A political controversy involving an FBI investigation, a potential national security breech, and the integrity of a Presidential candidate seems to be anything but funny, but this hasn’t stopped people from trying. Even Hillary Clinton herself has channeled her inner comedian on the subject of her private server. Regardless of the source, humor has effectively oversimplified Clinton’s email controversy to her complete disadvantage. Instead of gaining more insight into the complexities of the controversy (which you can find in articles like this), the general public is continually bombarded with jabs and jokes based on the oversimplified explanation.
When transforming a very complex situation into a joke or a funny sound bite or even a viral meme, the story has to be extremely simple. Something along the lines of “Clinton had a private server and deleted emails because she’s untrustworthy.” Take a look at a few examples of this “email humor.”
Clinton’s Snap Chat Joke
In August of 2015 at a Democratic fundraiser dinner, Clinton attempted to lighten up the controversy with a joke written into her speech. Clinton said, “You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it… Those messages disappear all by themselves.” Although you can hear the crowd at the speech laughing, this joke sparked a lot of questions about whether Clinton was taking the FBI investigations seriously. You can read more here.
Jokes at the RNC
At the Republic National Convention this year, speakers loved to slip in email jokes wherever they could. This even sparked articles ranking “the best and the worst Hillary jokes” from the convention. You can read the entire list here. My personal favorite was delivered by Darryl Glenn, a Senatorial candidate for the state of Colorado. He laughed as he said, “And we all know she loves her pant suits — yes, you know it’s coming — but we should send her an email and tell her that she deserves a bright orange jump suit.” Watch Glenn’s full speech here, or skip to 5:30 for his joke.
Internet Jokes
Above all, the internet world has had a hay day with Clinton’s email controversy. With just a few words pasted on a picture of the candidate, users’ “creations” can circulate social media for weeks on end. New memes and internet jokes pop up every day, regardless of whether there is new information. Here’s a look at a few viral memes about Hillary’s emails:
Clearly, the oversimplification of her email controversy does not favor Clinton and the humor used by the candidate herself, the opposing party, and the internet world is only propagating this version of the story.
Very interesting article, I enjoyed the examples you shared here. In most ways I agree that many of these internet jokes about Clinton’s emails are reinforcing the issue in many people’s mind. However, do you think in some ways that by using humor she has also been able to minimize the severity of some aspects of the situation? There are example such as Hillary supporter and comedian Ellen DeGeneres making jokes on her show to kind of lighten to mood on Hillary personal emails. Whether or not that type of humor has been effective most likely depends on the audience you ask, but I do think that it is an interesting side of the humor rhetoric.