In Punch Lines for Progress I explore the history of professional comedians and the position they find themselves, in today’s mass media machine.
The New York Times announced this summer that that John Stewart is the 4th most respected man in America. How and why did this happen. Fifty years ago his controversial candor would not have gotten him his own show on cable TV. Quite the contrary, he would have found himself in jail, for indecency, blacklisted in clubs and considered a sick comic. So what happened since the 60’s? Who paved the rode to his nationwide credibility? Why are we a generation who watches comedy central to her the truth about what is going on in the world? What does this imply about the Me Generation (Baby Boomers) compared to the “The We Generation”?
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