The Problem With Being Joe Biden: Political Comedy and Circulating Personae

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Popular Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This project examined comedic representations of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to analyze persona rhetoric in a media environment filled with circulating personae, or the many roles both created by and attributed to such figures. While sometimes supportive of a rhetor’s intended roles, we found that circulating personae can disrupt the first persona, complicate the invitations and control exerted over the second persona, propel fractal oppressions where strategic and non-strategic authorships deflect or silence a third persona, and provide an undertow of multiple meanings and codes supplementing a fourth persona. Several implications are drawn from this analysis, including how circulating personae may neuter roles important to political rhetoric and public culture.

Authors

• Don Waisanen, Baruch College - CUNY

• Amy B. Becker, Loyola University Maryland