here's the REAL reason the new yorker cover is NOT satire:

[unblock]

there's no "sarcasm" emoticon. it can't be sarcasm or satire without a sarcasm emoticon.

everyone on du knows that's an absolutely necessary ingredient.

[Richardo]

1. ..

:rofl: + :thumbsup:

(K&R)

[KittyWampus]

2. you know the woman in the shower in Hitchcock's movie Psycho doesn't get murdered. After all

you never actually see the knife entering her body...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. My definition of satire

is something so over the top that everyone, or nearly everyone, "gets it". Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" is an example of such. However in the case of the Obamas, there is a genuine effort on the part of the right to portray them as the very people the New Yorker caricatured. I would have to know the motivations of the artist and magazine to determine if this is merely a poor job of satire or an attack on the Obamas from an unexpected source.

[HereSince1628]

5. No. Swift really expected the Irish to eat their babies.

Should I have put an emoticon there?

[DangerDave921]

6. Then you don't get it

The danger with satire is that some folks will fail to see it, and will interpret it literally.

The New Yorker would never -- NEVER -- think Obama is a terrorist, that Michelle is a jack-booted AK-47-toting Patty Hearst wanna-be, with the US flag burning in the fireplace under a portrait of Osama.

Seriously, you don't think this is over the top enough to be satire? What else would be necessary to make it over the top enough?

[bow-tie]

10. In Appalachia all

they'll see is the cover, since they can't read or write. That picture says millions of words to our uneducated voters. That is what will stick in their "minds". Has the MSM piced it up yet? That's all that will be heard for days, so everybody will get the "Yorker's" little effort at satire.
If I was Obama I'd be beating their door down to retract all the issues in circulation.

[EstimatedProphet]

12. Yeah! But we don't have to worry about them though

because they're all so stupid and inbred they will never make it to the voting booths anyway. And even if they do, they can't read the ballot. And even if they can, they'll all be too busy masturbating and beating their children to actually vote.

[DangerDave921]

13. Whoa there

You express shock and dismay at the mis-characterization of Obama, while you yourself turn around and pronounce that people who live in Appalachia can't read or write!? Talk about prejudice, bias, and mischaracterization!

Your response is an insult.

[blondeatlast]

15. Do they sell the New Yorker in Appalachia? When I first moved to AZ

my dad couldn't even find a newsstand that carried it... :shrug:

[scheming daemons]

17. Arizona is in Appalachia?

[Neshanic]

18. Yes, with Palm trees.

[blondeatlast]

19. there was a time AZ was backwoods too. nt

[Youphemism]

7. It's the New Yorker. Poor satire is its mainstay...

"Over the top" satire is "lampooning." Not all satire has to be "in your face."

The New Yorker just plain isn't funny. It never has been. It's a rag penned by elitist geeks who snicker about these things in a corner and pat one another on the back with a giggle for being so clever.

The trouble with that kind of poor humor is that it really falls flat when they hit edgy material -- for example, not only caricaturing silly accusations about the Obamas, but adding an absurd afro to Michelle, which has nothing to do with any right-wing accusations. It's a little short of showing them eating watermelon, but it still lands with a loud, dry thud because it just isn't funny.

[blondeatlast]

16. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it was funny 2 decades ago.

Now it strains at tragically hip and is most decidedly NOT funny.

[Youphemism]

21. I'll take your word on that...

...I'm sure I saw it back then, and I definitely don't recall anything funny about it -- but so many things have leaked out of my brain in the interim that it's easily possible there was some hilarious stuff. It must really have stood out, because today's dry and obnoxious twaddle seems to fit in so well with the format.

[EstimatedProphet]

11. A great many people didn't "get it" at the time

It's only now that we do, because we're told that it is satire. At the time people were outraged.

[DangerDave921]

4. LOL

Funniest thing I've seen in a while. I can't remember how many times some DU'er has missed obvious satire on my part and chided me for not putting a emoticon in my post.

Did Swift have emoticons? I swear, readers have to read for context.

[elocs]

8. Sometimes satire is like a hint...

it goes right over the heads of the ones you hope will "get" it.

[bow-tie]

9. "Sy" needs

to dump that rag.

[blondeatlast]

14. Damn--you're spot on today (you gotta remember to recommend the veal, though...)

:rofl:

[unblock]

20. i ate my wheaties this morning :)

thanks for the kind words!

:hi: