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This is a clip from a Family Guy from season 5 episode 17. In the video, Lois is running for office and is trying to convince uninformed voters to vote for her. She uses several simple persuasion techniques to make her seem better. This clip uses satire to try and show how political parties try to fool voters into believing what they say.
How does this clip portray the problems in todays political debates?
In what ways does Family Guy use satire to address a serious problem in politics?
In what ways does the clip show how people behind the actual candidate control their actions?
How are undecided voters portrayed compared to how they are in real life? Is this portrayal accurate in its description of voters?
Justen Wright
Mingqing Chen
Derek Yahnke
I believe that undecided voters are portrayed as stupid. The voters will go along with little statements, and often things that do not even relate to each other. In the clip, it seems funny and outrageous, but in actuality, voters really are like that. I believe it is fairly accurate for voters and political candidates alike, though it is exaggerated a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI think this clip is showing that undecided voters don't actually follow candidate's policy points, or what their plans are once their in office, but rather about their personality, how they portray themselves, and what they say at a given moment. During this day and age especially, people are becoming more and more uneducated about politics and government issues so they become undecided voters and sway the votes with their ignorance. They vote based off of what they hear as opposed to what they know. 9/11 is an event that every American is aware of, and Family Guy uses this to display that undecided voters only react to what they know about.
ReplyDeleteFamily Guy is using satire to address the serious problem of uniformed voters and their easily persuaded minds. It over exaggerates the reactions voters have to political figures, with their cheering and clapping to the fragmented speeches given. This is getting at the idea that we as uninformed voters only look into the surface and focus on key ideas instead of the depth and understanding required to appropriately appoint a political authority. Though this may not be accurate to a real life scenario, it does highlight that we fail to focus on more intricate and specific matters, than generally determined "important" issues.
ReplyDeleteThis clip portrays how undecided voters are very uninformed. They are shown believing anything that the candidates say even though what they are saying makes absolutely no sense. The uniformed voter is easily persuaded but not by being well informed. Americans have become more and more uniformed when if comes to politics. The gap between politicians and the American public has grown over the years, and this clip expresses this.
ReplyDeleteThis clip shows that many political debates nowadays involve mostly dodging around questions and not really answering anything. Satire is used in that Mayor West is satirized as a stereotypical politician with the answer he gives to the voter, and satire is used in posing the undecided voters as unintelligent. This is made apparent when Lois begins using short simple answers instead of thoughtful drawn out explanations, even though the short answers don't actually answer the questions.
ReplyDeleteThis clip portrays an uninformed citizenry as a body of easily convinced people who form their stances by what the candidates say instead of having an informed predisposition based on their morals and beliefs and values. It portrays the candidates as people who take advantage of this lack of a stable foundation of political knowledge and opinion, and gain their supporters through means that actually have nothing to do with campaigning their goals and aspirations for the betterment of the community they are supposed to accomplish by being elected. Instead, they gain supporters through manipulation, and this is especially easy when the citizenry has no idea what is going on and is completely unaware.
ReplyDeleteFamily Guy does a very good job at showing major stereotypes that they think are prevalent in todays society. They show how many undecided voters don't know much about the issues in America. Instead voters listen to the emotional appeals of candidates and respond to things like 9/11. How true is this in America today? Do you think that a majority of the votes for winning candidate come from uninformed voters who voted for someone because of the candidates emotional appeal?
ReplyDeleteThe creators of Family Guy are satirizing how relatively easy it is to persuade current voters. Often times, voters do not know every detail about the main issues in politics. For this reason, many people tend to side with the candidate who has good charisma (satirized by the voter commenting on the candidate "looking him in the eyes")or who gives vague answers to complicated questions. In the clip, Lois wins the approval of the voters by giving a simple answer that everyone agrees with ("9/11 is bad"). Voters today are not this easily persuaded, but they are often times persuaded by irrelevant details, which is the motivation behind this clip of satire.
ReplyDeleteThis clip is a well represented satire of politics in the real world. So many people are mislead to false information or are so misinformed of whats really going on that they will believe anything that they are told. Voters currently will just hear the small bit of a debate or piece of information about a candidiate and decide thats why they are going to vote for them. They believe that information thrown at them without really thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteThe clip satirizes how the candidate fool the public with the help from the group behind. The candidate does the speech for vote instead of truly willing to help improve the government better. While the audiences do not have judgement and just clap. Just like in the real world, political candidates make the speeches have no actual meaning. There are many people do not care about the government and just fellow what they say to do some response.
ReplyDeleteThe clip satirizes both the candidates and the public by portraying the public as easily fooled and swayed to believe in a candidate even if they talk non-sense. Portraying the candidates as people who just try and say words that appeal to the public to gain their trust and approval. The clip is also an example of rhetorical fallacies such as when Lois answers her question and says "911 is bad" which is a sentimental appeal to try and sway the audiences feeling.
ReplyDeleteThe clip shows how the issues can be avoided by basically changing the topic and the clip shows this as it avoids topics by answering more broadly. The people in the campaign party advise them as to what will get them more votes whether it is right or not. Undecided voters are portrayed as easily swayed and uninformed and that in some cases is accurate of people in real life.
ReplyDeleteThis clip satirizes the stereotype that undecided voter tend to be uneducated people. Democrats have very different views then Republicans, so if a person can't decided who to vote for, they tend to take in factor that have nothing to do with if a candidate would will do well in office. In the clip, the undecided voters didn't care about Lois's views that would actually make a difference, but only cared that she was a patriot and that she believed terrorism was wrong. In today's society, people get rapped up about socials issue that really have nothing to do with the advancement of our country; Family Guy make fun of how stupid and ill-advice these people are.
ReplyDeletei laughed when the first contester completely avoided the question asked, to gain voters. he basically said what the people wanted to hear, without taking a side. politicians have to make a decision when they take sides, because once they take a position on an issue, they may lose support.
ReplyDeleteThe clip shows how politicians are able to talk around a question, never give an answer to it and still win over the voters. It is comedic because no one wants to admit that this is actually happening even though this is fairly common in today's politics. Family Guy exaggerates the situation but it is still happening and the voter isn't really doing anything about it.
ReplyDeleteThis clip uses invective satire method to specially target the undecided voters. The voters seem easy to persuade and do not consider seriously about what candidates are saying. They just vote for whoever they feel comfortable with. Therefore, candidates develop some "persuading strategies" to make voters like them in order to gain their votes, such as look voter into his eyes, or keep their answer simple. Candidates in this clip also use some rhetorical fallacies when they answer voters' questions. For example, the guy keeps repeating the useless fact to avoid the question, and Lois uses sentimental appeals by keeps mentioning 911. Undecided voters might not care about politics, or they just do not be given the enough information to decide. For example, my roommate just give up her vote for the undergraduate student government election because she think she knows too little about the candidates to decide.
ReplyDeleteThis clip of Family Guy portays voters as malleable, especially when their emotions are appealed to, which is why Lois constantly brings up 9/11- to get them emotionally charged, in which state it is easier to convince them towards her side of the contest.
ReplyDeleteThis clip of Family Guy portays voters as malleable, especially when their emotions are appealed to, which is why Lois constantly brings up 9/11- to get them emotionally charged, in which state it is easier to convince them towards her side of the contest.
ReplyDelete