Amy Bree Becker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Loyola University Maryland. She researches political comedy, new media, public opinion, political engagement, and science communication. Views expressed are her own.
Last Popular Culture & Politics Class: I am a Pole and So Can You
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Well the semester is FINALLY over and I'm happy to report that we had A LOT of fun in my new seminar, Popular Culture & Politics. While the 2012 election didn't provide quite as much entertainment as the 2008 Sarah Palin fest, we spent some quality time talking about SNL's new Barack Obama (Jay Pharoah), Mitt Romney style, and Stephen Colbert's Super PAC - Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.
We tried to keep up with the various viral videos and comedy appearances that popped up during the election cycle. Here are some highlights:
Lena Dunham's First Time:
This one's not political but it did help us talk about Saturday Night Live:
Barack Obama's appearance on The Daily Show:
We concluded class with the reading of Stephen Colbert's I Am A Pole and So Can You, his childrens' book endorsed by the late, great Maurice Sendak.
As someone who follows political polls, I enjoyed the page about becoming a Gallup poll but I'll admit that my students found the option of a stripper poll a bit more amusing.
We also took a look at Stephen Colbert's interviews with Maurice Sendak that originally aired on the program back in January of 2012. Here's our favorite clip:
Jon Stewart's mug graces the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Highlights from the interview with Stewart are available on the Rolling Stone web site along with a fun gallery of behind the scenes photos . For those who need even more Stewart, check out this video segment with Rolling Stone Executive Editor Eric Bates: Some highlights from the Rolling Stone interview: Stewart says that the Daily Show has a lot in common with Fox News. "We are both reactions to the news and to government," he says. "We're both expressions of dissatisfaction. Obama has been a disappointment to Stewart. "He ran on this idea that the system and the methodology are corrupt," he says. "It felt like the country was upset enough that he had the momentum needed to re-evaluate how business is done. Instead, when he got elected, he acted as though the system is so entrenched that it has to be managed rather than – I don't want to say decim
Aasif Mandvi, Daily Show correspondent offers a funny piece on the Republican war on science. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes , Political Humor & Satire Blog , The Daily Show on Facebook The science fair kids in the video certainly seem a lot smarter than the GOP nominees featured in the beginning of the video or Noelle Nikpour, the Republican strategist. I'm putting my money on the kids and science.
I'm sure that Michael LaCour hoped to make the front page of The New York Times many times over during his career as a Princeton political scientist -- preferably being featured in articles that talked about groundbreaking research (and real results), not his fabrication of a study with Columbia University political scientist Donald Green on the impact of political canvassing on public opinion toward same-sex marriage. The story of the "great gay marriage hoax" is a compelling one for academic researchers, policy activists, and the general public alike. The revelation by Green that the data may have been fabricated , has many reputable news organizations issuing retractions and apologies including Ira Glass over at This American Life . And plenty of academics were jamming up Retraction Watch, making it hard to access Ivan Oransky's breaking post as well as Brockman, Kalla, and Arronow's Irregularities in LaCour (2014) that noted the study's problemat
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