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:
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.
Last week, I spoke with Washington Post journalist Paul Farhi about my research on the effects of political comedy programs and the freshman seminar on popular culture and politics that I'll be teaching at Towson University this fall. Farhi's article published in The Washington Post and reprinted on the web sites of a variety of regional papers ( Pittsburgh Post Gazette , Chicago Tribune, New Orleans Times Picayune to name just a few) quickly attracted attention. John Hudson offered his take on studying Colbert at the college and university level for The Atlantic Wire and Sophia McClennen offered a rebuttal over at the Huffington Post with student Remy M. Maisel. I too agree that John Hudson could use some help picking the right statistics to compare. He's welcome to enroll in my MCOM490 class: Mass Communication Research where we devote a few weeks to statistical principles. I'd also be happy to have Hudson visit my upcoming seminar. The full title...
I'm anxiously awaiting the results of the 2012 GOP Iowa Caucus. Will Mitt Romney be able to secure more than 25% of the vote? Will Ron Paul eek out a Mike Huckabee style victory? Or will Santorum and his v-neck sweater vests make the most of some recent momentum? While the New York Times sweater vest story (link above) is a funny one, nothing beats these proposed Santorum newspaper headlines , a fun list that pays tribute to Santorum's Google problem . While Romney remains as the presumptive nominee even with a second or third place finish in Iowa, a second place finish (or even a good showing) for either Santorum or Paul will keep the respective #2 candidate in the media spotlight. If it's Santorum in the news, you can bet the headlines, the sweater vests, and the association with the Google problem will only continue on to New Hampshire and South Carolina.
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:
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