“NUZZLING UP TO THE PRICKLY JOKE”: AN ANALYSIS OF JON CARAMANICA’S ARTICLE IN THE OCTOBER 4TH ISSUE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES
By: Lindsay Coll October 3rd marked the premiere of the 41st season of the popular sketch-series Saturday Night Live. The show has seen many comedians come and go over the years, each leaving their own mark through their performances of varying characters. Tina Fey, Will Ferrell and Gilda Radner will be remembered for their performances of Sarah Palin, George W. Bush and Roseanne Roseannadanna, respectively. Some cast members leave their mark based mainly on their own personality or comedic approach: Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Adam Sandler and John Belushi, to name a few. One of the show’s newest cast members, Pete Davidson, has managed to distinguish himself from the rest of the recent additions, namely Leslie Jones, Colin Jost and Michael Che. At age 20, Davidson, now 22, joined the cast as one of the youngest members in history, only behind Anthony Michael Hall, Eddie Murphy and Robert Downey Jr.. Through his dark humour, Pete Davidson challenges the idealistic approaches to mainstream comedy, highlighting the power and freedom that is expressed through this type of public speaking. In the New York Times’ October 4th 2015 issue, Jon Caramanica’s “Nuzzling Up
to the Prickly Joke” article reflects on the ways in which SNL‘s first 90’s baby demonstrates alternative humour techniques. This paper will examine comedy as its own form of discourse, with a particular focus on the governmental control of accepted comedic techniques. Further, this paper will analyze the ways in which comedy can approach and tackle real-life issues through humour. Through comedy, humourists have made significant changes in the political landscape. Satirical comedy in particular has proven to successfully question the authoritative styles of hard news channels such as FOX News or CNN. Evidenced in the wildly popular The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, soft news uses comedy to urge audiences to think critically about the news they consume. The subjects in question are generally similar to mainstream news stories but the approach taken by the satirist differs, exposing content that is not generally talked about on major news networks. For instance, the sound clips singled out from one of George Bush’s speeches for hard news stories are edited
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