Spring Break
Small additions for a more entertaining election
John Bailey
Issue date: 10/13/08 Section: Focus
There have been some some good moments in what a recent TV news headline proclaims the "Funniest Election Ever." For example: Tina Fey's Palin impersonation, Paris Hilton's declaration of her candidacy and Huckabee's political ad starring Chuck Norris. But some YouTube videos and a candidate with a dorky accent do not hilarity make.
As a nation, we've had a lot of elections - every four years, like clockwork, in fact. And that's without counting state-level or congressional elections or even leaving our shores. Are politics really so joyless that "lipstick on a pig" is the best we've been able to muster? How might we inject a little more laughter into the campaigns before Nov. 2 rolls around?
Funnier campaign advertisements
Running for a small-time position has its advantages. You might not be an Obama-sized superstar, where excited French people throw up posters of your likeness all over Paris, but there's definitely some freedom with campaign advertising.
Candidates in the Rockingham County school board race in Eden, N.C., took those golden opportunities.
One reform candidate shot his advertisement against Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" music video.
Another suggested that he'd be the "new sheriff" to "clean up this town" - honestly, buddy, you're running for the county school board, you probably won't get to shoot anybody.
A third depicted himself swinging a lightsaber, defending a schoolhouse against the Death Star. It's a bold position to take, but it's dangerous to make election promises that you can't keep - if the Sith seize control of Mrs. Murray's kindergarten class, will you be able to stop them?
Resurrect Winston Churchill
In the age of constant television coverage, politicians can't so much as burp without being labeled "gaffe-prone." But if Winston Churchill could run in the 2008 election, he'd make the Dean Scream look positively tame. While running in the United Kingdom's 1945 General Election, he described the opposing party as "having to fall back on some kind of Gestapo" - and this was right after the Second World War.
As a nation, we've had a lot of elections - every four years, like clockwork, in fact. And that's without counting state-level or congressional elections or even leaving our shores. Are politics really so joyless that "lipstick on a pig" is the best we've been able to muster? How might we inject a little more laughter into the campaigns before Nov. 2 rolls around?
Funnier campaign advertisements
Running for a small-time position has its advantages. You might not be an Obama-sized superstar, where excited French people throw up posters of your likeness all over Paris, but there's definitely some freedom with campaign advertising.
Candidates in the Rockingham County school board race in Eden, N.C., took those golden opportunities.
One reform candidate shot his advertisement against Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" music video.
Another suggested that he'd be the "new sheriff" to "clean up this town" - honestly, buddy, you're running for the county school board, you probably won't get to shoot anybody.
A third depicted himself swinging a lightsaber, defending a schoolhouse against the Death Star. It's a bold position to take, but it's dangerous to make election promises that you can't keep - if the Sith seize control of Mrs. Murray's kindergarten class, will you be able to stop them?
Resurrect Winston Churchill
In the age of constant television coverage, politicians can't so much as burp without being labeled "gaffe-prone." But if Winston Churchill could run in the 2008 election, he'd make the Dean Scream look positively tame. While running in the United Kingdom's 1945 General Election, he described the opposing party as "having to fall back on some kind of Gestapo" - and this was right after the Second World War.
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