The Many Voices of Harry Shearer: Radio Ethopoeia, Satire, and Learning to Hear the Right-Wing Voice

This article examines how Harry Shearer uses the rhetorical technique of ethopoeia in Le Show to draw attention to the sonic properties of different types of programming in the radio ecosystem. It focuses on his impersonation of Rush Limbaugh as an exemplar of a kind of right-wing radio voice that uses certain rhetorical tropes and sonic features as the basis for its appeal. By using satire to draw attention to that right-wing radio voice, which emerged from a heritage of radio demagogues who used their voice as a means to political power, he teaches his audience to be better, more critical listeners. The sound of that voice is linked to a kind of postpolitical right-wing populist aesthetic that is characterized by outrage and overproduction, a noisy aesthetic that drowns out competing voices and ideas and makes democratic deliberation increasingly difficult.