TV Magic #4

In terms of North American television, we might have just left a golden age of satire. Not since Ronald Reagan has there been a U.S. administration so greedy, malevolent, stupid, and downright evil as to inspire countless writers and performers. At points, and more often than should have been conceivably possible, the Bush administration verged on becoming a parody of themselves. I will never forget the day that I woke up to read that Henry Kissinger, much hated war criminal, had been appointed the leader of a task force whose purpose was to investigate the causes of the September 11th attacks. It appeared that often no writing was involved because the dark comedy was simply writing itself.

It was little surprise, then, that satirical news shows like The Jon Stewart Show took off in such a major way. Stewart was simply editing together news reports and looking on, mouth agape, as nonsensical events consistently materialized. Similarly, how could any one forget Steven Colbert's White House Correspondents Dinner speech where he expertly parodied George Bush's idiotic and contradictory ideology while the latter was sitting merely feet away (seriously, youtube this, it's amazing)? There was a dearth of material just waiting to be picked up and used with comedy being written into the very fabric of a government that seemed to have totally lost its mind. Dr Strangelove, eat your heart out.

It was also a time for heavy moralism. Stewart and Colbert weren't merely cynically jibing at what was happening, they were also, in their own idiosyncratic ways, angrily condemning what they saw. It was the inverse of Bush's moralistic stupidity, an educated ethics for a new generation of well-educated adults.

One show that particularly thrived in this regard was South Park. I've always been confused by those who have dismissed this show as obscene and idiotic. Have they actually watched it, I wonder? To me it's always seemed an intensely moral show. A large proportion of the episodes during the Bush era concerned the disbelief of children at the failings of adults, and what could be purer than the ethics of a child?

By the time Barack Obama had won the 2008 elections, things had changed. A new era of hope had been ushered in to shouts of, “yes, we can!” This threw a serious spanner in the works for those who had been making a living off of satirizing the hopelessness and corruption of the previous government. Suddenly it wasn't so easy to be cynical.

Sure enough, both Stewart and Colbert have slightly faltered since Obama was elected. Both have fallen back on their other strong points: in Stewart's case, the failings of the mainstream media in the U.S., and, for Colbert, the surreal extensions of holding extreme conservative opinions. Similarly, South Park now seems rudderless, hitting out at random at a selection of increasingly specific topics (this is excluding the wonderful “yes, we can!” episode).

There is, however, another problem for satirists right now, and it's the same problem that faced those that supported New Labour in the 1997 UK election; what if your knight in shining armour isn't all he's cracked up to be? This has really hit shows, like Stewart's and Colbert's, which seemed overwhelmingly in support of the Democrats during the election. Obama's lack of commitment on gay rights, climate change, and his support of the bail-out, have seemed like strangely conservative moves for someone that promised progressive policies. The dilemma for satirists now is whether to support Obama and hope for the best, or admit defeat to a two-party system and risk seeming ever more hopeless and cynical. It's hard to be moralistic when there are no options.

Thank God, then, for shows like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, currently airing in its fifth season right now. Instead of shoving hope down viewer's throats, Sunny instead hits them with a mixture of disaffection, horror, and disgust. That it does so with such humour and gleeful love of destruction makes it hard not to love, if you happen to be a little disenchanted with the world right now.

The premise of the show concerns five characters whose lives revolve almost entirely around the bar they own. Each week, the selfishness and stupidity of the characters leads them on a variety of adventures, none of which end well for any one, involving a variety of taboo subjects like cancer, incest, alcoholism and substance abuse.

Sunny's central success is that, despite their overwhelming flaws, these characters are actually fairly loveable. You might not want to invite them over, but you understand their frustrations and bitterness. In a world where we seem to be consistently having other people's ethics presented to us, only to be broken at their convenience, there's something to be said for the simple joy of mindless destruction and the ambiguous almost-endorsement of major vices such as alcoholism, and abject laziness.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is becoming increasingly popular and perhaps this can be explained by its steadfast refusal to offer political commentary. Its success makes me wonder whether or not the old political comedy of the Bush era might be becoming replaced by something a little more surreal and cynical. I guess the next move is up to you, President Obama.