The “Humoralist” as Journalistic Jammer: Zondag met Lubach and the Discursive Construction of Investigative Comedy

Abstract

This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the societal role of satire as a platform for public debate. To this end, we analysed the metajournalistic discourse surrounding the Dutch television news satire show Zondag met Lubach to assess how it has been received and discussed in the Dutch media landscape. Through an analysis of 64 media appearances (2014-2020) with the host and staff members of the show, we zoom in on how discursive exchanges between Zondag met Lubach and media professionals reflect and shape understandings of the journalistic. Thereby, we distinguish three phases of identity construction for the show. Our findings reveal how Zondag met Lubach entered the Dutch media landscape as a comedic non-journalistic outsider, but has gradually become legitimated as a quasi-insider to the journalistic field, embodying the nuanced role of investigative comedy. We conclude by discussing how the concept of investigative comedy elicits reflection on the epistemic authority of novel incantations of journalistic storytelling, and how it contributes to the expansion of conventional assumptions among satirists and media professionals about what journalism can or should be.

Contemporary political satirists

“…While the basic formats of satirical late-night shows, "an elusive hybrid genre" (Koivukoski & Ödmark, 2020, p. 731) mixing comedy and news, originated in the US, many corresponding programmes have emerged in other countries. Several of them acknowledge the influence of programmes like The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Lichtenstein et al, 2021(Lichtenstein et al, , p. 1761Ödmark & Harvard, 2021, p. 287;Nicolaï et al, 2022Nicolaï et al, , p. 2057.…”

“…Koivukoski & Ödmark (2020, p. 738) found that in practice journalists still do most of the investigative work, while comedians keep writing the jokes. The integration of journalistic principles and comedy has led to satire news being described as investigative comedy, and defined by Nicolaï et al (2022Nicolaï et al ( , p. 2058 as a subgenre of news satire shows. Elsewhere, it has been called "entertainment with an attitude" (Lichtenstein et al, 2021(Lichtenstein et al, , p. 1762.…”

“…Some recent European studies offer examples of empirical, qualitative approaches where creatives and key team members interpret their own roles. These include programmes from The Netherlands (Nicolaï et al, 2022), Nordic countries (Ödmark & Harvard, 2021;Koivukoski & Ödmark, 2020), and Germany (Lichtenstein et al, 2021).…”

Moral Judgment and Social Critique in Journalistic News Satire

“…Western TV news satirists have been found to adhere to an ethos similar to that of culture journalists or investigative journalists (Koivukoski and Ödmark 2020), where exposing political hypocrisy and auditing power are important goals. These news satirists see themselves as societal eye-openers and questioners of the status quo (Ödmark and Harvard 2021), and through hybrid content described by scholars as satirical journalism or investigative comedy, they have been legitimized as quasi-insiders to the journalistic field (Fox 2018;Nicolaï et al 2022). Some news satirists have claimed to enact the role of "humoralist" (Nicolaï et al 2022), operating under the mandate of exposing moral wrongdoings.…”

“…These news satirists see themselves as societal eye-openers and questioners of the status quo (Ödmark and Harvard 2021), and through hybrid content described by scholars as satirical journalism or investigative comedy, they have been legitimized as quasi-insiders to the journalistic field (Fox 2018;Nicolaï et al 2022). Some news satirists have claimed to enact the role of "humoralist" (Nicolaï et al 2022), operating under the mandate of exposing moral wrongdoings.…”