Body As Evidence
Chapter 1 Pop Goes Democracy Mediating Race, Gender, and Nation on American Idol Parallels between presidential elections and the hit TV series are not hard to make. Indeed, they had become punch lines in comedyAmerican routines: Idol from Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert complaining that it took too long to determine the next American Idol (in a gag that had audiences assuming he was referring to the next U.S. president) to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel quipping that, after watching the vice presidential debate during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2008, he “voted four times for Sarah Palin and six times for David Archuleta,” in reference to the popular Republican vice presidential candidate and frontrunner contestant that year. Interestingly, movie critic RogerAmerican Ebert Idol’s mounted criticism against Palin for being “the American Idol candidate,” in which he argued the following: I think I might be able to explain some of Sarah Palin’s appeal. She’s the “American Idol” candidate. Consider. What defines an “American Idol” finalist? They’re good‑looking, work well on television, have a sunny personality, are fierce competitors, and so talented, why, they’re darned near the real thing. There’s a reason “American Idol” gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could be me up there on that show! . My problem is, I don’t want to be up there. I don’t want a vice president who is darned near good enough. I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well‑traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq.
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