A Brief History of American Political Humor

Mark Twain

“Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can.”

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It would be hard to overstate Mark Twain’s (Samuel Clemens’s) role in using humor to critique the political and social foibles in 19th-century America. First as a newspaperman and subsequently as a novelist, humorist, and public speaker, Twain combined his astute observations, deadpan wit, and affable nature into some of the most pointed and enduring commentary of his time.

In his 1873 work The Gilded Age, a novel that would name an era, Twain (with Charles Dudley Warner) drew a vivid portrait of Washington, D.C., populated with caricatures of many leading figures of the day, including greedy industrialists and corrupt politicians. (He would perhaps find the city little changed over 150 years later.) He followed it up in 1884 with his most lasting and controversial work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which he recounts, in vernacular language and at times poetic description, the relationship between young Huck Finn and the enslaved Jim. A poignant and disturbing commentary on cruelty and fealty, it continues to touch nerves and spark debate more than a century after it was first published.

Thomas Nast

In the 1870s Thomas Nast took the art of political cartooning to the level of affecting political change in a way that was largely unprecedented. While Nast played a key role in popularizing the political party symbols of the elephant and the donkey still in use today, his visual depictions of the flagrant corruption by New York City politician Boss Tweed, based on reporting done by The New York Times, demonstrated the power of humor to change the political landscape. It was a reality Tweed understood well, having expressed more concern about Nast’s cartoons than The Times’ reporting:

I don’t care a straw for your newspaper articles; my constituents don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned pictures.

Nast would—in a way reminiscent of Twain—inspire generations of wry visual commentators on politics, including Herblock, who would, a century after Nast, chronicle the downfall of Richard Nixon for The Washington Post.

Will Rogers

“Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously, and the politicians as a joke, when it used to be vice versa.”

At the start of the 20th century Will Rogers arguably took over the mantle of political commentary through comedy from Twain. Rogers was a man of the new century, appearing in films and on the radio with an aw-shucks, homespun disposition that allowed him to poke fun at both sides of the political aisle.

Keenly aware of the need to stay timely, Rogers peppered his performances with political jibes. A Democrat who supported Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rogers appealed to a broad audience in part by poking fun at his own party, once observing, “I don’t belong to any organized political party; I’m a Democrat.”

Bob Hope

“Normally I don’t go for too many political jokes. Too many of them are getting elected.”

Perhaps no humorist poked fun at more political figures, including 11 presidents, during his long entertainment career than Bob Hope. Hope’s work in entertaining members of the military afforded him latitude to comedically take politicians to task because his patriotism could never be questioned. Hope’s barbs tended to be gentle in nature, which some critics attributed to his limitations as a comedian. However, it may have reflected Hope’s savvy understanding of entertainment as a business. He once noted, “My sponsor was Pepsodent and when I was going to speak for Roosevelt, the sponsor pointed out that Republicans brush their teeth, too.” It was an awareness that would play an increasingly large role in political comedy into the next century.

A contemporary of Hope’s who used her nonthreatening persona as a frumpy housecoat-wearing woman to offer wry commentary on race relations was Moms Mabley.

Johnny Carson

“It’s so cold, I saw a politician with his hands in his OWN pockets.”

As the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson presided as the “king of late-night television” for 30 years, starting in 1962. While that gave him more than adequate time to poke fun at multiple presidents and other political leaders, he always did so in a small-town, Midwestern-boy way intended not to offend. That was intentional, as he explained in a 60 Minutes interview in 1979:

You could use that show as a forum. You could sway people. And I don’t think you should as an entertainer.

That approach explains why, when Carson started to skewer Pres. Richard Nixon over the Watergate scandal, it was an indication of how much political trouble the president truly was in. An example of the ribbing, from 1973:

President Nixon, according to his wife, likes to play the piano late at night in the White House. Did you see that in the paper? True. Plays the piano late at night.…The President is going to…form his own group.…Called the Watergate Five.

Lenny Bruce

“The American Constitution was not written to protect criminals; it was written to protect the government from becoming criminals.”

If the political commentators of the early 20th century offered gentle jabs, by the time the 1960s dawned, political comedy sported an edge that would reflect the tumult of the rest of the century. Perhaps no comedian personified that more than Lenny Bruce, whose obscenity-laden stand-up routines landed him in jail multiple times. Bruce’s social commentary—delivered without the veneer of Twain or Rogers—cast light on some very uncomfortable truths:

There’s a lot of money in wars, except in the War on Poverty. Can’t make any bread helping the poor.

George Carlin

“In America, anyone can become president. That’s the problem.”

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) weighing in on comedy is not unprecedented. Just ask George Carlin.

The comedian’s monologue “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” (sorry, we’re not reproducing them here) became the subject of a Supreme Court case. In 1973 a New York City radio station played the raunchy routine in the middle of the afternoon. A father, who had his son in the car at the time, objected to the language, and a Supreme Court case—Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation—was born. In a 5–4 decision in 1978, the Court ruled that in certain limited instances, such as obscenity, the FCC could limit free speech in broadcasting.

Late in his life, Carlin expressed delight in being part of the ruling, writing, “I’m actually a footnote to the judicial history of America.”

Dick Gregory

“You know the definition of a Southern moderate? That’s a cat that’ll lynch you from a low tree.”

In the 1960s Dick Gregory became the comedic voice of the civil rights movement, speaking to white audiences in a way that brought the reality of racism into sharp relief. He would be the precursor to comedians including Richard Pryor and Dave Chappelle, and his lived experiences made white audience members uncomfortable in a way they had not been since, perhaps, a reading of Huck Finn. In one memorable joke from the early 1960s, Gregory recounted being told by a white waitress at a restaurant in the South that they didn’t serve “colored people.” Gregory’s response:

Well, I don’t eat colored folk nowhere. Bring me some pork chops.

“Live from New York, it’s…”

Since 1975 virtually no politician has been safe from the comedic writers at Saturday Night Live. Consider just a few:

• Chevy Chase depicted Pres. Gerald Ford as a stumbling, bumbling commander in chief in a tour de force of physical comedy.
• Phil Hartman portrayed Ronald Reagan as a president who used his apparent cluelessness as a cover for genius.
• Hartman also portrayed Pres. Bill Clinton before turning the responsibility over to Darrell Hammond, whose depiction of the president during the Monica Lewinsky scandal became a staple of the show.
• Perhaps no cast member embodied a politician better than Tina Fey, who portrayed Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, famously uttering the line, “I can see Russia from my house.”

Jon Stewart

“If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke, then you don’t have a regime.”

Although Jon Stewart neither created nor was the first host of The Daily Show, he effectively remade the show in his own image. The result was a no-holds-barred, at times angry, “pox on both your houses” approach to political comedy that helped define the medium in the 21st century.

The comparatively genteel approach of Rogers, Hope, and Carson—and, even into the 21st century, Indiana native David Letterman—seemed tonally inappropriate at the turn of a century that in its first years would be marked by the Bush v. Gore election of 2000, the terror attacks of September 11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stewart took politicians to task but was just as willing to point out the hypocrisy of traditional media, making The Daily Show not just a source of satire but also a vehicle for media criticism—and, for a growing part of the population, a news source—as the Internet played an increasingly prominent role in people’s lives. Stewart is also credited with giving a platform to other comedians turned social commentators, including Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver.

Stephen Colbert

“Truthiness”

Stephen Colbert graduated from The Daily Show to The Colbert Report, where he played a conservative commentator in the mold of Bill O’Reilly. It was during that show’s first episode in 2005 that he set the tone by introducing truthiness as the word of the day. He went on to explain in biting social criticism that skewered a George W. Bush Supreme Court nominee, defining truth not as something you know in your brain but as something you feel in your gut.

Colbert’s mock conservative persona belied the reality that political comedians tend to be liberal. But some initially liberal political comedians, notably Dennis Miller and P.J. O’Rourke, found themselves so disillusioned by liberalism that they became more conservative.

In 2025 CBS announced that it was canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, citing financial reasons. But the decision raised questions about whether the move was meant to appease the administration of Pres. Donald Trump, a near-constant source of material for Colbert.

Jimmy Kimmel

“One thing I did learn from Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and Howard Stern is that a government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American.”

In 2025 Jimmy Kimmel found himself amid a nationwide controversy over comments he made in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel, whose Jimmy Kimmel Live! has appeared on ABC since 2003, was suspended indefinitely on September 17 after the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, threatened ABC affiliate broadcast licenses over the comments.

Carr’s comments drew criticism, notably from some Republicans, for overreach and infringement on the First Amendment. Kimmel was back on the air on September 23, noting to his audience:

This show is not important. What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this.