A new satire must emerge one that breaks out of the liberal bubble – The Guardian

Melissa McCarthys Saturday Night Live impersonation of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, has gone viral. And Alec Baldwins rendering of Donald Trump on the same US show is so good that the president despises it, which was surely the goal. As Michael Moore noted: Trumps skin is so thin we can discombobulate him with satire. So is the political comedy boom spreading to Britain? Private Eyes sales are at their highest ever, and the comedian Bridget Christie is on a 35-date tour of Because You Demanded It, a show devoted to Brexit.

The trouble with satire, though, is that we all love it when it is directed at our enemies and at those who are objectively ludicrous. Just when you thought Trumps real-life entourage had become beyond parody, McCarthy squeezes an extra bit of ridicule out of the spectacle with her depiction of Spicer, the angriest press secretary in the history of press briefings, foaming at the gum-stuffed mouth while he hurls a Moana doll (immigrant) into a cardboard box (Guantnamo) to illustrate extreme vetting.

The real test of satire, though, is if we still laugh when it is directed at our friends. Or at ourselves. Plus, as the editor of Private Eye Ian Hislop has hinted, theres a flipside to the popularity of satire in difficult times. He likes to quote Peter Cooks dry reference to the thriving 1930s Berlin cabaret scene, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler.

That doesnt mean satire isnt a vital safety valve. Hislop employs that quote only to show that he doesnt take himself or his magazine too seriously: he is satirising himself. But already his warning is being taken literally on social media, where theres an idea springing up that the whole Trump-Brexit thing is just not funny any more, and maybe its somehow borderline treacherous to be making jokes when you should be resisting or marching or doing something really useful like sending a lot of earnest tweets.

This attitude is why liberal America will tie itself up in knots wondering if its morally acceptable to laugh at Trump. (If you really are wondering this, no one can help you. Or possibly ever make you laugh at anything.) And its why in the UK we wont get the thing we should have, which is our own Saturday Night Live.

Its strange in a way because SNL is almost a telly version of Private Eye. With one important caveat: Private Eyes target is anyone and anything. SNLs favourite target certainly currently is always the right. But if the Eyes humour works for us in print, why dont we have anything like it on British television?

The most obvious difference is audience size. Even an unsuccessful topical late-night show in the US is going to have huge viewing figures compared with the UK. Plus US satire has international resonance and an afterlife on YouTube and social media. We flatter ourselves in Britain that our political narrative is as interesting as Trump. But you dont see screenshots of Private Eyes Brexit covers (however brilliant) going viral globally.

But we could hold our own politicians to account via ridicule on TV, couldnt we? And yet we dont. That is largely due to the BBCs public service remit. The BBC has the knowhow and the track record to broadcast something like this. But how would they do it? In a world where statistically more of the audience for Have I Got News for You must be Daily Mail or Telegraph readers rather than Guardian fans, it is amazing that it has survived. Imagine designing a political satire show that appeals equally to those two demographics. Its impossible.

Spitting Image hit the widest range of targets at a time when politics was a broader church and voters were less touchy. The brilliant Yes, Minister got away with a lot by never stating Jim Hackers political affiliation. Later, The Thick of It employed the same trick. The point was: it could just as easily be about any party, because they could all be idiots. The show cut through the partisan.

This is the best kind of satire: one that gets through to everyone regardless of political leanings. Otherwise were just laughing at what we already we agree with in our own cosy bubbles. The real challenge for satire would be to do on British (or American) television what Private Eye manages to do in print: attack everyone evenhandedly and with the self-awareness to occasionally attack yourself.

The main thing in the way of mainstream satire, of course, is the collapse of the centre. In the UK and the US we saw the same trend last year. Half the population is indifferent or hostile to politics and doesnt vote. The other half is split almost down the middle, with the winning side gaining its victory by a couple of percentage points. So half the country doesnt care or is disillusioned; one quarter is insecure in victory; and the other quarter is insecure in defeat. In Britain this does not make for a scenario where you can pull in a national TV audience and get them all to laugh at the same thing.

Still, lets see someone try. Worst case, its an entertaining public crucifixion and what better way to draw us together, Monty Python-style? Satires golden age will truly be upon us when a Saturday Night Live clip mercilessly dissecting liberal angst gets as much traction as the wonder that is Sean-Spicer-as-a-woman dry-humping a desk. I cant see it happening any time soon. Enjoy the bubble.

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A new satire must emerge one that breaks out of the liberal bubble - The Guardian