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Arts & Culture

Stephen Colbert’s decades of political satire helped millions of Americans understand power, engage in civic life, and rethink what patriotism means in a democracy.

Protecting Political Satire and Free Expression

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  <span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sophia-a-mcclennen-148832">Sophia A. McClennen</a> | <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/penn-state-1258">Penn State</a><br>May 19, 2026

  <p>Stephen Colbert’s final episode as host of “The Late Show” on May 21, 2026, won’t mark the end of his career.</p>

<p>But <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eVAPIa0AAAAJ&amp;hl=en">as a scholar of political satire</a>, I think it offers a chance to reflect on the lasting impact of his comedy, which has spanned his work as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” his conservative pundit persona on “The Colbert Report” and his reinvention on “The Late Show.”</p>

<p>The best satirists do more than entertain. They influence public discourse and leave lasting marks on political life. This group includes towering writers such as Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, alongside performers like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. </p>

<p>In my view, Stephen Colbert has earned a spot in the top tier. Here are five reasons why.</p>

<h2>1. He didn’t just satirize the news – he informed the public</h2>

<p>Most satirists offer wry commentary about political events.</p>

<p>Colbert often did something more ambitious: He helped audiences understand them.</p>

<p>Critics have long dismissed political comedy <a href="https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/the-satire-paradox">as superficial entertainment</a>, but Colbert’s satire frequently offered valuable information to the public.</p>

<p>In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained">Citizens United decision</a> transformed campaign finance law, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/215462/dark-money-by-jane-mayer/">tilting political influence toward wealthy people and corporations</a>. As host of the “Colbert Report,” the comedian responded by creating an ongoing series of “Colbert Super PAC” segments. Working with former Federal Election Commission Chair Trevor Potter, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy7TUtlPmqk">Colbert was able to translate</a> the opaque mechanics of campaign finance law into accessible civic education.</p>
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    <span class="caption">The best satirists don’t just make people laugh. They help people understand power. And with that in mind, Colbert is among the best.</span>
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<p>It’s hard to fully track the impact of this approach. But <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2007/04/15/public-knowledge-of-current-affairs-little-changed-by-news-and-information-revolutions">a 2007 Pew Research Center study</a> did find that audiences for satirical news programs such as “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” scored high on political knowledge measures, outperforming audiences who only consumed political news from traditional outlets.</p>

<p>That urge to use satire as a vehicle for civic education continued after Colbert became host of “The Late Show” in 2015.</p>

<p>With debates raging over the border wall proposed by the first Trump administration, Colbert brought experts on to the program to break down the engineering, financial and logistical realities of building one that spanned the entirety of the U.S.-Mexico border. Yes, the absurdity of the physics and finances elicited laughs. But Colbert also helped viewers understand why <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2017/03/11/impenetrable-physical-tall-colbert-uses-trumps-speeches-to-calculate-border-wall-costs">Trump’s promises were implausible</a>. </p>

<h2>2. He gave Americans a new political vocabulary</h2>

<p>When the world is absurd, the satirist uses ironic wit to make sense of it. </p>

<p>Colbert excelled at distilling the spin and duplicity of politics into memorable soundbites.</p>

<p>On the first episode of “The Colbert Report” in 2005, he introduced the word “<a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8rgszu">truthiness</a>” to describe the tendency to prefer what “feels true” over what the evidence supports. It incisively gave a name to a deceptive political tactic, one that the Bush administration had repeatedly used, from “<a href="https://www.c-span.org/clip/white-house-event/user-clip-president-bush-mission-accomplished-speech/4783286">Mission Accomplished</a>,” to “<a href="https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/the-other-big-lie-and-our-democratic-fragility/">weapons of mass destruction</a>” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/13/usa.humanrights">enhanced interrogation techniques</a>.”</p>

<p>“Truthiness” took on a life of its own. Merriam-Webster named it <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/truthiness-meaning-word-origin">Word of the Year</a> in 2006.</p>

<p>Colbert continued this rhetorical work on “The Late Show.” For example, in February 2017, after Donald Trump escalated his attacks on the press by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/business/trump-calls-the-news-media-the-enemy-of-the-people.html">labeling major news outlets</a> “the enemy of the American people,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzKiSoSn9qA">the comedian shifted from parody to diagnosis</a>. He foregrounded the phrase’s authoritarian history, insisting that the rhetoric signaled a meaningful escalation in attacks on First Amendment rights, rather than a passing controversy.</p>

<p>In other words: There was nothing to laugh about here.  </p>
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    <span class="caption">Colbert used his platform to highlight the dangers of unrestricted, anonymous donations in politics.</span>
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<h2>3. He blurred the line between satire and direct action</h2>

<p>Media scholars have increasingly noted how political comedians now function as hybrid figures who blur journalism, entertainment and civic engagement. According to communications scholar Joseph Faina, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884912448899">Colbert may be one of the clearest examples of that shift</a>.</p>

<p>Colbert’s satirical presidential campaign in <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2007/11/sc-dems-reject-colbert-candidacy-006674">South Carolina in 2007</a> mocked the theater of American electoral politics. He actually attempted to enter the race through official channels, only to be blocked by the South Carolina Democratic Party. But even in his failure to appear on the ballot, he was able to show how party control and media spectacle, not just voter choice, structure the field of viable candidates.</p>

<p>In 2010, he held a rally with Jon Stewart <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/us/politics/31rally.html">on the National Mall</a> before a crowd of over 200,000 people. Assuming his conservative pundit persona, Colbert blended irony and sincerity, mocking the self-seriousness, sensationalism and outrage-driven news cycles of cable news through his competing calls for “sanity” and “fear.” But the event was also designed to motivate voter turnout in the midterm elections.</p>

<p>That interventionist impulse continued on “The Late Show.” During the 2020 election cycle, for example, Colbert encouraged voting through segments like “<a href="https://www.betterknowaballot.com/">Better Know a Ballot</a>.” A riff on his previous “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a8qlzcTt3w">Better Know a District</a>” from “The Colbert Report,” the “Better Know a Ballot” series was designed to educate viewers about ballot access, voting procedures and the practical elements of democratic participation.</p>


<h2>4. He measurably influenced political behavior</h2>

<p>Claims about comedians changing politics can easily become exaggerated. But Colbert’s influence has empirical support.</p>

<p>Research by political communication scholars <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X05280074">Jody Baumgartner and Jonathan Morris </a> found that exposure to political satire can increase viewers’ sense of what’s known as “political efficacy” – the belief that they can understand and engage with politics. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12501">Other studies</a> suggest satirical news audiences are often more politically active than they’re assumed to be.</p>

<p>Colbert is repeatedly cited in these studies as one of the prime examples of a satirist who makes an impact.</p>

<p>Take, for instance, the so-called “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20452245">Colbert bump</a>,” where candidates who appear on his programs experience boosts in fundraising, visibility and media coverage. Political scientist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20452245">James H. Fowler</a> found that Democratic candidates who appeared on “The Colbert Report” experienced a 44% increase in campaign donations within 30 days of their appearance.</p>

<p>A similar effect could be seen on “The Late Show.”</p>

<p>After Colbert interviewed Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a U.S. Senate candidate, in February 2026, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/17/stephen-colbert-james-talarico-texas-senate-democratic-primary-fcc-trump-late-show/">CBS canceled the segment</a>, claiming – perhaps disingenuously – that the network could be punished for not adhering to the FCC’s “<a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11239">equal time</a>” rule, which requires broadcast stations to offer comparable airtime to opposing candidates.</p>

<p>A taped version of the interview was nonetheless posted to YouTube, where it racked up over 9 million views, helping fuel Talarico’s <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/colbert-bump-talarico-record-fundraising/">US$27 million first-quarter fundraising haul</a>, the largest amount ever raised by a U.S. Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year.</p>

<h2>5. He redefined American patriotism</h2>

<p>To rank Colbert among America’s most important satirists requires one additional consideration: his role in redefining not only what America stands for, but what it means to be patriotic.</p>

<p>Many satirists lean toward cynicism, portraying politics as hopelessly corrupt and public life as fundamentally absurd. Not Colbert.</p>

<p>As linguist Geoffrey Nunberg  argued <a href="https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/sum08/myths/nunberg06.pdf">in his 2006 book</a>, “Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show,” conservatives had claimed a monopoly on patriotism as the 20th century drew to a close. At the same time, many of them promoted what’s known as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00049530701449489">blind patriotism</a>,” in which any criticism of the U.S. is cast as evidence of insufficient national loyalty.</p>

<p>Colbert’s satire directly challenged that framework.</p>

<p>To expose that performative patriotism, Colbert’s persona on “The Colbert Report” wrapped itself in exaggerated patriotic imagery: flags, bombast, overconfidence and chest-thumping nationalism. </p>

<p>But the joke was never America itself. The target was a performance of patriotism that treated dissent as disloyalty, emotional certainty as evidence and partisan identity as civic virtue.</p>

<p>As I argue in my 2011 book, “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Colbert_s_America/jRzrNAeXkC8C?hl=en">Colbert’s America</a>,” Colbert’s satire consistently distinguished between nationalism and democratic patriotism. The former demands unquestioning loyalty. The latter demands accountability. For example, through segments like “<a href="https://colbert.fandom.com/wiki/Recurring_segments#The_Threat_Down">Threat-Down</a>” on “The Colbert Report,” he satirized the way nationalism often depends on exaggerating fictive dangers and denouncing symbolic, external enemies.</p>

<p>In that sense, Colbert belongs in a distinctly American satirical tradition that stretches back to Benjamin Franklin. The great American satirists have used humor not to reject the national project, but to expose the gap between its ideals and its realities. They reshape how citizens understand power and civic responsibility.</p>

<p>For nearly three decades, Stephen Colbert has done exactly that.

  <p><span><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sophia-a-mcclennen-148832">Sophia A. McClennen</a>, Professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/penn-state-1258">Penn State</a></span></p>

  <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-reasons-stephen-colbert-is-one-of-the-most-important-satirists-in-american-history-282564">original article</a>.</em></p>


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5 Reasons Stephen Colbert is One of the Most Important Satirists in American History

Don't watch "A Merry Little Ex-Mas" for the cheesy romance. Watch it for the sustainability messages, which shine as bright as LED Christmas lights.

This Netflix Holiday Rom-Com is Secretly an Environmentalist Fantasy

Through music, movement, and belief, "The Testament of Ann Lee" reveals the Shakers as early outsiders who helped shape American culture.

Preserving America’s Unconventional Religious and Cultural Heritage

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  <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christian-goodwillie-2487520">Christian Goodwillie</a> | <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hamilton-college-2966">Hamilton College</a><br>Dec. 22, 2025

  <p>Director Mona Fastvold’s new film, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34819091/?ref_=fn_t_1">The Testament of Ann Lee</a>,” features actor Amanda Seyfried in the titular role: the English spiritual seeker who brought the Shaker movement to America. The trailer literally writhes with snakes intercut amid scenes of emotional turmoil, religious ecstasy, orderly and disorderly dancing – and sex. Intense and sometimes menacing music underpins it all: the sounds of the enraptured, singing their way to a fantastic and unimaginable ceremony.</p>

<p>The trailer is riveting and unsettling – just as the celibate Shakers were to the average observer during their American emergence in the 1780s.</p>

<p>I sit on the Board of Trustees of <a href="https://hancockshakervillage.org/">Hancock Shaker Village</a> in Massachusetts, where some of the film was shot, though I have not seen the film, which is due to be released on Christmas Day. I was the curator at Hancock from 2001 to 2009 and have studied the Shakers for more than 25 years, publishing <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/christian-goodwillie-shaker-religion-richard-mcnemar">numerous books</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48487-1_4">and articles</a> on the sect.</p>

<p>Fascination with the Shakers is enduring, as are they. The sect once had several thousand members; today, <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/08/25/maine-shaker-village-population-member-new-gloucester">three Shakers remain</a>, practicing the faith at <a href="https://maineshakers.com/">their village in Sabbathday Lake, Maine</a>, as they have since 1783. </p>


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    <span class="caption">Mona Fastvold’s film depicts the group’s early years in North America.</span>
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<p>Many characteristics of Shaker life and belief set them apart from other Protestant Christians, but their name derives from one of the most obvious. Early Shakers manifested the holy spirit that they believed dwelled within them by shaking violently in worship. While they called themselves “Believers,” <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-rhythms-of-shaker-dance-marked-the-shakers-as-other/">observers dubbed them “Shakers</a>.” Members eventually adopted the name, although officially they are the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing.</p>

<p>The Shakers developed unique worship practices in both music and dance that expressed their faith. Until the 1870s, Shaker music was monophonic, with <a href="https://youtu.be/eIzQ7CUSkeU?si=IE2AXC0D4w1wbmW2">a single melodic line</a> sung in unison and without instrumental accompaniment. Many of their melodies, Shakers said, were given to them by spirits. Some of these <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9781558496392/millennial-praises/">charmed and haunting strains</a> have permeated through broader American musical culture.</p>

<h2>New form of family</h2>

<p>The Shakers first began to organize in Manchester, England, in 1747. By 1770, they came to believe that the spirit of Christ had returned through their leader, “Mother” Ann Lee. However, “Mother Ann was not Christ, nor did she claim to be,” <a href="https://maineshakers.com/about/">the Shakers state</a>. “She was simply the first of many Believers wholly embued by His spirit, wholly consumed by His love.”</p>

<p>In 1774, Lee led eight followers to North America, <a href="https://www.nps.gov/places/watervliet-shaker-historic-district.htm">settling near what is now Albany, New York</a>. As is still true today, Shakers held their property in common, following the model of the earliest Christians that is recorded in <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%204%3A32-35&amp;version=KJV">the Bible’s Book of Acts</a>. At its height, the movement had 19 major communities. </p>

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              <span class="caption">A stereograph card shows a man looking over the Shaker settlement in Mount Lebanon, N.Y.</span>
              <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://litsdigital.hamilton.edu/collections/object/front-man-leaning-aginst-tree-shaker-village-background">Digital Collections, Hamilton College Library</a></span>
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<p>Shakers work out their salvation each day by physical and spiritual labor. They do not subscribe to the common Christian doctrine that Jesus’ death atoned for the sins of mankind. <a href="https://archive.org/details/testimoniesoflif00bish_0/page/4/mode/2up">And Shakers are celibate</a> – one of the practices that most startled their neighbors in 18th- and 19th-century America. Lee taught that humanity could not follow Christ in the work of spiritual regeneration, or salvation, “while living in the works of natural generation, and wallowing in their lusts.” For Shakers, celibacy is one way people can reunite their spirits with God, who they believe is <a href="https://maineshakers.com/about/">dually male and female</a>.</p>

<p>Almost every Shaker, therefore, joined the faith as a convert, or the child of converts. Families who joined their communities were effectively dissolved: Husbands and wives became brothers and sisters; parents and children the same. <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;idno=N15134.0001.001">Early accounts</a> report that, in extreme instances, children publicly denounced their parents and pummeled their genitals in an effort to subdue the flesh and its earthly ties. </p>

<h2>Shaking with the spirit</h2>

<p>The Shakers of Lee’s day – now seen as American as apple pie – were regarded as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-09262-5">a fundamental threat to society</a>. In part, that stemmed from their perceived dissolution of families. But many outsiders were also alarmed by their ritual dances, whose intensity and emotion demonstrated a physicality seemingly incongruous with their celibacy.</p>

<p>In the early years, Shaker worship was an unbridled individual expression of spiritual enthusiasm. Eventually, it transformed into highly choreographed dances. At first, these were agonizingly slow and laborious series of movements designed to mortify the flesh – to help the spiritual overcome the physical – and instill discipline and union among the members.</p>



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<p>What kind of music accompanied such striking movements? The earliest Shaker songs, including ones attributed to Lee, <a href="https://commonplace.online/article/lets-mingle-feelings/">have no intelligible language</a>. Rather, they were sung using vocalized syllables or “vocables,” such as lo-de-lo or la-la-la or vi-vo-vum. Shakers invented a new form of notation to record their songs, using letters adorned with a variety of hashmarks to denote pitch and rhythm. </p>

<p>Early observers of the Shakers noted the effects of <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;idno=N13709.0001.001">their unique musical practice</a>:</p>

<blockquote>They begin by sitting down and shaking their heads in a violent manner, … one will begin to sing some odd tune, without words or rule; after a while another will strike in; …  after a while they all fall in and make a strange charm … The mother, so called, minds to strike such notes as makes a concord, and so form the charm.</blockquote>

<p>The Shakers were meticulous recordkeepers regarding every aspect of community life. <a href="https://commonplace.online/article/lets-mingle-feelings/">Music was no exception</a>. More than 1,000 volumes of Shaker music survive in manuscript: tens of thousands of songs dating from Lee’s day to the mid-20th century.</p>

<p>Scholars, musicians and researchers have extracted treasures from this repertoire. Most notably, composer Aaron Copland adapted Elder Joseph Brackett’s famous 1848 tune “Simple Gifts” for “Appalachian Spring”: the ballet that <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/aaron-copland">won Copland a Pulitzer in 1945</a>. Hidden gems must still abound in the remaining unplumbed depths of Shaker manuscript songbooks. </p>

<p>In contrast, the Shakers left few detailed instructions for their dance. But eyewitness accounts abound, and scholars have made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhc9PK2tG5k">careful and respectful reconstructions</a>.  </p>

<h2>Living faith</h2>

<p>Fastvold’s film evokes the chaotic, violent world of the first Shakers in America, who converted farm families along the New York-Massachusetts border during the Revolutionary War. Some outsiders regarded the sect as an English plot to <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=evans;idno=N13972.0001.001">neutralize the populace with religious fervor</a>, opening the way for a British reconquest of New England. </p>


<p>The director’s vision, incarnated by Seyfried’s bewitching presence and voice, invokes the uncanny atmosphere of early Shakerism. However, Shakerism is a living, ever-changing faith, whose presence in America is older than the country itself. The fact is, Shakers have not regularly danced in worship since the 1880s – or less than half of the total time the sect has endured.</p>

<p>Outsiders judged and named the Shakers in reaction to their external qualities in worship. The movement’s endurance and core, however, lies in its spiritual teachings. As the Believers asserted in <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9781558496392/millennial-praises/">their 1813 hymn “The Shakers</a>,” “Shaking is no foolish play.”<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/265828/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /></p>

  <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christian-goodwillie-2487520">Christian Goodwillie</a>, Director and Curator of Special Collections and Archives, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/hamilton-college-2966">Hamilton College</a></em></span></p>

  <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-celibate-dancing-shakers-were-once-seen-as-a-threat-to-society-250-years-later-theyre-part-of-the-sound-of-america-265828">original article</a>.</p>
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The Celibate, Dancing Shakers Were Once Seen as a Threat to Society – 250 Years Later, They’re Part of the Sound of America

Early films about AIDS helped change public perception, but persistent stigma shows how much work remains.

Expanding HIV Education, Awareness, and Representation

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  <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-malia-1468175">Scott Malia</a> | <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/college-of-the-holy-cross-1730">College of the Holy Cross</a><br>Sept. 10, 2025

  <p>First it was referred to as a “mysterious illness.” Later it was called “gay cancer,” “gay plague” and “GRID,” an acronym for gay-related immune deficiency. Most egregiously, some called it “<a href="https://www.pasteur.fr/en/research-journal/news/40-years-hiv-discovery-first-cases-mysterious-disease-early-1980s">4H disease</a>” – shorthand for “homosexuals, heroin addicts, hemophiliacs and Haitians,” the populations most afflicted in the early days. </p>

<p>While these names were ultimately replaced by AIDS – and later, after the virus was identified, by HIV – they reflected two key realities about AIDS at the time: a lack of understanding about the disease and its strong association with gay men.  </p>

<p>Although <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/was-first-major-news-article-hivaids-180963913/">the first report in the mainstream press about AIDS</a> appeared in 1981, the first movies to explore the disease wouldn’t come for four more years. </p>

<p>When the feature film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088864/">Buddies</a>” and the television film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089069/">An Early Frost</a>” premiered 40 years ago, in the fall of 1985, AIDS had belatedly been breaking into the public consciousness.</p>

<p>Earlier that year, the first off-Broadway plays about AIDS opened: “<a href="https://playbill.com/production/as-is-lyceum-theatre-vault-0000007117">As Is</a>” by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/theater/william-m-hoffman-dead-wrote-as-is-play-about-aids.html">William Hoffman</a> and “<a href="https://playbill.com/article/revisit-the-broadway-and-off-broadway-productions-of-the-normal-heart-in-honor-of-larry-kramer">The Normal Heart</a>” by writer and activist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/larry-kramer-dead.html">Larry Kramer</a>. That summer, actor Rock Hudson <a href="https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a32228064/rock-hudson-aids/">disclosed that he had AIDS</a>, becoming the first major celebrity to do so. Hudson, who died in October 1985, was a friend of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan. Reagan, who had been noticeably silent on the subject of the disease, would go on to make his first – albeit brief – <a href="https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/presidents-news-conference-16">public remarks about AIDS in September 1985</a>.  </p>

<p>Five days before Reagan’s speech, “Buddies,” an independent film made for US$27,000 and shot in nine days, premiered at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on Sept. 12, 1985.</p>

<h2>A film on the front lines</h2>

<p>If you haven’t heard of “Buddies,” that’s not surprising; the film mostly played art houses and festivals before disappearing. </p>

<p>Its filmmaker, <a href="https://www.talkhouse.com/remembering-artie/">Arthur J. Bressan Jr.</a>, was best known for his gay pornographic films, although he’d also made documentaries such as “<a href="https://www.frameline.org/distribution/films/gay-usa">Gay USA</a>.” “Buddies” would go on to reach a wider audience thanks to a <a href="https://www.poz.com/blog/shouldbeclassic-film-aids-now-dvd-buddies">2018 video release by Vinegar Syndrome</a>, a distribution company that focuses on restoring cult cinema, <a href="https://cinemawavesblog.com/film-blog/what-are-exploitation-films-definition/">exploitation films</a> and other obscure titles.</p>

<p>It was inspired by the real-life <a href="https://theconversation.com/gay-mens-health-crisis-showed-how-everyday-people-stepped-up-when-institutions-failed-during-the-height-of-the-aids-epidemic-providing-a-model-for-today-258139">buddies program at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis</a>, an organization Kramer co-founded. At the time, many people dying of the disease had been rejected by family and friends, so a buddy might be the only person who visited a terminal AIDS patient. </p>

<p>The film feels like a play, in that most of the movie takes place in a single room and features just two characters: a naive young gay man named David and a young AIDS patient named Robert. Over the course of the film, the characters open up about their lives and their fears about the growing epidemic. It also includes a sex scene – something other early AIDS films completely avoided – in which David and Robert engage in safer sex.</p>

<h2>AIDS packaged for the masses</h2>

<p>The remarkably frank and intimate approach to the epidemic in “Buddies” contrasts sharply to the television film “An Early Frost,” which premiered on NBC on Nov. 11, 1985. </p>

<p>The film’s protagonist is a successful Chicago lawyer named Michael who hasn’t come out to his family, much to the distress of his long-term partner, Peter. When Michael finds out he has AIDS, he’s forced to come out to his parents, both as gay and as having AIDS.  </p>

<p>Much of the film deals with Michael’s self-acceptance and his attempts to mend his relationships. Yet the production of “An Early Frost” was fraught with concerns about depicting both homosexuality and AIDS. Unlike David and Robert, Michael and Peter show no physical affection – they barely touch each other.</p>



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<p>Knowledge of AIDS was still evolving – a test for HIV <a href="https://www.hiv.gov/blog/the-hiv-test-at-30-more-essential-than-ever">was approved in March 1985</a> – so screenwriters and life partners <a href="https://www.televisionacademy.com/features/emmy-magazine/articles/interviews-ron-cowen-and-daniel-lipman">Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowen went through 13 revisions of the script</a>. The real-life fears and misconceptions about how AIDS could and could not be transmitted were central to the storyline, adding extra pressure to be accurate in the face of evolving understanding of the virus.</p>

<p>Despite <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/emmys-early-frost-oral-history-141242944.html">losing NBC $500,000 in advertisers</a>, “An Early Frost” drew 34 million viewers and was showered with Emmy nominations the following year.  </p>

<h2>A quilt of stories emerges</h2>

<p>“Buddies” and “An Early Frost” opened up AIDS and HIV as subject matters for film and television. </p>

<p>They begat two lanes of HIV storytelling that continue to this day.  </p>

<p>The first is an approach geared to mainstream audiences that tends to avoid controversial issues such as sex or religion and instead focuses on characters who grapple with both the illness and the stigma of the virus. </p>

<p>The second is an indie approach that’s often more confrontational, irreverent and angry at the injustice and indifference AIDS patients faced.</p>

<p>The former approach is seen in 1993’s “Philadelphia,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBuDMEpUc8k">which earned Tom Hanks his first Oscar</a>. The critically and commercially successful film shares a number of story points with “An Early Frost”: Hanks’ character, a big-city lawyer, finds out he is HIV positive and must confront bias head-on. HIV also features prominently in later films such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929632/">Precious</a>” (2009) and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790636/">Dallas Buyers Club</a>” (2013), both of which, like “Philadelphia,” became awards darlings. </p>

<p>The edgier, more critical approach can be seen in the <a href="https://epgn.com/2022/01/26/the-new-queer-cinema-movement-paved-the-way-for-todays-mainstream-lgbtq-films-but-at-what-cost/">New Queer Cinema movement of the 1990s</a>, a film movement that developed as a response to the epidemic. Gregg Araki’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104745/">The Living End</a>” (1992) is a key film in the movment: It tells the story of two HIV-positive men who become pseudo-vigilantes in the wake of their diagnoses.</p>

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<p>Somewhere in between is “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100049/">Longtime Companion</a>” (1990), which was the first film about AIDS to receive a wide release and tracks the impact of the epidemic on a fictional group of gay men throughout the 1980s. The film was written by gay playwright and screenwriter <a href="https://playbill.com/person/craig-lucas-vault-0000024972">Craig Lucas</a> and directed by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/nyregion/norman-rene-45-director-dies-he-elicited-naturalistic-acting.html">Norman Rene</a>, who died of AIDS six years after the film’s release.</p>

<h2>Studios still leery</h2>

<p>In many ways, television is where the real breakthroughs have happened and continue to happen.</p>

<p>The first television episode to deal with AIDS appeared on the medical drama “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0707879/">St. Elsewhere</a>” in 1983; AIDS was also the subject of episodes in the sitcoms “Mr. Belvedere,” “The Golden Girls” and “Designing Women.” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cozd3HN6xS8">Killing All the Right People</a>” was the title of the latter’s special episode – a phrase the show’s writer and co-creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason heard while her mother was being treated for AIDS.</p>

<p>More recently, producer Ryan Murphy has made a cottage industry of representations of queer people, particularly those with HIV. His stage revivals of “The Normal Heart” and Mart Crowley’s 1968 play “<a href="https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2499/the-boys-in-the-band-original-version">The Boys in the Band</a>” were later adapted into films for television and streaming. He also produced “Pose,” <a href="https://www.frieze.com/article/pose-proof-power-representation">a three-season series about drag ball culture in the 1980s</a> that stars queer characters of color, several of whom are HIV positive.</p>

<p>Yet for all of these strides, representations of HIV in film are still hard to come by. In fact, out of <a href="https://www.out.com/hiv/world-aids-day-hollywood">the 256 films released by major distributors in 2024</a>, the number of HIV-postive characters amounted to … zero.</p>

<p>Perhaps movie studios are less willing to risk even a character with HIV given <a href="https://variety.com/2025/film/news/movie-theaters-comeback-screens-shut-down-box-office-slump-1236347993/">the drop in movie theater attendance</a> in the age of streaming.  </p>

<p>If you think it’s an exaggeration to suggest that people might not want to be seen going to the theater to watch a film about characters with HIV, the results of a <a href="https://glaad.org/endhivstigma/2021/">2021 GLAAD survey</a> may surprise you. </p>

<p>It found that the stigma around HIV is still very high, particularly for HIV-positive people working in schools and hospitals. One-third of respondents were unaware that medication is available to prevent the transmission of HIV. More than half didn’t know that HIV-positive people can reach undetectable status and not transmit the virus to others. </p>

<p>Another important finding from the survey: Only about half of the nonqueer respondents had seen a TV show or film about someone with HIV.  </p>

<p>This reflects both the progress made since “Buddies” and “An Early Frost” and also why these films still matter today. They were released at a time when there was almost no cultural representation of HIV, and misinformation and disinformation were rampant. There have been so many advances, in both the treatment of HIV and its visibility in popular culture. That visibility still matters, because there’s still much more than can be done to end the stigma.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/262421/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /></p>

  <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-malia-1468175">Scott Malia</a>, Associate Professor of Theatre, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/college-of-the-holy-cross-1730">College of the Holy Cross</a></em></span></p>

  <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/40-years-ago-the-first-aids-movies-forced-americans-to-confront-a-disease-they-didnt-want-to-see-262421">original article</a>.</em></p>
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40 Years Ago, the First AIDS Movies Forced Americans to Confront a Disease They Didn’t Want to See

A wave of new crime dramas is reshaping the detective archetype with nuanced, empathetic portrayals of neurodivergent minds.

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  <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/soohyun-cho-2213646">Soohyun Cho</a> | <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/michigan-state-university-1349">Michigan State University</a><br>Nov. 13, 2025

  <p>There never seems to be a shortage of good crime shows on TV, and network television is teeming with detectives who think – and act – differently. </p>

<p>This fall, new seasons of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26591110/">Elsbeth</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22091076/">High Potential</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31495377/">Patience</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22475008/">Watson</a>” have aired, and they all feature leads who share similar characteristics: They’re outsiders, they’re socially awkward, they can be emotionally distant, and their minds operate in unconventional ways. </p>

<p>In fact, they all possess traits that align with what many people now associate with neurodivergence – <a href="https://neuroqueer.com/neurodiversity-terms-and-definitions/">what scholar Nick Walker defines as</a> “a mind that functions in ways that diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal.’”</p>

<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qDgI93wAAAAJ&amp;hl=en">As a scholar of popular culture</a>, I’ve long been fascinated by this recurring character type – detectives who might, today, be diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorder.</p>

<p>While researching my forthcoming book, “The Autistic Detective,” I’ve come to realize that most detectives in popular culture – yes, even Sherlock Holmes – exhibited neurodivergent characteristics, long before the term existed.</p>

<h2>The thin line between genius and madness</h2>

<p>In the late 19th century, when Sherlock Holmes was created, there was widespread scientific interest in the workings of the mind, particularly the thin line between genius and madness.  </p>

<p>British psychologist <a href="https://sk.sagepub.com/ency/edvol/the-sage-encyclopedia-of-children-and-childhood-studies/chpt/sully-james#_">James Sully</a> <a href="https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_27/August_1885/Genius_and_Insanity">described “men of genius</a>” as exhibiting “intellectual or moral peculiarities which are distinctly symptomatic of mental disease,” naming Edgar Allan Poe as an example of the “tragic fatefulness of geniuses.” Italian criminologist <a href="https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/cesare-lombroso">Cesare Lombroso</a>, meanwhile, proposed that madness, genius and criminality were all closely intertwined.</p>

<p>Such a fascination with exceptional minds – and the idea that madness and genius are two sides of the same coin – fed into the heart of detective fiction. And although later scholars <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253018007/imagining-autism/">have criticized the linking of neurodivergence</a> to pathology, violence or genius, the trope remains common in popular culture, where it’s often used to signal the exceptional mind of a detective figure.</p>

<p>Now, however, many fans are able to connect these characteristics to specific diagnostic labels. According to CDC data from April 2025, autism diagnoses in U.S. children have risen sharply over the past two decades – <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-autism-rates-are-rising-and-why-that-could-lead-to-more-inclusive-communities-257811">from about 1 in 150 in 1998 to roughly 1 in 31 today</a>. This reflects not only a broadened definition of the autism spectrum but also signals greater public awareness and acceptance of neurodivergence.</p>

<p>That growing understanding has led to renewed interest in Holmes. From online fan forums to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/magazine/06diagnosis-t.html">The New York Times</a>, people have debated whether Holmes <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainsnacks/201110/did-sherlock-holmes-have-asperger-syndrome">might be autistic</a>, wondered whether <a href="https://globalcomment.com/bbcs-sherlock-asperger%E2%80%99s-syndrome-and-sociopathy/">another label would be more appropriate</a>, or highlighted <a href="https://wellingtongoose.tumblr.com/post/73655375305/sherlock-should-not-represent-autism-from-4">the futility of trying to diagnose a fictional character</a>.</p>

<h2>Super intelligence and social dysfunction</h2>

<p>That said, it’s hard not to see some neurodivergent traits in Sherlock Holmes and other fictional detectives.</p>

<p><a href="https://embrace-autism.com/autism-and-tunnel-vision/">Tunnel vision</a>, <a href="https://embrace-autism.com/autism-strengths-and-challenges/">pattern recognition</a> and <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=67018&amp;section=2.2">attention to detail</a> are all traits that could be exhibited by autistic people. </p>

<p>Holmes was fixated on minute details: One story highlighted how he authored <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1661/1661-h/1661-h.htm#chap04">a study on the ashes of 140 different varieties</a> of pipe, cigar and cigarette tobacco. He had an unmatched talent for noticing overlooked details and piecing together disparate clues. And he was obsessed with forensic science. </p>

<p>He could also come off as cold. As Holmes declared in “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2097/2097-h/2097-h.htm">The Sign of the Four</a>,” “Emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning.”</p>

<p>In Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25525/25525-h/25525-h.htm#chap07">The Murders in the Rue Morgue</a>,” which is widely considered the first detective fiction story, the protagonist, C. Auguste Dupin, also hyperfocuses on small details, reasons through “pure logic” and is socially reclusive – all qualities displayed by Holmes. </p>

<p>Even Dr. Watson, Holmes’ sidekick, noticed the resemblance. </p>

<p>“You remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s Dupin,” he tells Holmes in “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/244/244-h/244-h.htm">A Study in Scarlet</a>.” “I had no idea that such individuals did exist outside of stories.”</p>



<p>When Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle famously killed off the detective <a href="https://alpinehikers.com/reichenbach-falls-meiringen-switzerland-the-end-of-sherlock-holmes-the-first-time/">at Reichenbach Falls</a> in his 1893 story “<a href="https://sherlock-holm.es/stories/pdf/a4/1-sided/fina.pdf">The Final Problem</a>,” there was so much public outrage that the author was eventually forced <a href="https://booksofbrilliance.com/2025/09/03/how-the-public-brought-sherlock-holmes-back-from-the-dead/">to bring him back from the dead</a>. </p>

<p>These 19th-century Sherlock enthusiasts <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-sherlock-holmes/sherlockian-fandom/B86822AEA7E2A6422183B2B82204B964">were predecessors to today’s media fandoms</a>. Their level of devotion, unlike anything previously seen for a fictional character, was a testament to the power of Doyle’s formula: an extraordinary investigator with savantlike cognitive abilities who upholds logic over emotion, thrives in solitude and yet still depends on his companion – in Holmes’ case, Dr. Watson, who serves as an emotional counterbalance. </p>

<p>In the 21st century, that formula has been revived in <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315637518-34/transnational-media-fan-studies-lori-morimoto">wildly popular</a> TV shows such as “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460627/">Bones</a>,” “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452046/">Criminal Minds</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/">Sherlock</a>.”</p>

<p>In 2016, “Sherlock” co-creator Steven Moffat <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160106-how-sherlock-holmes-changed-the-world">told the BBC</a>, “Doyle began the idea that super-intelligence comes at the price of some kind of social dysfunction, something that we’ve grasped as a narrative possibility ever since.” </p>

<p>In other words, the more eccentric – or socially dysfunctional – a detective is, the more ingenious the hero seems.  </p>

<h2>A new era for the detective</h2>

<p>Detective fiction might have started as a way to explore the deviant, non-normative minds of detectives and the criminals they pursued. But it has since become a space for neurodivergent self-representation.</p>

<p>Today, scholars, fans, reviewers and scientists <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003011668-7/psychopath-sociopath-autistic-malynnda-johnson">openly discuss diagnostic labels for fictional characters</a>. This surge in interest coincides with a rise in research on <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477324943/">portrayals of autism in the media</a> and a growing number of autistic voices examining <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104484">how those portrayals shape public understanding</a>.</p>

<p>Disability scholars have long warned of disabled characters <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-screen-and-on-stage-disability-continues-to-be-depicted-in-outdated-cliched-ways-130577">being used as mere plot devices</a> and have criticized the lack of diversity in representations of <a href="https://the-art-of-autism.com/we-need-more-autistic-women-on-tv-and-heres-why/">detectives who appear to be autistic</a> on screen.</p>

<p>Yet many of the new shows <a href="https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/view/16393">push back against some of the stereotypes</a> of autistic people as cold, lonely and incapable of affection. Instead, they have friends. They have romantic partners. They’re empathetic.</p>

<p>The series “Elsbeth” and “High Potential” center on quirky, intelligent female investigative leads who appear to be on the autism spectrum. In HBO’s 2020 miniseries “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8550800/">The Outsider</a>,” detective Holly Gibney appears as one of the first Black, autistic female detectives on television.</p>

<p>While most of these characters aren’t explicitly identified as autistic in their shows, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20869502/">Extraordinary Attorney Woo</a>” features a female attorney whose diagnosis is openly discussed by the show’s characters.</p>


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    <span class="caption">‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’ is a Korean series centered on an autistic, early-career attorney.</span>
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<p>The British-Belgian series “Patience,” meanwhile, is the first detective show to feature an explicitly autistic character played by a neurodivergent actress, Ella Maisy Purvis.</p>

<p>“It was really important to me that she wasn’t this kind of robotic, asexual drone,” <a href="https://www.bigissue.com/culture/tv/ella-maisy-purvis-interview-patience-autism/">Purvis told the Big Issue in 2025</a>. “Patience is highly empathetic. She cares so much about her job and the people around her. It’s just expressed in a different way.”</p>

<p>These varied portrayals coincide with the rise of online fan communities where neurodivergent fans share what these stories mean to them. If the archetypal detective once tried to “make sense” of neurodivergent minds, today’s neurodivergent fans and creators are now having a hand in shaping them.</p>

<p>Perhaps most importantly, they no longer have to wonder whether they’re being represented on screen.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/267069/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important" referrerpolicy="no-referrer-when-downgrade" /></p>

  <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/soohyun-cho-2213646">Soohyun Cho</a>, Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts & Humanities, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/michigan-state-university-1349">Michigan State University</a></p>

  <p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-the-autistic-detective-why-neurodivergent-minds-are-at-the-heart-of-modern-mysteries-267069">original article</a></em>.</p>
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