"Truth is where the funny lies" : : on the desire for truth in serious times

Abstract: What can contemporary satire tell us about the desire for truth and the po- litical as well as the mechanisms of sense-making in a “post-truth” era? In this introduction to the special issue on the “desire for truth and the politi- cal” we sketch a number of features of an emerging and fragile regime of truth. We argue that the crumbling certainty over truth’s role in democratic politics has brought about the rise of a range of agencies, devices, and ethics that aim to restore the power of truth in different ways. While fact checking, moralizing, or calls to reason mark such a desire for truth in standard politi- cal communication, we explore political satire as a more vivid approach to the relationship between truth and the political, one that works by mobiliz- ing a range of affective and imaginative registers. Focusing on segments of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah that satirize President Trump, we see the damaged truth-democracy-arrangement unpacked in its funniest, most outrageous, and serious articulation

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: "Truth is where the funny lies" ; volume:11 ; pages:2-17 ; Behemoth ; 11, 2-17

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
• Keyword: Affekt ; Satire ; Wahrheit ; Politik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Creator: Hentschel, Christine ; Krasmann, Susanne

Further information

• DOI: 10.6094/behemoth.2018.11.2.981
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-169299
• Rights: Kein Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:50 AM CEST