Ilinova 1
Alina Ilinova
20 October 2018
EngWr 300+94 Fri- noon
Essay 2
Professor Paul Knox
Comedic Shows are Useful to Society.
Today events in our world is a news and information that could one day be in the
history books, and we could be the actual people that were there and experienced it! That’s why
we must care about everything that is happening in our world, especially, we must participate in
politics. And every person should have their individual opinion on events and things happening
in our country. What we see now is that many people in our country passively and carelessly into
the political life of society, the other part of which is slightly smaller is the people who actively
participate in it. And some do not tolerate talk about politics at all. And some people are turning
away from traditional news and switching to a more comedic form, such as The Daily Show.
What category is the best to belong to? What is the best way to learn about the political situation
in our world?, What is the role of political satire and if political satire is useful or harmful to our
democracy? If the humor shows are a good source of information or not? Those questions were
always arguing questions, and we have to find the best answers on it. What I believe is that night
shows are the good source of information for young people and they can learn different views on
politics through those shows. So, we should continue satire on television, first, because it shows
that we have free speech in this country and every person has rights to say what he/she think
about our country, next, is that political satire is basically the same as journalism, and such
Ilinova 2
shows as Daily Show, Last Week Tonight play a big role in our society and it is useful to our
democracy.
First of all, let’s compare the political satire, fake news, and journalism. As I
understand satire is a humor that makes fun of something or someone, the Fake news is not true
news, and journalism is a true news, it tells people about things that really happened. What is
better journalism or satire? My opinion is that journalism and satire can have common, or at least
largely coinciding, mission and goals. Both forms are closely watching what is happening in the
world. Also, both pay attention to the abuse of power and the threat to the public interest on the
part of criminals, corporations, bureaucrats, celebrities or authorities. Journalists fulfill their
mission by collecting and verifying information. Satirists use the same information, but add
irony, hyperbole, parody, inversion, and caricature to it, mocking at corrupt institutions. To
