Roberto Benitez

From Benjamin Franklin to Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert

As a kid, I learned about Benjamin Franklin as a Founding Father, a revolutionary, an inventor, a contributor to the Declaration of Independence, a scientist, and a politician; however, I never heard much about Benjamin Franklin the satirist.  Until I read his Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America, I knew nothing of his extraordinary gift of satire, immediately after reading it I thought of today’s standup comedians. 

Upon further thought, however, I realized that colonial society took Franklin seriously, while today’s standup comics, no matter how astute their observations, are not; consequently, I would like to know why they can only make us laugh, but not make us think.  It was not until I subsequently watched episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report that I made the connection between Franklin and their respective hosts, Jon Steward and Steven Colbert.  Which led me to a new purpose of this research journey:  now I want to find out more about Franklin the satirist in an effort to figure out if my question and connection are valid.

To begin this project, I read more samples of Franklin’s satire beginning with A Witch Trial at Mount Holly, written in 1730 for the Pennsylvania Gazette.  Just as Stewart and Colbert, Franklin uses satire to point out the ridiculousness of serious contemporary issues; in this case, witch trials.  A point at which the Comedy Central duo deviate from Franklin, however, is that they do not create a story to make their point; for example, “It seems the Accused had been charged with making their Neighbours Sheep dance in an uncommon manner…”, although funny, is a dead giveaway that this story is not historically accurate. 

However, Stewart does duplicate the idea of the accuser needing to pass tests designated for the accused found in A Witch Trial at Mount Holly in a segment called, Poor Pee-Ple, aired on February 2, 2012 (The Daily Show).  In this segment, Aasif Mandvi, a “correspondent” for The Daily Show, asks a Florida state representative if he would be willing to force his colleagues to submit to drug tests the State of Florida expects welfare recipients to submit to since taxpayers pay for both welfare and their salaries.  Both Franklin and Stewart brilliantly turn the table on these unnecessarily debated issues through satire.

An Edict by the King of Prussia, written in 1773, is another table-turning example that demonstrates how Franklin can turn the table on an issue with humor and wit.  Here Franklin takes the relationship between the Colonies and England and replaces the Colonies with England and England with Prussia (admittedly, do not know anything about the history of England.)  By doing so he can openly criticize English policy with Colonies freely because he does so through a fabrication and exaggeration (admittedly, do not know too much about American History).  In his show, The Colbert Report, Steven Colbert specializes in this type of satirical approach since his whole persona, just like this “King of Prussia,” is entirely phony and exaggerated. 

Beyond the types of rhetoric Franklin used in his satirical pieces, and Stewart and Colbert use in their satirical shows, is the fact that society did consider Franklin credible and today’s society considers Jon Stewart the fourth most respected journalist in America ("Project for Excellence in Journalism" 1).  All three are very much comparable to today’s best standup comedians except that today’s comics while very much as astute and perceptive, are missing something that Franklin had, and Stewart and Colbert possess.  This missing characteristic(s) could possibly be the political background of Franklin, the respect and admiration Stewart enjoys as a commentator, and/or the spot-on representation of Fox News of The Colbert Report.

Without those features that grant them credibility, we contain today’s comics to the confines of their stage, where we listen to them and believe their observations are correct, but only in passing because we do not ever take them seriously.  Whereas Franklin’s satire quite possibly contributed to swaying thousands into revolution, we quite possibly frustrate today’s comics when they point out how silly and stupid society could be and yet we keep giving them an infinite supply of material.  In addition, despite the comedic techniques of Steward and Colbert, they do report actual news and, unfortunately, they are the primary news source of many of their viewers (“PoliticusUSA”).  The same question, now slightly redefined, reemerges:  What keeps today’s comics from becoming as influential as Franklin, Stewart, and Colbert?

Works Cited

“Jon Stewart’s Ratings Are Now Higher Than All Of Fox News”.  Politicus USA. (2011): Web. 2 Apr. 2012. <www.politicususa.com/jon-stewart-fox-ratings/.>

"Journalism, Satire or Just Laughs? "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Examined." Project for Excellence in Journalism. (2008): 1. Web. 2 Apr. 2012. <http://www.journalism.org/node/10953>.

Poor Pee-Ple. 2012. Video. www.thedailyshow.com Web. 2 Apr 2012. <http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-february-2-2012/poor-pee-ple>.