This Just In: 10 Most Hilarious Depictions Of The News In TV & Movies

For some time, the news has become a cesspool of depressing statistics, increasing global tensions, and economic turmoil. It’s just fortunate that the same chaotic energy that compromises most news outlets is the same kind of energy that makes parodies of them even greater.

Literal fake news’ explicit political commentary combined with outrageous worlds and character development all serve to create stories that, while easily dated, are all the more entertaining and personal to the viewer. For people who really need the news to turn up the laughs, there are plenty of famous parodies out there that keep the updates uplifting.

10 Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy

There are few news parodies as well known, well-quoted, or beloved as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. With an ensemble cast comprised of comedy standouts and Will Ferrell playing his most iconic character to date, Anchorman creates one of the funniest and most surreal news comedies to date.

Here, San Diego’s hottest news anchor, Ron Burgundy, begins to clash with the new reporter on the block, Veronica Corningstone, a female journalist who looks to take on a male-dominated industry. Using broadcast news’s infamous sense of celebrity and sensationalism, Anchorman became one of the best goofball comedies out there.

9 Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update

A sketch series famous for its various characters and for launching the careers of several, comedy legends, Saturday Night Live really gave a short yet effective platform for their actors in their iconic, recurring sketch, Weekend Update.

Taking on the form of either surreal jokes set at the cadence of a news update or a platform for some thinly veiled yet incredibly impassioned commentary, Weekend Update is one of the most beloved, quoted, and influential segments to come out of the sketch empire.

8 Broadcast News

From James L. Brooks, the creator of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News is one of the wittiest depictions of the backbone of broadcast news out there. In a transitional time for American, broadcast news, journalism outlets, more and more, started to value the celebrity of its reporters over their actual work ethic and journalistic integrity.

Standing as the last vanguards for genuine reporting are a hardworking producer and her cynical yet practical reporter best friend. Their values and positions become challenged when their network hires an inexperienced yet charming sportscaster to become the stations’ new reporter.

7 Onion News Network

The Onion has already made a name for itself for its hilarious writing and uncanny ability to capture the very tone and cadence of actual broadcast news with surprising accuracy. Many news parodies can copy the look of a news channel, but few have ever been confused as often with the real thing as The Onion has.

Having received enough viral acclaim to garner some actual network recognition, IFC picked up a couple of seasons for a full-fledged series, entitled Onion News Network, in 2011. Bringing the same, witty writing and performances to a network famous for its experimentation, the Onion News Network was another gilded page in the “network’s” history.

6 Network

Network, starring Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway, is satire at its darkest and most dramatic, painting an image of the media and journalism that brings more nightmares than laughs. However, it’s because of that intensity that this dark comedy has stood the test of time. In a world where network pressures and the drive for ratings have driven a longtime anchor to the brink, he becomes a modern messiah for a wave of people who have felt disenfranchised and alienated by the very system meant to hold them up.

It’s that passion and a new sense of drive that is explicitly curated and exploited by his own executives, as they look to turn his cult following into a ratings sensation.

5 Community’s Troy And Abed In The Morning

Community is known for having its fair share of genre parodies. Dan Harmon is clearly someone who owns a television, and he’s used its infinite wisdom to craft some of the most hilarious yet true-to-form parodies out there. However, some of the most underrated ones have to be for his little bookends at the end of some episodes, “Troy and Abed in the Morning.”

A bit of roleplay and some goofball fun between the series’ best-friend pair, “Troy and Abed in the Morning” mimics the bright smiles and sporty rapport of early morning, talk shows in a fictionalized yet increasingly more involved set up within Greendale Community College.

4 The Simpson’s Kent Brockman

Kent Brockman is the quintessential fictional reporter of background news reports in television sitcoms. While many parodies like to replicate the facelessness and tone of news anchors, Kent Brockman evolved into a character within his own right in The Simpsons, utilizing the entitlement and hypocrisy surrounding the industry and condensing it at the heart of an already disillusioned news anchor.

Kent Brockman houses some of the series’ already hard commentary on media and politics and gives it every bit of tact and emotion that the creators always thought it deserved.

3 Red Eye

Despite a lot of political commentary being more Liberal and its own late-night slot on Fox, Red Eye has stood the test of time as one of the most unique and profound, fake newscasts out there. Set up as a panel of different commentators, celebrities, and guests of all sorts each week, the series takes on a variety of topics between the topical and strange to actively riff on.

Near synonymous with the program itself was its longtime host and creator, Greg Gutfeld, whose legacy got to live on beyond the series but whose voice and wit helped define it in its later years after he left.

2 The Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert may be more known nowadays as the new host of The Late Show, but he defined his legacy during his tenure in Comedy Central within The Colbert Report. A spinoff of the network’s other, major satire series, The Colbert Report was a character-driven parody that had Stephen take on the hyper-inflated personality of Conservative culture to report on that day’s news.

Colbert’s performances really made the series as the level of sarcasm, tragedy, and passion were very permeating in his very diction, and his own topics and delivery rivaled the very program that his persona and style were spawned from. While The Colbert Report is long over, its spirit can still be felt today as Stephen still utilizes its same commentary and personality in his iteration of The Late Show.

1 The Daily Show

The Daily Show isn’t just one of the most acclaimed and influential news parodies out there, but it stands as one of the greatest programs within Comedy Central’s history. Known for his heart and exaggerated commentary, the series really hit its stride when comedian, Jon Stewart, took over and simple riffed on current events in a way that both criticized the world around him as well as beckoned as the sincere cry as one of its citizens.

The Daily Show would also act as a sketch and satire platform to define the careers of several of its ex-correspondents, such as Steve Carell, Rob Riggle, Rob Corddry, and even Stephen Colbert. While Jon Stewart may have retired from the position, the series still goes on strong today with Trevor, a host who, despite his age, still carries a show with a sense of intelligence and awareness that rivals even his predecessors.