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Dannagal Goldthwaite Young

Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States

by Dannagal Goldthwaite Young (Author)

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For almost a decade, journalists and pundits have been asking why we don't see successful examples of political satire from conservatives or of opinion talk radio from liberals. This book turns that question on its head to argue that opinion talk is the political satire of the right and political satire is the opinion programming of the left. They look and feel like two different animals because their audiences are literally, two different animals.

In Irony and Outrage, political and media psychologist Dannagal Goldthwaite Young explores the aesthetics, underlying logics, and histories of these two seemingly distinct genres, making the case that they should be thought of as the logical extensions of the psychology of the left and right, respectively. One genre is guided by ambiguity, play, deliberation, and openness, while the other is guided by certainty, vigilance, instinct, and boundaries. While the audiences for Sean Hannity and John Oliver come from opposing political ideologies, both are high in political interest, knowledge, and engagement, and both lack faith in many of our core democratic institutions. Young argues that the roles that these two genres play for their viewers are strikingly similar: galvanizing the opinion of the left or the right, mobilizing citizens around certain causes, and expressing a frustration with traditional news coverage while offering alternative sources of information and meaning. One key way in which they differ, however, concludes Young, is in their capacity to be exploited by special interests and political elites.

Drawing on decades of research on political and media psychology and media effects, as well as historical accounts and interviews with comedians and comedy writers, Young unpacks satire's liberal "bias" and juxtaposes it with that of outrage's conservative "bias." She details how traits like tolerance for ambiguity and the motivation to engage with complex ideas shape our preferences for art, music, and literature; and how those same traits correlate with political ideology. In turn, she illustrates how these traits help explain why liberals and conservatives vary in the genres of political information they prefer to create and consume.

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ISBN-10

0190913088
ISBN-13

978-0190913083
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

December 2, 2019
Language

English
Dimensions

6.2 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
Print length

282 pages

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Dannagal Goldthwaite Young

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Editorial Reviews

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"[Irony and Outrage] is engaging, funny, and particularly informative about the differences between liberals' and conservatives' political media consumption and its potential effects." -- Perspectives on Politics

"Irony & Outrage undoubtedly makes a radical contribution to the fields of political communication and psychology of communication by advancing our understanding of a topic that is both a long-standing academic concern and a central issue in the current national conversation in the United States and beyond." -- InMedia

"[Y]oung's writing style here is quite approachable and should appeal to a wide audience beyond the ivy towers of academia." -- Journal of Communication

"Irony and Outrage is already a classic in the field, and it will be read, I hope, by generations of graduate students." -- Journalism

"Especially those who teach social policy classes at the undergraduate level should benefit from having [Irony and Outrage] on their mental horizons. Students will find it engaging to read and valuable for sorting out debates on topical issues." -- Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"If you love political comedy or opinion shows, or if you hate them, or if you're just concerned about the sorry state of our polarized country, you'll enjoy reading this book. Young gives the best explanation I've seen as to why political shows on the left and right are so different-and so important as shapers of American politics." -- Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind

"Dannagal Young's Irony and Outrage is a scholarly and deep, well-researched, and unique study into the history, politics, and psychology behind how and why we, the people, pick and choose the media we consume. Also, I loved the parts where she interviews comedians and they say funny things. Irony and Outrage is a thought-provoking, enlightening, and very fun read!" -- Ed Greenberg, The Committee and The Second City

"As a political journalist who's spent way too much time on the conservative convention circuit, I've seen way too many unfunny right-wing comedians do terrible Barack Obama impressions, and I happily muted Mike Huckabee's gravy-based joke routine on Twitter a long time ago. But as Dannagal Young's Irony and Outrage shows us, exploring the age-old question of why aren't conservatives funny reveals so much much more about the American political character than we might admit. The types of media that liberals and conservatives create and choose to engage with are actually natural expressions of our psychologies, our needs, and our personalities. This book is essential reading in our polarized and outraged times; it turns out that what we watch and how we laugh correlate closely to how we vote." -- Peter Hamby, Snapchat's Good Luck America

"In this engaging tour de force, Professor Dannagal Goldthwaite Young upends conventional wisdom about the ancestry, function, effects, and synergies between the satire of the left and outraged opinion talk of the right." -- Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania

"Dannagal Young's book made me laugh when she quoted comedians and -when when I wasn't chuckling-it made me consider her argument and reconsider some of my own. If you have an appetite for an academic overview of political discourse in our country and in our time, this book should satisfy that hunger." -- Alan Myerson, Director of The Second City and co-founder of The Committee

"Painstakingly-researched, yet irresistibly accessible, Irony and Outrage is a monumental contribution to our thinking about American political comedy, certain to be widely assigned and cited in political science, communications, psychology, and media studies for years to come. Young builds an engaging and provocative argument-challenging readers' assumptions about the very origins of our political tastes and preferences in a way that is bound to inspire robust debate (and perhaps even a little outrage) among fans, pundits, and academics alike." -- Sarah Sobieraj, co-author of The Outrage Industry: Political Opinion Media and the New Incivility

Book Description

Including interviews from numerous comedians, Irony and Outrage boldly examines why political satire tends to come from the left while talk radio and pundit shows dominate the right.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 2, 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 282 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190913088
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190913083
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 1.1 x 9.3 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #2,084,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #653 in General Broadcasting (Books)
- #1,362 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #3,885 in Communication & Media Studies
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(48)

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Dannagal Goldthwaite Young

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Dannagal G. Young (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, 2007) is a Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Delaware where she studies the content, audience, and effects of nontraditional political information. She has published over sixty academic articles and book chapters on the content, psychology, and effects of political information, satire, and misinformation. Her book "Irony and Outrage" examines satire and outrage as the logical extensions of the respective psychological profiles of liberals and conservatives (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her latest book project, Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive our Appetite for Misinformation will be out in fall 2023.

Dr. Young's 2020 TED Talk explaining how our psychology shapes our politics, and how media exploit these relationships, has been viewed over 1.9 Million times. She publishes extensively in the popular press with essays and Op-eds in outlets including Vox.com, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. She has appeared on CNN, PBS Newshour, ABC News, NPR, and various national and international podcasts. As of 2020, her research has been cited in over 70 popular press articles, news stories, and interviews at such outlets as The Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Christian Science Monitor, Variety, the New York Times, the Atlantic, PBS, Slate, and Vox. Her popular University of Delaware course "Propaganda and Persuasion" will be available on The Great Courses from Wondrium in 2023. In recognition of her public facing work, in 2021, Dr. Young became the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Robert M. Entman Award in Democracy and Political Communication from the School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) at The George Washington University.

Young is a Research Fellow with the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication and was awarded the University of Delaware's Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014. She holds affiliations with the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and the University of Arizona's National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), where she co-edited of "A Crisis of Civility: Political Discourse and its Discontents" (Routledge, 2018).

Danna is also an improv comedian, performing with ComedySportz Philadelphia since 1999.

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Michael S. Flak
Come for the media commentary, stay for the dozens of other things you'll learn!
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020
Format: KindleVerified Purchase

I first heard Dr. Young on the Ezra Klein show during a long car trip. For the 90+ minutes of the interview, I found myself completely engaged. The topic of media preferences among liberals and conservatives was interesting, but I also found her to be rather engaging and funny herself. Immediately, I put the book on my wish list and waited for it to come out.

The book is a tad over 200 pages but packs in insights on a variety of topics surrounding the main course. Dr. Young starts with the history of political mass media--describing the rise of conservative talk radio alongside the counterculture movements of the 60's. Then she moves on to the technological/political changes leading to our current partisan media atmosphere.

Then the fun really begins in the following chapters, when she examines the different psychological functions of outrage and satire. .Her examination of satire was my favorite, as it was a primer on humor theory and what makes things funny. Given the dearth of academic (popular) books on the topic, it was great to learn about what leading scholars had to say on the subject.

I really enjoyed the psychological profiles of conservatives and liberals, and the different personality traits that lead people to prefer one or the other (or both in some cases).

Throughout all this, Dr. Young is an accessible and rather funny writer. I often consider academic writing as "eating my vegetables" but I genuinely enjoyed this.

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Michael S. Flak

Come for the media commentary, stay for the dozens of other things you'll learn!

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2020
I first heard Dr. Young on the Ezra Klein show during a long car trip. For the 90+ minutes of the interview, I found myself completely engaged. The topic of media preferences among liberals and conservatives was interesting, but I also found her to be rather engaging and funny herself. Immediately, I put the book on my wish list and waited for it to come out.

The book is a tad over 200 pages but packs in insights on a variety of topics surrounding the main course. Dr. Young starts with the history of political mass media--describing the rise of conservative talk radio alongside the counterculture movements of the 60's. Then she moves on to the technological/political changes leading to our current partisan media atmosphere.

Then the fun really begins in the following chapters, when she examines the different psychological functions of outrage and satire. .Her examination of satire was my favorite, as it was a primer on humor theory and what makes things funny. Given the dearth of academic (popular) books on the topic, it was great to learn about what leading scholars had to say on the subject.

I really enjoyed the psychological profiles of conservatives and liberals, and the different personality traits that lead people to prefer one or the other (or both in some cases).

Throughout all this, Dr. Young is an accessible and rather funny writer. I often consider academic writing as "eating my vegetables" but I genuinely enjoyed this.

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John W. Gastil
A thoughtful meditation on politics and style in 2020 America
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
This book pulls together a ton of research by the author and colleagues across the social sciences. The thesis is quite straightforward: liberals excel at ironic humor, whereas conservatives rely on outrage. Dr. Young makes the strongest case for this distinction, from the psychological underpinnings of left and right ideology to the cultural traditions that these warring camps have established, with a focus on the USA.

Dr. Young shows that things get more complicated in the Age of Trump, with liberal comics falling into outrage and enterprising (esp. young) conservatives trying their hand at comedy. Neither goes especially well. The liberal comics often fall flat when anger overtakes their ironic stance (see: Stewart, Bee, Colbert, etc.), and conservative efforts to create comedy programming fail basic tests for what's good comedy (i.e., they neither get laughs nor critical praise).

Readers will find that Dr. Young's own politics don't shape the narrative. I find in her a kindered spirit--someone who recognizes the power of outrage (esp. as a mobilizer) and the value of comedy, even amidst tragedy. The overall style of the book is compelling, with a mix of social psychology and spicy anecdotes (e.g., the failures of Air America and the bit about when John Stewart leaves his show because he can't find the funny any longer).

It will be interesting to see what transpires after 2020. Will the liberal outrage that's built up during the Trump presidency will crest and break like a wave if Biden wins? If Trump gets a second term, what space will be left for ironic commentary on the left? In either scenario, the author's model suggests that conservatives will continue to generate outrage more than laughs.

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Ben
It reads like a really long essay
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2020
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I'm still pretty early into the book but it reads as a very long essay instead of a book. But it has been informative and decently interesting.

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CB
Fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2025
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Excellent presentation exploring the differences in brain structure and how humor is perceived. This is well-written and clear, with a solid bibliography for anyone who wants to look up more.

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Jon Lee
interesting but could have been an essay
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2022
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
There’s some interesting if kind of obvious information and social science in the book but there’s a couple issue imho.

1. Length. The book is probably 120 pages too long and the hypotheses are all kinda born out by page 90-100.

2. The conservatives are lower cognition thing just seems too easy and like a wink wink way of calling them dumb.I’m extremely liberal and have argued that some people are too dumb to understand politics and even to me It just felt like she took a little too much glee in implying they’re stupid.

3. The author clearly is a failed comic/improv performer etc and she takes every opportunity to write her own absolutely dreadful jokes or mention her 25 yr improv career. Is it an academic tome or improv at the haha hut?

I’d skip it if you can find a good summary.

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J. Victor
Accessible for all audiences
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2020
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
As a fellow academic, I appreciate the social science embedded throughout this book. It uses rigorous research design and draws on extant literature in a highly transparent way. As a book lover, I just love how readable and accessible this book is. I'll be assigning it to my undergraduate students, but it would also do well in a graduate seminar, or as a gift to any lay person interested politics and media. I particularly liked the way Dr. Young explains what makes something funny. The book is insightful, thoughtful, readable, and will make you smarter.

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4 people found this helpful

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LCP
I learned that I’m tolerant of ambiguity! :-)
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2020
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
As a political junkie and a lover of comedy, I couldn’t wait to read this. Concise histories of both political satire and media regulation; enough to build a base for her arguments but not so much to get me yawning. By the end, I truly understood why the left laughs while the right rages.

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3 people found this helpful

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Kenneth Chan
Political Profiling!
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2020
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Love it. Dovetails with Haidt’s Morsl Founsation Theory.

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