These days it's easy to feel bleak about life in the US: the economy, the banks, a gridlocked Congress, jobs going overseas or just vanishing forever, the mad ravings of the Tea Party brain donors, the sun slowly setting on the Pax Americana, and a general sense of pessimism overarching everything.

But the one area in which America continually goes from strength to strength is the one speciality that might help us forget our woes, even though its raw material is precisely those woes: US comedy is in the throes of a decade-long golden age – in film and on TV – that just never seems to end. We may be on a downward slope, but when the end comes, at least we'll die laughing.

I can't help noticing that the origins of this satirical high-tide coincided precisely with the arrival of George Bush in the White House, the greatest spur to comedic industriousness that man has ever witnessed, a perfectly mockable idiot president, puppet-mastered by psychopaths, liars and scoundrels. That's what you call proper material. The Bush-Gore court battle was the moment when The Daily Show With (then-new host) Jon Stewart really found its footing, and when Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update news spoof section, hosted by one Tina Fey, began to be the most talked-about part of the show.

And why not? If the world has gone insane, and the "real" news is a contemptible propaganda mill, why shouldn't a comedian – a comedian! – like Stewart or his acolyte Stphen Colpert be the most respected political pundit in the land? Why shouldn't Tina Fey's Sarah Palin outperform her real-life inspiration?

Now Fey and former Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell are co-starring in the spring's smash mainstream comedy Date Night, and somehow all feels right with the world. The two great wellsprings of politically inflected American comedy are merging in the non-political realm, and the stars of what were once quite culty TV shows are now firmly in the mainstream. And they've done this without compromising on good writing and great casting (everyone in the lower reaches of the Date Night ensemble – James Franco, Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis – is note perfect).

SNL alumni and other comedy TV stars used to take their lives into their hands when they made the leap to the big screen, but Will Ferrell's example – take complete control of your career – has inspired a new generation. With people such as Judd Apatow setting the pace, there has been a marked reduction in the number of lousy comedies in recent years (it's not long since disasters like Stuart Saves His Family and It's Pat! were typical post-SNL product), and a marked rise in ones you want to see three times, rather than never.

In the midst of great scarcity, here we find great abundance, and for a moment, the living – and the laughing – is easy.

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-John Patterson, Guardian