According to Palatz, there are four main types of political humor. The first type is supportive humor. This is humor that first gathers the information, facts and opinions that most of the people favor. The opposite of this is subversive humor. Subversive humor is the humor that intends to challenge the facts that are held by the people. It can be used by politicians to challenge the current government. It ignores the opinions of the others. Benign humor is a type of political humor that intends to pass information indirectly. It is not mainly meant to make people laugh but it is more like a satire. Undermining humor is the last category of political humor. In this type, individuals try to criticize the failures of the government. It comments on what the government has not done indirectly.
Jones thinks that the television is a mediator between the political life and the citizens. It is a means by which the citizens get truth about their government and then they are able to question their leadership. Therefore the television acts as a mediator between politics and civic engagement.
In the case, Farwell was alleged to have engaged in sexual intercourse with his mother. These allegations were made by a close relative. Fish tries to compare this with the cartoons that were usually drawn representing the president. These cartoons were just drawn to make the politics interesting for the citizens. Therefore according to fish, Farwell’s’ situation can be compared to these cartoons and Fish concludes that such allegations are acceptable to create humor to the public. However, I totally disagree with Fish. This is because the cartoons are things that the presidents accepted to be used since they did not take any claims to court. However, the false allegations are destroying the career of Farwell and therefore cannot be regarded as mere jokes intended to create humor.
It is true that many politicians make humor in the process of delivering their intended messages to the people. The jokes they make can be categorized as stated in the paper. Television is very important since it helps pass the message from the citizens to the politicians and the vice versa. Therefore it is correct to term it as a mediator. I also disagree with Farwell’s comment. This is because in the situation, politics and religious life are very different hence in the case, there was defamation and hence the court could have taken the necessary actions against the defendant.
