The Biggest Comedy Generating News Stories of 2017
Every year we report on the comedy that becomes news, but there’s also plenty of news that becomes comedy. The stories that late night talk shows write monologue jokes about– the stories that become source material for comics on stage, the stories that fed thousands of twitter jokes, the stories that become parody videos, SNL sketches, and fodder for weekend update. These 15 stories dominated social media for days, spawned Halloween costumes, and were talked about endlessly on talking head television.
In 2014 we looked back at the Fappening, Donald Sterling, and Rob Ford. In 2015, we obsessed on a liar (Brian Williams), a slaughtered animal (Cecil), and the Kardashians (Cait and Khloe). In 2016 it was more of the same, but this time a different liar (Lochte), a different slaughtered beast (Harambe), and a different Kardashian and her husband (Kimye).
This year, when we weren’t talking about Trump, these were the biggest stories.
And don’t forget to vote for the best of everything in comedy in 2017! You can vote on everything on one page here, or see all the nominees, and vote for best album, best book authored by a comedian, best comedy special of the year, best comedy album, best comedy tv series, best late night host, best comedy movie, and best stand up comedian here. You can even vote for best viral video of the year. Vote for your favorites and vote every day through January 3rd.
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January: Women Knitting Pussy Hats/Women’s March
Women are pissed that America elected notorious pussy grabber Donald Trump, so the day after Trump’s inauguration, over half a million women gathered in Washington D.C. (plus millions more in cities around the country) to protest his administration and make a statement of Unity. To help women show their unity with a strong visual, two L.A. women initiated the Pussyhat Project, distributing instructions and patterns to make pink, cat-eared, knit hats. Photographed showed shades of pink banding together across the world as Trump began his administration.
February: Wrong Best Picture Winner is read at the Oscars
There’s never been a more dramatic ending to an Academy Awards broadcast than 2017. People are still arguing over who was more to blame, Faye Dunaway or Warren Beatty when they wrongly announced that La La Land won the Best Picture Oscar. No it wasn’t one of Jimmy Kimmel’s world-famous Twitter pranks, this was for real. It was such a giant story that hardly anyone talked about or remembers that the Oscars broadcast a living person’s face in the In Memorium segment. But let’s keep things in perspective here. At least La La Land didn’t actually win. Now that would be embarrassing.