The Lack of Humor in 2008 Elections
It is true; although both Barack Obama and John McCain seem to have a decent sense of humor, humor is missing from this election cycle. Both campaigns seldom use humor to get their point across, and American journalists do not seem to be willing to see the humorous side of things either.
One of the main reasons that humor is missing from this year’s elections is that the media aren’t interested in jokes. Whenever a campaign tries to do something that’s funny, the media distort it and pretend that the joke is actually a vile attack against the opponent. Campaign realize this and, as a result, become deadly serious.
There’s another reason for the lack of humor: the campaigns themselves distort frequently as well. When the other side makes a joke, the one side pretends that the ‘joke’ was meant seriously. One can give many examples of such behavior from both sides.
Humor is a great way for politicians to connect with voters and to lighten the mood a bit. Politics are serious but they are not as serious as politicians themselves and radicals (both conservative and liberal) like to pretend. As one famous conservative intellectual once said (paraphrasing), elections are serious but they are not a matter of life and death (William F. Buckley).
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
Michael;
Can you please cite a recent American presidential where humor was common?
1984