British satirist Sacha Baron Cohen has gone out of his way to mock Second Amendment advocates, immigration limits supporters and Republicans in his new series on Showtime.
But in the Trump era, Mr. Cohen’s satire — and that of other would-be comics — fails to move the needle in political debate, media analysts say.
“Americans generally are just oversatired, so to speak,” said political strategist Christopher Metzler.
In his “Who Is America?” series, Mr. Cohen has skewered politicians such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. He has taken particular aim at gun rights supporters including Jason Spencer, a former lawmaker in Georgia who resigned after the satirist persuaded him to yell racial epithets, drop his pants and bare his bottom on camera.
In another segment, Mr. Cohen persuaded Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, to support “Kinder Guardians,” a mock program to arm children as young as 4 to fight back against school shooters.
Yet the show’s impact seems minimal at best, said Mr. Metzler, adding that the satirical landscape is far different today from what it was 12 years ago.
He said the messenger matters when it comes to game-changing satire. Tina Fey wasn’t considered a hard-left entertainer when she impersonated Mrs. Palin on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” during the 2008 presidential election cycle.
Miss Fey’s impression, both folksy and condescending, hurt a politician new to the national scene, he said. Yet her “Saturday Night Live” peers haven’t been able to match those results because of the show’s overt liberal stance.
“We’re in a bit of a drought regarding political satire, the kind that changes hearts and minds. It certainly would be welcome. It’s a matter of getting the formula right,” he said.
Brian S. Gross, president of BSG Public Relations, partially blames President Trump for the state of comic exhaustion.
“I don’t believe the public tunes out satire, but it’s oversaturated with the daily endurance of constant news about and created by current government,” Mr. Gross said.
On the surface, Mr. Cohen’s targets range from socialists to far-right politicians, a far cry from the late-night TV hosts who almost uniformly target right-of-center voices. But “Who Is America?” isn’t quite as balanced as it would seem, said Kira Davis, a pop culture podcaster and senior contributor at Redstate.com.
“I think that in the age of Trump, Cohen gets more mileage, and pleasure, out of targeting conservatives and Republicans,” Mrs. Davis said. “He’s clearly liberal in his leanings, but I don’t think he’s particularly biased in his work, at least not any more so than other people in his industry. He’s still doing the same things to other nonconservative targets. They just don’t get as much coverage in the media.”
Mr. Sanders, for example, survived his faux interview with Mr. Cohen’s conservative conspiracy theorist Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr., Ph.D., by answering some farcical queries about income inequality.
Mr. Cohen’s show might not move any polls in a given direction, but it could have an impact all the same, Mrs. Davis said.
“He is entertaining people, and that in itself can be influential. In most cases, he’s just preaching to the choir, but even that has cultural significance,” she said. “When a celebrity or show we love confirms our biases, it makes us feel powerful and makes us feel like our views are more common than maybe they are.”
There’s one way a comedian could do more than just make his or her choir sing. Mr. Metzler said that seeing a right-of-center comic, such as Dennis Miller, skewer the president or conservative targets might leave a sizable mark.
“That’s the game changer. … It breaks up the leftist bloc,” he said. “People then would at least be willing to listen.”
Mrs. Davis said one problem that Mr. Cohen and his peers face in the current climate is a sense of predictability.
“Political humor should make you laugh and also make you think,” she said. “It’s hard to do both in this age of Trump Derangement Syndrome when you already know the punchline before the setup of the joke even gets started.”
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