The Influence Of Saturday Night Live On The 2008 Election

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The Influence of Saturday Night Live

On August 29th, 2008 Senator John McCain announced his decision of electing Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential Candidate. This declaration provoked controversy amongst many of the United States citizens and while the majority of the people supported McCain, there were still a select few of both the republican and democratic parties that were bewildered by his decision. They view Sarah Palin as ignorant and someone who could not play any significant part in running the United States government, and their scrutiny of her soon reached the public via television. Although entwined with humor, the Saturday Night Live vice Presidential debate clip is an example of the doubts society has on Palin’s experience. Through humorous satire the Saturday Night Live spoof, intending to be seemingly harmless, effectively influenced the votes of many young Americans.

Through the use of irony, Saturday Night Live is trying to amuse the audience and arouse the viewer’s interest to get them to pay deeper attention to both Palin and Biden’s views, with high hopes that the listener will not take Palin seriously. After explaining the generic conservative view of how two homosexuals should not be allowed to get married, Sarah Palin states “marriage is meant to be a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers.” By saying this, she is referring to her fifteen year-old pregnant daughter who is arranged to marry her teenage boyfriend. Those that do not know about the background or family of Sarah Palin might take this quote literally, when in reality this is not what Palin actually believes. Although this specific comedic remark is not to be taken seriously, it happens to skew Palin’s views and may confuse some ...

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... entertain its viewers, not to manipulate they way they are going to vote. Through these spoofs on the election Saturday Night Lives’ audience is at an all time high, meaning more and more voters are either finalizing their decision on these skit’s or are being proven that the decision they are making is the right one depending on who they are planning on voting for. Whether for John McCain or Barack Obama these skits’ will have an impact on the outcome of the election. There will continue to be American citizens that refuse or have no interest in following up on political news and the actual presidential and vice presidential debates and only watch the comedic portrayal of Governor Sarah Palin. Saturday Night Lives’ skits’ are prime examples of how comedic sketches may depict Palin as ignorant and folksy which may in the end effect the voting outcome for John McCain.

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