively the only program of its kind," says Dan Brooks. "In 2005, “The Colbert Report gave the most popular Daily Show correspondent a half-hour of his own. The boom began almost a decade later, when HBO aired the first episode of Last Week Tonight. Since January 2015, another seven liberal clip shows have premiered: Full Frontal, The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, The Opposition With Jordan Klepper, Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj, Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, The Jim Jefferies Show and The Break With Michelle Wolf. As of today, all of those seven but Full Frontal have been canceled. This boom and bust overlaps conspicuously with the political career of one Donald J. Trump. In theory, Trump should be the best thing that ever happened to liberal comedy. Five years ago, when he announced his candidacy after descending an escalator in a mall/apartment complex bearing his name, it briefly appeared as if he might be. Like so many others, this hope has not panned out. Maybe it’s the glut; in any form of humor, from sitcoms to barroom remarks, overproduction causes trouble. But there is also a sense, as the president talks openly about defying the results of the election, that satire has not accomplished what its champions believed it could. Even the professionals seem disillusioned. Before his show, (John) Oliver took questions from the audience, and I asked him what comedy was like under this administration. 'People say it writes itself — the worst kind of comedy,' he said. 'As a human being and a comedian, I cannot wait for this to be over.'"