A study conducted at George Mason University’s
Center for Media and Public Affairs has found that Trump is officially the most joked about president of all time, according to their long-term tracking of late night shows.
The CMPA, as its known, is one of the country’s most prestigious and well-known media study groups, and one of their specialties happens to be political humor – they’ve been tracking jokes made at sitting presidents’ expenses since 1992, and their latest finds are, perhaps, unsurprising.
According to the CMPA, in his first 100 days Trump was the butt of more jokes than any other president earned in their
entire first year – even Bill Clinton, who made himself an easy target with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, was the subject of less derision than Trump’s been. In fact, Clinton inspired fewer punchlines than Barack Obama and George W. Bush, too.
And this study just covers major network shows —
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah – so who knows how many more cracks have really been made on air.
Here’s what
the study concluded:
- President Trump was the target of 1060 jokes during his first 100 days in office, more than his recent predecessors attracted during their entire first year in office — Barack Obama in 2009 (936 jokes), George W. Bush in 2001 (546 jokes), and Bill Clinton in 1993 (440 jokes).
- Trump is on track to easily eclipse the most jokes about any individual tracked by CMPA from 1992 through 2012 – 1717 by Bill Clinton in 1998, the year dominated by news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Clinton’s impeachment.
- The amount of Trump jokes nearly tripled the combined totals of all Democratic politicians (95 jokes) and Republican politicians (290 jokes) combined (385), outside his own administration.
- Trump’s family members were the targets of an additional 97 jokes, more than all Democrats combined. When the Trump family jokes are combined with the 373 jokes 2 that were directed toward other members of his administration, the Trump-related joke total rises to 1530.
- Stephen Colbert featured the most Trump jokes (337), followed closely by Trevor Noah (315). Lagging behind were Jimmy Fallon (231) and Jimmy Kimmel (177).
The CPMA will keep tracking Trump jokes, so we’ll see just how many more jokes will be made by the end of the year.
