Audience Pleasures Q: Have I Got News for You

Have I Got News for You offers various audience pleasures within the panel show for different generations but more so for the older generations.

The older generations can relate to politics and find the show funny as it uses satire a lot- in S53E1 Ian makes a joke about Jeremy Corbyn when a man is seen behind a presenter’s window in the studio, live “You see who’s poking his head in the back?-It’s Corbyn” . All of the jokes about politicians and big authorities appeal to the older audiences.

The audience can laugh at those jokes in their homes without anyone knowing which is a good example of an audience pleasure.

The panel show offers the audience pleasure of social interaction as when the panel talks about something the audience can discuss it with their family or friends later especially when talking about the news and politics which the show is popular for.

The show has an intellectual and educated target audience therefore can be complex, subtle and political.

Wit humour is used a lot in the episodes of the show which is a pleasure for the audience as they can openly laugh

- in S53E1 another satire joke about Theresa May calling a new election is made by Ian “There’s a general election.We haven’t had one for 2 years and we haven’t  had a big vote for a year-we need something to pep us up” and another audience pleasure is that the audience can relate to his sarcasm and the audience laughing in the back of the show, people find this even more funny as they know that other people can also relate.

This show started this form of humour, it was then emulated by shows such as 8 out of 10 cats which shows how popular it was before any other shows showed this type of comedy.

The guest in the show uses a one-liner joke as well as a call-back because it relates to Ian’s earlier joke on the new general election in S53E1 which the audience find a punchline as it takes the mick out of nuclear weapons and the government- “I think it’s sensible to call a Snap election- get it in before nuclear war”.

The jokes are academic and arrogant which a lot of people may find offensive but secretly laugh at them in the comfort of their homes.

The younger audiences can relate to this as the joke talks about Snapchat which is a very popular and social media app frequently used by the younger generations which is an example of an audience pleasure.