“War has rules, mud wrestling has rules. Politics has no rules.”
On Monday, Nov. 4, just one day before the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, the Hamline University Programming Board (HUPB) decided to host a special screening of the 2012 political satire film “The Campaign,” which they described on Presence as highlighting the absurdities of the election process through comedy and wit.
The story of the film follows a Democratic Congressman named Cam Brady (played by Will Ferrell) from the state of North Carolina, who has run unopposed in the 14th Congressional District for 16 years. When it is discovered that he called a constituent mistaking them as his mistress and left a sexually suggestive message on their answering machine, a local tour guide named Marty Huggins (played by Zach Galifianakis) decides he has had enough and declares his candidacy for the Republican nomination and several wacky hijinks ensue.
These include punching babies and dogs in the face, shooting your opponent in a hunting accident (à la former Vice President Dick Cheney), and making a sex tape of your opponent’s wife and playing it as a campaign ad. While the film may be a solid 7/10, it is a hilarious time for anyone wanting to let some steam off about the election season.
“I wanted to bring awareness to the very important election coming up and encourage people to vote. We need every student at Hamline voting if possible, so people are encouraged to vote.” HUPB representative senior Delaney Hagarty said, “There is incentives at the event too, which are a Squishmallow and a LEGO set, great incentives for the faith of our country.” But yeah that’s what really got us to do it and ‘The Campaign’ was just a fun movie to kind of break the tension for this week and just enjoy a good time.”
The other person involved in helping to run the event was Sophomore Keegan Terrone, who was willing to share how he feels about the election season.
“I’m a little stressed [about the election season], not much I’ve already voted [in Kentucky] because I’m not from here. I got to do an early vote which was nice and I got it out of the way,” said sophomore Terrone, who was .
The grand prize for the raffle was a pickle Squishmallow named Marilyn, where there were only two people who entered. The eventual winner was a first-year student named Martin Snodderly, who also enjoyed watching the film.
“It [the movie] was very funny, I liked it a lot. All of the movies that — listen, I might be basic for it but I really like Will Ferrell movies. It’s funny, I like comedy movies,” said Snodderly after finishing the event.
While only five people managed to show up to the event, the message is still clear. Even though politics has become more stressful and heated than at any time in recent memory, when you take a step back we can all come together and have a good laugh about it, no matter who you are voting for.