Using YouTube & Humor

By Richard Ivory & Tiffany Shorter

Political parties and our Republican Party in particular, have often been cautious about using YouTube as a means for getting out there message. However in the past few years Democrats have not only embraced the technology, but dare I say online they own it. As Republicans we need to not be afraid of these new technological advances and use them. We may need to hire a firm to produce funny & educational videos that will get our message across to a broad audience, but however we do it we must use them.

Using humor is important because it’s easier for regular folks to grasp highly technical topics, such as the stimulus package. We need to use YouTube much like others use other satirical television programs due to attacks our message. YouTube and other video sharing sites can give us an advantage to articulate our message in a way the media could never. If we as Republicans want to define our own message we need to take the initiative. Often Republicans lack humor and a bit of fun when making there argument. As TV shows like The Daily Show tell us humor can go along way.

We need to harness this technology and do it in a way that’s fun but gets the point across. The other week a friend mentioned to me that the Republicans should start a YouTube video after the old Burger King commercial, "Where’s the Beef?"

That commercial showed two seniors looking at there new burgers they had just bought and began asking the question: Where the Beef? Implying they had gotten something very different then what they expected. We could do such a thing with the stimulus bill and ask the question “Where’s the Jobs” or something like this.

If you type in for instance “Republican” or “GOP” in YouTube’s search engine there is literal thousands of satirizing attack ads against political figures within our party figures that we know. This is of course a concentrated effort to define an image of Republicans in the mind of the millions of young people who visit YouTube. We need to care about this because many of these young people upon becoming a first time voters will stay with one party or another party for many years. For years the Party has used YouTube cautiously and thus failing to embrace it. Inaction will leave our party facing an uphill battle for years to come.

There are sites fighting back some of the best videos I have seen to date are coming from The Cato Institute and ThePeoplesCube.com. The Peoples Cube or Philip DeFranco, make fun of Democrats mercilessly and Cato produces fun and education sites. Another great video sharing site is Reason TV, which produces documentaries from a Libertarian perspective.