Jul 14 2008
Satire Falls Flat, Plays on Fears
They thought they were being funny and tongue-in-cheek, but The New Yorker blew it when they published a satirical cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House, bumping fists to celebrate a presidential victory.
The problem is that the satire also features them buring the American flag, putting a picture of Osama bin Laden over the fireplace and Barack dressed in traditional Muslim attire. Oh yeah, and they gave Michelle a machine gun to complete the picture.
Rush Limbaugh said the problem with it was that liberals have no sense of humor. The cover, he said, rolled all the things that are said about the Obamas into one satirical cartoon.
He’s right in that it does seem to mesh all the things that are said about Obamas into one picture. He’s wrong that it is funny. In truth, it is sad. Just as there is no need for the snarky comments regarding the current president’s pronounciation of words like “nuclear”, there is no good reason to bring all the stereotypical nonsese together in one place and certainly not on the cover of The New Yorker.
Sadly, I can almost hear the discussion that went on in the editorial board room over that one.
“Some people won’t get that it’s satire,” said Franco, the worldly, but young intern.
“The peasants won’t understand, but our readers will,” Jasques, the hoity-toity editor, proclaimed. “People who don’t get it don’t read The New Yorker anyway.”
Of course the problem is that a picutre or a cartoon is worth a thousand words or more and the cover is being flashed and discussed all over the place. Whether anyone who reads The New Yorker would actually get it or not is completely irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that readership is no longer confined to subscribers and sadly, most Americans simply look at the pictures.
The elitist nature of The New Yorker led to a liberal magazine playing right into the hands of anti-Obama organizers. I read somewhere a comment from a conservative talk show host that he was making a list of the things Obama hadn’t been accused of int he whisper campaign against him. Sadly, the list is pretty damn short.
The truth of the matter is that Republicans and John McCain must really be running scared, because the only thing they haven’t said about Barack and Michelle is that they are fine, upstanding citizens with two bright children.
