While broadcast news struggles to attract young audiences, political comedy is becoming more and more popular. To understand this popularity, this thesis explores audience engagement in political comedy among Swedish young adults – focussing on how it encourages citizenship, both in the political and the cultural sense. By applying a contextualising, qualitative audience approach, the study considers the generic qualities of contemporary political comedy, how the audience defines and values it, and how this connects to identity and citizenship. The results indicate that political comedy is an important emerging space for political communication. Particularly, political comedy engagement answers to some of the uneasiness and uncertainties facing today’s young adult citizens: by inviting, representing, and valuing both critical and emotional investment.

While broadcast news struggles to attract young audiences, political comedy is becoming more and more popular. To understand this popularity, this thesis explores audience engagement in political comedy among Swedish young adults – focussing on how it encourages citizenship, both in the political and the cultural sense. By applying a contextualising, qualitative audience approach, the study considers the generic qualities of contemporary political comedy, how the audience defines and values it, and how this connects to identity and citizenship. The results indicate that political comedy is an important emerging space for political communication. Particularly, political comedy engagement answers to some of the uneasiness and uncertainties facing today’s young adult citizens: by inviting, representing, and valuing both critical and emotional investment.