ABSTRACT
Mark Russell is a political humorist who has been a fixture on the American scene, and on public television, for a number of years. We also laugh at Russell's parody of Bush's noncommittal style-but this laughter is tied to questions the authors have about his personality and, in particular, about his ability to be a strong president. So much of the laughter at Mark Russell's gibes and comments is a kind of "guilty" laughter. It may be that political humor serves to make people pay more attention to what is going on in the political world, to be more critical of those in power, and to provide a sense of consensus that ultimately has an impact. Political humorists such as Mark Russell find themselves in a somewhat difficult situation in that they cannot let political convictions get in the way of their being humorists.
