Genre Theory and

Satire
A Rhetorical Analysis of Political Satire on
Television
Kimberley Hannah

ENGL 708G Seminar in Rhetoric: Genre Theory

Dr. Melanie Kill

Genre Theory and Satire 1

Abstract
In this research paper, I perform a rhetorical genre theory analysis using satirical
television programs as my texts. I examine how these texts represent political satire in media.
Two scholars that provide the basis for my analysis are Mikhail Bakhtin and Kathleen Jamieson.
I will use Bakhtins theories on speech genres to analyze the ways in which satire is portrayed on
television shows and Jamiesons analysis of antecedent genres to describe how satire draws from
previously established genres to create humor. My examples from media include examples from
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. These examples will represent how
political satire is depicted on television.
I will question whether television shows such as The Daily Show diverge from earlier
uses of satire in literature or continue the early traditions in the genre. Specifically, political
satire programs call their audiences to question the news media and the American political
system. Carolyn Millers view of genre as a form of social action and scholars building upon
her research will provide a lens through which I will explore the role of political satire in
motivating the audience to action. Through analyzing satire in literature and in media, I hope to
create a bridge between literary and rhetorical approaches to studying genre.
Introduction
In modern American media, humorous television shows, like The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart and The Colbert Report, have elevated the status of political satire. While television
shows based on political satire provide sources of comedy, these shows also engage audiences in
critical analysis of politics and the news media. Fake news programs and similar comedy shows
make the discussion of politics accessible to viewers who are not required to have an extensive

Genre Theory and Satire 2

knowledge of government policies. The popularity of political satire in television and online has
led scholars, journalists, and the public to question the effects of satire on viewers.
Critics of political satire claim that the youth of America are becoming more jaded about
politics and are abandoning traditional sources of news. However, several communication
scholars such as Robert Hariman,1 Jeffrey P. Jones,2 Jonathan Gray, and Ethan Thompson3
argue that political satire can lead to increased political engagement in viewers. Genre theory
offers one methodology that literary scholars and rhetorical critics can use to examine how
political satire developed as a subgenre of satire, and this paper uses both genre theory and
communication scholarship to analyze political satire on television.
I wanted to understand how satire in general, and specifically political satire, relates to
rhetorical and literary conceptions of genre. What I have learned about genre theory is that
genres can be used by writers or groups of people to respond to an exigence, which Lloyd Bitzer
(1968) describes as an imperfection marked by urgency.4 While Bitzer did not specifically
reference genres in his early writings, he did establish the notion of a rhetorical situation, which
unifies people, events, circumstances, and exigence into a scenario that requires utterance. In
The Problem of Speech Genres, Mikhail Bakhtin (1986) describes the utterance as the primary
unit used to study genres.5 Based on Bitzers conception of the rhetorical situation and Bakhtins
definition of the utterance, I argue that satire can be a genre that a speaker or author uses to
address perceived failures in society. Satire also serves as a genre that can provoke action from
the audience. Carolyn Millers (1984) view of genre as a form of social action6 correlates to my
perception of satire as a unifying force for a group of people.

Genre Theory and Satire 3

I begin my study by exploring the origins of satire in literature. Next, I provide a critique
of satire as a form of genre. Some of the features of genre theory I use in my study of satire
include Kathleen Jamiesons concept of antecedent genres and Bakhtins description of the
utterance. From communication research, I use previous scholarship on political satire and
Michael C. McGees concept of the fragmentation of discourse. After identifying features of
political satire on television, I analyze how political satire motivates social action by increasing
viewer interest in current events and in taking part in the political process.
The Development Satire in Literature
Satire has a variety of definitions, which can lead to confusion when attempting to
distinguish its characteristics as a genre. In Introduction to Satire, Leonard Feinberg describes
satire as an amorphous genre7 before providing a working definition of satire as a playfully
critical distortion of the familiar.8 The sub-genres within satire include both humorous and nonhumorous forms. Satire began with the Greek satyr plays of seventh century BC before being
transformed by the Roman satire of Lucilius. Horace and Juvenal represented two different
versions of Roman satire, in which Juvenal provided a harsh critique of Roman society while
Horace attempted to laugh men out of their follies.9 Another significant development in satire
was the creation of Menippean satire in third century BC. This form of satire imitated the style of
the Greek philosopher Menippus of Gadera. Menippean satire is a subgenre of satire that is
firmly tied to humor.10
Satire experienced resurgence in medieval literature in the works of Chaucer, William
Langland, and other writers of the time.11 It requires an understanding of the authors intentions,
which would clarify the meaning of such satirical works as Jonathan Swifts A Modest

Genre Theory and Satire 4

Proposal. Providing a complete history of satire is beyond the scope of this paper, but the
satirists I have mentioned represent the diversity of subgenres that comprise satire. Although this
paper focuses on political satire, this subgenre is not a completely new development within
genre. There have been critiques of political institutions through the history of satire, and modern
political satire represents just one subgenre within the wide variety of satire. In the next section, I
explore some of the various forms of satire and their relationships with other genres.
Satire and Genre
Satire is a genre that is composed of distinctive subgenres. Dustin Griffin describes the
range of satire within literature: (in verse alone) formal satire, epistle, letter from the country,
lampoon, epigram, session of the poets, advice to a painter to say nothing of parodic forms.
Satire imitates other genres by drawing upon stylistic elements of those genres. Charles A.
Knight (2004) argues that satire not only imitates conventional genres, but it also mimics Mikhail
Bakhtins conception of speech genres. Knight states, When satire imitates speech genres, it
characteristically makes them ironic, thus opening them to possibilities of meaning that are not
usually notices in ordinary usage.12 Political satire on television can be used to provide critiques
of politics and the news media. While not all forms of satire are humorous, the use of humor can
make the audience more accepting of the critique, such as when satire is used in an animated
show or in a sketch comedy program. Fake news programs, like The Daily Show and The
Colbert Report, use satire by criticizing both the format of TV news and the problems involved
in government and politics.
As a genre, satire often mimics previously established genres, borrowing the formats of
other genres and distorting those formats. In Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint,

Genre Theory and Satire 5

Kathleen M. Jamieson describes how certain genres like presidential addresses are based
upon previously-formed genres, or antecedent genres such as the kings speech and papal
addresses that provide a reference point of the way leaders can address their audience.13
Political satire on television demonstrates Jamiesons concept of antecedent genres by mimicking
the characteristics of cable news programs and late-night television shows. Since the audience is
already familiar with the formats of cable news and late-night shows, fans of political satire can
understand the humor of watching similar television conventions within political satire. The
hosts of political satire programs address flaws within government and society, which provides
entertainment for the audience but can also lead the audience to become more involved in the
political process. Political satire is a unique subgenre of satire because it involves a rhetorical
situation in which the host has the dual roles of making the audience laugh about events in
society and also informing the audience about those events. In the next section, I illustrate how
political satire shows incorporate Bakhtins conception of the utterance to respond to antecedent
genres.
Political Satire and the Utterance
In the monologue segment of these programs, each joke can serve as a unique utterance
of the host. However, the entire monologue can also be viewed as a single utterance, such as
Bakhtin would call a novel as a single utterance of an author. Political satire becomes dialogic
with the programs involve conversations with fake news correspondents and interviews with
guests. These conversations and interviews are separate utterances within the genre of political
satire and represent the borrowing of formats from the cable news and late-night show
antecedent genres.

Genre Theory and Satire 6

By describing an episode of a political satire show as a compilation of utterances, we can

see how each segment of the show is in conversation with the other segments and in conversation
with recent news events. On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart shows video clips from news
programs before and after he uses satire to critique the news. He often repeats the words used by
people in the video clips, adopting what Bakhtin calls the process of assimilation. Bakhtin
states, Our speech, that is, all our utterances (including creative works), is filled with others
words, varying degrees of our-own-ness, varying degrees of awareness and detachment. These
words of others carry with them their own expression, their own evaluative tone, which we
assimilate, rework, and re-accentuate. Stewart uses the utterances of others to provide the
material that he responds to with his own utterances.
Stephen Colbert takes a different approach in his use of the utterances of others. Instead
of responding to video clips of the news, he adopts the persona of conservative journalists that he
critiques with his satire. Fans of The Colbert Report become a part of an uptake process where
they learn that Colberts use of traditionally conservative language does not reflect how he
actually feels. Similar to how readers of A Modest Proposal discover that Swift was making a
satirical critique of the English government, viewers of The Colbert Report understand that
Colbert is reflecting his negative judgment of conservative policies. Part of the humor of
Colberts political satire comes from the audiences recognition of other familiar genres that are
mimicked on his show and held up to ridicule. With the success of Colbert and Stewart, political
satire has increasingly become a source for news and civic engagement. In the following section,
I explore developments in political satire that have shaped their status as a genre.
Recent Developments in Political Satire

Genre Theory and Satire 7

Colbert and Stewarts forms of political satire were largely shaped by increased use of
satire on television in the 1990s. At the beginning of that decade, Fox had found success with
younger demos through shows like The Simpsons and MarriedWith Children, which
challenged the ideals of family life portrayed by many family sitcoms in the 1980s.14 Comedy
Central launched in January 1991, and the network created a strategy of using political humor
and satire as a means of branding itself.15 In 1993, the network premiered Politically Incorrect,
which was a humorous political roundtable-style discussion show hosted by Bill Maher. One of
the unique features of this program was that, unlike traditional political talk shows, Politically
Incorrect featured panelists who were not experts in politics.16 The show became so successful
that in 1996, it changed networks from Comedy Central to ABC. Also during 1996, Comedy
Central introduced its fake news program The Daily Show. This program had its own anchor
and reporters, but in 1999, The Daily Show became much more political when Jon Stewart
became the host.17 With the success of The Daily Show, Comedy Central created The Colbert
Report in 2005 to broaden its production of political satire.
A unique phenomenon that has developed from political satire is that some people now
turn to this genre of television instead of turning to the antecedent genres of traditional broadcast
and cable news. One reason that this has happened is that viewers can still learn about the events
of the day through a humorous approach. Viewers can identify political satire through common
traits shared between different programs and by their similarities to their antecedent genres.
Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (1978) posit that genres can be identified by
a constellation of fused elements that different works share in common.18 They also state that
different genres can share the same elements, but the unique combination of elements is what
distinguishes one genre from another. The constellation of shared features also allows a

Genre Theory and Satire 8

particular work to deviate from some of the features of previous works and still be identified
within that genre. Also, the creator of the work can self-identify with one genre over another.
This explains why Jon Stewart can reject claims that he is a political pundit, which is a feature of
cable news, and argue that he is a humorist.
Satire can vary in form between different countries and cultures. Miller (1984) posits that
genres are socially constructed and based on recurrent rhetorical situations. There can be
differences in what Americans and British viewers call political satire, but there are broad
unifying features that would still locate television programs from these two countries under the
same genre. Political satire is a genre that assists audiences in understanding the situations of the
day. Although television programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report use different
approaches in how the hosts critique dominant institutions, they share enough familiar
resemblance to fall into the same genre. The unifying features of political satire become more
challenging to determine when including humorous online political videos, websites like The
Onion, and political cartoons. In her description of the features to classifying a genre, Miller
states, Genre refers to a conventional category of discourse based in large-scale typification of
rhetorical action.19 Media products that are classified as political satire share enough discursive
similarities in their critique of political institutions to fall under the same genre. Next, I explore
genre theory scholarship that illustrates how participants in a field learn the norms of that genre.
Building Genre Awareness of Political Satire
Carol Berkenkotter and Thomas N. Huckin (1993) describe how genres help people gain
an understanding of a research field and of their culture.20 People being introduced to a discourse
community learn about the norms of their community by reading previous works in that field and

Genre Theory and Satire 9

observing the cultural norms of others interacting in that community. One example of this
process is how new graduate students learn the norms of their academic field by being immersed
in that culture. Graduate students become familiar with the expectations of their field and gain a
situated cognition about the academic culture. New viewers of political satire come understand
the humor behind the jokes partially by hearing the studio audiences reactions and observing the
interactions between the shows host and guests. Viewers come to gain expectations of the show
as they learn the programs norms.
There have been instances where the humor has been lost on people unfamiliar with the
culture and norms of political satire. When Stephen Colbert spoke at the 2006 White House
Correspondents Association Dinner, he upset many of the people in attendance with his use of
political satire. Since many of the people in the audience were unfamiliar with Colberts form of
humor, they did not understand his norms of attacking the news media and the president in his
jokes.21 The audience in attendance had not become familiar with the political satire techniques
of Colbert, so the humor was lost on this audience. This event exposes the importance of people
to understand the norms of a particular genre if they are to successfully engage in that genre.
Amy Devitt (1993) reconceptualized genre as a unified act that merges form with content
and text with context.22 She states, The new conception of genre shifts the focus from effects
(formal features, text classifications) to sources of those effects. Political satire is a genre that
relies heavily on the source of the jokes. Instead of the hosts of political satire drawing humor on
personal experience, they draw their humor from external events in society. This technique of
joke creation builds a common reference point for the audience to turn to. By drawing on some
of the conventions of cable news, political satire is able to ridicule these conventions.

Genre Theory and Satire 10

Political satire builds its humor on both the jokes of the shows host and by its similarity
to traditional news. In this way, political satire merges form with content by appearing as real
news while performing as a comedy program. Devitt states, Understanding genre requires
understanding more than just classification schemes; it requires understanding the origins of the
patterns on which those classifications are based. When a humorist decides to use political
satire, that person has to understand the conventions of traditional news and of politics before
creating humor about those conventions. If the humorist does not understand these conventions,
the humor may not fall into the range of what is called political satire.
Political Satire as a Subgenre of Satire
The scholarship about genre theory helps illustrate why political satire is a specific
subgenre of satire that has common characteristics that an audience can identify. Political satire
imitates the antecedent genres of cable news and late-night television shows. Television shows
using political satire feature utterances of the host speaking to the audience and the host speaking
to guests and correspondents on the show. The hosts respond to an exigence, which is typically
an event in the government or in society that the host wants to ridicule. Viewers gain a situated
cognition of the norms of political satire, and the humor of the shows hosts can be lost on those
who do not understand the characteristics behind that humor. New viewers can learn about the
norms of these shows by observing the reactions of the studio audience and shows guests. One
feature that complicates political satires status as a subgenre is the reliance on fragmented
discourse in media forms of the subgenre.
Some scholars, like Michael C. McGee, have found correlations with political satire with the
fragmentation of discourse. In the seminal article Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of

Genre Theory and Satire 11

Contemporary Culture, McGee argues that the fragmentation of our American culture has
resulted in a role reversal, making interpretation the primary task of speakers and writers and
text construction the primary task of audiences, readers, and critics.23 In the study of rhetoric,
one of the changes for rhetoricians since the mid-1960s is that instead of studying a finished text,
like a complete speech, they can create discourses from scraps and pieces of evidence, which
McGee calls fragments.24 There appears to be a similarity with this method of criticism to what
is done in political parody and satire, where the TV programs comment on a part of a news story
or part of a politicians speech and provide critique on it.
Another relationship the fragmentation of discourse shares with political satire is how the
critic uncovers or displays the text being studied. McGee states, If recognition and statement of
a rule, ritual, or convention is necessary to understand any fragment of the discourse, or if such
recognition and statement would motivate an audience/reader/critic to resist the claims of the
discourse, we can infer that the discourse derives its rhetorical power more from the silence of
the cultural imperative than from the imperative itself.25 This is similar to how Jon Stewart plays
a video clip from the news to deconstruct (make comments on various humorous or ridiculous
elements) of it or how Stephen Colbert adopts the persona of a right-wing pundit to critique the
established media and conservative politicians. Political satire provides a lens in which to
examine genres of public discourse. In the next section, I analyze the possible impact political
satire has on civic engagement.
Political Satire and Audience Engagement in Politics
Some scholars have questioned the effects of political satire on voters. While some argue that
these programs make voters apathetic towards politics, others argue that programs like The Daily

Genre Theory and Satire 12

Show and The Colbert Report make voters better informed about politics and more politically
engaged. In a 2011 study, Lindsay H. Hoffman and Dannagal G. Young distinguish between
traditional late-night comedy programs, like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and political satire
programs, and they propose that political satire and parody have a particular set of effects on
political participation.26 Their research consists of an online survey of 499 college students at a
large, Eastern university to measure the effects of the political parody and satire on the students.
Hoffman and Youngs findings illustrate that the students who watch satire or parody have a
greater correlation to political participation than the students who watch traditional late-night
comedy shows. What this indicates is that a satirical TV show, like The Daily Show, would be
more likely to lead a person to be politically active than a person who primarily watches latenight comedy, like The Tonight Show.
Political satire appears to have played a major role in shaping viewer attitudes about the
presidential and vice-presidential candidates during the 2008 presidential election. Jeffrey P.
Jones wrote a chapter in the book The 2008 Presidential Campaign: A Communication
Perspective about the use of pop culture to mediate and critique the election.27 During the 2008
election, entertaining TV shows, like Saturday Night Live and The View, played an increased role
in informing the public about politics. Jones provides an overview of parody videos that were
produced online during this time, SNL sketches that were legitimized by some of the candidates
themselves, and other ways that satire were used to describe the election. SNLs sketches of
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin took this nationally unknown politician and,
through its satirical commentary of news footage, cemented a largely negative and damning
public perception of the candidate.

Genre Theory and Satire 13

The 2010 mid-term election also provided an opportunity for political satire to rise to
prominence. Ronald A. Placone and Michael Tumolo describe the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear
that was hosted by Stewart and Colbert during the fall of 2010.28 During the heated mid-term
election, there were different political rallies being staged, including one led by conservative
pundit Glen Beck. The Rally for Sanity and/or Fear served as a critique of political punditry
and of the mainstream medias work as both a business and as a source of influence on political
communication. This rally was an important product of political satire because it took the genre
out of the TV studio and into a public space where attendees could observe the event in person.
Stewart and Colbert showed that political satire could transcend the mediums of television, film,
literature, and the Internet.
I believe that the expansion of political satire is a positive sign for political engagement.
Whether or not viewers get their news from programs like The Daily Show or The Colbert
Report does not mean that these shows are making viewers cynical. I argue that political satire
makes people aware about government policies and to be informed about the methods that the
traditional media use. By using the antecedent television genres of cable news and late-night
television programs, political satire creates a humorous way for audiences to examine dominant
institutions and to expand their knowledge of current events. Political satire is specifically a
rhetorical form of genre because the host is seeking a response from the audience. Regardless of
whether the response is laughter or political action, political satire is a genre that has a significant
impact on American society.
Conclusion

Genre Theory and Satire 14

As a subgenre of satire, political satire has gained substantial popularity in American culture over
the past two decades. Fake news programs, like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, use the
antecedent genres of cable news and late-night television programs as a way to critique those
institutions. There is evidence that political satire has led to social action by influencing
television audience members to vote and to turn to satirical programs for their news. I have
argued in this paper that political satire also uses Bakhtins concept of the utterance to construct
responses to their antecedent genres. This paper also illustrates how a combination of genre
theory and communication scholarship can be applied to analyze texts that cross both disciplines.
While political satire has received much attention from communication and rhetorical
scholarship, I believe that it also provides a unique opportunity to place literary scholars in
conversation with other forms of scholarship.
Political satire is a rhetorical genre because it reveals an exigence to the audience. Its
critique of political systems through humor provides some of the unifying characteristics of this
genre. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report illustrate how critical analysis of current events
can provide a popular form of entertainment and raise public awareness about specific topics.
These shows have been studied for their rhetorical and philosophical value, and I believe that
they have something to offer to the literary study of genre evolution. Also, these shows provide
excellent examples of how a literary genre can be adapted into a media genre.
Genre theory provides an excellent avenue to explore changes in rhetoric and in
audiences adoption of different texts. For future research, I suggest that communication scholars
analyze how politicians use various genres to address different groups of voters. This line of
research could help broaden the scope of political communication research. I also recommend
continued study in how media genres, like the talk show, evolve over time. This research could

Genre Theory and Satire 15

include audience analysis techniques as well as traditional genre theory analysis. My future
research will continue to explore how political satire implements aspects of genre theory across
the broad spectrum of media. I will explore how Bakhtins theories about the novel as a genre
also apply to television genres. With this line of research, I hope to expand rhetorical critics
awareness of genre theory research and the impact of genre on audiences.

1NOTES Robert Hariman, Political Parody and Public Culture, Quarterly Journal of Speech, 94, no.
3 (August 2008): 247-272.

2 Jeffrey P. Jones, Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement, 2nd
ed. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010).
3 Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson, The State of Satire, the Satire of
State, in Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era, eds. Jonathan Gray,
Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson (New York: New York University Press, 2009).
4 Lloyd F. Bitzer, The Rhetorical Situation, Philosophy and Rhetoric, 1 (1968): 6.
5 M. M. Bakhtin, The Problem of Speech Genres, in Speech Genres and Other Late
Essays, eds. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press,
1986), 60-102.
6 Carolyn R. Miller, Genre as Social Action, in Genre and the New Rhetoric, eds. Aviva
Freedman and Peter Medway (Bristol: Taylor and Francis, 1994), 23-42.
7 Leonard Feinberg, Introduction to Satire (Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press,
1967), 18.
8 ibid., 19.
9 Dustin Griffin, Satire: A Critical Reintroduction (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
1994), 7.
10 Conal Condren, Satire and Definition, Humor, 25, no. 4 (2012): 383.
11 J. A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, rev. ed. by
C. E. Preston (1976, repr., London: Penguin Group, 1999), 782.
12 Charles A. Knight, The Literature of Satire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004), 3-4.
13 Kathleen M. Jamieson, Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint, Quarterly Journal
of Speech 61 (Dec. 1975): 406-415.
14 Gray, Jones, and Thompson, The State of Satire, 25.

15 ibid., 25.
16 Jeffrey P. Jones, Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement, 2nd
ed. (Langham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), 7-8.
17 ibid., 8.
18 Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Form and Genre in Rhetorical
Criticism: An Introduction, in Form and Genre: Shaping Rhetorical Action (Falls Church,
VA: Speech Communication Association, 1978), 9-32.
19 Miller, Genre as Social Action, 163.
20 Carol Berkenkotter and Thomas N. Huckin, Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive
Perspective, Written Communication, 10, no. 4 (1993): 475-509.
21 Jones (2009), 3-4.
22 Amy J. Devitt, Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept,
College Composition and Communication, 44, no. 4 (1993): 573-586.
23 Michael C. McGee, Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture,
Western Journal of Speech Communication 54 (1990): 274.
24 ibid., 279.
25 ibid., 281.
26 Lindsay H. Hoffman and Dannagal G. Young, Satire, Punch Lines, and the Nightly
News: Untangling Media Effects on Political Participation, Communication Research
Reports 28, no. 2 (April-June 2011): 159-168.
27 Jeffrey P. Jones, Pop Goes the Campaign: The Repopularization of Politics in Election
2008, in The 2008 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective, ed. Robert E.
Denton (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 170-190.
28 Ronald A. Placone and Michael Tumolo, Interrupting the Machine: Cynic Comedy in
the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear, Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 1, no. 1 (2011): 1021.