Late-Night Comedy in Election 2000: Its Influence on Candidate Trait Ratings and the Moderating Effects of Political Knowledge and Partisanship

Abstract This paper examines the effects of exposure to late-night comedy programming on trait ratings of the candidates in the 2000 Presidential election and the moderating effects of political knowledge and partisan- ship. The study includes a content analysis of late-night jokes, an analysis of the predictors of late-night exposure, and several tests of the relationship between late-night exposure and candidate trait ratings. Results did not reveal direct effects of late-night exposure on subjects' ratings of the candidates' caricatured traits, though findings did suggest differential effects of exposure to late-night as a function of the partisanship and political knowledge of the viewer.