Saturday Night Live

In 1986, William Shatner told a roomful of spoof Trekkies to "get a life."

You and I have grown up during a period in which comedy became strangely bound up with truth and virtue. Trump has cut the knot.

Sha-Rock claims her place as the first female MC in hip-hop history.

“Here we are, a group of Black lesbian feminist anti-imperialist anti-capitalists trying to do the right thing.”

There is a long list of ways America was transformed by the terrorist attacks. But the question of how TV itself was changed is more complicated.

Reiner, Stephen Colbert, Jordan Peele, Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Their comedy descends directly from the Works Progress Administration.

Immediately after 9/11, humorists struggled with what many called ‘the death of irony.’ Then ‘The Onion’ returned and showed everyone the way

It took a while for pundits and other observers to truly understand the power of the new platform.

Comedian Richard Pryor's performance of Blackness throughout his career.

In Candyman, the notorious Cabrini-Green complex is haunted by urban myths and racial paranoia.

During the Cold War, nuclear weapons were a frequent plot point on television shows. Fearful depictions in the 1950's became more darkly comedic in the 1960s.

How pitch, tonality, and celebrity imitation have portrayed cluelessness.

The show's rollicking one-liners and bawdy routines paved the way for cutting-edge television satire.

Behind a quiet house museum are anti-abortion activists with a mission: to claim America’s most famous historical feminist as their own.

In 1985, Neil Postman observed an America imprisoned by its own need for amusement. He was, it turns out, extremely prescient.