Jon Stewart...At it again

Jon Stewart Mocks Fox News' Election Night Meltdown: 'There Was An Avalanche on Bullsh*t Mountain'   

   

         This video is of Jon Stewart poking fun at Fox News at the reporters that were so certain Mitt Romney would win and how all the “evidence” could prove it. He focused on election night and the time period when Fox News’ stated that Obama was predicted to win Ohio and ultimately win the election concurrently when the reporters were discussing how Romney will triumph and Ohio has NOT been called. The reporter goes on and on about the demographics and how the people of Ohio will lean towards Romney.

         One highlight of the election night coverage was when the man was done with his elaborate reasoning for a Romney victory, he was then asked by another reporter, “Is this just math that you do as a republican to make yourself feel better or is this real?”

         Even though I found this video funny and entertaining I feel that it was biased and only showed coverage that supported the side of Fox News being uninformed and naïve. It did not disclose both sides or coverage that hurt their argument.  

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/jon-stewart-fox-news-election-meltdown-video_n_2092224.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular,political-humor

The election is over, the drama has ended for now, and it is a time to look back and laugh at the little things. My personal go-to for daily funnies is Buzzfeed, and when it came to post-election humor the site was chalked full of memes, gifs, videos, and photos. Here are some of the more popular examples:

Some "articles" showed the nation that even the newly re-elected President can't escape the hell that is awkward, candid, embarrassing pictures...http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-44-greatest-barack-obama-facial-expressions-6z51. We've all been there and we all feel your pain, Mr. President. 

Others chose to show off the popular skill of video mashing the lyrics to an early 90s song. No matter how overdone these have become people really have perfected the art, especially using Obama. http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/obama-sings-you-cant-touch-this

One especially fun one was the "8 Things We'll Miss About The 2012 Election." This write-up includes many of the forgotten faces and situations this election season birthed, and it throws in the ultimate sad song, Sarah Mclachlan's I Will Remember You. Rick Santorum's sweater vest obsession? Check! Joe Biden snuggling with a biker chick? Check! Like I said, its especially fun. http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/8-things-well-miss-about-the-2012-election-6zgv 

I chose these articles out of pure silliness, not to endorse one candidate over the other. That fight is over, and I hope that no matter who you voted for you can take a minute to just appreciate that there can be humor in the most unusual, normally dry places. 

Memories

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-potpourri/2012/nov/7/election-2012-video-highlights-including-romney-co/

The Washington Times collaborated a page with highlights of the 2012 election. I found this interesting because the videos are humorous while some are the real serious moments of the election such as when Ohio was called. A funny one on this page was many of the malfunctions of voting machines.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/06/the_65_best_quotes_of_campaign_2012/

This site compiled the 65 most memorable quotes of the election including the infamous Big Bird statement and different zingers sent by each candidate.

I thought both sites took an interesting approach to the commemoration of this election year.
What were some of the most memorable parts of this election for you?
Will this be an election that sticks with you later in life?

Republican Evolution

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

You can hopefully guess just by the domain name what the site above is comprised of. As a democrat, I don’t want to just twist the knife so let me clarify that honestly, this site could be hilarious while being completely unrelated to Mitt or politics in general. Call me petty, but part of me just likes seeing how overly dramatic people can be, example, one facebook post that reads “Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me,” there you have it folks, Obama is all the Christians fault. As we all know, the democrats complained through 8 years of G.W.B. (and boy did we complain) and now, republicans feel the same sting, one we will surely all know again regardless of party. There is much more melodramatic gold to be had on this site, some even gets chuckles out of my Republican friends. Yet amidst the pages and pages of cheap shots and low blows that may or may not have amused me for the better part of my anthropology class (I’m not proud) I found this:  

Meghan McCain echo’s the sentiments of many young republicans.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/16/meghan-mccain-on-why-the-republican-party-needs-to-wake-up.html

“Times are changing. The face of America is changing and we as Republicans stand at a crossroads. Are we going to accept the changing face of America and change with it? Or are we going to continue to become more isolated and irrelevant? It’s possible to maintain the core values of this party and evolve when it comes to social issues. Quite frankly, I don’t see any other path to success.”

As a more moderate democrat, I think Meghan has addressed a growing problem being, much like this years candidate, at times the Republican Party can seem out of touch with the demographics that are needed to win the election. She says, “We can’t keep going and trying to get white men. They’re dying off. It’s not a demographic anymore.” As one of many white men, I can say confidently that we’re still here, but I hear her point. The fact that none of her article talks about policy speaks to the legitimacy of her party’s ambitions, yet its tendency to, “cannibalize people that diverge from an arbitrary purity test,” cripples their ability to grab the votes of the socially moderate.

“And if we don’t move forward, adapt, and become relevant again, the Republican Party isn’t going to survive. It will just continue to alienate more moderate voters like myself. If I don’t see some changes in the next four years, I’m going to consider registering as an Independent in 2016.”  

-Neal Brower

The Whale Formerly known as ORCA.

Professor Leek had mentioned earlier in the semester that she had a prediction regarding media coverage following the election. She thought in the moments after the conclusion, there would be an unveiling of a scandal that happened in the last moments of the election that would have a significant impact on the outcome, or that would be covered up by one of the campaigns. I kept my eye out for such a happening and was excited when i was able to experience the phenomena for myself in Mitt Romney's failed Project ORCA. 

The system was set up as a mobile app that was to drive voters to the polls on the election day, ultimately giving Romney a significant head start against Obama, and was said to be Mitt Romney's secret plan of sorts for winning he election. The problem: it was a complete and utter failure. The system crashed at multiple points on election day and voters were getting extremely frustrated with lag time, system malfunctions, and inconsistencies."It was a perfect storm of technical issues and confusing training programs," according to Stephanie Marcus, a writer for The Huffington Post. All of the problems made ORCA unhelpful to the campaign and ultimately led the way for the first steps to a election failure. 

In the article i reviewed titled, "Mitt Romney's Project Orca Failure: Broken ORCA App Cost Him Thousands of Votes," Stephanie Marcus writes about how Mitt Romney's campaign made claims after the election that the project wasn't intended to be a complete saving grace for the former governor in the election; however in other articles it was speculated that the project was supposed to be Romney's plan for campaign success. With so much at stake placed on a new system, you would think that the campaign team would have better tested the app, as such a system could have potentially been incredibly helpful for voters, especially young voters who are fluent in the app world.

I find issues not necessarily with the article, but with the campaign statements after the election. If the app wasn't intended to have a major impact on the outcome of the election (according to the article), then why use it at all? I think this app was intended for just that, and the Romney campaign put far too much in the hands of ORCA, which ultimately lead them down the path of failure. I don't think that it was the complete reason why they lost, but for young voters especially, something like this on the side of the Romney campaign could  have been incredibly helpful, since he wasn't the most popular guy with those voters. In my opinion, Romney really missed a step with this one. He could have really had something golden in his hands, and with all that money, he really had as many resources as he could have ever wanted. If it were me i would have thoroughly tested the app, instead of relying on hope the day of the election, especially since Hope had clearly been on Obama's side in the past.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/mitt-romney-project-orca-broken-app-cost-thousands-votes_n_2109986.html

Election Jokes

I found a video clip of some of the top jokes about the election between November 5th and November 10th. I chose this video for my journal because I find it curiously interesting how the election gathers more humorous media than it does anything else. Everyone who is anyone on late night television feels they have to crack jokes about the presidential election and what happened. I find it funny that our country can take such a serious job and turn it into such a comedy show.

When Colbert was talking about Obama making the people buy into the lie I was chuckling at his reference to the one night stand. I think it is a good thing that we can take out our humor to every event in the USA. If we do not have humor then America would be pretty boring.

I usually despise Conan O'Brian but his joke about Obama making Mitt Romney his bitch didn't only make me laugh but it also made me think about how Mitt Romney must feel hearing all of these political jokes. I wonder if he sits and home and laughs at their sarcastic attacks or if he sits at home in silence because he knows for the next week or three people will be mocking him on every late night television show. I almost feel bad for him, but then again he is rich!!!

When Jimmy Kimmel discuss's Obama using his second half term to be more black I had to laugh at that one. There is this weird stereotype in the US that black people act a certain way and if they don't act that way then they are white. I find this to be a little degrading to the black community because there really is no difference between the two races except for the color of our skin. But when people make jokes about it I can't help but laugh and think, does Obama have a "black side" he is waiting to pull out?

The funniest of all the clips was the one about the legalization of marijuana simply because of all the news reporters and how awkward they were when discussing it. They all treated it like something that has not been around for awhile. This is actually a topic I have a stance on that I feel pretty passionate about. I do not see why marijuana is frowned upon so much by our government. There are a few reasons, it is completely natural and does not have anything in it that can cause any sort of random death, the side effects of marijuana are something to laugh at if anything, munchies? delayed reaction time? these are all things to laugh at when you look at the side effects of cigarettes, lung cancer! So when people talk about marijuana on television like all the potheads are going to come out of the woodwork i have to laugh because I am in college now and I see how the use of marijuana is all around the typical college student and these people act like it had to be legalized.

All in all these clips made me laugh, and i felt like sharing the wealth with all of you. Check these out and let me know what you think about the jokes/issues.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/the-best-political-jokes-of-election-week_n_2116172.html

Let's have some Obama laffs.

So, the election is over.

It's kind of anti-climactic, in a all-the-hype-and-hoopla-was-kinda-fun way. In some ways, it was fun to see these two candidates banter back and forth throughout these last couple weeks, playing this hypothetical game of chess and chicken — waiting for the first person to misstep.

That's pretty good. Completely brings together all of the stereotypes and classifications people put on Obama during the entire election process then has him getting the last laugh. It's a simple piece, but it's got the point that every "eff you republicans!" liberal is thinking.

Of course, this gets a little more extreme when you dive into the world of memes:

That one is just my favorite. Not sure why, maybe it's the fact that the rapper Two Chainz is just awful and Obama sporting the chains and mean-muggin' look just gets me. Either way, that's today's political humor. Sure, people still love watching SNL (I think, do people?) for the political stuff, but really, these  online jokes are what gets around the most. These political memes are funny because they appeal to a younger audience. Sure, middle-aged folks use the internet, but there's no way these same people are searching BuzzFeed or Reddit for meems of Obama pasted onto a rapper's body. It's funny because it's a young person's kind of joke, and these people were a huge part of this election.

I say "these" people, but that's us. If you supported Obama throughout this time, seeing stuff like this is just a double-dose of satisfaction — your guy won and you get to see a funny picture. It's that kind of connection that really helps to get young people excited and involved in this process.

Maybe that's what makes political humor funny after all — being on the winning side of things.

Time for a Republican Party Makeover?

An article from NPR titled 5 Foul-Ups In The Romney Campaign came out a few days after the election and I thought it was very interesting/informative.  The articles points were:

1) At first, Romney didn't lead the Republican Party, it led him.

2) For too long, Romney let the Democrats define him.

3) For a while, the Romney campaign lost focus.

4) The campaign had too many unscripted occasions.

5) Instead of ending with a bang, Romney's campaign faded away.

The article went into greater detail with each point and gave examples.  It made me wonder how the election would have gone had a different individual been chosen for the Republican presidential candidate.  But is Romney really the only one to blame or was it the entire Romney campaign and/or Republican Party?  This reminded me of all the talk I've been hearing of how the Republican Party needs to revitalize itself.  What would a revamping of the Republican Party look like?

Romney on a Balcony

Post election, the entire country is waiting the candidate’s reaction to the results. Will their party celebrate and cheer? Or stand in a corner and cry? At the end of this year’s election results, there was a big distinguishment between each of the party’s election aftermath. Obama’s party was singing and dancing at a huge celebration, while Romney’s party stood silent, and waiting solemnly for Romney to give his final election speech.

SNL: Romney on a Balcony

This skit featured on Saturday Night Live mocks the post election jitters that everyone was experiencing that night. Romney stands outside on his balcony, drinking his stress away from a big carton of milk. His wife, Ann, walks out and encourages him to come back to the party. They interpretation of Ann as this stepford wife is hilarious in a sense that it’s partially true. She and Mitt have this wealthy couple relationship that the public can see. After Ann leaves, one of Mitt’s sons comes out and expresses how upset he is. The same gag repeats when another son comes out, and he is played by the same actor. The joke here is that Mitt’s family is all pretty much the same, in terms of character and personality. The skit continues and several more people come out to comfort Mitt. It ends with Mitt and Ann having a touching moment as the embrace each other on the balcony

This form of political entertainment is funny today, but will it be as hilarious 20 years from now? Mostly likely not. Though the parody of Romney’s character and his family might be comedic, the punchlines will not be relevant. A specific example is when Mitt’s son says the line “Come in inside, Donald Trump is doing this thing where he is being a racist.” This punch line is very funny in today’s world since the audience can connect to the events of the past with Trump and the election. However, in 20 years from now, audiences watching this sketch may have to search for the underlying meaning of that joke. Sketches from past elections that I watch today I can only partially understand the humor in them, simply because political entertainment is time sensitive.

Though this video will mostly be relevant post election, it still gives humor to Romney’s situation. Laughing at the downfalls of life, and in this case the election, can help ease the pain. And for Romney supporters, they will need all the humor they can get.   

Election Analysis: Minority Rule?

For this final blog post, I'm going to discuss a portion of Weekend Update from this week's Saturday Night Live, in which "President Obama" lends some thoughts on why he was reelected on Tuesday. 

Here is the link to the video on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/423752#i2,p0,d2

One memorable line comes when cast member Jay Pharoah, playing the president with a pretty remarkable replication of speak patterns and mannerisms, quips: "The number of older white men in this country is shrinking.  Meanwhile, a Hispanic gay woman is born every 8 seconds.... And, there's another one.  Welcome to America, baby Juanita!  One more vote for me!"  This joke smartly toys with one idea we've been hearing a lot about in the days following the election, which is "Obama's coalition" of voters that helped him achieve reelection (mainly younger Americans and minorities).  The sketch's line about a "Hispanic gay woman" (3 strikes on the minority scale!) pokes fun at the fact that America's white racial majority is shrinking year by year.  It also coincides with a lot of discussions about the Republican turnout at the polls last Tuesday, and what the party may be looking to do in order to keep up with the times come 2016.  As America's gender and sexual minority populations become more and more visible in the political sphere, and its racial minority populations become less and less of a minority, many are saying the Republicans need to change their strategy in order to appeal to these key voter bases.  This bit of the "Obama visit" from Weekend Update captures that argument adeptly. 

The sketch continues on with jokes about the fiscal cliff, Obama preparing to "play dirty" by eliminating the military, and several Republican congressmen's continuous discussion of rape: a portion that goes on way too long, to the point of getting rather over-the-top.  However, I think this sketch demonstrates SNL's continued practice of assessing the political scene of the country, and addressing it with humor in a way that viewers will find relatable.  This is something they have done since the show's inception, and something that, clearly, they will continue to do, even as our talks about the election wind down and the country moves forward.