With Election Day looming, many folks are taking their politics very seriously. But approaching issues through comedy may actually be more effective in getting a message across – and, it helps take the edge off. On Friday’s Hardball, Chris Matthews spoke to The Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead and Mik Moore from the Jewish Council for Education and Research about the latest ad from their comedy-driven super PAC, Actually.org.
Moore explained how the organization works with comedians and American Bridge to make sure lies don’t go unchecked in politics. Their latest video features Rosie Perez mocking sympathy for Mitt Romney, who joked at a fundraiser in September that he could have had a better shot at winning the presidency if his father had been Latino.
Perez has strong words for Romney’s policies affecting Latinos and brings the ad home with a message for him: “Being Latino wouldn’t win you the election. But saying jokingly that you wish you were might actually lose it for you.”
Winstead then told Matthews why she may have a better shot at connecting with voters than he does:
“I’ve been doing political satire for almost 30 years now. This is such an elevated time of people who are totally insane, so I think with comics you can hit with some raw language that sometimes is the inner voice that people want to use…I think that comics, they can resonate in a way that other folks can’t or regular ads can’t. So when you say, 'this is insane at this point, people,' we’re allowed to do that in a way that broadcasters aren’t and news men aren’t, and it’s been really effective.”