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The 2016 election was the first Presidential election I was old enough to vote in, and throughout that period I found myself caring a lot about what late night comedians had to say about politics. It’s not that I wanted them to tell me what to think; rather, I truly believed that the satire of comedians like Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver would have a tangible effect at swinging voters towards Hillary.
When John Oliver popularized the nickname “Drumpf,” in March of 2016 on a Last Week Tonight segment, I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that I was kind of hyped for it. I downloaded that browser extension that would transform every instance of the word “Trump” that would show up on my screen into “Drumpf,” thinking that I was taking part in something important.
Of course, I quickly realized that the whole “Drumpf” thing was, well, kind of lame. Trump supporters weren’t fazed by it in the slightest, and Trump’s popularity only grew from there. I would continue to watch late night TV, as these comedians would search for new ways to show exactly how terrible Donald Trump actually was. Sometimes the criticism felt stale or weak, but sometimes it legitimately did feel like insightful, biting satire…
