American Election 2012 - People Making a Joke?

In a somewhat risky move, the aspect of the American election that I found interesting is the comedic sketches and videos that have been made about the election and of Obama and Romney. The sketches and videos made have very little in terms of political message but instead try to turn a serious political event into a joke.

This first video was taken from the Jimmy Kimmel show, and is the comedian Chris Rock with a "special" message towards white voters, who Mitt Romney had the larger levels of support from. It is a comedic attempt to generate "white" votes for Obama by portraying him as a "white" president even calling Barrack Obama "Barry", the name that Obama went by during his early years. The video is a sarcastic look at voting demographics of American politics, in the idea that it would take an African-American man to change his name to something "white" such as Barry and acting like a white man, in order to achieve the white vote. 

This is also true when it comes to the black vote as well. Taken from the Jimmy Kimmel show (again), it places Jimmy Kimmel in an African-American barbers and when asked what it would take for Mitt Romney to gain the "Black" vote and one of the responses was "turn black". What these videos show is the almost ridiculous lengths in which candidates would have to go to in order to appease all the demographics of the American vote.

  

The comedic jabs at the 2012 election did not remain on the comedic talk shows and TV sketches, it also went into the real of internet music parodies such as the Mitt Romney vs Barack Obama Epic Rap Battle of History (ERBH) (feat. Abraham Lincoln) and College Humor's Mitt Romney Style (a parody of PSY's Gangnam Style). In the ERBH video it shows the weaknesses of both the political candidates, to the extent that the portrayal of Abraham Lincoln states that the president shall not be "the shiniest of two turds" which conveys the negative public opinion that was held against both Obama and Romney. In the college humor video, it is more of a "piss-take" on the rich affluent life style that Romney leads (interesting comparison to the Gangnam style of the parodied song) and that the only reason he should get your vote is because of his wealth. The Vice President candidate (at the time) Paul Ryan also is parodied in the video and garishly states that he would be cutting the "safety net" of welfare if elected, whilst referring to his "looks" as a reason to be elected. The college humor video appears to be specifically created to make Romney and Ryan look like an absolute joke, and it is very successful (also is a good laugh). There are numerous other videos that are aimed at making a joke of the 2012 election and American Politics itself, such as Jesus Christ, Republican candidate which shows the "fantasy world" that republican voters live in, to the extent that not even Jesus could survive as a Republican Candidate.