My teens, like many, are usually not that interested in the world of grown-ups, immersed as they are in their own teen dreams of self-fulfillment and independence. (You fellow parents of teens may recognize this as the "Give me what I want and leave me alone!" phenomenon.) But thanks to the wit displayed by recent SNL skits and by sundry other Internet-available spoofs, mine are now deeply interested in politics. As we've laughed at the antics of Tina Fey and that chick who impersonates Hillary Clinton, they've started asking questions in order to "get" the jokes better. They've even watched the debates with us, laughing at how well the impersonators imitate each candidate; and then they've joined us in perusing sites like politifact.com and factchecker.org to see just how much of what they heard was true. Lately my son has bookmarked a page showing the changing colors on the electoral map. Seeing as how I've never even totally grasped the concept of the electoral college, I think that's a good thing.
Even the hate e-mail that gets passed around about the candidates has been a learning experience. We research the claims on snopes.com, or we search for the source of any posted videos that purport to show that Obama is just another Hitler waiting to happen. We discuss the importance of checking the reliability of sources and analyzing data, and the perils of taking a quote out of context. Really, I think they've learned more in the last month than they've learned in the past 3 years.
But it's all because of the humor - they never would have been interested otherwise. So, thank you SNL, and thank you to the silly folks who dreamed up this movie trailer, and thank you to anyone else (like you crazy e-mail forwarders) who has given us a chance to laugh (and learn) over the past month. As anyone who reads my regular blog knows, it's been a treat for me to enjoy my teens for a change!
I'm absolutely appalled at the emails and discourse. We've had lots of conversations with our teen too. That's all you can do. Our conversations are spreading out to other subjects as well. She was trying to impress me one day a couple of weeks ago (obviously) when she asked me if I had seen what Dow did that day--it was up several hundred points--she was very impressed. The only problem? She meant Dow chemical--had no idea what the Dow Jones was. lol. Of course I didn't laugh when she was right there though. Of course I didn't.
Posted by: Mom24@4evermom | October 12, 2008 at 07:17 PM
The level of discourse is appalling. My teen son sees the humorous side of it, which helps me out a bit.
Posted by: suburbancorrespondent | October 12, 2008 at 08:10 PM
As a "woman of a certain age" I remember my awakening to politics came in my early teens from the humor on That Was The Week That Was. I still remember some of the parody lyrics they sang. I also learned from TW3 that there was pretty much nothing so serious that you couldn't make fun of it. I made sure to expose my kids to Tom Lehrer and The Capitol Steps at an early age.
Posted by: Molly | October 12, 2008 at 10:53 PM
It's amazing how interested kids are in politics if you talk about it with them. In 2000 I told my 10 year old son he could stay up until the election was called. Needless to say, he didn't last that long.
Posted by: Jenn @ Juggling Life | October 12, 2008 at 11:50 PM
Molly - we love the Capitol Steps. We look forward to their year-end show all year.
Posted by: suburbancorrespondent | October 13, 2008 at 12:35 PM
I have never liked SNL and even now, I don't laugh but I can't help but be amused. I have weird humor buy I'm for almost anything that helps children learn.....and that includes that show every now and again...lol
Posted by: Jerri Ann | October 13, 2008 at 01:10 PM
I couldn't make it through this election without Jon Stewart of the Daily Show
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
or Keith Olbermann on MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/
My favorite part? When they put up two sound bites in a row that contradict each other. I think all four candidates have done that!
I'm not sure when John McCain lost his integrity, but I think it was around the time he started insisting that Roe V Wade should be overturned. He sold his soul to the Republican party. Then there's Sarah Palin. Don't get me started... ;)
Posted by: Mom On The Verge | October 13, 2008 at 03:24 PM
The Capital Steps RULE!! We make time for their April Fools show every year. Their New Year's summary show is always classic, too.
Posted by: Daisy | October 13, 2008 at 09:05 PM
I took the kids to a political monologue over the weekend (see Margalit's post) and they loved it!! Rosie kept turning to me for more information since everything had happened before she was born. But Abe is such a reader, that somewhere along the line (in those science fiction books?) he must have picked up enough history to get the jokes, because that child was simply rolling in the aisles! Abe is very disappointed that he is 11 days too young to vote in this year's election. He knows how he would've voted, though!
Posted by: ora | October 14, 2008 at 08:08 AM