The show is more than a form of comic relief. Its success, in fact, reveals just how far Taiwanese democracy has come. Just more than two decades ago Hou’s reward for lampooning the president would have been a prison sentence. Even in 1998, two years after Taiwan’s first democratic election, his attempt to do a similar show was canned after a single episode. This time around producers received one call from a top presidential aide demanding a slight alteration in format. They obliged, but the show, if anything, has gotten more wicked, as the Taiwanese public uses the live call-in line to vent their feelings about politics and politicians. “Some people are still afraid to criticize Lee, because he is a symbol of the old era which is about to end,” says Hou. “The program is a gauge of whether Taiwan is truly democratic.”
On the set, the line between reality and fiction tends to blur. The show is most devastating, in fact, when it derides the duplicity of the candidates. An actor playing Chen Shui-bian parodied the candidate’s retreat on the issue of Taiwan’s independence. “After I am elected, I will definitely call for Taiwan independence,” he said. Then, looking aghast, he sputtered: “Uh, uh, I mean, I definitely won’t declare independence.” In one segment last week an actor portraying James Soong mimicked the independent candidate’s disdainful rebuttals of KMT corruption allegations against him. “I am the one who really understands the KMT’s dirty tricks,” he said. “I am their target.” During the next commercial break, the real Soong appeared in a campaign ad, speaking with the same tone and cadence. Hou says viewers sometimes call in thinking he really is President Lee. “We’re fake politicians,” says Hou, “but the questions we deal with are real.” He just hopes that whoever is elected president has a good sense of humor–or very thick skin.
