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To understand how jokes have functioned as part of U.S. presidents' strategic communication, this project examined every available White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD) speech over the last century, documenting various presidents' approaches to humor. I argue that the ability to talk about difficult or taboo subjects through jokes' deeply enthymematic ways of communicating has offered presidents expanded rhetorical spaces during crises, providing insights into why they started using humor with such routine frequency. Working with multiple factors shaping the modern presidency, presidents have used the elastic and inventive nature of enthymematic joking in attempts to move pressing issues outside immediate lines of criticism. The use of jokes in presidential communication is charted through three periods of WHCD. Several implications are drawn from this analysis, including the risks of humor as a rhetorical strategy.
These [press] dinners were a useful moment to defuse with humor what controversy was festering. That spring, we tried to "lance the boil" of fundraising scandals with humor.
-Michael Waldman (2000, 165), Director of Speechwriting for Bill Clinton
Throughout U.S. history, presidents have met personal and public problems with the aid of trusted advisors, military counsels, or media consultants. Yet the chief executive has found another instrument for managing policies and perceptions-jokes. As might be imagined, an expectation that one of the president's many roles should include "comedian" is relatively unprecedented. While George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt could be commended for their wit (Alisky 1990), throughout much of U.S. history a prospect that presidents should deliver regular, extensive comic monologues to the nation may have conflicted with the office's gravity. Even exceptions like Richard Nixon's four-second appearance on Laugh-In in 1968 seemed to prove the rule for a separation of mirth and state.
Much has changed in recent decades, with candidates, politicians, and presidents routinely presenting themselves to audiences through late-night shows and other comedic events. Clinton remarked that "20 minutes on The Tonight Show did more for my career than speaking for two days at the Democratic National Convention," a point underscored by David Letterman's advice to presidential candidates: "let me remind you of one thing: the road to Washington runs through me" (Fox News 2005, par. 20; Kolbert 2004, par. 22). During his first term alone, President...