The Atlantic

How Comedy Became Education's Best Critique

Late-night hosts including John Oliver and Samantha Bee devoted air time to school-related issues this year, pushing the topics into mainstream conversation.
Source: wavebreakmedia / Skylines / Porfang / Shutterstock / HBO / Zak Bickel / The Atlantic

This is the second installment in our series examining the intersections of education and entertainment in 2016. Read a previous entry on a documentary, and check back for future pieces on a play, animated movies, and television.

It’s no secret that politics has been especially central to late-night comedy over the past year or so. Some would argue that shows—from to —have served as more robust sources of political news than traditional broadcast news. by Tyndall Report, since the beginning of 2016, ABC’s , , and devoted just 32 minutes to coverage of policy issues.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min readAmerican Government
How Democrats Could Disqualify Trump If the Supreme Court Doesn’t
Near the end of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments about whether Colorado could exclude former President Donald Trump from its ballot as an insurrectionist, the attorney representing voters from the state offered a warning to the justices—one evoking
The Atlantic3 min read
They Rode the Rails, Made Friends, and Fell Out of Love With America
The open road is the great American literary device. Whether the example is Jack Kerouac or Tracy Chapman, the national canon is full of travel tales that observe America’s idiosyncrasies and inequalities, its dark corners and lost wanderers, but ult
The Atlantic5 min readAmerican Government
What Nikki Haley Is Trying to Prove
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Nikki Haley faces terrible odds in her home state of

Related Books & Audiobooks