American Political Humor: Touchables and Taboos

The historical view of political humor in America maintains that the humor adheres to democratic theory and practice, viz., its dimension boundless, its character egalitarian, its substance encompassing and its expression open. In short, the position embraced both by the popular and academic cultures is that the humor is unrestricted and removed from taboos. A perusal of its content, however, suggests the contrary. Political humor reflects the nexus of power relationships and is sharply bounded by an ideology on the one hand and by corporate structure on the other. The primary focus is rather on the political official as the flaw in the system while the system itself and its underlying theory remain unexamined within the culture of humor. /// L'opinion traditionnelle selon laquelle l'humour américain est de type démocratique, égalitaire et non exclusif n'a que peu de rapports avec les faits. L'humour américain apparait au contraire cerné et contraint par l'idéologie politique dominante et reflète les structures des pouvoirs politiques et économiques. Le sujet des histoires drôles c'est typiquement un bureaucrate ou un homme politique mais non pas le système lui même. Ce dernier est protégé par ce qui semble être un vrai tabou.