Why Vote When You Can Laugh? The Daily Show and Complacency

Over at Christ and Pop Culture I've written a piece entitled, Why Vote When You Can Laugh? The Daily Show and Complacency concerning how satire has become our primary form of political discourse. Specifically I look at how watching programs like the Daily Show can allow us to feel as if we are politically active when really we're just watching and laughing:

That time is again upon us when car, make-up, and insurance commercials are momentarily sidelined to make way for content-less, image-shaping, political advertisements; when millions of bumpers across this great land will be drafted in an attempt to create the illusion that a candidate has wide-spread support (isn’t the logic of a bumper sticker, “I think this guy’s so worthy of my vote that I’ll attach his name to the back of my car. If I’m willing to go that far, you should vote for him too!”?); when presidential candidates meet on national television to debate issues which will affect the lives of millions of people, but are only allowed a few minutes to state their arguments and are given even time less for rebuttals.

Continue reading...