Conclusion of Political Satire: Why It Matters?

     Political satire matters because it offers a sense of self-reflection as a larger society. Since satire is never directed at a specific individual, but rather an institution, group, or collective body, there is some lenience to how much criticism one should absorb. Instead, it proves to be humorous or entertaining to the audience, even if we identify with the group or organization being satirized. Yet, it isn't what nitpicks or technicalities, screw-ups or catastrophes that defines us. It is how we are able to perceive satire and reflect with our own original wit and humor that defines us. True, there is a distinction between swaying someone politically and just politically belittling someone for the sake of comic relief, however it is our civic duty to exercise our right to conform with ideas and, at the same time, become trailblazers among others. A nation, without this free thinking of collective, non-biased information is just as inhibited as one that is under a totalitarian regime

Contemporary Political Satire: The Daily Show

   

     Describing itself as a fake news program, The Daily Show draws its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures, media organizations, and often aspects of the show itself. The show typically opens with a long monologue from Jon Stewart, relating to recent headlines and frequently features exchanges with one or more of several correspondents, who adopt absurd or humorously exaggerated takes on current events against Stewart's straight man persona. The final segment is devoted to a celebrity interview, with guests ranging from actors and musicians to nonfiction authors and political figures.

The Classical Root of Political Satire: Mark Twain

     The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written shortly after the Civil War, in which slavery was one of the key issues. While Mark Twain's father had slaves throughout his childhood, Twain did not believe that slavery was right in anyway. Through the character of Jim, and the major moral dilemma that followed Huck throughout the novel, Twain mocks slavery and makes a strong statement about the way people treated slaves. Miss Watson is revered as a good Christian woman, who had strong values, but she is a slave owner in the story. She owns a slave called Jim, who runs away upon hearing that Miss Watson might sell him to New Orleans.

Political Cartoons as Satire: Thomas Nast

Though Thomas Nast is credited with greatly influencing the American public during the Civil War, He is most remembered for his cartoon attack against political corruption in New York City. Nast created political cartoons in the 1870’s that exposed the corruption of Boss Tweed and New York’s corrupt Tammany Hall political machine.

One of the cartoons printed by Nast, showed Tweed and the Tammany Hall Ring pointing at each other in answer to the question, “who stole the people’s money?” After this cartoon appeared, Tweed supposedly made the statement, “Stop them damned pictures. I don’t care what the papers write about me. My constituents can’t read. But damn it, they can see pictures.”

Political Cartoons as Satire: Benjamin Franklin

First Political Cartoon In America

It was one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who is credited with creating, and printing the first political cartoon in America. Franklin was attempting to rally support for his plan for an inter-colonial association, in order to deal with the Iraquois Indians at the Albany Congress of 1754.

Franklin’s cartoon depicts a snake, cut into pieces, with each piece representing one of the colonies. The cartoon was published in every newspaper in America, and had a major impact on the American conscience.

The words “Join, or Die” eluded to the Indian threat, but much of the effectiveness of this image was due to a commonly held belief at the time, that a dead snake could come back to life if the severed pieces were placed back together. Franklin’s cartoon effectively grabbed the American peoples minds, and implanted an idea that endured even though the Albany Congress turned out to be a failure.

The image of the snake became the symbol for colonial unification, and was transferred to the colonial battle flag “Don’t Tread on Me”, and became part of the American spirit.

Political Satire from TV News

Government Privacy and Security

     There are very few government checks on what America’s sweeping surveillance programs are capable of doing. John Oliver sits down with Edward Snowden to discuss the NSA, the balance between privacy and security, and dick-pics. In the course of the interview, John Oliver uses political satire (exaggeration, sarcasm, and profanity) to make the point clear that Americans certainly do care about the issue of privacy, but only when it selfishly pertains to them and their "dick-pics".

Political Satire in Social Media: Twitter

Frank Conniff Tweet: https://twitter.com/frankconniff/status/597798301518405632

Andy Borowitz Tweet: https://twitter.com/borowitzreport/status/279662179299520512

     Twitter has quite a way with influencing the norms of social networking in today's world. People who have a Twitter are involved in what is known as the "twitter-sphere" and contribute to flooding the Twitter newsfeed about anything imaginable, 24/7. Accounts are made with sometimes very specific agendas, in this case, both Frank Conniff and Andy Borowitz have accounts solely for the usage of political satire, with often hilarious tweets filled of the contradictory and witty remarks of the complexities in politics.