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Volume 7/ Number 2 (83-98) September 2020 https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/rubikon

BUILDING COMIC IMAGINATION THROUGH POLITICAL PARODY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON IN THE PRESIDENT SHOW AND ’S THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Isna Ardyani Fataya Interactive English Language Center (IELC Solo) e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT Article information The number of Americans watching political comedy shows has Received: 13 August, 2020 significantly growing recent years. The views increase as TV channels Revised: 27 August, 2020 spread their programs into social media, such as YouTube. The comic Accepted: 10 September, 2020 and funny aspects depicted in the political parody can be in the forms of imitation, impersonation, and reflection of one‘s character, expression, and appearance. This paper aims to investigate American TV programs, The President Show and Saturday Night Live‘s The Presidential Debate, by employing humor theory seen from Van Dijk‘s critical discourse analysis. The dialogues used by the are analyzed to figure out the elements of funny features, comedy, and parody. Hence, the purpose of this study is to answer whether or not the discourse mechanism can build humor in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‘s The Presidential Debate. The data apply ten ‘s YouTube videos and four Saturday Night Live‘s YouTube videos. The data comprises of political and power discourse. The analysis concludes that both shows utilize some aggressive strategies to criticize Trump‘s character, such as metaphor to represent policies, contrast to illustrate positive self-representation, and hyperbole to demonstrate racism. While Saturday Night Live applies to contrast Trump‘s image. Saturday Night Live contrast Trump by applying strategies such as disclaimer, implication, incongruity, aggressive, and illustration to criticize his personalities and his controversial political decisions.

Keywords: Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton; impersonation; political parody; Saturday Night Live; The President Show

DOI : https://doi.org/10.22146/rubikon.v7i2.62746 Available at https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/rubikon/article/view/62746 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

RUBIKON Volume 7/Number 2 September 2020

INTRODUCTION jokes (Matthes and Rauchfleisc, 2013, p. 597). Rossen-Knill (2008) argues the following: Humor can be referred to as an umbrella The parodic message, whether it term to describe all forms of funny, amusing, highlights criticism or humor, cannot take or laughter-evoking situations such as the an explicit form. Even the minimal production of a sitcom, the performance of parodic message must be ‗‗worked out‘‘ stand-up comedy, and the process of joke- by an audience, with the understanding telling. Recently, humor has often been that the speaker expects her audiences to work it out (p. 46). employed in political parodies to get the Based on these insights, it can conclude that public‘s attention. The infusion of politics into parody may speak to different audiences in entertainment and the infusion of different ways. If the viewers succeed to entertainment into news have proliferated to understand the message, they will figure out engage public culture (Hariman, 2008, p. 248). the comic element intentionally transported by Moreover, the rise of political talk shows the parodist to the viewers. On the contrary, if featuring political parody started to gain they fail, they might respond with a simple momentum approaching the 2016 US sense of amusement due to the silliness of the presidential election (Esralew & Young, 2012, parodic acts (Matthes & Rauchfleisc, 2013, p. p. 339). At the time, the media impersonations 604). of political figures have become an effective device to promote some political campaigns. In current times, there have been Rose, as quoted in Hariman (2008), argues that numerous trends of bringing political parody parody may define as ―the comic functioning into talk shows. Sultan et al. (2019) argue: of preformed linguistic or artistic material.‖ It Talk shows are most prominent among means that the comic and funny aspect other shows as they are precise and depicted in the parody can be in the form of present bitter facts in a very light way by imitation, impersonation, and reflection of the commenting, satirizing, analyzing and criticizing in much funny style. political figure‘s character, expression, It conveys some news by exploring specific appearance, and gesture. words, accents, tones, indirect speeches, or According to Hariman (2008), parody other similes and metaphors used by the defines as ―the exaggerated imitation of a impersonators. It airs on the television person to achieve a comic effect.‖ It contains program emphasizing humorous coverage of four intentional acts: the flaunting of objects, current issues and parodies of political figures. the imitation of texts, the critical acts, and the In other words,a political talk show has comic action meaning that these acts portray become both an intriguing program for the amusing style, physical character, self- public and a platform for the politician to deprecation, and dismissive attitude (Rossen- administer power and dominance over society. Knill, 1998, p. 32). Specifically, the Besides, some talk shows enrich viewers with relationship between comic and political recent American issues and influence them. elements makes parody ―more complicated Kucera, (as quoted in Sanchez, 2016) points than simple critique‖ (p. 46). Hence, due to the out: implicit meaning in political parodies, viewers Last year, late-night shows and political need some background knowledge to get the communications had walked closely towards political discourse, showing that

84 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate

the combination of political issues and comicality from politics are through stand-up humor has begun to have a real influence comedy, late-night television, and on the public‘s political knowledge and impersonation of political figures (Hakola, opinions (p. 6). Humor can serve as a 2017). The phenomenon of turning the powerful rhetorical tool when employed by political officials. For that reason, political figure into a comical show for the political discourse persuades and mass also commonly occurs in the United convinces different rhetorical styles, such States. Some well-known figures are as personalization, nominalization, irony. indisputably impersonated by talk shows‘ Consequently, this tendency is leading to impersonators to demonstrate amusing aspects the dramatization of politics (p. 18). making viewers laugh as the depictions of As the era of technological advancement negative stereotypes, shortcoming, fatal flaw, skyrocketed, late-night comedy shows have and personal character. Further, the former moved forward to streaming platforms and presidents,the current president, and the social media such as YouTube, Facebook, presidential candidate of the United States also Instagram, and . The consumption of have become the objects of political this genre unexpectedly raised by 50% in 2016 impersonations in the television programs and (Zoglin, 2016). This trend leads to viral YouTube channels such as , momentum in political content, which mostly Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump. Several affects some political figures. Specifically, the late-night shows such as The Tonight Show, viral phenomenon had an important effect The Saturday Night Live, The Rosie O‟Donnell during the 2016 US presidential election Show, and The Late Show with David campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Letterman feature politicians as a prominent Clinton (Brewer & Gao, 2008). Some late- target of joke and impersonation (Matthes & night shows even reach high rating programs Rauchfleisch, 2013; Becker, 2018; Hariman, for provoking political campaigns to the 2008). The programs provide politicians with viewers. Despite somewhat simplistic, ―a comic stage and an outlet for successful presenting political issues in aparticular self-mockery and ridicule‖ (Becker, 2018, p. manner can lead viewers to think that politics 794). As Gray, et al. argues: is enjoyable, thereby stimulating political Since its earliest days, Saturday Night participation (p. 92). From this perspective, the Live has inserted itself into the political arena, mocking the politicians of the combination of political issues and humor day—from ‘s caricatures of a began to have a real persuasive influence on clumsy Gerald Ford to Dan Akroyd‘s the public‘s political knowledge and opinion version of a grumpy Richard Nixon, to (Kucera, 2015). It the end, this strategy is Dana Carvey‘s parody of George Bush‘s benefited by certain figures as the medium to ‗‗thousand points of light‘‘ speech, to pursue their political propaganda. debate parodies during the 2000 election starring as George W. Bush Politics, despite its formality and serious- and as Al Gore (as mindedness, is still inseparable from humor quoted in Becker, 2018, p. 793-794). and comicality. In this context, people who The growth of political impersonations as follow the political events of a nation might part of humor has attracted researchers‘ turn politics into something comical for the interest in analyzing such a topic. There are mass. Some preferred methods in obtaining

85 RUBIKON Volume 7/Number 2 September 2020 several previous kinds of research analyzing humor on Saturday Night Live and Donald political humor in the United States from Trump. However, different from Hakola‘s myriad disciplines. Compton (2016) takes a research, Becker (2018) analyzes people‘s popular show in the United States titled perceptions toward Trump when he shares his Saturday Night Live. He explores the response regarding his impersonations via responses given by the presidents of the Twitter. The results of her research revealed United States, such as Gerald Ford, Bill that Saturday Night Live makes Trump gain Clinton, and George W. Bush, toward their positive response from netizens since they find impersonations in Saturday Night Live. His Trump‘s impersonations in Saturday Night findings mark that some presidents can find Live are biased and lack of amusement the amusements from the mockeries targeted (Becker, 2018). From the previous researches, to them. Instead of feeling dejected, they laugh late-night talk shows, such as Saturday Night along with the mockeries and reply to the Live, become a favored medium to analyze mockeries with other jokes (Compton, 2016). political impersonations of US prominent Another research is conducted by Sanchez figures. Hence, this researches attempts to look (2016), who investigates the 2016 US at another late-night show demonstrating presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, and Trump‘s impersonation over his character- Donald Trump‘s interviews on the late-night based, personal failing, self-deprecation, and comedy shows. The study aims to analyze the dominant power toward himself as the type of language, the rhetorical used, and the president. This research also looks at SNL‘s kind of viral elements found in their presidential debate. However, this analysis performance. The finding reveals that political further explores the significance of the discourses are mainly used by the impersonations of Hillary Clinton in the impersonators when they are impersonating presidential debate and another popular public figures and representative authorities of Donald Trump show that is The President society while personalization humanizes the Show. audiences. In discussing humor in the political Still, in the same medium of research, parody, talk show functions as an act that Hakola (2017) observes the contents of enables social actors to use humor for serious Saturday Night Live containing the topic of the purposes. It becomes a communicative way to presidential election. The selected objects of raise social issues regarding something this research are the impersonations of Hillary important, reliable and significant, i.e., the Clinton and Donald Trump when they were struggles of the working class depicted by presidential candidates. The findings reveal Charlie Chaplin to conform social codes and that based on the contents, Saturday Night Live behavioral standards have invoked a humorous employs different aspects of impersonating discursive mode of the severe suffering Trump and Clinton. Trump‘s impersonators undergone by many working class in the era directly attack his physical characteristics and (Deveau, 2012, p. 36). The exposure of personality. Meanwhile, Clinton‘s political comedy shows can enhance impersonators focus on her political decisions. audiences‘ understanding of political issues Similar to Compton‘s and Hakola‘s research, and become an effective platform to lead Becker (2018) also explores the political viewers to perceive politics as less

86 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate complicated than it is. Thereby, political US president such as by uttering repeated use parody successfully attracts public attention of words: huge, unbelievable, fantastic and and reach higher voting to the political agenda. genius to indicate power, populist leader and aggressive look (Hakola, 2017). Besides, the This research purposes of investigating an way Atamanuik, as the , utilizes American comedy TV, The President Show, facial expression, gesture, body position,and by employing humor theory from the language to impersonate Trump‘s domination, perspective of critical discourse analysis. It power, including superiority, make the show analyzes the elements of dialogs used by the even more appealing. The analysis of the actors who impersonate Donald Trump, which expressive meaning of words and modes of is considered funny, intriguing,and provoking. speaking look at the persuasive strategies to This study aims to answer the question of inform American social issues. whether or not the discourse mechanism builds The President Show. It utilizes qualitative According to Van Djik (2004), power is research to present the analysis emphasizing not only a way to control the acts of other the researcher‘s interpretation of the data people, but it also controls the minds as the (Cresswell, 2009, p. 175). The data source is basis of action, which is discursive (p. 25). ten YouTube videos from Comedy Central‘s Media power, such as television, is generally The President Show and four YouTube videos symbolic and persuasive in the sense that it from Saturday Night Live‘s Presidential can control the minds of the viewers, but not Debate. Ten videos from Comedy Central are directly their action. Humor emerges as a selected as they explore Donald Trump‘s powerful tool when employed by political personality more than other programs. In figures. In this line, Van Dijk (1998) brings contrast, videos from SNL‘s Presidential discursive concepts linked to the use of Debate are chosen because they use another language and ideology to reveal positive self- character which is Hillary Clinton, to expose representation toward certain people Trump‘s personality. After investigating the supporting internal group and negative other- data, Trump‘s impersonation is compared to representation toward others (p. 69).In this Hillary Clinton‘s impersonation in the SNL to case, CDA analyses the discourse to find the figure out the dissimilarity of humor strategy hidden meaning and to reveal that political employed by the impersonators. discourse creates the power to certain dominated group. This research applies a critical discourse analysis approach to find out how social The President Show is an American power, dominance, and inequality are enacted, comedy television that began its premiere on reproduced, and resisted by text in a social and Apr 27, 2017, on Comedy Central TV political context (Van Dijk, 1985; Van Dijk, as Channel, owned by Viacom Global quoted in Schiffrin, 2001, p. 352). It gives Entertainment Group (Szalai, 2012). Anthony insights into the connection between the use of Atamanuik hosts the show as Donald Trump language and the exercise of power and collaborated with as US Vice ideology (Fairclough, 1995, p. 23), i.e., how President, . Atamanuik began the language used by the impersonator shows impersonating Trump during the 2016 United Trump‘s character and dominant power as the States presidential campaign. Previously, he

87 RUBIKON Volume 7/Number 2 September 2020 also appeared on several talk shows during the who disagree with his policies, the campaign, including @midnight, The Chris impersonator represents Trump as a person Gethard Show, and (Sanchez, 2017). who is unnegotiable and unfeasible to In contrast, Saturday Night Live is an understand. According to Martin and Ford American late-night television (2018), aggressive humor intends to be a created by . Both the programs means for criticizing others in the form of revolve around political jokes and social issues insult. The impersonator uses it as a tool for such as American-Mexican borders, criticizing Trump‘s mannerisms and the Republican versus Democratic Party, US tax, political decisions he has made during his environment policy, and global warming. reign.

DISCUSSION Van Dijk‘s (2000) strategies analyze the aggressive humor in the videos, which are After analyzing ten videos that metaphor, contrast, and hyperbole. According impersonate Trump as US president, the to Van Dijk (1997), political discourse studies findings figure out that there are political revolve around professional politicians such as discourses and power discourses that are president and prime ministers. Most of the visible throughout the shows. From the scripts are based on what the President of the political discourse, The President Show applies United States delivers or writes on the media. some strategies, i.e., metaphor strategy is From Van Dijk‘s strategies (2000), the humor utilized by Atamanuik to illustrate Trump‘s in The President Show consists of political policies, contrast strategy to produce positive contexts. self-representation, and hyperbole strategy to demonstrate racism. In the power discourse, Metaphor Strategy as the Presentation of several discourses strategies bring audiences to Policies realize the hidden meaning of comic aspects within the show, such as implication, Van Dijk‘s first strategy found in this incongruity, aggression, and illustration. show is a metaphor related to Trump‘s policies. The excerpt of the script is as Political Discourse in The President Show follows: Trump: ―It‘s great to be back in America. In this show, Antony Atamanuik How very much I‘ve loved you, impersonates Trump‘s verbal utterance and how very much I‘ve tried my best body language. Even though this show mostly to give you a good life. It‘s hot in makes fun of Donald Trump and falls within here, or did I pull out of the Paris the comic genre, the scripts contain political Accord. Nothing good. What a terrible deal that was for America discourse related to American political issues. everyone says, ―Trump. Trump. Based on Martin‘s and Ford‘s theory of humor What about the melting ice (2018), the type of humor which frequently caps?‖ Don‘t worry.My occurs in The President Show is aggressive environmental policy will take humor. The selected videos represent Trump care of the Penguins. The as a person who possesses a high level of self- Pittsburgh Penguins. A confidence and has positive views toward tremendous hockey team. The bird penguins can get incredible people who support his policies. As for people

88 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate

jobs as coal miners.‖ (Comedy would undermine our economy, hamstring our Central, 2017, 00:18) workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose The context of this humor refers to Trump‘s unacceptable legal risks and put us at a decision to withdraw the United States from permanent disadvantage to the other countries the Paris Agreement on climate change. The of the world.‖ (as quoted in Chemnick & impersonator uses the metaphor ‗the melting Sobczyk, 2019). The metaphor in the script ice cups‘ to refer to ‗global warming.‘ This considers Trump‘s confirmation on the global kind of text belongs to Van Dijk‘s metaphor warming issue, which is different from his strategy in which the impersonator of Trump statement that he disregards Paris can impose represents Trump's image when he declares the administration. disbelief toward climate change (2000). Since Trump regards climate change as unreal, the Contrast Strategy as the Medium to Positive impersonator uses the metaphor ‗the melting Self-Representation ice cups‘, referring to melting ice in North and Van Dijk‘s second strategy (2000) is the South Poles due to global warming. The contrast strategy. According to him, this metaphor shows the disinterest of Trump strategy functions to emphasize someone's regarding climate change. Melting ice in the positive quality by comparing it to others. The North and South Poles is as unimportant as following script shows the contrast strategy melting ice cups. The life of real penguins is between Trump and a climate scientist. The less necessary than Pittsburgh Penguins, or political context is still related to global colloquially known as the Pens, an epithet warming. The excerpt of the script is as emanated from a professional hockey team follows: based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hence, the Interviewer: ―But all the scientific studies impersonator criticizes Trump‘s derogatory indicated....‖ view toward climate change, which is, in fact, Trump: ―Oh, who cares about science? very crucial. That‘s Bernhardt‘s. I‘m fighting for the forgotten man. He doesn‘t By analyzing the example above, read studies. He‘s the man who metaphor in the political context function as a forgot to read.‖(Comedy Central, tool to attack political opponents, the 2017, 01:01) presentation of policies, or the legitimation of The scene indicates that Trump disbelieves political power. In this case, Trump‘s science and evidence of global warming. The impersonator points out the way Trump acts impersonator employs the contrast strategy toward people who are in a disagreement with used to emphasize the positive quality of him on the debate over climate change. The Trump by comparing it tothe said climate term ‗melting ice cups‘ is the metaphor of scientist. This scene is under the news in global warming, and at the same time, it which Trump accused scientists of having a becomes the presentation of environmental political agenda by using climate change as policy in the United States. The metaphor of their tool and also considered that climate global warming as the melting ice cups change as a (Blumberg, 2018). The name functions as a hint to the audience for what Bernhardt in this scene might refer to Trump‘s political context the impersonator wants to interior chief, David Bernhardt. He is leading deliver. Trump declares, ―The Paris Accord the environmental groups in Trump‘s Cabinet.

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However, his political strategies in the cabinet other‘s groups (Van Dijk, 2019). The other do gain unpleasant remarks from the media. group, in this case, is the immigrants who come to the United States without having Politically, the contrast strategy proficiency in English skills. The impersonator emphasizes the polarization between self and is exaggerating the way Trump impersonates other (Entman as quoted in Van Dijk, 1997). how the immigrants speak. Simultaneously, By looking at this scene, it is clear that the the impersonator also shows that Trump‘s impersonator tries to depict Trump‘s positive ability to speak English is not as excellent as it representation by letting down his chief‘s seems. There is a website that attempts to name. People can formulate hypotheses about measure the complexity of Trump‘s self, and others, which represent the self-group vocabularies by using a common metric, the in more positive ways than the other group Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. The results show (Van Dijk, 1997). In this scene, the that Trump‘s vocabulary and grammatical impersonator points out the difference between structure ranks the last compared to the former how Trump sees himself and how Trump sees presidents of the United States, and his other people. The impersonator's acting depicts speaking ability is equivalent to a fourth-grade Trump as a person who has positive self- level. As stated on the website: representation toward himself but does the By every metric and methodology tested, opposite when it comes to others. Donald Trump‘s vocabulary and grammatical structure are significantly Hyperbole Strategy as the Medium to more simple, and less diverse, than any Demonstrate Racism President since Herbert Hoover, when measuring ―off-script‖ words, that is, The following scene is regarding the issue words far less likely to have been written of immigrants, and the impersonator uses the in advance for the speaker (Firschling, hyperbole strategy to play his role as Trump: 2018). Interviewer: ―Why does your immigration Firschling (2018) reaffirms Trump‘s language plan place so much use of English is, in fact, less qualified than importance on the ability to the previous US president. Trump‘s statement speak English?‖ seems to exaggerate the condition in which he Trump: ―If you want to live here, you compels immigrants to master English with a need to talk English very well. As a president who English great, I proper grammatical rule before transporting to know job good is important for a America. He forgets that America is a job done. My stand with good multicultural country where many immigrants Americans like local milk people. come there without mastering English fluently. So true. So true.‖ (Comedy Thus, his speaking tends to underestimate the Central, 2017, 00:41) majority of immigrants who unable to speak In this scene, it seems that Trump is English well. making fun of immigrants who are not fluent Comical Points in Political Discourse in English by imitating how they speak in broken English. Hyperbole strategy is After taking a glimpse of the examples commonly used by political speakers when above, it can conclude that aggressive humor they are elaborating on their groups and dominates the show consisting of teasing and

90 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate insulting a person. In The President Show, language is dominantly aggressive and even though the impersonator acts like Donald negative when he refers to the ‗others.‘ The Trump, what the impersonator does is way he answers is always with short phrases mocking Trump in several ways. Warren and and political content. However, he fills the McGraw (2015) propose an idea that people discourse with emotions and rhetorical tools to laugh as they perceive the situation as playful, show his personality dealing with others‖. amusing, acceptable, or benign. The audience Thereby, Atamanuik in The President Show regards the show in the playful context where comprehensively impersonates Trump by they know what the impersonator says about uttering language as a rhetorical tool to the president is merely a joke. In this case, the indicate his strength as a stiff and a powerful displays of disrespectful behavior toward president. Furthermore, some derogatory Trump is a violation of moral norms. In some words emerge as an insult, euphemism act as scenes, the impersonator teases Trump‘s habits an indirect word to refer to something and political decisions upon US policies in his embarrassing or unpleasant, ―sometimes to administration. However, it is benign in some make it seem more acceptable than what it is‖ way because the audience enjoys the show (Hornby, 2004, p. 339-428). alongside his/her family or friends. It would turn out to be unfunny if they sat and watched Power Discourse in Saturday Night Live The President Show with the actual Trump by According to Van Dijk (2001), political their side. The situation indeed would be discourse represents the enactment, threatening and would lose its comicality. reproduction, and the legitimization of power Thus, the context and situation make and domination. Power discourse is also something funny. employed in the political impersonation on There are several scenes in The President Saturday Night Live during the 2016 US Show which apply aggressive humor as a presidential election. Here, Hillary Clinton means to criticize Trump. The ways these was impersonated by Kate McKinnon in her aggressive jokes are through different character as an entertaining, easy-going, and strategies such as metaphor, contrast, and ambitious woman (Hakola, 2007, p. 5). She hyperbole to disclose Trump‘s character and debates her competitor, Donald Trump, personality in offending such derogatory impersonated, by Alec Baldwin. In the first statements toward others. Since Van Dijk‘s section of the debate, the impersonator uses strategies focus on positive self-representation other-directed hostile to attack Trump by and negative other-representation, it sees from emphasizing negative opinions such as failure the jokes that real-life Trump has positive self- and disaster. Other-directed hostile humor representation. As for the outer groups who do functions when ―the comedian acts as the satirist, presenting a hostilecritique of a not in agree with him, the impersonator shows him as a person who sticks to his guns – in a politician‖ (Becker, 2012, p. 792). The theory negative way. The aggressive humor also argues that seeing people from their body reveals the injustice treatment carried out by language, characters, accent, expression, Trump toward the outer group, prompting choice of words, and weakness could find jokes that result in something funny. some contentions with his policy. Sanchez (2017) argues, ―In current times, Trump‘s

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Implication Strategy as Personal Discourse Besides, the individual speaker attempt to express her principle, morals, power, and The Saturday Night Live depicts Hillary someone who is not afraid to take action when Clinton as a woman having the capability to necessary (Bramley, 2001, p. 28). As he control her mind and behavior as a politician argues: to solve the social problem. Doing ―being a good politician‖ involves Clinton: ―Listen, America. Donald Trump showing oneself in a positive light. The cannot be president. He would be use of ‗I‘ in conjunction with talking a disaster. A failure. A complete about what the interviewee is doing to be ―f.‖ And America, you deserve a good politician. Self is also represented better than an ―f.‖ So on Nov 8, as an individual when the politician vote for me, and I promise I will expresses opinions about and responds to be a stone-cold ―b.‖ (The situations, gives descriptions or narratives Saturday Night Live, 2017, about oneself, recounts actions that the 09:08). politician has performed with his/her job The statement above represents the power as a politician, shows his/her authority, discourse of Hillary. She shows that if she knowledge or responsibility towards wins the election, she will give her best. Van certain issues (Bramley, 2011, p. 37). Dijk (2001) argues that power can control the Bramley‘s argument concludes that pronoun in social power of someone. In Hillary‘s speech political discourse represents the speaker as a on Saturday Night Live, she shows her power good politician by showing her promise, as the presidential candidate. However, her reputation, and commitment to choose as a power is different from Donald Trump since candidate. she is controlling her minds in the way she Incongruity as Political Discourse talks during her speech compared to Donald Trump, who tends to show off his power. In Host: ―That was incredibly rude to this dialog, the impersonator utilizes personal secretary Clinton.‖ discourse to construct Clinton‘s image and Clinton: ―Thank you, Chris. That‘s mark strong motivation. The choice of exactly the kind of language that has poisoned and debased this personal discourse can identify the discourse election. and if you agree, go to markers that the speaker intends to convey. hillaryclinton.com and buy a Alavidze (2017) insists that the choice of limited edition nasty woman deictic words such as personal pronouns is the mug.com (The Saturday Night weapon used by politicians to achieve their Live, 2017, 07:04) goals. Karapetjana (2011) suggests that the In Clinton‘s statement above, it shows that pronoun ‗I‘ implies a personal level to show previously the host asked some raising taxes to authority and personal responsibility as well as save the programs like social security that will commitment and involvement (p. 43). ‗I‘ be executed by her. Then, Clinton tries to evokes the speaker a personal voice that explain what kinds of social security and distances her from others. ―This means that it Medicare previously mentioned. She confirms cannotexpect that the other members of her that she takes her responsibility to contribute party agree with the speaker‘s opinion when to social security and Medicare. Trump the pronoun ‗I‘ is employed.‖ responds by saying Clinton is anasty woman

92 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate considered rude and offensive statement controlling her emotion while arguing her during the political debate. As a masculine opinion. The incongruity also occurs in the leader, he tends to deploy his strength to mock following scene: others by bullying and offending vulgar Host: Wikileaks has been releasing your utterances. In the end, Clinton normally campaign e-mails, many of which responds to him by promoting her website on raise some serious questions. Clinton: Thank you for bringing up my hillaryclinton.com and selling her mug through e-mails, Chris. And I am very an online shop. happy to clarify what was in some of them. Sorry, what, Clinton deliberately gives the unreliable Carol? What? I‘m sorry, I and unrelated answer to drive the host move to thought I heard my friend Carol another question and forget to fulfill the (The Saturday Night Live, 2017, previous question. Here, incongruity comedy 04:04). tends to give some missing information that The dialogues uttered by the impersonator might become useful information to the reveal that she prefers to throw out the viewers expecting a significant answer. The question by giving irrelevant answers. Based effect of incongruity is that somehow viewers on Van Dijk‘s theory, the dialog above end up with a disappointing feeling as the belongs to the incongruity strategy. When the answer do not fulfill their expectation. Based host asked her to clarify some emails on Van Dijk (2000), he argues that incongruity containing political campaigns, she disrupts it has a meaning of giving incomplete as if she listened to the voice of her friend, explanation to the recipients. It implies that the Carol, who called her name. These strategy happening here is the unsatisfying implications strategies create a shock to comment given by Clinton. When the host laughter as the impersonator gives an unrelated supports her as Trump ridicules Clinton by answer. saying ‗a nasty woman,‘ the impersonator Illustration Strategy as Power Discourse promotes her product by asking audiences to visit certain websites and buying a mug Clinton: ―I don‘t know if you‘ve heard instead of giving a relevant answer. this before. But I was instrumental in taking down a Besides, during this scene, several singing man by the name of Osama bin moments on the show effectively utilize Laden (The Saturday Night Live, incongruity in comedy in which humor arises 2017, 05:48) from the unexpectedness of a singing Clinton tries to reveal her statement after politician. It implies that Clinton could control hearing Trump‘s utterances of answering the her trait, which is different from Trump‘s host‘s question of the economy that he is better impersonation. Hakola (2017) argues that equipped than Clinton. She also provokes a Clinton wrote an article in a ‗human of New statement regarding the economic system that York blog‘ telling that women must control it arrives at a serious problem. She admits the her emotion when she wants to make a career problem needs much careful attention (The in a man‘s world. Therefore, Clinton‘s Saturday Night Live, 05:32-05:58). In her impersonation in Saturday Night Live reveals statement, she shows unexpected that she turns up to be an ambitious woman ridiculousness by acting as a singer while

93 RUBIKON Volume 7/Number 2 September 2020 mentioning a name, Osama bin Laden The scene above brings the audience to the last referring to the Twenty Years‘ War between session of debate whenClinton demands the the United States and Al-Qaeda, a conflict that viewers to elect her as US president. both sides have ultimately lost. During the According to Van Dijk (1998), the disclaimer administration of George W. Bush, America serves as a discursive strategy in which the aimed against the Taliban regime, declaring speaker presentsa positive representation of war againstthe Middle Eastern country self-legitimation and rejects it with a particular (Tierney, 2016). The worst risk, America spent term such as ‗but.‘ It functions to preserve the a multitude of economic budget on its military face of the speaker; in this case, Clinton does forces in the time combating the massive not expect the recipient to have a negative attacks. In this case, the illustration strategy is perception of her. Therefore, the disclaimer used by Clinton to illustrate the name of strategy typically serves as a positive-self Osama Bin Laden behind the incident Twenty representation. Additionally, it also works to Years‘ War towards American foreign policy. ―maintain the political stance by maintaining Van Dijk (2000) argues that powerful the respect to the audience and legitimize the argumentation is acceptable if the illustration in-group and the outgroup member‖ (Van is provided by depicting actual information. Dijk, 1995). It uses to show prejudice, Illustration in the power discourse functions to mitigate, or to respect the audience since they highlight important issues toward social may have a different perspective of a problems to reveal the hidden meaning of the particular case (Irfam & Wahyudi, 2012, pp. language uttered by the speaker. 93-95).Based on the theory, Clinton‘s statement is involved in disclaimer apparent Disclaimer Strategy as Power Discourse effort in which the speaker portrays the effort In the following script, Clinton applies a to show her persistent desire to be a president. disclaimer as a discursive strategy to promote Comical Points in Power Discourse herself to be a president after Trump ends up his statement. Her statements invite some Compared to Donald Trump‘s persuasive way from her basis of power. This impersonator in The President Show, Hillary statement indicates that, due to her previous Clinton‘s impersonator in Saturday Night Live experience as a politician, she convinces the portrays more on Clinton‘s character as calm, viewers that she could achieve her goals. direct, persistent and brave women. Through Clinton: ―Listen, America. You hate me, the entire dialogues, the impersonator wants to my voice, and my face. Well, show Clinton‘s strength as a woman dealing here‘s a tip. If you never want to with her competitor, Trump, in the presidential see my face. Gain, elect me debate. Whereas in The President Show, the president, and I swear to god I will lock myself in the impersonator, somehow, reveal Trump‘s and not come out for four years. personality as uncompromising, self- But if you don‘t elect me, I will exaggerating, and arrogant man. From his continue to run for president until speeches, he tends to respect others, the day I die, and I will never supporting his thought. Contrastingly, he does die‖ (The Saturday Night Live, the opposite by disregarding people rejecting 2017, 08:00). his policy. As Saturday Night Live has been

94 Isna Ardyani Fataya – Building Comic Imagination through Political Parody: A Critical Discourse Analysis on Donald Trump in The President Show and Saturday Night Live‟s The Presidential Debate airing since 1975, in 2016, the audience got of immigrants. By analyzing the political and their new refreshing on Saturday Night Live. power discourse, the data figure out how In that year, the United States had a big year of Trump‘s character is criticized and utilized to the presidential election between Republican depict his behavior and personality. Besides, presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and the ways some aggressive jokes on the show Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary are through different strategies such as Clinton. However, Saturday Night Live shows metaphor, contrast, and hyperbole. Compared more on how Hillary Clinton tries to defend to Hillary Clinton impersonated by Kate her opinions toward Trump. Her defenses are McKinnon in the Saturday Night Live, some mostly in the form of aggressive humor, which other aggressive strategies are employed to tends to create comic aspects in the midst of depict Clinton‘s character. The impersonator her speaking toward political issues. uses strategies such as disclaimer, implication, incongruity, and illustration strategy to depict CONCLUSION Clinton‘s character as an entertaining, easy- The phenomenon of turning political going, and ambitious woman. In sum, it can figures into a comical show for the mass has conclude that jokes regarding stereotypical, commonly occurred in the United States. The physical traits and character flaws of political former presidents and the current presidents of figures dominate US political parody to get the the United States have become the objects of jokes, such as by commenting, satirizing, and political impersonation in late-night talk criticizing ironical fault, indiscretion, self- shows. Hillary Clinton in the Saturday Night deprecation toward other people. Live and Donald Trump in The President REFERENCES Show are among talk shows, which ultimately impersonates US political figures. It even Alavidze, M. (2017). ―The Use of Pronouns in combines the comic over political campaign to Political Discourse.‖ International obtain the public vote, especially in the period Journal of Arts & Sciences, 9(4), 349-356. Retrieved from of the presidential election. Some late-night http://www.universitypublications.net shows achieve high rating programs to provoke political campaigns to the viewers and Bayram, F. (2010). ―Ideology and Political Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis boost political purposes to spread the of Erdogan‘s Political Speech.‖ Arecls, 7, rhetorical agenda. Hence, political talk shows 23-40. Retrieved from involving political parody emerge as the https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org platform to familiarize public with the infusion Becker, A. B. (2012). ―Comedy Types and of humor, amusing, entertaining aspects so that Political Campaigns: The Differential viewers funnily enjoy political issues. Influence of Other-Directed Hostile Humor and Self-Ridicule on Candidate There are several scenarios on The Evaluations.‖ Mass Communication and President Show that use aggressive humor as Society, 15(6), 791-812. DOI: the means to criticize Trump. Here, political 10.1080/15205436.2011.628431 and power discourse criticizes his personalities Becker, A. B. (2018). ―Live From New York, and political decisions, such as how he handles It‘s Trump On Twitter! The Effect of the issue of global warming and his viewpoint Engaging with Saturday Night Live on Perceptions of Authenticity and the

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n%20A%20van%20Dijk%20- %20Ideology.pdf Van Dijk, TA (1985). Introduction: Discourse Analysis as a New Cross-Discipline. USA: Academic Press, Inc. Van Dijk, TA (1995). ―Discourse Analysis as Ideology Analysis.‖ In C. Schaffner & A. Wenden (Eds). Language and Peace, 17- 33. Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing. Van Dijk, TA (2000). Ideology and Discourse: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Unpublished manuscript, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. Retrieved from http://www.discourses.org/UnpublishedAr ticles/Ideology%20and%20discourse.pdf Van Dijk, TA (2004). From Text Grammar to Critical Discourse Analysis: A Brief Academic Autobiography Version 2.0. Unpublished Manuscript, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org Warren, C., & McGraw, A. P. (2015). ―Opinion: What Makes Things Humorous.‖ PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 7105– 7106. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.150383611 2 Zoglin, R. (2016). The News Politics of . Time, 188(12), 42-47. Retrieved from https://time.com

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