Transcript Political humor

Political humor
A feature of free societies
What’s funny depends on who you are
• Tremendous variation among audience
members
– “Depends on whose ox is being gored”
– ‘Sacred cows’
– Beliefs about what is true, what is nonsense
– Background necessary to get the ‘joke’
– Preference for different forms of humor
Why humor?
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More appealing than vitriol or ‘earnestness’
Attention-getting
Memorable
Satisfactory for humorist
What is the nature of humor
• Many different views
• Major “types” of humor
– Silly or childish behavior
• Behavior that would be considered immature, clownish
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Clumsiness or making a mistake
Foolishness or demonstration of ignorance/stupidity
Imitation or mocking
Unexpected/surprising representation
Exaggeration
Irony/satire
Norm-breaking behavior
Clumsiness
• http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/vid
eo/clips/ford-on-the-phone/229148/
Foolishness
Unexpected/surprising representation
Imitation or mocking
• http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Tina+
Fey&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
Exaggeration
• http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Oba
mamania&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=Obama%2
0McCain%20ad&hl=en&emb=0
• http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/
Irony/Satire
• http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Dr.+S
trangelove&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=Dr.%20Str
angelove%20War%20Room&hl=en&emb=0
• http://www.jossip.com/fox-news-defends-thenew-yorkers-right-to-take-satire-to-the-brink20080715/
• http://www.jibjab.com/view/252591
Norm-breaking behavior
• http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Oba
mamania&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=Obama%2
0McCain%20sex%20ad&hl=en&emb=0
• http://www.barelypolitical.com/
History
• Early political humor was often partisan—ridicule of
the opposition
– Often quite extreme because of the level of partisanship
within political discourse
• A second source came from literature that was meant
to critique the customs, government in general
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Comedy of manners
Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”
Benjamin Franklin
Yeomen critics in newspapers, periodicals
Mark Twain
Will Rogers
Media influence
• Political cartoons became a significant
influence during the latter half of the 19th
century
– Thomas Nast
– Puck
• Film
– Charlie Chaplin
• Animation
Modern development
• Late-night television
– The Tonight Show monologues
• Fairly innocuous skewering (nonpartisan)
– Jay Leno takes over
• More emphasis on political humor
– Clinton
– David Letterman
• Saturday Night Live
– Chevy Chase impersonation of Gerald Ford
– Became a continuing emphasis of the show
Modern development
• Talk Radio—one feature of radio talk is its use
of satire and derision of liberals/enemies
• Daily Show with Jon Stewart
– Mocking of media, politics
• Colbert Report spins off
The Internet
• Professional and amateur political humor
explodes on the Internet
– Replay of popular culture
• SNL, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Late night talk
– Internet-only ‘professional’ political humor
• The Onion
– Explosion of amateur political humor
• Much of it very bad or very ‘edgy’
– Sexual humor applied to political figures
• http://www.youtube.com/newsbusted
• The increasing presence of real political
candidates on non-news media
– Clinton much more willing to be featured on a
wide array of popular culture shows
• Arsenio Hall
What is the special effect of humor?
• Humor appears to have the ability to reduce the
audience member’s automatic critique of new
ideas and information
– We usually are very skeptical of anything that does
not fit with our existing views of the world
• Generates automatic counterarguing
– Because the humor is seen as entertainment rather
than political argumentation, we process it differently
• However, the very act of ‘not taking this
seriously’ tends to reduce its credibility with the
audience
Why would it be more effective, then?
• The combination of psychological forces
seems to provide the potential for a “sleeper
effect” where we remember the concept or
idea but forget where it came from
– Evidence of the “sleeper effect” in political
communication is often found for propaganda,
etc.
Why would it be more effective?
• With partisans, humor seems to make the ‘fight’
more enjoyable, mingling positive affect with the
partisan belief system
• For nonpartisans, humor appears to make
somewhat more extreme negative rhetoric
palatable
– An outright accusation may be seen as unfair or
unseemly while a humorous one was “just in fun”
• The humor itself is enjoyable, so expectations of
enjoyment may draw audiences to content that
otherwise would not have an audience