I’m nine years old and I’m sitting at my
desk in a four by 10 row of girls with
the exact same hair eyes and skin color
it’s a Chinese girls school so the model
girl is a quiet and compliant one as we
were told I still remember the lines
contorting on my teachers faces she
lectured me on how I wasn’t complaining
an assignment the way that she wanted me
to because I hadn’t followed her correct
format whereas I’d gotten the same exact
answer and she became increasingly
hostile the more I tried to reason with
her of course who wouldn’t hop off the
school bus and tell their family my
individuality and learning is being
repressed I had my own way with dealing
with this I would write funny stories
about dogs or dancing or whatever I
thought was hilarious at the time and I
wrote about my teachers comments and how
that made me feel and how it was
subversive to my learning and the reason
it spread around with my friends and my
family is because it was funny I’d had a
pair peppered in some jokes and my own
snarky insight to how I felt about my
teacher this is often the case of
political humor humor is a vital means
for people to connect put it politically
in my talk today I’ve chosen to bring to
the forefront of our minds on the
relationship between politics and humor
why it’s more important than we think
for three main reasons firstly because
it dispenses political information
secondly because it makes for viral
content and thirdly because it promotes
millennial engagement the in history the
relationship between politics and humor
has always existed while we think about
ancient Greek theater we think about
tragedies we think about Sophocles and
Oedipus Rex but the ancient Greeks also
used comedy as a forum for for political
commentating on local events in at the
time they would also satirize political
beliefs such as famously in the frogs
the renaissance had their
form of this through commedia dell’arte
where characters like our Latino would
use vulgar vulgar tees and physical
humor to poke fun at local politicians
at the time the modern form of political
humor comes in the shape of Saturday
Night Live John Oliver Stephen Colbert
and Trevor Noah I mean how many of you
guys have at least seen one video by any
of these people just raise their hand
exactly it’s so popular I need to show
you how political information can
accommodate humor using a case study of
this cache to me Assad meme okay so you
have to visualize this meme it’s a
picture of a missile has got top text
bottom text cache me Assad this is of
course referencing the Syrian President
Bashar al-assad and this was released in
April 2017 after Trump released and
ordered tomahawk attacks on Syrian
military installations so this is of
course a recall parody of the cache me
Assad how about that
Denis al Berg Olli mean that was
released earlier and for those of you
who don’t know it it’s about basically a
teenage girl rebelling against her
mother and this meme upon closer
inspection actually has a deeper
satirical reference Trump’s foreign
policy is of course not a light-hearted
matter it’s not fun it’s not hilarious
he defied international law by not
consulting with the UN on his attacks or
his NATO allies but this meme a form of
political humor has a deeper connotation
of reacting to Trump’s own recklessness
by paralleling it to the teenaged
Denis Oberg Elliot in all its casual
humor this meme actually packs a
reference to its political context
political information that is dispensed
by political humor also includes topics
that are not deemed newsworthy enough in
this 24 hour cycle news where articles
rely on how much of a clickbait article
it is to gain attention
so for example last week tonight with
John Oliver covered segments on topics
that were not as popular as other topics
for example food wastage or on the North
Dakota oil boom where only a nice group
of people would be aware of this and
it’s aimed more boring but by using
humor John Oliver managed to capture an
audience’s attention now that I’ve shown
you how political information can
accommodate humor let’s establish how
political information is spread rapidly
and makes for viral content through
humor people need to engage with
politics that’s a fact
but politics is opaque in the way that
sometimes it requires technical
knowledge to be understood for example
in trade and economics and nuclear
proliferation statistics headlines and
gruesome pictures are sometimes numbing
to us it’s foreign to us especially from
a Singaporean standpoint where these
issues are so far away that it attaches
us as seeing it as our political reality
this is where political humor bridges
the gap between people and politics due
to the funny nature of political humor
political humor establishes a foot hole
in someone’s consciousness the average
attention span of an online user is
notoriously short each user spends an
average of one to five seconds on a
webpage before clicking away a user
spends two seconds of their time to read
a headline so political humor captures a
user’s attention and its permanence in
their mind when and it means it’s more
likely to be shared whether through
social media or person-to-person
interaction so that means an even
greater audience of political
information is garnered because of
political humor this is because humor is
a key tool for social interaction I mean
isn’t it the funnier people who are the
most popular people in a crowd and isn’t
it the funny people
Oh draw the most attention in the social
situation so we know now how political
humor goes viral why is it so important
for political humor to circulate amongst
the youth population used today are
increasingly politically disengaged
youth turn youth voter turnout in France
is at an all-time low in the past few
decades according to Politico 53% of
British youth turned up for the May 2017
general election and that’s considered a
high percentage one reason why youth are
not showing up at the polls is because
there’s an insufficiency in political
information youth don’t know why they
should vote why they should care to vote
and then and even if they do vote
sometimes misinformed decisions are made
in the 2016 US presidential election
pictures of people voting for a dead
gorilla named Harambee became viral the
youth have a responsibility to vote
responsibly and participate in duper to
political process after all aren’t we
the ones who have to live with the
effects we’re voting for the effects of
the policies that we’re voting for today
for the longest we should empower the
youth with political knowledge to know
why they should vote to make informed
choices and so they know that their
actions and votes have consequence
Millennials are busy studying or working
and in their downtime they’re blowing
off steam by consuming Netflix shows or
movies or whatever you like to do in
your spare time there’s no incentive for
youth to be politically engaged so to
hold their attention political
engagement has to compete with other
forms of entertainment in order to
engage with the youth this is where
politics in the form of political humor
is especially important for young people
because humor truly binds people
together and gets their attention
and it can be such a powerful way to
mobilize the youth an example of
political humors effectiveness can be
seen through Corbin’s Labour Party
so Corbin’s Labour Party has been
exceptional in the spread of its memes
of corbin east –is of Jezza of comrade
corbin the youth population has grown
supportive of Jeremy Corbyn or at the
very least are very aware of his
policies other countries and other
parties have the exact same policies as
him such as socialization and free
benefits like free University but these
parties they don’t share the same
popularity and they aren’t held in the
same regard why because they don’t have
the same humor like qualities Corbin
that contributes to his down-to-earth
personality and popularity so this truly
shows how important political humor was
to revival revitalizing the Labour Party
and how this could be done for other
parties as well taking it a step further
political humor can and can promote
citizen activism I’m going to use again
the example of John Oliver where in 2014
he covered a segment on net neutrality
in his show and a day after his show
45,000 comments were lodged with the
fight FCC thus showing how clinical
humour really does have an effect on the
people this is not to say that all
political humor and all jokes and memes
are politically informative or
beneficial
there are many inappropriate memes that
have the effect of fragmenting society
or they could contain false information
or they could lack detail nuanced
balance perspective analysis but until
people make themselves politically aware
when we tear the youth and all people
away from their forms of entertainment
or their studying or their work
political humor might be the best way to
engage Millennials and all people
to vote and be politically aware so as
I’m nearing the end of my TED talk
you’ve come to realize how political
humor shouldn’t just be a form of
escapism and shouldn’t just be viewed as
entertainment it’s a form of
mobilization political humor is even
more accessible than it ever has been in
history Machiavelli argued it was better
to be feared some say it’s better to be
loved but I say it’s better to instigate
laughter so we can connect politically
and dispense political information to
all thank you [Applause]
desk in a four by 10 row of girls with
the exact same hair eyes and skin color
it’s a Chinese girls school so the model
girl is a quiet and compliant one as we
were told I still remember the lines
contorting on my teachers faces she
lectured me on how I wasn’t complaining
an assignment the way that she wanted me
to because I hadn’t followed her correct
format whereas I’d gotten the same exact
answer and she became increasingly
hostile the more I tried to reason with
her of course who wouldn’t hop off the
school bus and tell their family my
individuality and learning is being
repressed I had my own way with dealing
with this I would write funny stories
about dogs or dancing or whatever I
thought was hilarious at the time and I
wrote about my teachers comments and how
that made me feel and how it was
subversive to my learning and the reason
it spread around with my friends and my
family is because it was funny I’d had a
pair peppered in some jokes and my own
snarky insight to how I felt about my
teacher this is often the case of
political humor humor is a vital means
for people to connect put it politically
in my talk today I’ve chosen to bring to
the forefront of our minds on the
relationship between politics and humor
why it’s more important than we think
for three main reasons firstly because
it dispenses political information
secondly because it makes for viral
content and thirdly because it promotes
millennial engagement the in history the
relationship between politics and humor
has always existed while we think about
ancient Greek theater we think about
tragedies we think about Sophocles and
Oedipus Rex but the ancient Greeks also
used comedy as a forum for for political
commentating on local events in at the
time they would also satirize political
beliefs such as famously in the frogs
the renaissance had their
form of this through commedia dell’arte
where characters like our Latino would
use vulgar vulgar tees and physical
humor to poke fun at local politicians
at the time the modern form of political
humor comes in the shape of Saturday
Night Live John Oliver Stephen Colbert
and Trevor Noah I mean how many of you
guys have at least seen one video by any
of these people just raise their hand
exactly it’s so popular I need to show
you how political information can
accommodate humor using a case study of
this cache to me Assad meme okay so you
have to visualize this meme it’s a
picture of a missile has got top text
bottom text cache me Assad this is of
course referencing the Syrian President
Bashar al-assad and this was released in
April 2017 after Trump released and
ordered tomahawk attacks on Syrian
military installations so this is of
course a recall parody of the cache me
Assad how about that
Denis al Berg Olli mean that was
released earlier and for those of you
who don’t know it it’s about basically a
teenage girl rebelling against her
mother and this meme upon closer
inspection actually has a deeper
satirical reference Trump’s foreign
policy is of course not a light-hearted
matter it’s not fun it’s not hilarious
he defied international law by not
consulting with the UN on his attacks or
his NATO allies but this meme a form of
political humor has a deeper connotation
of reacting to Trump’s own recklessness
by paralleling it to the teenaged
Denis Oberg Elliot in all its casual
humor this meme actually packs a
reference to its political context
political information that is dispensed
by political humor also includes topics
that are not deemed newsworthy enough in
this 24 hour cycle news where articles
rely on how much of a clickbait article
it is to gain attention
so for example last week tonight with
John Oliver covered segments on topics
that were not as popular as other topics
for example food wastage or on the North
Dakota oil boom where only a nice group
of people would be aware of this and
it’s aimed more boring but by using
humor John Oliver managed to capture an
audience’s attention now that I’ve shown
you how political information can
accommodate humor let’s establish how
political information is spread rapidly
and makes for viral content through
humor people need to engage with
politics that’s a fact
but politics is opaque in the way that
sometimes it requires technical
knowledge to be understood for example
in trade and economics and nuclear
proliferation statistics headlines and
gruesome pictures are sometimes numbing
to us it’s foreign to us especially from
a Singaporean standpoint where these
issues are so far away that it attaches
us as seeing it as our political reality
this is where political humor bridges
the gap between people and politics due
to the funny nature of political humor
political humor establishes a foot hole
in someone’s consciousness the average
attention span of an online user is
notoriously short each user spends an
average of one to five seconds on a
webpage before clicking away a user
spends two seconds of their time to read
a headline so political humor captures a
user’s attention and its permanence in
their mind when and it means it’s more
likely to be shared whether through
social media or person-to-person
interaction so that means an even
greater audience of political
information is garnered because of
political humor this is because humor is
a key tool for social interaction I mean
isn’t it the funnier people who are the
most popular people in a crowd and isn’t
it the funny people
Oh draw the most attention in the social
situation so we know now how political
humor goes viral why is it so important
for political humor to circulate amongst
the youth population used today are
increasingly politically disengaged
youth turn youth voter turnout in France
is at an all-time low in the past few
decades according to Politico 53% of
British youth turned up for the May 2017
general election and that’s considered a
high percentage one reason why youth are
not showing up at the polls is because
there’s an insufficiency in political
information youth don’t know why they
should vote why they should care to vote
and then and even if they do vote
sometimes misinformed decisions are made
in the 2016 US presidential election
pictures of people voting for a dead
gorilla named Harambee became viral the
youth have a responsibility to vote
responsibly and participate in duper to
political process after all aren’t we
the ones who have to live with the
effects we’re voting for the effects of
the policies that we’re voting for today
for the longest we should empower the
youth with political knowledge to know
why they should vote to make informed
choices and so they know that their
actions and votes have consequence
Millennials are busy studying or working
and in their downtime they’re blowing
off steam by consuming Netflix shows or
movies or whatever you like to do in
your spare time there’s no incentive for
youth to be politically engaged so to
hold their attention political
engagement has to compete with other
forms of entertainment in order to
engage with the youth this is where
politics in the form of political humor
is especially important for young people
because humor truly binds people
together and gets their attention
and it can be such a powerful way to
mobilize the youth an example of
political humors effectiveness can be
seen through Corbin’s Labour Party
so Corbin’s Labour Party has been
exceptional in the spread of its memes
of corbin east –is of Jezza of comrade
corbin the youth population has grown
supportive of Jeremy Corbyn or at the
very least are very aware of his
policies other countries and other
parties have the exact same policies as
him such as socialization and free
benefits like free University but these
parties they don’t share the same
popularity and they aren’t held in the
same regard why because they don’t have
the same humor like qualities Corbin
that contributes to his down-to-earth
personality and popularity so this truly
shows how important political humor was
to revival revitalizing the Labour Party
and how this could be done for other
parties as well taking it a step further
political humor can and can promote
citizen activism I’m going to use again
the example of John Oliver where in 2014
he covered a segment on net neutrality
in his show and a day after his show
45,000 comments were lodged with the
fight FCC thus showing how clinical
humour really does have an effect on the
people this is not to say that all
political humor and all jokes and memes
are politically informative or
beneficial
there are many inappropriate memes that
have the effect of fragmenting society
or they could contain false information
or they could lack detail nuanced
balance perspective analysis but until
people make themselves politically aware
when we tear the youth and all people
away from their forms of entertainment
or their studying or their work
political humor might be the best way to
engage Millennials and all people
to vote and be politically aware so as
I’m nearing the end of my TED talk
you’ve come to realize how political
humor shouldn’t just be a form of
escapism and shouldn’t just be viewed as
entertainment it’s a form of
mobilization political humor is even
more accessible than it ever has been in
history Machiavelli argued it was better
to be feared some say it’s better to be
loved but I say it’s better to instigate
laughter so we can connect politically
and dispense political information to
all thank you [Applause]
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