Other Political Science Commons^™

The Political Application Of Humor, Matthew K. Harris

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In the weeks preceding the 2008 US Presidential Election, both major party candidates and their running mates made appearances on several late night comedy programs. Candidates told jokes during campaign speeches. Advertisements from both sides featured humor. In examining the campaigns of candidates since the dawn of radio and television, humor is clearly a weapon politicians believe to be important when running for office. In my Capstone Project, I hoped to answer a very basic question: Why? Psychologically, what factors allow humor to be a valuable tool for politicians in appealing to voters?

For the following thesis, I examined research …