"Humour is the new weapon in the US presidential contest" -

[emad]

From The Guardian
Humour is the new weapon in the US presidential contest, writes Matthew Wells

Wednesday March 31, 2004

A new front in the bitter presidential election battle opens today with the launch of Air America, the radio network that promises a liberal alternative to the rightwing talk show hosts who dominate the daytime airwaves. Al Franken, the doyen of political satire on the left, will be going directly up against the broadcasting colossus Rush Limbaugh. Initially, it will not be a contest at all, as the new network will be heard only in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco, while Limbaugh's long-established sarcastic tirades against the "liberal elite" are disseminated from coast to coast. The buzz surrounding Air America's launch - together with the heavy coverage devoted to the shock-jock Howard Stern's recent conversion to the anti-Bush cause - is a clear sign that the entire political establishment is more aware than ever of the role that satire and comedy will play in this year's race for the White House.

In these early days of the campaign, the teams behind both candidates are seeking to define their man in the best possible light and do the reverse to their opponent. "Humour is politics by other means," says Mark Katz, a New York-based political writer who was on the White House staff throughout the Clinton years. He runs a "creative thinktank" called the Sound Bite Institute, describing himself as its resident scholar. He wrote gags for Clinton and Gore that helped to shape their image and defend them in times of political crisis.

"It's a great weapon, or device, to increase a speaker's likeability," Katz says. "Without strong ideology, people are more inclined to vote for the person they like. When someone uses an honest brand of humour, you connect with them. Humour does its best work when it's stating the sub-text, whether it be self-deprecating, or stating an essential truth ... Humour flatters, where spin insults. A politician is saying: I think you're smart enough to connect the dots."

"They tried to redefine a joke that is on us," says Katz. "Humour is a calculated risk ... It was a terrible lapse in judgment to try to redefine weapons of mass destruction as a self-deprecating topic. I think seven or eight people died in Iraq last week. But I thought the Kerry campaign made a mistake trying to slap Bush for that joke. They have yet to demonstrate their candidate's sense of humour, so to be school ma'amish about it really underscored that."

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1182754,00.html

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