How does humor help democracy?

As HBO's The White Lotus nears its season three finale, Mike White's dark exploration of the human condition through privilege and class has not only continued to seep into our cultural conversations but has increasingly woven itself into our political ones. The series, which has always been inherently political, made it more overt this season through the friendship of three women with clashing political views (played by Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, and Leslie Bibb)—that culminated in a now-infamous dinner scene that captured the current political malaise defining so many of our American interactions today.

For an entertainment industry long viewed as American culture's most progressive stronghold, this show exists at a time when the Trump administration is censoring museums and muzzling news organizations, all coinciding with a swell of conservative voices gaining more visibility within the broader culture. Take NBC's Saturday Night Live, which, this March, invited country singer Morgan Wallen to perform for a second  time, years after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur outside his Nashville home in 2021.