The Power of Laughing the Relation between Humour and Politics in Obama's Presidency

Humorous jokes and pun that we see through social media and television are more and more influential to the current political debate. How can a politician turn this into an advantage? This dissertation tries to analyse the interaction between humour and politics. Humour has been an important part of rhetoric since Socrates and Aristotle, and analysing the legacy of presidents like Reagan and Clinton, it is arguably possible to affirm that their popularity was fostered by their characteristic use of humour in public venues. Looking at Obama’s speech at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, it is possible to take a deeper look at how jokes affects the perception of politicians and how politicians can use humour to their advantage. The data has shown that humour has a positive outcome on the receptiveness and the likeability of a politician, thus helping its image building and narrative creation in political campaigns: humour it is a valuable tool to arouse interest and create a common mood to bring the audience closer, it can be used to attack opponents without showing disrespect or impoliteness, it is an effective way to save face or defend a personal position, or it is possible to lighten difficult topics through it.