Comedy and politics have gone together for a long time, and in this age, political comedy is everywhere. We have reached a point where instead of just mocking the news, the comedian Jon Stewart was ranked as America's most trusted news source by participants in a Time magazine online poll. How does comedy influence politics? Do jokes about politicians create their image, or just reflect what people already believe? Does political comedy lead people to be more critical of politicians or just more cynical? Join us for this conversation about the influence of comedy on politics.
This event will feature The Gregory Brothers, from YouTube and Barely Political fame for their Auto-Tune the News videos; Baratunde, the web editor of The Onion and co-founder of the blog Jack & Jill Politics; Dan Powell from Comedy Central's show "Ugly Americans"; and Steve Almond, author of My Life in Heavy Metal and Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. Sponsored by the Graduate Program in International Affairs.
Bio
Steve Almond
Steve Almond is the author the story collections My Life in Heavy Metal and The Evil B.B. Chow, the novel Which Brings Me to You (with Julianna Baggott), and the non-fiction books Candyfreak and (Not That You Asked). His new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, came out in Spring 2010. He is also, crazily, self-publishing a book called This Won't Take But a Minute, Honey, which is composed of 30 very brief stories, and 30 very brief essays on the psychology and practice of writing.
Andrew Gregory
Andrew Rose Gregory is a member of the musical group The Gregory Brothers who produce the internet series Auto-Tune the News.
Evan Gregory
Evan Gregory is a member of the musical group The Gregory Brothers who produce the internet series Auto-Tune the News.
Dan Powell
Dan Powell is the co-executive producer of Comedy Central's show "Ugly Americans."
Baratunde Thurston
Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, author and vigilante pundit. He was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, declared a Champion of the First Amendment by Iowa State, and called "someone I need to know" by Barack Obama. He has appeared on ABC, NPR, the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and ComedyCentral.com.
Thurston is the co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics and performs regularly in New York City, where he works by day as Web Editor and politics czar for The Onion. He hosts Popular Science's "Future Of" on the Science Channel, and he lives in Twitter.
Genre of dramatic literature that deals with the light and amusing or with the serious and profound in a light, familiar, or satirical manner. Comedy can be traced to revels associated with worship in Greece in the 5th century BC. Aristophanes, Menander, Terence, and Plautus produced comedies in classical literature. It reappeared in the late Middle Ages, when the term was used to mean simply a story with a happy ending (e.g., Dante's Divine Comedy), the same meaning it has in novels of the last three centuries (e.g., the fiction of Jane Austen). Comparetragedy.
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I love that he said that this is their way of voting. Because of the influence they have on public opinion, I think they are much more powerful than their single, almost worthless vote.
What are the statistics for people who read the Onion? How about Stewart and Colbert?
In a world where more people need the kind of commentary that used to be freely available on Fora TV, the decision to charge for a lot of the content, and all of the downloads, is mystifying to this viewer. Thank goodness most of it is available for both viewing and downloading on You Tube, or TED or many others, or students and researchers that don't have the extra cash, or the required credit card, would be completely out of luck. There is only one media source that has ever made pay for content work, and that is the WSJ. Hopefully, Fora will learn.
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