By Natalie Raskas
The American public seems to have a problem with discernment, confusing entertainment with the reality of the real-world consequences of politics more and more and Saturday Night Live (SNL) may be to blame. Nickie Michaud Wild writes in his research article, “Dumb vs. Fake: Representations of Bush and Palin on Saturday Night Live and Their Effects on the journalistic Public Sphere,” that “The observation that news and entertainment are becoming more alike has been met with derision or with acceptance.” This “infotainment” element became popular in American media starting in the 1980s with the advent of cable news and only has grown to be a stronger and more polarizing feature in today’s political climate (Wild, 2015, p.495).
To most Americans supporting the political left, Donald Trump, the presidential candidate, now President, became a joke – thanks in part to SNL’s spot on political satire sketches. We laughed until we cried on election night when the unimaginable impossibility became our new reality. It was a surprise that such directed and derogatory comedy created as an attcak against Donald Trump was astonishingly ineffective toward his political demise. Perhaps the comedic element of his character, or shall we say caricature, gave light to the serious impacts that such a presidency is now just beginning to unfold. Would we laugh as we did from the now infamous SNL sketches if the subject of comedy were Adolf Hitler instead of Donald Trump?
Political satire, historically designed to influence opinion on a serious level, is now more about providing entertainment to mass audiences. One could argue that the popularity of SNL’s political skits actually dulled leftists into a jolly complacency. A common theme is how Americans are unable to detect fake news and are lacking in judgment skills to identify bogus information. A typical SNL skit like the one in the video provided below may be appreciated as good humor, but the typical viewer may not have the education or critical thinking skills necessary to put the information into a reality-based context. Or viewers may have stopped watching halfway through and never acquired the humor part of the skit.
Dean Obeidallah points out, “80 million people watched the debate. 130 million people will vote. 50 million others are still looking for places to get their news, and comedy can fill that gap,” this quote was written in an NBC report in September 2016, just prior to the last presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton (Howard, 2016, p.2). Americans are using different ways, particularly satire as on SNL, to attain their daily news. From this we can see the consequences it is having in our political world, such as electing a president not fit for the job.
One could certainly argue that SNL’s strong ratings and views before the 2016 election served to shape the opinion of many Americans. Along with that, apparently, many of those same viewers did not take the Trump threat seriously enough to get out to vote to prevent this controversial figure from assuming the most influential political position in the U.S. One could alsoargue that Trump supporters had the last laugh – ironically, this was thanks to the political satire of SNL. Laughing at serious matters is very common and can ease stress. However, the negative consequences of that include the ability to distance oneself from significant issues - precisely what the role of political satire, specifically in SNL parodies, seems to result in.
References
Howard, A. (2016, September 30). How ‘Saturday Night Live’ has shaped our politics. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/how-saturday-night-live-has-shaped-american-politics-n656716
King, D. R. (Director). (2016). Saturday Night Live[Video file]. United States: NBC Studios. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg0pO9VG1J8
Wild, N. M. (2015). Dumb vs. Fake: Representations of Bush and Palin on Saturday Night Live and Their Effects on the journalistic Public Sphere. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(3), 493-508. doi:10.1207/jobem.2007.51.issue-3
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Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI must first start off by saying I love SNL and their political satire. It never fails to make me laugh. At the same time I see how you argue that they are the blame for Americans not taking politics seriously, and this is an idea I've never considered before. I do agree that everyone was so taken aback by Trump's outrageous comments that they fell into complacency, trusting that no American with common sense would allow such a man in office. Yet, here we are almost three years in with him. It could be for this same reason that many americans chose to waste their votes on silly things like voting for "Henny" and "Harambe".
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI want to start by saying how interesting your topic of choice is. I have always thought of SNL as comedic and something people watch AFTER viewing the "real" news. I applaud you for talking about this topic considering the all the controversies in politics right now. I really enjoyed the fact that you inserted a video as an example and then further explained it in your blog post. I really enjoyed reading this.
Great job!!
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I have an abiding interest in political satire. Needless to say, I was delighted when your group decided to make this the focus of your theme week. Perhaps I'll see you and some of your classmates again in senior seminar. In the meantime, here are a few thoughts and suggestions.
Overall, this is a smart, nuanced, and well-written piece of writing. Just the thing for this weblog. I appreciate your critique of SNL and your concern with the "downside" of infotainment. (Full disclosure: Some critics, myself included, find SNL's political satire rather tame and largely apolitical.)
Rest assured, you are not alone on this score. Media and cultural critics have debated the "real world" political consequences of infotainment and other diversions that, in Neil Postman's (1985) words, find us "amusing ourselves to death."
However, I want to encourage you to do a better job with your sentence construction and proof reading. For instance, your first sentence covers an awful lot of ground, but it is a bit confusing and could be stated more clearly. Ditto the sentence in the second paragraph when you write, "Perhaps the comedic element ..."
Likewise, your use of the second quote about the NBC report isn't as clear as it could be. Then there are number of typos such as "attack" in the second paragraph. And your use of APA isn't quite accurate, especially the placement of the first in-text citation and the formatting for Wild (2015) in your reference list.
On a more substantive note, from an institutional perspective, it's interesting to note that The Donald still have a financial interest in NBC via his reality show The Apprentice. Like so much of the Trump administration, there's a financial conflict of interest here: one that NBC ignores while it profits handsomely on its Trump send ups.
Finally, I'm delighted you used a video clip in your post. I hope others will follow suit before too long. That said, even a cursory look at this clip reveals that the target of the satire isn't Trump. Rather, it is his supporters whose support for the president in couched in economic rhetoric, designed to conceal their racist and xenophobic attitudes.
I could go on, but I'll leave it there. Good stuff! Keep it coming!
27/30 pts.
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Kamal and Destiney's comments. I like that you chose this as your topic, it is very clever and also unique. SNL is obviously popular in our country, and I am also a big fan of the show, and I really like that you brought up that these various political satire skits on SNL could be the blame, or partial blame at least, for the seriousness that many Americans lack in terms of politics. These comical skits, jokes, and parodies are actually an issue like you said. The usage of the video clip was a solid move as well, kudos! This blog post was written and also structured really well, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post.
Natalie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post and your discussion on the important topic of political satire. I think that providing a comedic discussion to politics can be both a positive and necessary thing. I'd argue that Donald Trump's candidacy was about more than simply politics. His rhetoric has been consistently filled with blatant racism and sexism. Donald Trump's behavior has caused a lot of fear in the American public, especially for many racial minorities, who have realized that his presidency has and will continue to mean lot of negative experiences for them. One way that people cope with fear is through comedy, and when done tastefully, as SNL has, comedy can be a great avenue for furthering the discussion of these issues. Politics, and the affects that politics has on race and privilege can be an uncomfortable discussion for many people as well and comedy can serve as a way for them to start having necessary discussions.