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Two-hundred fifty years ago, the Declaration of Independence stated that all men had certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Those ideas are the inspiration for our America in Pursuit series. And today, we're about to focus on the happiness part. It's a story about the role of satire in American life. Here's NPR's Elizabeth Blair.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Satirists are known to punch up, meaning people in power bear the brunt of their jokes. Here's Stephen Colbert on CBS.
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STEPHEN COLBERT: Apparently, Trump learned that violent mass goons are not crowd pleasers, and he learned that from his most trusted adviser, the TV. Reportedly...
BLAIR: They offend. Here's Bill Maher on HBO Max.
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BILL MAHER: And I can't fix that what the Democrats are scared of more than anything else - I mean, obviously, besides gluten.
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BLAIR: They can do that because of freedom of speech, as Dave Chappelle said when he accepted his Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center in 2019.
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DAVE CHAPPELLE: The First Amendment is first for a reason. The Second Amendment is just in case the first one doesn't work out.
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ANDY BOROWITZ: Satire is a way of looking at reality and heightening reality to take down a worthy target.
BLAIR: Satirist Andy Borowitz points to Will Rogers, who died in 1935. Rogers, one of the most influential American humorists, often said that Congress made writing jokes easy.
BOROWITZ: He said that about a hundred years ago, and it's still true. We have this target-rich environment of the government - but not just the government - the oligarchs, the institutions. So we just wake up every morning and say, OK, who's it going to be today?
BLAIR: Early American satirists like Benjamin Franklin and Washington Irving were influenced by Anglo Irish writers like Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith. But the GOAT of American satire is Mark Twain.
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HAL HOLBROOK: (As Mark Twain) Man is the reasoning animal. Such is the claim. Though I do think that's open to dispute. I...
BLAIR: Actor Hal Holbrook in the CBS broadcast of "Mark Twain Tonight!" in 1967.
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HOLBROOK: (As Mark Twain) Well, I've been studying this reasoning animal for years now, and I find the results humiliating.
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BLAIR: Holbrook performed as Twain hundreds of times before he died in 2021. Actor Richard Thomas is touring the show now.
RICHARD THOMAS: When Twain speaks, he frequently just sounds like one of us rather than somebody who's giving wisdom.
BLAIR: Thomas says Twain would throw his darts, but was very careful not to simply offend.
THOMAS: He's always the first to recognize his own frailties, which means that even when he's challenging you, he's also your friend. You know, he's also intimate with you because he's revealing as much about himself.
BLAIR: Rich people were often the target of Twain's satire.
THOMAS: Incredibly contemptuous of big money, wealth. But, you know, constantly trying to be a mogul, trying to be rich. You know, when he went out west, he said, the gold and silver fever was running high out there, and I came down with the disease right away. I knew that money was the root of all evil, and I wanted all I could get.
BLAIR: That intimacy with the audience is so powerful, satirists are often more influential than politicians. Remember this?
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TINA FEY: (As Sarah Palin) And I can see Russia from my house.
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BLAIR: Tina Fey's "Saturday Night Live" impression of Sarah Palin might be more memorable than Palin's actual campaign. Less than a month into President Trump's first term, Melissa McCarthy did an impression of press secretary Sean Spicer.
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MELISSA MCCARTHY: (As Sean Spicer) Now, I'd like to begin today by apologizing on behalf of you to me...
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MCCARTHY: (As Sean Spicer) ...For how you have treated me these last two weeks. And that apology is not accepted.
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SEAN SPICER: For me, it was just completely surreal.
BLAIR: Sean Spicer.
SPICER: I had a really tough, you know, time out of the gate at the White House - is probably generous on my behalf. And so, look, it was fair. It was funny. It was a little well deserved.
BLAIR: Political players have generally accepted the ridicule, at least publicly. In the 1960s, Vaughn Meader's parody album of the Kennedy family was a sensation.
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VAUGHN MEADER: (As John F. Kennedy) Something must be done. Now, Bobby, it might just be a matter of a change of a few words. Now, for instance, let's take a word like vigor. I say vigor. How do you say vigor?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Robert F. Kennedy) Vigor.
BLAIR: While Jacqueline Kennedy was not a fan, John F. Kennedy gave copies of "The First Family" as Christmas gifts. President Trump has vigorously criticized satirists who've joked about him, especially Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert. Sean Spicer thinks it's justified. He says late-night comedy has taken a mean turn and become too political.
SPICER: It's not about being funny and entertaining and telling jokes. It's about advancing a liberal agenda and one against Donald Trump.
DANIELLE FUENTES MORGAN: It's the clearest indication of the power of satire.
BLAIR: Danielle Fuentes Morgan is an associate professor in the department of English at Santa Clara University. She isn't surprised to see the president criticize comedians on his social media.
MORGAN: Because if it was just jokes, he wouldn't care.
BLAIR: Morgan says satire has been a vital part of what it means to be American. It can even be a matter of life or death, she says. She's the author of a book about the history of African American satire called "Laughing To Keep From Dying."
MORGAN: Satire is about subversion. It is a survival tactic that is meant to open up space for Black life, and what it does is demonstrate Black resiliency, Black selfhood and Black intelligence.
BLAIR: Morgan cites comedians Richard Pryor and Jordan Peele. In her book, she writes about one of the earliest records of African American satire, from 1865. It's a letter from Jourdon Anderson, a formerly enslaved man living in Ohio, responding to a letter he'd received from his former master in Tennessee.
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LAURENCE FISHBURNE: (Reading) Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt and am glad that you are still living.
BLAIR: That's actor Laurence Fishburne reading Anderson's missive for the series Letters Live. Anderson's former master asked him if he and his wife would come back and work for them.
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FISHBURNE: (Reading) Now, if you will write and say what wages you will give me...
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FISHBURNE: (Reading) ...I will better be able (ph) to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
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MORGAN: It vacillates so beautifully between comedy and horror.
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FISHBURNE: (Reading) Our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add this the interest (ph)...
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FISHBURNE: (Reading) ...For the time of (ph) our wages have been kept back.
MORGAN: It is a really precise indication of Jourdon Anderson's ability to speak the truth about what happened in a way that still provides him some cover by pretending like he's just being very earnest.
BLAIR: Humor, says Morgan, can lower people's defenses and get them to listen to topics they might otherwise avoid.
MORGAN: You've created a space where people are a little bit more willing to hear it because they're laughing.
BLAIR: American satire paved the way for stand-up comedy, considered by many practitioners to be a truly American art form. That is, if you can take a joke. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE O'NEILL BROTHERS' PERFORMANCE OF KATHARINE LEE BATES AND SAMUEL A. WARD'S "AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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