Article published in:
The Power of Satire
Edited by Marijke Meijer Drees and Sonja de Leeuw
[Topics in Humor Research 2] 2015
► pp. 207–216

TV Satire and its Targets

Have I got News for You, The Thick of It and Brass Eye

The question of the relationship between satire and its targets is also one of both mediality and politics. When it comes to television political satire, that relationship is extremely intimate. This might in turn make it difficult for satire on television – a notoriously top-down medium – to be very critical of politics. Building on investigations into “new political television”, this chapter compares the relationships of three very different British satires, namely Have I got News for You, The Thick of It, and Brass Eye, with their political targets, asking to what extend they are collusive, incorporative or antagonistic. Is it possible for TV satire to be truly subversive?
Published online: 22 October 2015
https://doi.org/10.1075/thr.2.15bas
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