Mario Vargas Llosa in his essay “The Civilization of the Spectacle” proposes that the current fascination with entertainment has turned even the most pressing issues into mere reason to gossip. Certainly, in the United States several public figures, after having acquired notoriety in the world of entertainment, have decided to use their notoriety to push their political visions. The most emblematic cases are Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Trump, the latter two having started in other fields such as bodybuilding and the promotion of real estate projects. Less frequent and less lucid is the transit in the opposite direction. For example, the participation of the 30th White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, in the televised dance competition “Dancing with the stars” has been widely criticized.

In a middle ground are the entertainment programs that deal with the dissemination of information and which increasingly combine these criticisms told in an amusing way with the inclusion of elements of commentary and evaluation of actions. of public figures. The pioneer of all was Saturday Night Live, proposed in 1975 by a young Canadian. So young that almost 50 years later, he is still its executive producer. During the presidential election campaign, it was very educational and during all the years when Donald Trump screenwriters were so prolific that the actor who best imitated him, Alec Baldwin, was tired of playing the character.

Perhaps one of the best years was 2008 when segments like Tina Fey impersonating Sarah Palin, who was so cartoonish in her speaking that some of her statements didn’t even need to be rewritten to become jokes, were included. All it took was one inflection in the voice and you could tell how ridiculous his comments could be. The same thing happened with the financial crisis of that year and the following ones, the actors told what had been the bad banking practices and the framings were so ridiculous that one wondered how such a big stupidity could have brew for so long. That year I had the unusual experience of hearing very similar explanations offered in a serious tone by analysts at Lehman Brothers (before its collapse) and by comedians, but in a humorous tone. It was to cry.

A recurring guest who is always given a prominent role is dave chappellean extraordinary actor.

Although his comments and jokes focus primarily on the experience of black people in the United States, it is clear that he is very fond of what he himself calls “poor whites”, the rural world of Ohio, very away from his native Washington, DC. .

In the year of the pandemic, he made a special appeal 8:46 for the time it took for the police to kill George Floyd. He’s not afraid to tackle controversial issues like abortion, people’s experiences transgender and the relevance of certain ways to advance feminist ideas. On November 12, he made an unusual intervention: making jokes about anti-Semitism while making rather critical remarks about the influence of jewish producers in show business. As a result, the commentators no longer know how to qualify their intervention! I saw a rabbi saying his jokes were just that, jokes. The interesting thing is that these examples are the reverse example of the thesis of Vargas Llosa’s book. In the United States, humor becomes the means to call for reflection