The relative merits and policies of each of the candidates for mayor need scrutiny, debate and intelligent parsing. This is not going to be the place to do it... sorry. For the rest of us we are using skills handout #1 and are bored...
Incongruity is skill # 11 on your handout and really seems out of place. In a political campaign you the unpaid comic use incongruity to highlight the statements a campaign makes with a little used skill... reality. Every campaign tries to put their candidate in the best possible light... it's the name of the game... as a comic your task is to use this to form the basis of jokes. Usually incongruity becomes apparent on the hustings when a candidate offers it up on a platter... the family values guy who is caught with hookers... Mr. Law and order charged with trafficking drugs or the anti-gay reformer suddenly saving money by sharing a hotel with his same sex aide. Calgary has had some moments of incongruity from their candidates but sadly we will have to go by the candidates track record... or lack thereof...
Ric4Mayor has 9 years as an Alderman, voted against the budget 9 times, was unable to get the support of Council members to back him and promoted himself as Dr. No. The incongruity is that he had chances to make a difference and show fiscal restraint without success... fortune cookie anyone? During the campaign he revealed the 7 non elected members who have already agreed to form a coalition with him while promoting his ability to get consensus. As a comic this may seem easy but dig deeper...
Setup: With the race for Mayor beginning to slip away Ric4Mayor is highlighting his experience and warning voters of the perils of electing someone with less credentials.
Punchline Incongruity: With his vast experience and cost cutting credentials Calgary is looking at a potential tax increase of 9% and about a billion in poorly tendered contracts and questionable purchases.
Barb4Mayor is a study in how incongruity can sometimes work in the candidates favour. Since she refuses to gift comics with a scandal we have to go by her past and find the incongruity. In her role as a news anchor and community spokesperson Barb4Mayor gained a reputation as a really nice person, friendly and willing to roll up her sleeves to help out a cause. Boring! Her incongruity is while all the other candidates have talked tough she is the only one who has fired a manager for not performing. The obvious incongruity has already been used by her.
Setup: Candidates are calling Barb4Mayor naive and too inexperienced to perform the job of Mayor.
Punchline Incongruity: Reacting to the shots Barb4Mayor released a critique of their websites highlighting the typos and then fired her tax adviser for trying to claim deductions on schedule 1 of the tax form that clearly were better served under her private company.
Nenshi4Mayor: By running on a platform of undisputed intelligence and a promise to fix a broken Council Nenshi4Mayor claims all ideas as his own and when another candidate has a similar idea he cries plagiarism. If the idea is different he their obvious lack of intelligence. It plays well to the kids and makes incongruity really easy.
Setup: Reacting to a policy statement from his opponent Nemsi4Mayor called the ideas that he agreed with brilliant while slamming the naivete of those that didn't.
Punchline Incongruity: For someone with such an extensive book knowledge of human relations Nemsi4Mayor failed the part on how cooperation requires you sometime use the inside voice.
The race has less than a week remaining... for the sake of all comics lets hope someone serves up a belated turkey.
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