The Onion is one of my favorite online humor sites. As a satire of other more serious newspapers, it often utilizes the power of comparison/contrast and allusion to create its humor. The graphic on the left and its accompanying article, Americans Announce They're Dropping Out of Presidential Race are no exception.Written in the style of an article covering the upcoming presidential election, this article turns the table on typical election discourse by saying that the voters, rather than a candidate or two, are dropping out of the presidential race:
"The U.S. populace, which has participated in every national election since 1789, said that while the decision to abandon next year's race was difficult, recent events, such as disappointing victories by both Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani in regional straw polls, left them with no real choice.
"We gave it our best shot, and for a while it seemed like the American people actually had a chance of coming out on top,' Weare, NH resident Mark Simmons said at a press conference in front of his suburban home. 'Unfortunately, as much as we'd like to remain optimistic, it's become clear that this just isn't our year.'
Added Simmons: 'Maybe you'll see us again in 2012.'"
The accompanying graphic (left) also lends to the "authenticity" of the satire, as it looks just like a map used to track which states are favoring which candidate or political party. Instead, reasons why Americans are no longer interested in voting in the 2008 election are listed.Similar to Colbert and Stewart (see earlier post), this article uses humor to point out the ridiculousness of many aspects of U.S. politics and politicians. By utilizing satire through effective visual and verbal rhetoric, this article comments on the despair that many Americans feel when attempting to make sense of politics today, as well as America's apparent inability to fully participate in one of its fundamental freedoms--the right to vote.
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