At least on late night, the joke is on Mitt Romney.
A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs released on Wednesday a study that found that the late night talk show hosts on the major broadcast networks, from the period between Aug. 27 and Oct. 3, made far more jokes in their opening monologue about the GOP's presidential nominee than they did the incumbent president, Barack Obama. In total, the hosts -- Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, and Craig Ferguson -- made 148 jokes about Romney and 62 about Obama.
Letterman, the Late Show host on CBS, led the pack in disparity, with 44 jokes at Romney's expense and just nine about Obama, who appeared on his show on September 18. He has openly invited (or challenged) Romney to come on his show, and with the GOP's continued refusal, Letterman has escalated his attacks. It's a bit of a chicken or the egg situation -- it's unclear whether Romney refuses to go on Letterman because of the jokes, or if the jokes are because he won't come on the show.
Obama has also gone on Fallon's show, while his wife, Michelle Obama, has visited Fallon and Kimmel. Both Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, have only appeared on Leno's Tonight Show.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was in the news with a new book during the time period of the study, came in third with 39 jokes at his expense.
