Patricia M CI5472 Teaching Film, Television and Media Studies
October 22, 2006

Powerpoint Slides
Slide 1
Genre: Political News Satire

Stephanie Miller Radio Broadcast
Twin Cities: M-F (8 a.m. – 11 a.m.) on 950 A.M Air America Radio Station
Setting: produced in Los Angeles; show goes on the road from time to time
Distributed by the Jones Radio Network. As of November 28, 2005 the show is produced exclusively by WYD Media Management
Theme: Take Back America
Links: http://www.stephaniemiller.com;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stephanie_Miller_Show#Hosts_Personalities;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/note-to-air-america-watc_b_28111.html

Slide 2
Value Assumptions

Democrats are protecting democracy. They have the moral high road on equitable taxes; universal health care; social security; pro-labor; pro civil, women’s & gay rights; anti-war message.

Republicans are no longer conservative in the original sense of the word; instead they are corrupt and scandal-ridden (control of media, voting machines, co-opting of religious fundamentalist message, torture of prisoners, Foleygate, false justification for Iraq war)

Blatant mix of low-brow and high-brow; serious news content treated satirically, Republicans ridiculed, apolitical entertainment, pop culture segments

Slide 3
Roles and Line-up

Stephanie Miller-comedienne. Refers to herself as “mama,” with leitmotif of box-wine addict, elderly shut-in, infatuation with “future husbands” including Sen. Russ Feingold (WI), Keith Oberman (eloquent MSNBC news commentator).
Jim Ward (voice deity) – straight man to Stephanie’s comedic takes; voice imitations of Saturday Night Live quality; conspiracy corner theorist
Chris Lavoie– commentator – sound board genius – each 3 hour segment includes twenty plus songs; vaudevillian pace punctuated by brilliant sound effects.
Live drummer and telephone call screener

Right Wing World – Republicans Eating Their Own
Stand-Up News We Don’t Want To Lose
Tinsel Talk: Hollywood gossip of apolitical nature
Celebrity Interviews: politicians, authors or Hollywood celebrity activists

BLOG ENTRY:

I obviously love the Stephanie Miller show. I like the fact that a female comedienne is helping to keep our country sane. She has the same charisma as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in the political news satire on Saturday Night Live.

More detailed information on the Stephanie Millier show as political satire can be obtained on Wikepedia. Steve Young compares her show with Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. He maintains that satire done well is a genre which works:
At least when Hannity or Limbaugh does it you [get sic] come out of it with some credible rage. When it's someone on the left pounding out one-sided bombast their message sounds implausible to a liberal. Beaming out "hooray for our side," doesn't work for the left. In the least, it's insulting.
There are exceptions, of course, but far too few. Jones Radio's syndicated Stephanie Miller and sidekick Jim Ward pound out three hours of terrific liberal humor every weekday morning. Sometime fart jokes, sometimes brilliant satire. But always fun. The only successful one who doesn't do it with comedy is Air America's Randi Rhodes, but Rhodes is so well-read and radio-hardened, that her arguments far surpass the bloviator test. Simply, she doesn't bullshit her audience.
That Jon Stewart of the "Daily Show," and Stephen Colbert on the "Colbert Report," shine as liberal, albeit twisted, newspreaders, should be taken as a huge hint to liberal talk radio. Political satire works. Not that television should be done on radio. Al Franken, though an intelligent and funny guy, has proved it a rocky road. But there is a viable synthesization available in dishing out information through thoughtful humor with a pace and voice that does not bore nor irritate.
Politics and satire. It's a innate combination. They go together as naturally as prunes and regularity. And done right, they're just as gratifying and effective. Not jokes. Satire. Not snare-drum, set-up, punchline, but humor that comes out of situation. Not sitcom obvious, but cleverly surprising.
Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and the newly released, "15 Minutes" (HarperCollins).
See full entry at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/note-to-air-america-watc_b_28111.html

A binary analysis of the Stephanie Miller show a la Levi-Strauss (Branson & Stafford 48-9) yields the following structure:
good vs evil
Democratics vs Republicans
Freedom vs fascism
Honesty vs. corruption
Democracy vs despotism
Individualism vs corporatism
The show rarely deviates from this pattern.

In attempting to apply the codes suggested by Barthe (Branson & Stafford 69-70) I came up with the following ideas.
Enigma code—Why the right wing is doing what it does; conspiracy corner--why things are not what they seem to be. The explanations or pseudo-explanations offered on the show supply answers to liberal listeners and food for thought to conservative eavesdroppers.
Action code—Though radio is obviously not a visual medium, I would still say
that the musical excerpts, sound effects and editing techniques comprise create a fast-paced comedy routine, harkening back to vaudeville days or the early days of radio. The whistling of the 3-ring circus, the clapping audience etc. brilliantly sets up the imagined action. The average 3 hour segment lists an average of 20 songs in the credits. The imagined spontaneity relies on a tight script delivered at break neck speed, resulting in the illusion of a never-ending party.
Semic code—(connotations built up around the characters and actions)
As I suggest in the Power Point, there is teamwork behind every segment. Stephanie
Miller takes on the persona of a ditzy woman, box-wine alcoholic, elderly spinster shut-in, dog-lover with slutty hetero crushes on prominent liberal bachelors, who refers to herself as ‘mama.’ In short, she has all of the female stereotypes rolled up into a sort of ‘everywoman’ persona. This persona obscures what I suspect to be the truth, just as with Jon Stewart, that s/he is a brilliant intellectual whose satire is more palatable in short comedic sound bites. (In real life she is a very attractive woman whose father was vice-presidential running mate of ultra-conservative Barry Goldwater, so she stems from a staunch Republican family.) Of course, Jim Ward, voice deity, plays straight man to her comedic takes, as well as doing wonderfully accurate and funny impressions of people in the news. He also supplies the conspiracy theories. “Boy toy” Chris Lavoie provides commentary and runs the sound board, I believe.
Symbolic code—probably not applicable to radio.
Cultural or Referential code: The show is very historically and specifically
grounded in daily events. Air America was founded to compete with the influence of right-wing radio talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh. Right wing radio played a prominent part in the Republican takeover in the last few years. This explains the strident stance of the liberal talk shows.

Checking in on Oct. 14, 2006.