Goes to Jon Swift:
I don’t even understand the point of satire. If the editors of the New Yorker actually believe that Barack Obama is not a Muslim, Michelle Obama is not a dangerous revolutionary and that they do not actually burn American flags, as Remnick now claims, couldn’t they have just said that? Wouldn’t it have been simpler and clearer to run the illustration with a big X over it so that we knew what they were trying to say? We are not mind readers. It doesn’t make much sense to say the opposite of what you mean and then attack people for being unsophisticated because they thought you were sincere. Do New Yorkers always say the opposite of what they mean and then expect you to understand? Real Americans, I think, prefer straight talkers, like John McCain, who means what he says when he tells us that he doesn’t know very much about economics, can’t figure out how to use a computer and believes that we will be in Iraq for 100 years.
Satire, I believe, is supposed to be funny, though I don’t see how being dishonest is humorous. I think it’s just sad. If the New Yorker wanted to run a humorous cover that showed Obama is not a Muslim, they could have accomplished that goal by depicting him slipping on a banana peal on the way to church. That would have made the same point and it would also have had the virtue of being funny.
***The illustration might also have been acceptable if the New Yorker ran it on the inside of the magazine where people who are sensitive to mockery would not have run across it casually on a newsstand. Or they might also have enclosed this issue in a brown paper bag the way pornographic magazines sometimes are to keep it away from the eyes of children and people with heart trouble (how many children have been traumatized for life and how many deaths this cover has caused will only be known in the coming weeks). While the cover may have met the community standards of a place like New York where people apparently don’t mean what they say, there are some parts of the country where satire is just not acceptable in public.
I was laughing out loud.
dan robinson
That Jon Swift is a funny guy.
e funny at all because you wouldn’t know when to laugh.
Joel
Thank you! The perfect way to start the day!
Cassidy
My favorite part so far.
Napoleon
I heard an interview with the author of the article (which I have yet to read) on Fresh Air last night. Very good. His basic premise is that Obama is very much the politician in a nuts and bolts kind of way.
It gives me a lot of comfort that Obama is very much a practical Politian and in light of some of the things the author says in that vein I think that what Obama is doing with the 50 state strategy is to trying to tilt the field with down ballet wins. He does not want to just win, but win with the wind at his back with pick-ups of a lot of seats.
John S.
Here’s a sneak peek at the new cover of National Review poking fun of McCain in a similar vein.
Commence wingnut freak-out!
zoe from pittsburgh
That’s some very nice satire Swift has going on there– the question is does he realize it?
John S.
I should add that making fun of either Obama or McCain is simply not acceptable.
The former is the messiah and the latter is a war hero.
Would we mock Jesus or General Petraeus? I think not.
El Cid
I most deeply and humbly apologize for having occasionally posted on other peoples’ blogs who raised the topic and having dared to suggest that I found the direct and simple cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker anything other than guffawingly funny.
Clearly I am now part of ‘the liberal blogosphere’ for missing out on the belly laughs. The more radical, hip, on the edge sorts are always to be found doubled over at the latest bon mots of The New Yorker.
John S.
Nobody is more fun to sneer at than an effete, latte-sipping liberal snob without a sense of humor – which is to say, all of them. Especially when they are fags who haven’t ‘nutted up’ by joining our glorious Armed Services.
Which is to say, all of them.
TheFountainHead
Yeah, we get it, it’s satire. Thanks, I went to school too.
Betchya twenty bucks I get an Obama smear e-mail with this cover at the top before the end of the month though.
Artistic license is flimsy cover when you step directly into the crossfire of real racism, real religious distrust, and “real” patriotism.
Ricky
“Final word. Final word. Nobody says its the final word until we do.”
Sen. Blutarsky
But, the sheriff is a nigg…”
Cable News Collective
“Nobody wants to be the last man posting on a dying thread.”
J. Kerry
“If you don’t get it, I always post the title in the Table of Contents on my web page. Subscribers like to play a game guessing the title, but they read the table of contents religiously while listening to BBC World.”
A. Liberal
IT AIN’T THE ART ITS THE MEDIA.
jon
But wingnuts love “Team America: World Police!” without irony! So lefty fears are justified! They are! And I’m going to hold my breath until you admit it!
Or, sadly, some conservatives may have that human-like quality that allows for a little laughing at themselves.
No matter how serious things get, I always laugh a little when watching politics. They’re like Greek gods: vain, punishing, backstabbing assholes with all of our qualities and few of us regular folks’ limitations. It’s an amazing spectacle, and if I wasn’t laughing I’d probably be one of those people with all the guns and fertilizer and the maps of DC.
Geeno
It’s not so much that I don’t see the irony. It’s just that, in the current environment (full of morons), the first that pops into my head when I see something like that is the countless humorless iterations I’m going to be exposed to, not any humor quality of the thing itself.
I think that’s been one of the most hateful effects on me of the last 8 years.
Jake
It’s all fun and satire until John McCain gets elected POTUS.
cleek
equal time
A Hidell
Let’s try this again. It’s unpossible for
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AkaDad
He wins a dump truck full of tubes.
Punchy
That must have been one hell of a sound wave….
TheFountainHead
You win the internets.
Darkness
Artistic license is the ONLY cover when one wants to step into the crossfire. It being the difference between making a statement that makes people think about their assumptions and pap that makes people feel comfortable about their biases. Yeah, let’s avoid any need to discuss these difficult topics you mention.
This is the thing that really irks me over this issue. The cartoon is neither here nor there, but this POW syndrome of “let’s just let the morons win because they are so tiresome” is dangerous as hell. Sorry, I’m ready for a fight over free speech and public discourse, not capitulation. These same morons have been using this attitude of “you have to cater to our pathetic anti-elitism, anti-pragmatic reality tiny world view or we’ll kick and scream and call you names” to screw over every last corner of this country and you want to keep catering to them? I don’t care what the issue is, but not only do they not get another inch, it is way past time to reclaim some ground.
RAM
I’ve decided the cover was a great punchline. Unfortunately, it was not preceded by the joke.
bayville
From the famous satirist, Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left:
Cassidy
Your inferiority complex is sad.
Scott H
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how incredibly thick people have become – hell, they believe George Bush. Somehow, somewhere, Jon Swift’s nerfbat and squirting flower commentary is still going to be too ambiguous.
And I can’t even speak to this group that can’t get three steps from the fainting count for terror of agitation among the unwashed.
Bob In Pacifica
The problem is that on the very rare occasions that I accidentally punch in FOX on my remote I am torn between laughing and crying.
In the current Harper’s there’s a story about the Republican clique (with Abramoff) that ripped off America. The banking industry is on a cliff and these FOX knuckleheads are going to blame Schumer for it.
My Ex emailed me about the “new Tom Lehrer,” a guy named Roy Zimmerman (you can find him on You Tube). Funny, clever, topical. It reminds me of Lehrer’s comment about Henry Kissinger. Or Jerry Lewis’ failed movie about the clown in the concentration camp. Or the other movie about the clown in the concentration camp.
mantis
From the famous satirist, Big Tent Democrat at Talk Left:
PC!
Zifnab
New Yorker Comics
Yes. Thank you. I mean, come on people. The New Yorker has been printing comics for decades and they’ve never been funny. Why are we shocked now?
Face
Can I get this in English please?
cleek
not even this one ?
Genine
That’s what I’m saying! I don’t care about the cover one way or the other. Its this attitude of catering to knuckle-draggers that’s really got my back up.
It reminds me of the Absolutely Fabulous episode when Edina had to go to court because she ignored instructions designed to keep people from doing something obviously stupid, but most people wouldn’t even think of doing it. Anyway, she ranted in court something to the effect of “The world is designed for stupid people! The world is ruled by stupid people! And I am not stupid!”
With that character, its debatable, but I thought it was one of the funniest rants ever.
Scott H
Sure.
And I can’t even speak to this group that can’t get three steps from the fainting couch for terror of agitation among the unwashed.
Can I get a proofreader?
Bootlegger
All of that satire, aimed at Obama, McCain, even the barking dogs, is damned funny. Those “equal time” satires of McCain make the point nicely since I bet many on the Left who hated their guy being the lampoon target will love it when it’s the Grumpy Old Man.
John S.
Fixed that for you.
Ricky
” I mean, come on people. The New Yorker has been printing comics for decades and they’ve never been funny. Why are we shocked now?”
Zifnab, what’s the punch line. I don’t get it. Is this the one about the pioneers heading west with only the Artistic cover over their wagons to protect them from the Injuns…er indijinuns…
ThymeZone
We are judged by what we laugh at.
Nothing about this episode is funny.
When a joke is made about particular people, and they are insulted, the joke is not funny. It doesn’t become funny just because people who have the luxury of not being the target of the joke find it convenient to laugh at it.
The cartoon is insulting to particular people who have not done anything to deserve the insult. You can write all the snarky shit in the universe, and look down your nose at people who take offense until the cows come home, the fucking cartoon isn’t funny, and for that reason, it is not a joke that should be laughed at, it should be rejected.
That’s why there’s a controversy, and you, John, are wrong about this.
dan robinson
I’m watching our dear leader’s news presser on TV, and I wish it were artful satire.
I would take up religion again if it were only satire.
But God isn’t listening.
The Moar You Know
Maybe it’s me. Maybe there is some fundamental disconnect between the way my brain works and the way the rest of yours function. But cleek, that “cartoon” to me is not funny. Not humorous. Certainly not offensive – it’s not anything.
But no, not even that one. Gotta go with Zifnab on this one – decades of cartoons and not one of them funny. Even “Family Circus”, the most unfunny comic ever made, has a better track record.
liberal
Darkness wrote,
I must be missing something here.
I understand what you’re saying, but in terms of actual tactics, how the hell is the cartoon about Obama the right way to go about it, as opposed to, say, a cartoon about Bush, McCain, or the nutjob fundies?
AkaDad
The problem with that cover, is that it’s missing an elephant, with a GOP sign on it’s back, painting the picture. If they had done that, it would have been a nontroversy.
liberal
Jon Swift wrote,
Which entirely misses the point.
The point is that, from a utilitarian perspective, any good the cartoon does is completely outweighed by the harm it inflicts by allowing the knuckledraggers to keep the “issue” alive.
John Cole
You are responding seriously to a satirist remarking about a piece of satire.
I hope to GOD you are a spoof. Otherwise, liberals are hopeless.
les
And do you think that, absent the cover, you wouldn’t get an equally egregious, equally false smear? That, in fact, you would not get the exact smear the cover depicts? Jeebus, this is the most overanalyzed, underappreciated thing I can remember. It’s not an attack on some amorphous group that should be offended (sorry TZ); it’s two readily identifiable individuals. It accurately represents, in ridiculous fashion, lies and misconceptions peddled by republicans and idiots all over the country. It’s satire because it takes to extremes real events–it highlights how stupid the fears are. To believe it’ll have some serious impact on the vote for pres in November begs credulity.
Brachiator
Oh this is good!
Swift gives a, well — swift — kick in the ass to people who confuse satire with the obvious idiocy of something like “Mad Magazine.”
And judging by the totally off-the-mark responses here to Swift’s satire, I must conclude that yes, liberals are hopeless.
Dan
Elaine: Look at this cartoon in the New Yorker, I don’t get
this.
Jerry: I don’t either.
Elaine: And you’re on the fringe of the humor business.
George comes in
George: Hey!
Elaine: Hey! George look at this.
George: That’s cute.
Elaine: You got it?
George: No , never mind.
Elaine: Come on , We’re two intelligent people here. We can figure this out. Now we got a dog and a cat in
an office.
Jerry: It looks like my accountant’s office but there’s no pets working there.
Elaine: The cat is saying ” I’ve enjoyed reading your E-mail”.
George: Maybe it’s got something to do with that 42 in the corner .
Elaine: It’s a page number.
George: Well , I can’t crack this one.
Elaine: Aahh! this has got to be a mistake.
George: try shaking it…(long pause) Well ,Janet should be here any minute. …
Next day at the New Yorker
Mr. Elinoff: So, J. Peterman wants to hire some of our cartoonists to illustrate your catalog?
Elaine: Well we’re hoping that if perhaps that the catalog is a little funnier ,people
won’t be so quick to return the clothes ha ha….For example.. I..I really do….Well I love this one
Elaine shows him the cartoon
Mr. Elinoff: Oh! yeah… That’s a rather clever jab at inter office politics don’t you think.
Elaine: Ahan, Ahan….yeah…Euh but, Why is it that the, that the animals enjoy reading the email?
Mr. Elinoff: Well Miss Benes . Cartoons are like gossamer and one doesn’t dissect gossamer. heh..hemm..
Elaine; Well you don’t have to dissect if you can just tell me. Why this is suppose to be funny?
Mr. Elinoff: Ha! It’s merely a commentary on contemporary mores. (slides the magazine to her)
Elaine: But, what is the comment. (she slides the magazine back to him)
Mr. Elinoff: It’s a slice of life.
Elaine: No it isn’t.
Mr. Elinoff: Pun?
Elaine: I don,t think so.
Mr Elinoff: Vorshtein?
Elaine: That’s not a word…..You have no idea what this means do you?
Mr Elinoff: No.
Elaine: Then why did you print it?
Mr. Elinoff: I liked the kitty.
Elaine: (gets up) You know what? you people should be ashamed of yourself, you know ya doodle a couple of bears
at a cocktail party talking about the stock market. You think you’re doing comedy.
Mr. Elinoff: Actually that’s not bad..
Elaine: Oh! really (laughs) well you know….. I have others
Bedlam UK
From Thymezone
Have you every seen Roy Chubby Brown?
This guy is godamn awful. Sexist stupid and insulting to just about everyone. Yet he’s been a ‘comedian’ for about 30 years, has 1000’s of people watching his shows, even women watch him and he’s the most sexist pig you’ll ever meet.
Your narrow rules on humour are unrealistic and generally pointless.
This cover isn’t funny to me, I’m more of an Irony man but I see what its trying to do, and if it has a full segment discussing the pathetic media stories then its something.
If not, then its just getting cheap hits.
Dan
What Swift did is not satire. It’s sarcasm.
Bedlam UK
Ps. I like Dans post. Now thats funny.
That yours as I didn’t spot a link.
If its yours, good job :)
Dan
http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheCartoon.htm
Brachiator
The faux furor over The New Yorker cover just won’t die. This morning, one of the local public radio stations (Larry Mantle’s AirTalk, 89.3, and usually an interesting program) is devoting a segment to the “controversy” over the cover.
The sad thing is that the last remnants of wit, irony and (clutch the anti-elitist pearls!) sophistication appears to have passed away with George Carlin.
TheFountainHead
Clearly there’s no consensus on this issue, and I get the idea that it’s satire and therefore making fun of the very people who will pin it up on their bathroom wall. I get that. Some people will see it and say that’s all there is to it, but my experience in the last 48 hours of talking to those in the center, left, and right, is that everyone is reading their own conclusions into it, none of which are pretty, and no one is just writing it off as satire.
So conclude what you will, have whatever “final words” tickle you, but don’t be so naive as to think that this qualifies as great satire. This isn’t Samuel Clemens and this isn’t E.B. White (who’s undoubtedly rolling in his grave as we speak), hell, it’s not even Norman Rockwell. If it were, we wouldn’t be talking about it.
Random Asshole
It’s official. I read Swift’s post. I now feel stupider as a result. Hooray for Tuesday!
Kevin
A Tom the Dancing Bug comic on this subject, from back in April.
gil mann
Yes, we do.
Good point, ThymeZone, as always.
HyperIon
TZ, this is about the stupidest thing you have ever written.
all those bush jokes we’ve been making here (which i’m pretty sure chimpy would find insulting)….not funny? and coming from you, who has been known to make cruelly humorous statements about commenters here? WTF?
i’ll tell you about funny/not funny. funny is when you laugh. not funny is when you don’t laugh. there is no universal standard of funny/not funny. thus, YMMV. duh!
the new yorker has been captioning its covers on the inside for years. the caption for this cover was in the same place it has been for all the other covers. “the politics of fear” caption is unambiguous.
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