News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on the web, with websites like The Onion and The Babylon Bee, where it is relatively easy to mimic a legitimate news site. News satire relies heavily on irony and deadpan humor.
Two slightly different types of news satire exist. One form uses satirical commentary and sketch comedy to comment on real-world events, while the other presents wholly fictionalized news stories.
In history
Author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was employed as a newspaper reporter before becoming famous as a novelist, and in this position he published many satirical articles. He left two separate journalism positions, Nevada (1864) fleeing a challenge to duel and San Francisco fleeing outraged police officials because his satire and fiction were often taken for the truthful accounts they were presented as. Ironically, the accuracy of many newspaper and autobiographical accounts used to follow the early life of Samuel Clemens is in doubt.
Newspapers still print occasional news satire features, in particular on April Fools' Day. This news is specifically identified somewhere in the paper or in the next day as a joke.
In 1933 and 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a series of ten one-reel theatrical shorts called Goofy Movies, which included "Wotaphony Newsreel", a newsreel parody that paired actual footage with a mocking, deadpan narration.Goofy Movies Number One (1933)
Also in 1934, halfway through a Kraft Music Hall radio show, Dean Taylor ("Others collect the news, Dean makes it!") narrated a fake newsreel which began with a report on the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies being cancelled due to bad weather, and baseball season being rescheduled to when farmers need rain.
On television
News satire has been prevalent on television since the 1960s, when it enjoyed a renaissance in the UK with the "Satire Boom", led by comedians including Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron, and Dudley Moore, and the television program That Was The Week That Was. In the United States, the NBC network adapted this program and also produced its own content, from the "news" segment of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, to the still-running Saturday Night Live mock newscast segment "Weekend Update". Cable television got into the cable news act with HBO's Not Necessarily the News in the mid-1980s.
In 1993, Comedy Central would premiere Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher; it was structured as an informal roundtable show, featuring Maher and a rotating group of guest panelists—often including a mix of entertainers, pundits, and public figures—discussing news and political topics. Maher described the program as being akin to "The McLaughlin Group on acid." In 1997, the series moved to ABC, being positioned as a competitor to the late-night talk shows The Tonight Show and Late Show. It was cancelled in 2002 in the wake of controversial remarks made by Maher and guest Dinesh D'Souza on an episode regarding the September 11 attacks, with ABC picking up a more conventional late-night show starring Jimmy Kimmel to replace it. In 2003, Maher moved to HBO to host Real Time with Bill Maher, which has a similar format.
After Politically Incorrect moved to ABC, Comedy Central developed The Daily Show as a replacement, which took the form of a satirical newscast interspersed with field reports, discussions between other "correspondents", and features such as celebrity interviews. Initially hosted by Craig Kilborn, he would step down in 1998 to succeed Tom Snyder as host of The Late Late Show on CBS. Kilborn was succeeded on The Daily Show by Jon Stewart; during his tenure, the show's content evolved to have a larger focus on comedic discussions of political news.
A number of other news comedy programs have been hosted by Daily Show alumni; in 2005, Comedy Central premiered The Colbert Report, a Daily Show spinoff featuring Stephen Colbert portraying a narcissistic cable news pundit in the vein of Fox News personalities such as Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.Kurtz, Howard (October 10, 2005). TV's Newest Anchor: A Smirk in Progress. The Washington Post. Retrieved on August 15, 2007 Colbert would leave The Colbert Report in 2014 to succeed David Letterman as host of Late Show, with his tenure premiering in September 2015 as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His tenure on the show would incorporate news satire similar to The Daily Show. Stewart stepped down as host of The Daily Show in August 2015 to join The Late Show as an executive producer and occasional contributor; he was succeeded by Trevor Noah. The Colbert Report was replaced by the short-lived Daily Show spinoff The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, which ran from January 2015 to August 2016. After a positively-received run as a guest host on The Daily Show in 2013, HBO signed John Oliver to host the weekly series Last Week Tonight in 2014. Fellow Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee moved to her own show—Full Frontal with Samantha Bee—on TBS in 2015. In 2024, Stewart returned to hosting The Daily Show on a weekly basis, as part of a rotation of hosts that have helmed the show since the departure of Trevor Noah.
Amid the success of The Daily Show, Fox News launched its own news satire program in February 2007—The ½ Hour News Hour. Owing to the channel's positioning towards conservatives, the program was described by creator Joel Surnow as being less sympathetic towards left-leaning figures than its competitors, saying that it would focus on targets "that have been missed by the mainstream satirists on TV". The series was cancelled in September 2007. Fox News then launched the more successful series Red Eye, a satirical talk show which ran from February 6, 2007 to April 7, 2017; it was initially hosted by Greg Gutfeld, who would later go on to host the similar Greg Gutfeld Show. In 2021, the show expanded from weekends to a weeknight schedule as Gutfeld!
In the United Kingdom, a number of notable news satires have been produced on radio and television. A popular format are comedy panel shows such as Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week, where panels of comedians participate in improv-based quizzes and games related to stories from the past week. Chris Morris has produced a number of satirical miniseries; The Day Today (1994)—an adaptation of Morris's radio comedy On the Hour—parodied the formats of British television newscasts of the era, including the overuse of dramatic music and graphics, bizarre headlines and production decisions, and also featured satires of television documentaries, true crime programs such as Crimewatch, and MTV. The series notably introduced Steve Coogan's character Alan Partridge, an inept and egocentric sportscaster who would star in other radio and television sitcoms. In 1997, The Day Today received a follow-up in Brass Eye, which specifically satirized investigative journalism. sensationalism, and moral panics; the series proved controversial prior to airing due to its use of pranks against unwitting public figures, including an episode where politician David Amess was duped into recording a video warning the public about a fictitious drug known as "Cake". Four years after its conclusion, a one-off special entitled "Paedogeddon" aired in 2001.
Recent news satire television series in Australia include Working Dog Productions' Frontline, Shaun Micallef's Newstopia, and the many programs created by The Chaser since 2001. As of 2017, current programs of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation include Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering.
The Canadian series This Hour Has 22 Minutes has aired since 1993 on CBC Television; it utilizes an ensemble cast of studio "anchors" presenting satirical headlines and stories, intercut with sketches such as interviews and parody commercials. The program's title references the CBC's 1960's newsmagazine This Hour Has Seven Days; although primarily a real news magazine, that show did feature some satirical features in its format, such as political comedy songs performed by actress and singer Dinah Christie. CBC Radio One features This Is That, an improvised news satire program which mimics the style of actual CBC Radio public affairs programs. In Quebec, Marc Labrèche hosted the French-language news satire La Fin du monde est à 7 heures on TQS. After its conclusion, 7 heures cast member Jean-René Dufort would later go on to host Infoman for the CBC's French arm Radio-Canada."The knowing nerd: Behind Jean-Rene Dufort's geek chic is a savvy wit". The Gazette, April 28, 2002.
In Germany, heute-show (ZDF), and formerly Wochenshow (on SAT.1) are popular news satires on TV.
The Egyptian show El Bernameg, hosted by Bassem Youssef (on Capital Broadcast Center 2011-13 and MBC MASR from 2014 on), is modeled on The Daily Show. Launched in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, it has been quite popular, but also a source of tremendous controversy, as Youssef has repeatedly been under investigation by the authorities for his willingness to poke fun at powerful people.
Online News satire has been posted on the web almost since its inception, with The Onion foremost among recognized news satire sites due to its enduring and profitable business model. The content of the website, which started in 1996, is syndicated through mainstream media sites such as CNN and CNET. Today there are hundreds of news satire sites online, among which The Babylon Bee, considered the politically conservative counterpart of The Onion and also the more visited of the two. Sites such as Hollywood Leek specialize in satirical articles about celebrities and Hollywood entertainment news. Sometimes fake news reporters influence real world politics, like Citizen Kate whose 90 episodes covered the 2008 presidential campaign trail. She commissioned a butter bust of Obama presented to him by the Butter Cow Lady of Iowa, making international headlines. El Koshary Today is an Egyptian website that carries fake international news stories. Other satire sites attempt to emulate a genuine news source of some sort; these sites now take a variety of forms.
Because interesting stories are often emailed and can quickly become separated from their point of origin, it is not uncommon for news satire stories to be picked up as real by the media, as happened with a Faking News story about a lawsuit against Axe by an Indian man after having failed to attract a girl. Additionally, a parody post on Al Sharpton's parody News Groper blog was quoted as if real by MSNBC. Another satire publication, The Giant Napkin, published an article about a man literally fighting his house fire with more fire, a story taken seriously by several social networking sites. That Google News accepts news satire sources helps contribute to this phenomenon; while Google News does mark such stories with a "satire" tag, not all readers notice the tag; moreover, sometimes satirical sources may not carry the tag. At least one site, thespoof.com, relies on user-generated content in a Web 2.0 manner.
Some websites like Literally Unbelievable post the genuine and shocked reactions of individuals who believe the satirical articles are real. The reactions are taken from social media websites, such as Facebook, in which users can directly comment on links to the article's source.