Entertainer in Chief

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Entertainer In Chief

The Presidents Changing Role in Modern Politics

Medha Gupta


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In the 17th century, William Shakespeare, inAs You Like it, through the character

ofJaques said, All the worlds a stage, and all themen and women merely players.1

He

could not have been more right nearly half a century later. The stories people tell, and the

narratives shaping everyday lives have become, especially in recent history, a crucial way

that Americans digest and approach daily lives, especially presidential elections. In the

modern world, presidents are now entertainers in chief; they are the stars of their own

movies, soap operas, or reality television. Especially from the election of Ronald Reagan,

an experienced actor and entertainer, this concept has become fixed in our current society

and discourse. Even with the way that news is approached and digested nowadays, there

is an alternative, more entertaining method of getting the news, one was pioneered by

Saturday Night Live. The concept of needing to be entertained, while new, is one that was

embraced famously by then presidential candidate Bill Clinton as a part of their 1992

campaign for the presidency, and now, has become even more important in the upcoming

2012 elections.

The Concept Entertainer in Chief, and its purpose

The stories people tell are an endemic part of any functioning society. In a world

where tabloids sell, because they tell stories of lives led by celebrities because just their

job is not enough, the President becomes a part of this cycle. After the advent of

television, and especially as the concept and genres of popular media evolve, the skill of

entertaining becomes something that every modern president is required to have. Fred

Siegel of the New York Daily Times argues that the fact that periodicals such as US and

1 William Shakespeare,As You Like It(Oxford: W.W. Norton & Company , 1997).


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People, that are really celebrity magazines, and the rise of television programs such as

Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood means that the old 1960s slogan that

the personal is political has become frighteningly true.2

Although it would seem that a

political life would be purely professional, and the candidate would be judged merely

with that criteria, this has become something else over the years. Siegel continues to

argue, our political culture, which depends on a public life of relatively reasoned debate

has been overtaken and undermined by our celebrity-mad popular culture which, by

focusing on the private lives of public figures, turns politicians into personalities.3

This

attracts the common man, especially voters that do not watch the news on a regular basis,

but strive to vote someone into office that is one of the people or someone that a person

can have a beer with. This desire places an emphasis on seeing a candidate as

approachable, and also humanized.

Siegel argues that the upshot has been that rather than push voters to rise to the

occasion by grappling with sometimes difficult an unfamiliar issues, politics has often

been reduced to the personal foibles we can all relate to without effort.4 This way, if an

audience connects emotionally with a candidate or one of their surrogates, they can

forgive them for what is, in their eyes, a minor setback, but if they had heard the story

that they were judging earlier, than it would have been a much larger deal. An example of

this is the largely known Republican emphasis on family values and that they, by and

large, decry teen sexuality and pregnancy, but in the case of Sarah Palin and her daughter,

2 Fred Siegel, "The presidential soap opera is degrading our political process," NY

Daily News, September 7, 2008, http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-09-

07/news/17906243_1_palin-candidacy-sarah-palin-political (accessed December 1,

2011).3 Ibid4 Ibid


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this merely became a minor pitfall, and they readily forgave the family, even though if

this had been a setback on the other side, then they would be attacked quite fully. These

are the kinds of mindless reversals that happen when Oprahfication the elevation of

mushy narrative nonsense over all else carries the day.5 Although Siegel is not too

keen about this method used by American voters, he realizes, even in 2008, that this is a

key part of electability.

Over the recent elections, especially after the ubiquity of televisions in the home,

the election has become something that has been personalized. Television demands on a

day to day basis that coverage be focused on individuals, and news is created in terms of

this oversimplification. Ronald Reagan, a retiree from the acting industry, was probably

the first president that shaped this world and changed the way a president can inherently

communicate.

Reagans triumphs as a two-term governor of California and then a two-

term president of the United States derived in great measure from the

expressive skills and popular rapport he acquired as an entertainer. Using

broadcasting and acting as stepping stones to political activism and then

candidacy, he was the first president to take advantage of the experience

and name recognition gained as a performer in radio, motion pictures and

television.6

As someone who could step up in front of a camera and perform, Reagans entertainer

prowess became incredibly important. He could, at the drop of a hat, become charismatic

5 Ibid6 Gary Arnold, "Silver Screen to White House; President Drew on His Entertainer's

Training.," World & I19, no. 7 (August 2004).


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and connect to individuals, something that is an incredibly important skill for an actor to

have. Up until that point, presidents who where credited with being skilled actors were

often done so sarcastically and it would not be a compliment. However, in the case of

Ronald Reagan, this did become a very important part of the election and how future

presidents would use this charismatic approach to connect to their voters, who had now

become their audience.

The real exciting entertainer-in-chief aspect occurred the moment that President

Bill Clinton appeared on MTV to appeal to the youth vote in 1992. He appeared on the

program Choose or Lose and answered questions from younger voters. The program

was created in 1992, in order to energize the youth and persuade them to go to the ballot

box. The incumbent president, George H.W. Bush rejected all invitations to appear on the

show saying, Im not going to be a teeny-bopper at 68.7 Ross Perot also had some

major qualms about going on the show asking the question, Im not going to have

people jiving behind me when I answer questions, am I?8 This became especially

important when Bill Clinton and Al Gore decided that they were not above such

television programs and appeared, answering the questions from the youth, helping to

revitalize the campaign and effectively showing respect to the young voters that the

previous candidates refused to do. By not showing up, Bush and Perot unwittingly

alienated a large base of voters and did not grant them the respect that was now granted

by Clinton and Gore.

For years the MTV generation was dismissed as the American electorates

7 qtd by Joshua Hammer and Adam Wolfberg, "Not just hit videos anymore,"

Newsweek, November 2, 1992: 93.8 Ibid.


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most politically apathetic. But in a year of an unpredictable surge of voter

interest, the 18-to-29 age group is emerging as a potent force. Polls find

that nearly 75 percent say they will vote in November, compared with just

40 percent in 19889

The youth involvement in politics seems to stem, in this case from the yearn for change

that the entire population faced in 1992, flushed with broken promises of no new taxes

and a desire for something new. The MTV vote especially aided in the campaign to get

more voters out to the booth and since the primaries in February, 1992 proved to be a

year where, coupled with MTVs Choose or Lose campaign and the Rock the Vote

registration, the youth became an incredibly powerful voting bloc. These programs

worked mostly to the Democratic advantage because Clinton and Gore embraced the

spirit of youth and made themselves look as if they were respecting this voter base rather

than Bush and Perot who outwardly denied going onto the program, effectively alienating

them.

Jennifer Frey, in a 2004 article of the Washington Post, used the term Entertainer

In Chief to describe George W. Bush. At the 60th annual Radio and Television

Correspondents Association dinner, after a series of opening remarks that threw jabs at

various members of his cabinet, Bush went on to poke at his own malapropisms before

unveiling a slide show titled White House Election Year album that had the crowd

chuckling. He jabbed the Democrats a few times, especially his challenger, John Kerry.

Bush opened his album with a picture of himself looking at trading cards on a plane on

his way to the G8 summit and said, Once I got these trading cards, its easy to remember

9 Joshua Hammer and Adam Wolfberg, "Not just hit videos anymore," Newsweek,

November 2, 1992: 93.


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the names of the foreign leaders, amidst laughter.10

Mostly, though, he put up dorky-

looking pictures of himself. A recurring joke involved photos of the president in awkward

positions- bent over as if hes looking under a table, leaning to look out a window

accompanied by remarks such as Those weapons of mass destruction gotta be

somewhere! and Nope, no weapons over there! and Maybe under here?11

He

intercut those pictures with a screen that popped up saying, as if in a comic book Zing!

Good one George! He followed that with pictures of soldiers that were killed in action.

The music played during this montage was rather slapstick and goofy. This served to

humanize him, and make fun of his prior setbacks, showing that he is a candidate that can

laugh at himself and thus creates someone that was much more accessible to the voting

population. This would hopefully make him more endearing to the population, even

though, by using the serious images, he subtly reminded the audience of the necessity of

his bottom line to stay the course in Iraq. This humanizing aspect is one that has been so

essential in our modern narrative, even though it is such a recent development. Even talk

show hosts like Dr Phil in 2004 emphasized the importance of Bush and Kerry appearing

on his show. In a Washington Post article in 2004, they address this phenomenon of the

president appearing in other media.

On Dr. Phil, Bush gets an opportunity to soften his hard-edged, war-

president image by sitting next to his wife and talking about his family.

And Kerry gets a chance to sell his personal life story that is, the one

10 George W. Bush, "Bush at 2004 White House Correspondents Dinner"

(Washington, DC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9EbssUgHj4, 2004).11 Jennifer Frey, "George Bush, Entertainer In Chief," Washington Post, 3 25, 2004.


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beyond the Vietnam serviceto a potentially new audience.12

Basically this concept became something absolutely endemic to the election, and the

concept of entertainer in chief was further ingrained into the society. Even though merely

a few years ago, George Bushs father had dismissed this as a way of pandering to voters,

his own son was one that embraced it, and his ability to connect to the audience, and John

Kerrys lack thereof, regardless of experience and ability to do the job, became the key to

winning the election.

Ronald Reagan

pioneered the concept of being an entertainer and connecting to the American population,

and although George H.W. Bush did not continue this trend, he was arguably riding on

Ronald Reagans coattails, and the reason he was elected was because he lived out the

post-Reagan success. However, after a term of broken promises, when Americans wanted

change, they turned to someone who did not marginalize their views, who did not put

himself over his voters, going to them, instead of having his voters come to him. Bill

Clinton furthered this trend, and made it clear that he was not above the entertainment,

and embraced his stories. George W. Bush, while he did not further this mobilization, did

find a way to embrace being entertainer-in-chief, and his ability to be one of the people

and a humanized president got him far, and was most of the reason that he could win the

election twice, both over Al Gore and John Kerry, the latter of which had an incredibly

difficult time connecting to his base.

How does Obama play the role?

Barack Obama became an incredible example of Entertainer-in-Chief. He embraced

12 Washington Post, "Dr. Phil's Advice to Candidates: Come on My Show," The

Washington Post, September 29, 2004.


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new and social media, mobilized the youth vote, and because of his ability to connect and

be one of the voters, completely brought a new meaning to the term entertainer-in-chief.

From the stories he told, to the surrogates he employed on a day to day basis, he created a

compelling and electable narrative, especially one in 2008 that countered John McCains.

During the election, he, like Bill Clinton, appeared on television programs designed to:

mobilize the youth vote such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night

Live; mobilize the female vote such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Oprah

Winfrey Show, and people who do not normally watch the news and the late night

audience such as the Late Show with David Letterman and Tonight with Jay Leno. These

appearances serve to humanize him and bring him to a new group of viewers that do not

watch Sunday morning news programs and nightly news programs. These appearances

are largely for people who do not follow politics, but still have a chance of showing up to

the voting booths and could potentially be mobilized. Also, they serve to energize his

base, especially now, as the base itself is growing more and more weary of the current

situation.

For the youth vote, Barack Obama appeared on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

For the interview, he was fairly casual, wearing a suit jacket, a white-collar shirt and no

tie. He was very laid back, sitting back in his seat, slouching a little bit, trying to come off

as young and approachable, demonstrating his ability to be casual and appeal to the

younger generation. He stresses the importance of the young vote on his appearance,

speaking about the importance of this voter base, calling up the recent memories of older

voters and the Clintons campaign. Although Jon Stewart was heavy on the jokes during


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the interview, highlighting the insanity of the elections, and Obama takes the jabs, but

manages to keep his message clear and keeps repeating his message, bringing it out to the

young voters. Jon Stewart, however, does recognize the narrative aspect of the election

and asks, Do you feel youre stuck in a narrative now? And the narrative is, Hillary

Clinton is unlikeable but knows what shes doing, Obama is inexperienced but brings

change, and that narrative, no matter what you do because its easily categorized, the

media, or everyone else will slip whatever happens into those two narratives.13 Jon

Stewart, in this interview, recognized the importance of the narrative in Barack Obamas

candidacy, and strives to question the importance of it, and Obama also recognized the

change, and also addressed that they will find something new to use, and that is exactly

what happened.

After obtaining the presidency, Barack Obama continued, as a way of

campaigning to govern, to appear on these entertainment platforms in order to present his

campaigns and reach the voters. President Obama will make the fusion of politics and

comedy official tonight by becoming the first president to appear on Comedy Centrals

Daily Show just days before the crucial midterm elections that could reshape his

presidency.14

In this interview, Obama is making his case wherever anyone gats their

information. This is especially important because it furthers the notion that voters do not

watch the news anymore, especially the vast majority, who watch entertainment

programs in order to receive information. This is also a different audience than the ones

13 Barack Obama, interview by Jon Stewart, "Barack Obama," The Daily Show with

Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, August 22, 2007.14 Michael D. Shear, "Obama to Appear on 'Daily Show'," The New York Times,

October 27, 2010, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/obama-to-

visit-daily-show-as-campaign-nears-end/?partner=rss&emc=rss (accessed

December 1, 2011).


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who watch the news on a day to day basis, and this information would get out to those

who do not have a chance to see Obama on CNN, MSNBC, or FoxNews. Regardless of

that, his appearance on the Daily Show also served to cater most to the base that helped

elect Obama in 2008, he hoped that this would be a way to re-energize the same youth

that helped him out and would get young voters excited and out to the ballots for the

midterm election which would have been a landmark one. Mr. [Robert] Gibbs said the

administration was not concerned about mixing politics and entertainment.15 He states

that it is especially important that attempts that endeavor to get people excited about

politics regardless of the medium is important.

Barack Obamas recent appearance on Tonight with Jay Leno also makes this

concept apparent. He used this interview to separate himself from the chaos, and to create

an image for himself which was above the fray. This interview was one that had been

planned long in advance, and Jay Leno played softball with the President, shying away

from hard hitting news questions, mainly because he is not a journalist. Obama also used

this time to trivialize the Republican platform, stating that the race was more akin to the

show Survivor, waiting to make his move until he could see who got voted off the island.

This pop culture reference painted him as hip. His appearance was both casual and

confident, and he also took the time to take light jabs at both himself, and Michelle,

casually making fun, but not going too far, of her efforts to create a healthier nation. This

self-deprecation also served to show that he could laugh at himself, using humor as a way

to cope with the truth, something Jon Stewart has been arguing since the very beginning

of his own show.

15 Ibid


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How does he employ other actors in his narrative?

Michelle Obama plays a huge role as a surrogate for Barack Obama, and

especially in this continuing narrative of Entertainer in Chief. The stories he told about

his family are especially important. In 2007, Barack Obama appeared on the Ellen

DeGeneres Show, this show is particularly high in the ratings for daytime television,

especially scoring high with women and attracting a large female audience. During his

campaign, he appeared on the show, dancing with Ellen at the beginning. On the show,

he sat down with her, and they made a call to a viewer who asked how it was, balancing

family life with his life in the senate. He introduced Michelle and his two daughters

Sasha and Malia and then talked about how hard it was being away from the wife and the

family during his campaign, but stressed the importance of keeping his family together

during this tumultuous time, especially the importance of keeping the girls in a good

place. The tone during the interview was generally lighthearted, and he could speak about

the importance of his family.16 This is a huge example of the narrative a president is a

part of and furthers his story, demonstrating that he is not only a politician but a

concerned father. He paints the picture of himself and Michelle as very involved parents

who want to give their daughters an easy time during a campaign he knows will be hard

on them. The viewer who asked the question, was in fact a mother, and he shows to her

that he cares and he will do whatever it takes to become a healthy presence in his

childrens lives. This story became of the defining aspects of his campaign.

Barack Obamas mother S. Ann. Soetoro, and the fantasticjob she did raising him

became another part of the longstanding narrative in 2008. In April 2008, Time Magazine

16 Barack Obama, interview by Ellen DeGeneres, "Barack Obama on Ellen: Balancing

Family," The Ellen DeGeneres Show, NBC, October 30, 2007.


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did a profile on Barack Obamas mother, comparing her with her son, furthering the story

he told. When I think about my mother, Obama told [the author] recently, I think that

there was a certain combination of being very grounded in who she was, what she

believed in. But also a certain recklessness. I think she was always searching for

something. She wasnt comfortable seeing her life confined to a certain box.17

The

authors notices that Obama is a direct contrast of his mother because even though she

swept her children off to unfamiliar lands and even lived apart from her son when he was

a teenager, Obama has tried to ground his children in the Midwest.18

This also serves to

demonstrate his familial strength, and his abilities as a father. The story of his mother is

one where there was a lot of adversity to overcome, a common narrative loved by

Americans. Her story is one of constant upheaval, and violent divorce. When her son

was almost 2, Ann returned to college. Money was tight. She collected food stamps and

relied on her parents to help take care of young Barack.19

This further humanized him in

the eyes of voters, creating a narrative that alludes to the notion of The American

Dream, the notion that anyone, no matter what background, can do what it takes to

survive in this nation if his heart is pure. Americans see what is inherently American with

this notion, and this furthers the Hollywood-esque story that Barack Obama has.

American voters, time and time again, admire stories about overcoming odds and

adversity, and through his mother, Obama tells that story.

The 2012 campaign will depend on these stories about overcoming odds and

adversity. On the Oprah Winfrey Show, in a joint appearance with Michelle Obama,

17 Amanda Ripley, Zamira Loebis and Jason Tedjasukmana, "A Mother's Story," Time

Magazine, April 21, 2008: 36-42.18 Ibid.19 Ibid.


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Barack Obama stated that he wants to be the president who restores peoples belief in

the American dream.20 The appearance on Oprah, while fulfilling the intentions of a

president who wants to appear outside of the traditional audience, made it evident that he

and Michelle were a unit and they are still a very strong familial unit. They continued the

narrative that they are a family in Washington, no matter what. Michelle shared, during

this interviews, that Malia has begun to do the laundry. This served to demonstrate that

they are untouched by the glamorous life, and still teaching their children how to be

independent and self fulfilling. These stories create a whole different world for Barack

Obama, making the presidency about much more than just politics. The stories people tell

are so important, and the various parts of his life become just a part of that. These stories

will play a major part in Barack Obamas campaign in 2012 and he will probably use

them to demonstrate the hardships that he had to face and overcome, hardships that took

well over four years to fix. But he did overcome them and find success, and this narrative

will prove especially important in the coming months.

The Junction of News and Entertainment: Saturday Night Live

INTRODUCTION

Although Saturday Night Live is primarily a comedy show, using sketches to

lampoon societal trends, for the past thirty years, it has taken an absolutely crucial role in

American politics. Weekend update expanded the parameters of what is allowable on

network television as well as [it pulled] together this segment [which] had to pay close

attention to the traditional new, media, resulting in the SNL office in many ways

20 Darlene Superville, "Obama Wants to Restore Belief in American Dream,"

Associated Press, May 2, 2011.


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resembling a real media newsroom.21

Weekend Update was a part of the SNL format

from the very first show, beginning with Chevy Chase sitting at the news desk. Lorne

Michaels, the creator of SNL, saw Weekend Update as one of the most important parts of

his broadcast. This show was created at a very tumultuous time in recent history, the

Nixon scandal had just occurred, and the Vietnam war had just ended. These two events

led to the creation of the news parody format. It was a very political time, said Lorne

Michaels, We had all just gone through watching Watergate, you know, almost

everyday, so people were very familiar with news and news anchors and how the news

was presented.

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Although it was meant to be primarily satirical, it was important that it

portrayed the news as it was. The writers strived to keep it very much up to date, and

there were even a few times when Chevy Chase was handed new material while he was

on the air.23 As an adept improviser, this never became a particularly huge problem for

Chase, as he could comment on these new additions very easily, demonstrating how

important it is to be an established improvisational actor for these types of political

satires.

This segment has done so much for the concept of news and entertainment today.

By using non-journalists, like actors and comedians, to play the role of the news desk,

they can jab and provoke the discussion. It tries to develop the narrative of the American

people, and serve as the voice of the American people as they respond to events occurring

around the world. In one particularly funny segment on Weekend Update calledReally?!

21 Aaron Reincheld, ""Saturday Night Live" and Weekend Update,"Journalism

History31, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 190-197.22 Qtd by, Aaron Reincheld, ""Saturday Night Live" and Weekend Update,"

Journalism History31, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 190-197.23 Aaron Reincheld, ""Saturday Night Live" and Weekend Update,"Journalism

History31, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 190-197.


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With Sethand _____, Seth Meyers, sometimes alone, sometimes with a guest, expresses

his frustration at certain news stories, mirroring the frustrations of the American Public

and providing a very humorous way of addressing very frustrating topics.

By taking what they do seriously, the cast and crew of SNL have

fulfilled a need in American society: to give a mainstream voice to

alternative points of view and to question publicly the system and

governmental leaders. Although, through taking that oppositional stance

against authority or typically being cynical about the story in question, the

show has its limitations. The goal of those behind the show is to

counteract this constant negativity by spreading it across political and

ideological lines to be consistent and evenhanded by attacking everyone.24

Weeekend Update has created a culture where political satire has become mainstream,

where shows such as The Daily Show With Jon Stewartand The Colbert Reportcan exist.

By truly channeling the frustration faced by the viewing public, Weekend Update set a

standard for fake news and has become something that politicians, celebrities, and the

viewers at home take incredibly seriously.

Another huge facet of Saturday Night Live as an institution is the presidential

impersonation aspect. I can see Russia from my house, has become a line that many

people attribute to Sarah Palin, but it is, in fact, a line written and delivered by Tina Fey

in her Emmy winning portrayal, impersonated her in Saturday Night Lives 2008

coverage of the presidential elections. Throughout her sketch with Amy Poehlers Hillary

Clinton, she made 44 body gestures, she pushed out her chin and placed her upper lip

24 Aaron Reincheld, ""Saturday Night Live" and Weekend Update,"Journalism

History31, no. 4 (Winter 2006): 190-197.


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over her bottom lip fourteen times, waved her hands seven times, raised her hand with

her finger pointing four times, mouthed words without sound while shaking a clenched

fist while nodding her head three times, licked her upper lip twice, and once she placed

her elbows on the podium and made a grabbing motion and afterwards hugged Hillary

Clinton while squinting. The visual images and dialogue of [Tina Feys sketches]

provided a connotative interpretation of Palin as an unsophisticated, unworldly,

inexperienced state politician, talking about subjects beyond her depth of knowledge

and even one who is undereducated with a poor grasp of basic grammar, which the skits

illustrated with inarticulate direct quotations of homespun haikus.

25

these served to

create Sarah Palin herself into a caricature with those outside Palins close fan base, and

ultimately really made a huge impact on the election.

This impersonation was not just a first time thing either. Chevy Chase made

himself very famous with his Gerald Ford impersonation. His biggest contribution was

the way he made Gerald Ford look like a bumbling idiot.

The show made Ford took clumsy not only physically but also

mentally. For example, Chase delivered this joke in 1975, "Commenting

on the early polls, Jimmy Carter said he didn't care much, but Ford's

comments were, 'The Poles are an independent people and autonomous

people, and I don't think they consider themselves to be under Soviet

domination.'

25 Ahrlene A. Flowers and Cory L. Young, "Parodying Palin: How Tina Fey's Visual

and Verbal Impersonations Revived a Comedy Show and Impacted the 2008

Election,"Journal of Visual Literacy29, no. 1 (2010): 47-67.


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This became a way for viewers to discuss what they had seen, and by their

impersonations, Saturday Night live became an institution, which sparked discussion.

Jason Zinoman ofThe New York Times also looked at the importance of the presidential

impersonations, and compared Fred Armisen, who plays Barack Obama, to Dana Carvey

who famously played George H.W. Bush. Zinoman argues that SNL generally adopts

a more detached approach26

while comedy by Jon Stewart uses a more direct line. Both

Bill Clinton and Al Gore received harsh treatment form SNL as Republicans have, in a

way for the show to remain as one that has no anger or agenda.27

When it comes to stamping a politician in the public consciousness,

Saturday Night Live has no equal. Will Ferrells George W. Bush was

so popular that it spawned a Broadway show. It didnt matter that Gerald

Ford was an athlete: Chevy Chase, who made little effort to look or sound

like him, convinced America that Ford was a graceless klutz. As Sarah

Palin, Tina Fey probably had the biggest impact of any comedian on the

last election.28

But he goes onto argue that Obamas impersonation is not as imaginative as the previous

ones were, and is too tied down to the real world. Although Armisen has accomplished

the cadence necessary to imitate Barack Obama, it does not quite capture the brilliance

that Dana Carvey espoused. By the time Mr. Bush was elected, Mr. Carveys complete

sentences turned into checklists of catch phrases and elaborate evasions of anything

26 Jason Zinoman, "Comedians in Chief Mustn't Be Prudent," New York Times,

December 5, 2011.27 Jason Zinoman, "Comedians in Chief Mustn't Be Prudent," New York Times,

December 5, 2011.28 Jason Zinoman, "Comedians in Chief Mustn't Be Prudent," New York Times,

December 5, 2011.


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concrete.29

Armisen, however, has trouble capturing the true parody of Barack Obama,

and does not take too many chances and risks, the same chances and risks that made

impersonators like Chevy Chase, Darrell Hammond, Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, and even

Tina Fey thrive.

Regardless of the apparent inability for Armisen to capture the elusive Obama

satire, Saturday Night Live has become a societal institution. It is at the center of both

politics and entertainment and serves to spark political discussion in a markedly different

way than the press. It also serves as a very important way that humor can be used to

digest what is going on in the media. Entertainer in Chief is a huge concept espoused by

this junction mainly because it does the same thing that the Entertainer in Chief is

determined to do. It opens political discussion up to a brand new audience while catering

to their needs as viewers.

Conclusion

The concept of Entertainer In Chief is a very important part of the American

political discourse. Because it opens up to a different audience, it has become a very

crucial part of any president, or potential presidents campaign. The mainstream media

remains a very huge part of the political discourse, but often falls to a narrow audience,

and many of the candidates target voters can fall outside of the demographics of Sunday

Morning, or nightly news. Through alternative outlets such as comedy shows, talk shows,

and late night shows, candidates can have alternative discussions while telling their

stories and putting importance on their narratives in a casual, laid back setting. Also,

29 Jason Zinoman, "Comedians in Chief Mustn't Be Prudent," New York Times,

December 5, 2011.


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because the stories they tell are so important to a voter, these outlets become almost as

important as debates themselves. Where the news and entertainment meets is also at the

crux of this discussion, as these alternative ways to get the news, such as Saturday Night

Live, The Daily Show, and the Colbert Report, are humorous and also attract a much

wider audience than traditional news outlets. They provide a way to digest the stories told

by the politicians, and by sparking more discussion, continue various narratives.


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