Should politicians be funny? (w/ Mike Birbiglia)
"At seven, it's marginal, right?"
It’s the first NST episode of the year, and we’ve got a special one for you today.
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Recently, California Governor Gavin Newsom has been on social media mocking Donald Trump by, well, sounding exactly like Donald Trump. You know the style: ALL CAPS POSTS, random Capitalization, and quotation marks around words that don’t “need” them.
Gavin’s behavior certainly seems to resonate with the resistance liberal crowd, but it got me thinking about the use of humor in politics in general. Is this a worthwhile political strategy, or just noise that doesn’t actually help much?
To find out, I spoke to humor historian Mark Rolfe of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who taught us a bunch about how humor was employed throughout American political history. Then, I had a conversation with comedian Mike Birbiglia of the Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast, who had some thoughts on the politician jokes found below.
And here's Amy Klobuchar’s joke.
NST CALLOUT!
We’ve got two episodes in the works that we need your help with. If you have any questions about cats, or any notable stories from your trips to the dentist, send ‘em to mannynoahdevan@gmail.com, or better yet, leave a voicemail at (860) 325-0286.
And finally, due to foreseen circumstances (I’m having a baby), we’ll be off for the next two weeks. See you back here on January 28th. ‘Til then.
Unforeseen? lol Congrats, Manny!