Making Politics Ridiculous

I am an avid follower of media coverage... I check Google News compulsively about 5 times a day, I read the NYTimes online as well as a couple dozen AP and Reuters reports (infused with Brit tabloid junk like Independent.co.uk and dailymail.co.uk -- which do have a chunk of serious articles mixed in the bizarre!). I have a penchant for the ridiculous, but I also like to know what's going on in the world around me.

And after my daily news blitz, I like to check out the Daily Show and the Colbert Report to get their take on the news of the day. The focus of both shows is primarily political-- and there is plenty of fodder in that realm to provide both shows a wealth of material to play with. Both shows appear to be a combination of careful strategic planning and spontaneity. The audiences expects wordplay and punchlines and witty comments, but there is a sense that the host is occasionally flying by the seat of his pants. Some jokes fall flat; others result from a host's mistake. Jon Stewart, especially, often is so amused by his own jokes and those of his fellow cast members that he bursts out laughing.

One tactic employed by both shows is the juxtaposition of words and images. Since they are not considered a legit newscast, they have leeway to take footage out of context and reinterpret it for their purpose. Similarly, they will place footage of speeches and interviews side-by-side to point out where the person has contradicted him/herself or where there is a logical fallacy.

I'll focus on the Daily Show and its most recent episode (Friday, recap of the Republican National Convention). Starting with a spoof video promoting John McCain, Stewart introduces the show and launches into a short monologue on Minnesota. From the very opening, the show presupposes specialized knowledge of the U.S. political system... the various personalities of McCain and Bush and Washington and the Republican Party-- and what in the world a "Convention" is, anyway. Stewart notably interacts with his audience. When the studio audience cheers, "'Woo' to you, I say," is his rejoinder, as if engaged in a polite discussion, or wishing to return a compliment. When speaking of Minnesota, he beckons the camera closer and whispers, "I don't understand these people." Stewart's inability to keep a straight face is part of his charm. Although most comedians and comic actors pride the ability of "keeping in character," Stewart has managed to be successful without donning too much of a persona. He finds obvious amusement in the absurdities of American politics and shares his enjoyment with evident glee.

Stewart (and Colbert) delight in one-liners that thwart the audience's expectation... usually by throwing in something that seems completely bizarre but, after reflection, strangely fits the situation. Or sometimes it's just completely incongruous...

After doing that videoclip thing with McCain and Bush to highlight their policy similarity, Stewart rolls a spoof McCain bio film... a voiceover narrative accompanying clips of his past and present campaigning. There is a clear pattern here-- he uses the same techniques over and over!

The Colbert Report is slightly more sophisticated in some ways. First, Steven Colbert uses a persona as a mock conversative news host. He invents words to capture concepts he is ridiculing (most famously "truthiness")... He has a segment called "the Word" where he speaks on a topic while comic bullet points appear to the viewer on the right side of the screen. Relationships and discrepancies between what he says and what the bullets say provide great comic effect.

A couple more things to mention about the Colbert Report that have to do with words are the "green screen" challenge (viewers compete to put the most hilarious background behind John McCain as he gives a speech --- it is the incongruity between the images and the words that makes the challenge humorous) and the interviewing "fill-in-the-blank" tactic. The latter is when Colbert prompts his guest to make a scandalous statement. "I do drugs because..." Colbert starts in one YouTubed clip. "Because it's a fun thing to do," says the guest after much prodding. What was most amusing about the incident is that the quote quickly spread through the mainstream media-- "OMG look what he admitted to on the Colbert Report!!!!"

I am enjoying the Sherzer reading. Besides learning lots of punny new jokes, I enjoy reading about wordplay in other languages. I never realized play languages were so universal! I remember my friend Laura and her sibling having a play language in which they changed every vowel sound to "oo." How they understood each other, I'll never know. My play languages were all text-based letter manipulations... so now I'm really good at Jumbles and Cryptograms (better at the latter than the former though).

While reading both the Sherzer and Bauman articles, I was constantly reminded of Tom Stoppard's excellent play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Does anyone else know this play? Wordplay runs rampant throughout Tom Stoppard's works. It's super funny, sometimes in a rather arcane way. (I lost a book of his plays on a bus in Barcelona so if anyone finds one and it has "New College Library" stamped on it, let me know...)