fringeelements:

It’s funny, so there must be some truth to it?

No, if it’s funny, that means it’s funny. Moreover, the comedian probably oversimplified the situation or stretched the truth to make it appear funnier and the butt of the joke to appear stupider.

I know that there is a perception that the comedians are criticizing the bloated institutions, really they’re zealots for the status quo, have too many opinions and lie and twist about their opponents.

It’s amazing how quickly even the ostensibly anti-authoritarian comedians, such as George Carlin, could complete a monologue about how the government is run by a cabal of business interests intent on looting the populace, and then seamlessly transition into a rant on how the state is neglecting the education of its citizens and should step up its role.

I’ve not done any real research on the issue, but I would guess that with respect to the state, the comedians of today serve the role of the court jester - A ‘licensed fool’ granted special status as an approved source of bad news and criticism of those in power.  Having a preselected source of contrarian thought serves as a proactive defense, a vaccine of sorts that allows a small dose of a contagion to be introduced in a controlled setting so that the full infection may be kept at bay.

To be sure, the modern state has no King who explicitly designates anyone as a comedian.  However, in the collective insanity of modern democracy, I believe that the public has an emergent role for a small jester class, which tells the masses the bad news they already intuitively know to be true, but in a safe context where it can be readily trivialized and dismissed, providing a much needed relief valve for the cognitive dissonance of statist ideology.