I think Jon Stewart, et al. are capable of brilliant satire, parody, and commentary. But I frequently wonder what all his jokes add up to. When he points out the hypocrisy, lies, deceit, and downright evil exhibited by politicians, corporations, and news outlets, nothing gets done about it except that we get some laughs out of it. Over the long run, I think this gets us conditioned to "living with it," kind of like you would with a disease. When something obnoxious is done by a public servant, etc., we're used to cynically thinking "Of course... why would they actually be looking out for us? This is hilarious, though!" And we might have another laugh about it.
But it doesn't get us any closer to addressing the problems presented. It might be making us more complacent.
By the way, I'm not putting 30 Rock in the same category as Stewart/Colbert, but didn't have enough room in the title to distinguish. However 30 Rock might be having a similar negative effect, but even worse, because it makes the big corporation-slash-government amalgam an almost "cuddly" buddy that's just there in your life. Their constant references to real-life situations involving the US gov't and NBC/Universal (and now Comcast) are presented like an old, racist grandfather: we know he's wrong, but *roll eyes* what are ya gonna do about it? Again, it just coaxes us (inadvertently or otherwise [I have misgivings about Lorne Michaels]) into living with the problematic situation.
I'm not blaming Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert. I believe they genuinely are trying to inspire change for the better, and if they weren't around, someone else would be in their place (probably less cleverly, but nonetheless). This is more about our perception of the messages they're delivering.
Do you get the same sense when you see right-wind/corporatism satire in the media? What can be done about it? If it's as simple as "If you have a problem with the way the country is run, call your local congressperson" how do we inspire more people to do that?
