2007-05-09

Deeper Satire

I don't know what else to call it. But here's two examples:

Today's Doonesbury.

The idea is that these fictional troops are now being starved out of their position by the actions of congress. The thing to remember, though, is that the cartoonist is anti-Iraq war. So what is being lampooned and satirized here is the attitudes of those who want to keep the war going, while at the same time appearing to be criticizing congress.

Domestic Terror - Onion editorial cartoon.

Again, almost the same sort of thing - taken at one level the cartoon is an attack upon Democrats for their minimum wage hike. Yet if you look at it carefully the satire is so biting that it actually is the other way around - it is a careful satire of those who satire badly. The message itself is so overdone - comparing Democrats with terrorists and minimum wage hikes as suicide bombs - that it actually has the opposite effect.

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