Judgments, Corrections, and Audiences: Amy Schumer's Strategies for Narrowcast Satire

ABSTRACT Narrowcast methods—first cable, then the internet—have enabled entertainers to target media to highly specific audiences. This poses an existential problem for twenty-first-century satire: in delivering satire, narrowcasting can exclude both apathetic viewers and those who deny that this issue is a problem. This audience balkanization is reflected in how commentators discuss satire, and those discussions further structure audiences’ experiences with satire. This article considers three sketches from Amy Schumer and the commentary about those sketches, finding that Schumer's satire makes harsher judgments and becomes less laughable the more narrowly it is cast. This shift is a potential problem for contemporary satirists and satire scholars: the shrinking of audience size that accompanies narrowcasting satire may weaken its ability to catalyze ideological change. Given satire's contemporary popularity, this weakening may threaten an already-imperiled deliberative culture.