Election Watch 2008:
The latest updates from CMPA’s ongoing joke tracking. Who are the major targets of the late night comics and what are they joking about?
Our comic watch for Campaign ’08 includes, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”
Joke Target |
Total # of Jokes | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept |
| Bush, George W. | 738 | 201 | 58 | 73 | 30 | 95 | 130 | 79 | 69 | 3 |
| Hilton, Paris | 256 | 1 | 1 | 55 | 193 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Cheney, Dick | 188 | 29 | 27 | 14 | 6 | 18 | 58 | 22 | 14 | |
| Clinton, Hillary | 149 | 33 | 22 | 16 | 13 | 10 | 18 | 21 | 16 | |
| Clinton, Bill | 127 | 24 | 18 | 22 | 7 | 16 | 15 | 16 | 9 | |
| Gonzalez, Alberto | 103 | 16 | 19 | 18 | 2 | 17 | 31 | |||
| Gore, Al | 79 | 9 | 12 | 32 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 1 | |
| Nowak, Lisa Marie | 71 | 63 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Giuliani, Rudolph | 62 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 10 | |
| Romney, Mitt | 61 | 8 | 11 | 16 | 14 | 1 | 11 | |||
| Obama, Barrack | 53 | 27 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | ||
| Vick, Michael | 44 | 1 | 15 | 28 | ||||||
| McCain, John | 44 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 13 | 4 | ||
| Edwards, John | 42 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | |
| Schwarzenegger, Arnold | 37 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Libby, Scooter | 36 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 11 | 13 | ||||
| Lohan, Lindsey | 35 | 5 | 26 | 4 | ||||||
| Hussein, Saddam | 35 | 29 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Osama bin Laden | 35 | 9 | 3 | 22 | 1 | |||||
| Castro, Fidel | 31 | 16 | 3 | 10 | 2 | |||||
| Jackson, Michael | 30 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | ||
| Craig, Larry | 28 | 28 | ||||||||
| Huckabee, Mike | 25 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 12 | |||||
| Kerry, John | 25 | 13 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Biden, Joseph | 24 | 6 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
Joke Target |
Total # of Jokes | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept |
| Vitter, David | 24 | 21 | 3 | |||||||
| Kucinich, Dennis | 23 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 5 | ||
| Gingrich, Newt | 22 | 14 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Spector, Phil | 21 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 2 | |||||
| Simpson, O.J. | 21 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | ||
| Rice, Condoleeza | 19 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Rove, Carl | 18 | 7 | 2 | 9 | ||||||
| Spears, Britney | 17 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Pelosi, Nancy | 17 | 13 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Bonds, Barry | 17 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Thompson, Fred | 17 | 4 | 3 | 10 | ||||||
| Reagan, Ronald | 15 | 11 | 4 | |||||||
| Wolfowitz, Paul | 15 | 4 | 10 | 1 | ||||||
| Tancredo, Tom | 15 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Vilsack, Tom | 14 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Queen Elizabeth | 13 | 13 | ||||||||
| Dodd, Christopher | 13 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 1 | |||
| Haggard, Ted | 13 | 11 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Brownback, Sam | 13 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Pope Benedict II, formerly Cardinal Ratzinger | 12 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Speaker, Andrew | 11 | 11 | ||||||||
| Villaraigosa, Antonio | 11 | 9 | 2 | |||||||
| McGreevey, John | 11 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Letterman, David | 10 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Imus, Don | 10 | 7 | 3 | |||||||
| Snow, Tony | 10 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| Rumsfeld, Donald | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Carter, Jimmy | 9 | 7 | 2 | |||||||
| Based on an analysis of the political and public affairs jokes in the monologues or opening segment of the Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman, Latenight with Conan O'Brien, The Daily Show and since July 1st 2007 The Colbert Report.. This does not include repeat or encore performances. | ||||||||||