commentators all take part in this ritual. In parody, the performer begins
by studying a candidate in order to identify his or her most distinctive
characteristics. In the first line these are often linguistic features
(phonology, lexical items, grammar), gestures, mannerisms, and other
distinctive aspects of communication. There may be an attempt to look
and dress like the object of the parody, while the content of the
communication originates in the subject’s ideas, beliefs and actions. By
contrast, the comedian reproduces the subject’s language and style,
emphasizing certain aspects for humor’s sake. Mockery of this kind is
meant to expose what is silly or ridiculous (in the opinion of the
performer), and to open the object up for criticism and ridicule.
In its extreme form, mockery provides a shortcut to language-focused
subordination. Sociolinguists, critical language theorists and
anthropological linguists are interested in mocking as an overt gesture of
gatekeeping, one clearly intended to pass on a negative message about the
person being mocked. In the study of linguistic and stylistic mocking, the
emphasis has been primarily linked to race and ethnicity. There is a great
deal of work on Mock Spanish (Hill 1995; 1998; 2008); African American
English (Ronkin and Karn 1999) and the accents of Asians who learn
English as a second language (Huebner and Uyechi 2004; Klein and
Shiffman 2006; Lo 1999), among others. Less work has been done when
the underlying motivator is not racism or xenophobia, but socioeconomic
class distinctions.
In the case of Palin’s candidacy for vice-president, it is precisely such
socioeconomic class distinctions which were brought into play. The
campaigners took a carefully calculated stand when they presented Palin
to the electorate using associations that come along with her constant
references to small-town, Joe Six-Pack, hockey-mom, and the working
class. Darling (2009: 16) contends that terms like these “represent a set of
conflations which link whiteness, rurality and poverty to backwardness
and conservatism.”
In the months before a presidential election, there is an upswing in
parody and mockery that no major candidate escapes. In the 2008 election