The Elephant Trap: Politicians Performing in Television Comedy

Contemporary politicians face immense rhetorical and communicative challenges. Performing on the intertwined stages of politics, media (including the Internet) and everyday life, they need to master diverse and contrasting repertoires of talk. Nowhere is this challenge more pertinent than in the many genres of infotainment that popular television offers. The combination of entertainment and information that defines talk shows, satire and comedy requires a much wider range of communicative styles than a public speech, a journalistic interview or an intervention in parliament. Performing a convincing political persona in these contexts requires continuous and effortless shifts from anecdote to analysis, emotion to reason, polemic to moderation, personal to political, serious to humorous and back again.