Oct 26 2008
Does SNL Affect the Way People Vote?
I was watching the SNL Thursday weekend update marathon last night. I found Will Ferell to be incredibly funny as George W. Bush. He was giving his endorsement to John McCain and Sarah Palin. John McCain had to be dragged in to see Bush by Sarah Palin’s husband Todd. John McCain wanted nothing to do with President Bush’s endorsement. Side note, Bush endorsed McCain months ago in real life, but he hasn’t repudiated him yet. He says he is not Bush. He is not like Bush, but he took Bush’s endorsement. Moving on, Tina Fey has played Sarah Palin for a while. I mean she plays her so well that many people remember Tina Fey’s impression more than they do Srah Palin’s real interviews on network and cable televisiion. Will SNL affect the way that people vote? I mean they have really made Sarah Palin look bad, not that she hasn’t done a lot of damage herself, but SNL has certainly affected her overall image. I think that election humor is so needed and necessary. I have to watch the Daily Show and Jay Leno every night. I love a good laugh because this election has been so incredibly exhausting. I mean it’s been going on for over eighteen months! What do you think? Will SNL affect the way that people vote in the upcoming presiddential election?
Honestly, if it does, we’re doomed. Not because it will encourage voters to see Palin for the empty skirt she is, but because if SNL is where people get the information they need to vote, we’re as dumb as the rest of the world thinks we are.
Sadly, I bet it does.
There is hardly anything on the internet about this, which I thought very surprising. I think it is pretty obvious that SNL has had an affect on the election. After the RNC, Palin was massively popular, but then she got lampooned by Fey in the sketch with Poehler and Fey as Hillary and Palin. That basically killed the lipstick thing. Than there was the funky interviews Palin did with Courric, and Fey and Poehler lampooned this again. This brought the interviews into the spotlight, and was espcially damaging because Fey used actual quotes from the interview instead of writing up new jokes. Showing that Palin’s comments were laughable without any changes was kind of a soft brick: Palin is not qualified. Again, during the debates, where Palin performed decently, Fey’s over use of Palin’s main debate tactics, ie the winks, the folksy shout out to the 3rd graders, and the constant use of the word maverick took one of Palin’s few national public successes and turned it into a failure. This last Palin/McCain sketch, working off the idea that McCain and Palin dont like each other, helps solidify the idea that McCain is out of control of his campaign, and Palin is just running around making fluffy speeches. Also, the fact that Ferrell, as Bush, uses a democratic attack on McCain (90% voting thing) basically gives the Democrats a free attack ad without any of the risk of “being negative” that comes with running an attack ad.
I dont think SNL changes the way people think, but I do think it convinces them that the way they think is appropriate etc. Republicans who are thinking about voting for Obama may say “well, I dont really like Democrats but McCain/Palin are a joke.”
Humor is a very powerful political tool — kings of old had jestors because the jestors were able to touch on sensitive policy issues etc. without undermining the king’s authority. SNL’s characterization of Palin allows people to comfortably scoff at her without appearing like elitists or partisans etc. You can quote from SNL at work and no one will think anything of it, whereas if you quote from some liberal blog etc. people will probably be like, “Man, lets not talk about politics.”
Sorry if my comment was too long, I am really interested in this topic and havent seen anyone else really mention it at all. Too bad no one has done a poll about it.