Billionaires for Bush: Analysis of Sarcasm and Humor as a Means of Propaganda

The Billionaires for Bush website is best encapsulated by the large red, white and blue pig with green bills sticking out of its back that is located in the top right corner. Pictures of "billionaires" in suits holding champagne glasses and old-fashioned tennis rackets appear throughout the site, as well as links to a do-it-yourself handbook to becoming a billionaire. Ads for the site's store, which sells "Blood for Oil" bumper stickers, are also a popular sight.

The group Billionaires for Bush uses sarcasm and irony to lure people into accepting its views by presenting the opposite view. The group operates mainly through its website, which is set up to resemble that of an actual pro-Bush organization, and someone who stumbled upon the site may even mistake it for such. In fact, the main page does not ever state that it does not really support Bush. If the material of the site is read somewhat critically, however, the true message of the site comes through quite clearly. The website uses gross exaggerations and caricatures to paint a very negative picture of the billionaires, and while doing so criticize Bush and his stance on most political issues. The site does extract some humor through its methods of hyperbole and stereotypes, and this humor is meant to disarm the reader to some degree. A reader is more likely to view something humorous as entertainment rather than intimidating political propaganda and will therefore be more receptive. This allows the group to somewhat subtly get its message, which is not always logical or factual, across.

The group makes the billionaires incredibly greedy, self-centered, and despicable not just for comic effect, but also to discredit the side that these fictional people are taking. It wants readers to be so turned off by these people that they will not want to be associated with anything that the billionaires support, regardless of whether it is a valid political stance. The group's persona of the billionaires also allows it to slyly bash many of Bush's policies without coming out and saying it. It presents all of Bush's policies in terms of an investment for these billionaires, suggesting that Bush's only goal is to make the billionaires money. It also suggests that Bush only went into Iraq to get oil for the billionaires. The group also makes many claims that are just false. It says that Bush's tax cuts gave the billionaires $1.1 trillion and "tidbits for everyone else," when in fact the tax cuts were for all levels of the tax bracket. The Billionaires for Bush website is strong anti-Bush propaganda slightly downplayed by some marginal humor.