September 6, 2008
Daily/Colbert RNC Trends
When Comedy Is Reality
Many theories of comedy are based on the idea of reversal: comedy happens when the world you or I consider normal is turned upside down. This topsy-turviness, it is often argued, produces an escape from the everyday, and thus allows a release of societal tensions. But there's another word for making a hundred-and-eighty-degree turn from your starting point: hypocrisy. This week's Republican National Convention gave Comedy Central a chance to demonstrate both kinds of reversal. Far from providing an escape from reality, however, the comic coverage of the convention was ironically the only media outlet to recognize and address the hypocrisy, nay, absurdity of the convention head-on.
On the first day of the convention, activities were cancelled in recognition of Gustav's threat to New Orleans. Suddenly, the Republicans were contrite apologists for all that went wrong with Katrina, while blithely ignoring their own part in creating the disaster. By Tuesday, the Show was on it, accusing the GOP of showcasing "manufactured moments of empathy," and asserting that yes indeed, this move was as "crassly political" as Karl Rove suggested it wasn't.
By Wednesday, all eyes were on Sarah Palin and her speech. Palin's children were part and parcel of the affair; her unmarried daughter Bristol's pregnancy had just been revealed, and there had been an undeclared comic moratorium on making fun of it--not that this prevented the GOP from using the Palin family for PR. But the Show wasted no time in attacking the real issue of hypocrisy, both regarding choice and regarding women as political candidates.
On Thursday's show, Stewart emceed a serious of viciously interspersed clips demonstrating conservative flip-flopping in action. First, Bill O'Reilly defending the Palin family, saying Bristol's pregnancy was "a personal matter" and shouldn't reflect badly on Palin. Then Bill O'Reilly several months ago, lambasting unmarried, pregnant teen Jamie Lynn Spears, and claiming that "...here the blame falls on the parents of the girl, who obviously have little control over her." The clips spoke for themselves. The audience exploded with laughter, and Stewart didn't need to say a thing.
Next, clips of Shawn Hannity, Dick Morris, and McCain's advisor Susan Pfotenahauer from earlier this year, all accusing Hillary Clinton of not being able to play with the big boys because of her accusations of sexism in the media. Pfotenhauer, especially, claimed that using "victimology" was not going to help Hillary. Stewart sarcastically suggested that of course they would use the same logic towards Palin, but deadpanned: "I think you know what's coming." Indeed, the crowd did, and roared with approval as clips were shown of Hannity, Morris, and Pfotenhauer using the word "sexism" to claim that Palin was being treated harshly because she was a woman. Again, Stewart didn't need to comment. The joke was the absurd earnestness with which the pundits ostentatiously defended their candidate's honor.
