Employing satire and humor in facing a pandemic

Abstract

Abstract This research employs the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct to convey how The Late Show with Stephen Colbert employs humor and satire with the aim of providing information, proffering injunctive norms, and modifying attitudes and subjective norms in its public audience, while exposing the inefficacy of behavioral controls and urging public authorities to adopt effective ones instead. In the earlier stages of the pandemic in the US, the Show primarily appealed to people to change their behavior through providing information, invoking injunctive norms and affiliations, foregrounding appropriate attitudes and subjective norms; at the same time, its repertoire included social and political satire drawing on organizational and institutional mechanisms of behavioral control. As the health crisis became increasingly politicized, the Show redirected its satire to policies and political figures and sought to change the behavior of policymakers in setting proper role models and adopting wiser behavioral controls to lead the nation through the crisis. Meanwhile, individual responsibility was never spared in satiric attempts to change behavior as the Show continued to provide its audience with new scientific information and encouraged them to follow scientific recommendations.