YouTube on Masculinity and the Founding Fathers: Constitutionalism 2.0

While it may be tempting to dismiss the broad humor and downright inaccuracies of politically oriented YouTube videos such as Brad Neely’s animated short on George Washington, this article argues it would be a mistake. The campy exaggerations and absurd claims contained therein may offer new sources of populist resistance to dominant understandings of masculinity as played out in the relation between the founding fathers and contemporary constitutional politics. This article explores two parodies of masculinity and paternity, suggesting ways in which YouTube may be used to integrate or converge scholarly and popular understandings into a new discourse, called Constitutionalism 2.0.