New Yorker cartoon--satire or insult?

[WIREMAN]

if it was not for u lrod i'd be in the dark about everything in the news..i don't know whether to say thank you or fuck you????....stupid shit like this just wastes creative space in our minds....damn i'm glad i threw my tv set out the window when the shrub was elected in 2000.....

[bennie2]

It isn't particularly clever but it's most definitely satire. The article on BBC's news site said that the magazine defended the cartoon by saying they were commenting on the way the obamas are attacked by right wing Americans/politicians.

to know that back story (which i didn't) makes this completely, 100% satire. without any doubt! satire.

I don't know about new yorker. I don't know it's allegiances, who it supports, who it hates...

but this cartoon says "look, isn't this how you see him? a big bloody muslim? and his wife? flaming terrorist!"

the Osama portrait and burning US flag are nice little touches.

it's about holding a mirror up the the prejudices that are there and distorting them, making them bigger, so as to ridicule and mock people who stand by or shout out such beliefs.

is it satire? yes. is it funny? hmm... not so much.

[Dave The Dov]

I don't think so!!!!
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[mnaz]

I think we all get the satire. Seems to me it's the American wacko fringe that's being satirized ('tho I suppose one might argue that this fringe is still way too large). I guess I'd rather see the wacko fringe satirized more directly... but that's life in the big city!

[Doreen Peri]

Yeah, the satire's pretty obvious.

Thing is, the people who believe that crap don't read the New Yorker. Still, they WILL see the cover on the news and they're not going to get the satire because people who believe that crap aren't too bright. Just sayin'.

For the cartoon to work for its intended purpose, the artist should have included a caption.... "Some people believe the most ridiculous things".... heh... actually envisioning a small cartoon of Groucho Marx in the corner holding his cigar with a talk bubble saying that. That would be funny.

[Lightning Rod]

why is this any different?
political cartoonery is what it is
satire
even Obama said, "It's a cartoon." And the inflection in his voice said, "get over it."

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[mtmynd]

LR : "why is this any different?"

For starters, it's:

funny.
pokin' fun at all of politics, dems and repubs.
clever
musical
animated and catchy
it doesn't take itself seriously
... and, oh! it's funny.

satire: a literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.

re: new yorker's picture didn't attack Obama's human vice or his folly by having him portrayed as it did. Sure, as the editor said, it was an exaggeration on how many folks see him... but the picture itself would have been more satirical had it portrayed the group that views Obama the way the picture is drawn. That is the human folly.

[Lightning Rod]

cec,

I think they were both funny. But I'm easy.
I think almost everything is funny. When I rub the Buddha's tummy, it's the laughing Buddha.

The folly that this cartoon exposed was the folly of believing all of the stupid myths about Obama. I don't know why anybody can't get this joke.

As bennie pointed out, it is not as funny as it could be. It is rather tame really. A little bit cliche even, but hey, death is easy, comedy is hard.

[Doreen Peri]

I don't know why anybody can't get this joke.

Everybody who replied to this thread said they got the satire. We're not stupid

But putting it on the front of the New Yorker magazine was in bad taste. Especially without a caption that says "Some people will believe the most ridiculous things." That would have at least somehow made the point to those who will take this bad taste comic and use it to continue the bullshit rumors.

Of course, you have always had a hard time distinguishing between good and bad taste because your taste is all in your mouth.

LOL... JOKE ok?

heh

[mtmynd]

well, eLRod, I know you know that first impressions are the most powerful impressions and my own first impression to that picture was critical and not amused. Am I wrong? Are you wrong? Whose really right on this subject..? If anything it continues the divide in this country that has been going on for far too long... the opinions on this picture are as split as the Democrats and Republicans. I believe I heard that Obama said something about it didn't bother him as much as he felt it bothered the American Muslims... another attack, again not so subtle, against their way of worship. Could be. I don't know how true that is. But I am sure the picture turned me off because I saw the great divide widen even more, albeit a few feet or so, but it's there. It's in the news. It's on many folks tongue. And the ill-informed have new material to use in conversations with their buddies at the neighborhood cafe -"Didja see that picture of that Barrack Hoosane Obama fellow on some magazine cover. Shit! I knew it! Just like Billy Joe said, that man is nothing but trouble... Looks like New York finally got smart!"

O, well... as my father-in-law once said to me: It builds character" Obama will need as much as he can build. He's the right man for the right job at the right time, but there's not enough right thinking folks that believe their own hearts and minds. What's new?

[Lightning Rod]

cec, I think we will find that there are enough right-thinking folks
don't be so cynical, old friend

[mtmynd]

"I yam what I yam and that's all that I yam." - popeye

i may be a cynic but that's not all that i yam... ((wink wink))

[stilltrucking]

I wish you could vote Clay.

[mnaz]

Part of my neg. comeback here is general disgust that these actual perceptions could even be out there in significant numbers to satirize to begin with. Depresssing. So yeah, that's not an indictment of the cartoonist or editor, but of their satirical target(s). But are these wacko perceptions among the public really out there in large enough numbers to justify such heavy-handed front-page treatment? I doubt it. Judgment call however, granted.

[Dave The Dov]

JJ yes NY no!!!!
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