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Analysis Of Why Jon Stewart Is Bad For America

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Politics is often a serious matter. In today’s society, there is a comedic atmosphere around politics. In the 2016 election, there were many comedians joking and parodying Donald Trump which gave him a boost in winning the election. Not only did the joking distract the voters from Trump’s real political stance but the fake news and jokes about Hilary Clinton which diminished Hilary to just her negative traits also gave Trump the upper hand in the election. as not So is that humor necessarily good for politics, especially when it concerns presidential elections? In "Why Jon Stewart Is Bad for America", Ramon Lopez, a fourth-year Ph.D. student contends that political satires in comedy-news programs are damaging to the nation. Those programs rely …show more content…

Therefore, when the comedians construct caricatures and straw men of candidates, the comedians are crafting a negative misrepresentative image of the candidate. In "Why Jon Stewart Is Bad for America?", Lopez argues that news-comedy programs like "The Daily Show" promote an environment that is not beneficial for politics. Lopez asserts that in "The Daily Show", Jon Stewart overly relies on political straw men and use the same two straw men for the two political parties. A straw man is something that presents misleading ideas and builds easily to be knock down. Since the straw men are created with the purpose of being easily brought down, these straw men will most likely focus on the negative aspects instead of the positive. I believe if these straw men are crafted the basis of positive aspects, then those straw men would be difficult to bring down because positive aspects are usually well-supported. Also, if the comedians do knock down the positive straw men, it will put the comedians in a bad light which they mostly like do not want. Thus, the comedians create negative straw men to avoid being in that position. I also think if the comedian can make their audience believe that the negative aspect that the straw man is based on is everything about the person, then when the straw man is knockdown, that person and everything associate is also brought down. In "The Daily Show", Stewart used the straw mans that "Democrats are spineless and incompetent, while Republicans are stupid and morally suspect" (Lopez 157). These straw men for the parties are easily knocked downs and thus the viewers feel that the party has no good arguments. These straw men are exaggerating those negative traits by generalizing that trait to everyone in the party. It is also exaggerating the negative because it makes the viewers believe that those negative traits

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