Study: The political jokes are back on late-night TV

NEW YORK (AP) _ The political laughs are back on late-night TV but _ paradoxically, it seems _ so is the heft. <br><br>A content study of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien's late-night

Wednesday, February 20th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ The political laughs are back on late-night TV but _ paradoxically, it seems _ so is the heft.

A content study of Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien's late-night shows revealed that each host cracked an average of nine political jokes during the month of January.

The number had dropped to around three during the somber month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

``After a period of mourning, the late-night comics are making up for lost laughs,'' Robert Lichter, the center's president, said Wednesday.

There's actually more political humor now than there was during the months leading up to the terrorist attacks, the center said.

At the same time, the late-night shows are having more serious guests: Dan Rather, Madeleine Albright, Vice President Cheney and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Ten percent of late-night guests are in this category post-Sept. 11, twice as many as before.

Leno and Letterman, in particular, learned during the last presidential campaign that their audiences responded well to a mix of serious and funny material.

``At this point, you could argue that the late-night comics have as much serious material as the early-morning news shows,'' Lichter said.