{"id":{"repo_id":"montana","oai_identifier":"oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1085"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/montana/oai:scholarworks.umt.edu:etd-1085","repository":{"repo_id":"montana","name":"University of Montana","base_url":"https://scholarworks.umt.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Assessing the balance: Burkean frames and Lil' Bush","abstract":"In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as a whole, it does not do so with enough gusto to catalyze hard-hitting satire. In fact, the show’s efforts are mostly comedic, in Burkean terms, and lend themselves more toward a happy romp than a scathing criticism. Since the show’s target audience is “the irony demo,” a slice of society whose political knowledge is gained from consumption of entertainment than it is from more traditional sources (e.g. the nightly news), its failure to live up to its satiric veneer may have a significant impact on this group’s political engagement.","abstract_html":"In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as a whole, it does not do so with enough gusto to catalyze hard-hitting satire. In fact, the show’s efforts are mostly comedic, in Burkean terms, and lend themselves more toward a happy romp than a scathing criticism. Since the show’s target audience is “the irony demo,” a slice of society whose political knowledge is gained from consumption of entertainment than it is from more traditional sources (e.g. the nightly news), its failure to live up to its satiric veneer may have a significant impact on this group’s political engagement.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Sills, Elizabeth Anne"],"institution":"University of Montana","degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:10:20Z","subjects":["Burke","George W. Bush","humor","Lil' Bush","rhetoric"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/66","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Sills, Elizabeth Anne"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Montana"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Burke","George W. Bush","humor","Lil' Bush","rhetoric"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/66"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as a whole, it does not do so with enough gusto to catalyze hard-hitting satire. In fact, the show’s efforts are mostly comedic, in Burkean terms, and lend themselves more toward a happy romp than a scathing criticism. Since the show’s target audience is “the irony demo,” a slice of society whose political knowledge is gained from consumption of entertainment than it is from more traditional sources (e.g. the nightly news), its failure to live up to its satiric veneer may have a significant impact on this group’s political engagement."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Assessing the balance: Burkean frames and Lil' Bush"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Sills, Elizabeth Anne"],"dc:description.abstract":["In light of former president George W. Bush’s remarkably low approval ratings during the later years of his administration, the Comedy Central program Lil’ Bush seemed to be a satiric outlet for societal angst. A closer examination of the show, however, reveals that its content is funny, but does more to entertain than it does to criticize. Using the dichotomy of Burke’s comedic and humorous frames as a standard for analysis, this thesis probes the program to determine the nature of its humor. Although the show does include some critiques of George W. Bush and the federal executive branch as a whole, it does not do so with enough gusto to catalyze hard-hitting satire. In fact, the show’s efforts are mostly comedic, in Burkean terms, and lend themselves more toward a happy romp than a scathing criticism. Since the show’s target audience is “the irony demo,” a slice of society whose political knowledge is gained from consumption of entertainment than it is from more traditional sources (e.g. the nightly news), its failure to live up to its satiric veneer may have a significant impact on this group’s political engagement."],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/66"],"dc:publisher":["University of Montana"],"dc:subject":["Burke","George W. Bush","humor","Lil' Bush","rhetoric"],"dc:title":["Assessing the balance: Burkean frames and Lil' Bush"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:10:20Z"}