Satire, like beauty, is in beholder's eye

[Woodmonkey]

Question: When is satire not satire? Answer: When you don't get it.

That rule of thumb was brought home this week by the controversy over a cartoon on the latest cover of The New Yorker magazine. The cartoon was intended to mock the ridiculous but widespread rum ors about Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

For anyone who happened to have missed it — hard, given the viral way the Internet and cable TV spread anything with a whiff of controversy — Barry Blitt's cartoon shows the Obamas fist-bumping in the Oval Office. A picture of Osama bin Laden is on the wall, an American flag is burning in the fireplace, Barack is in Muslim garb and Michelle totes a Kalashnikov — a parody of recent Obama controversies.

Satire is difficult to pull off. So The New Yorker cartoon hit some raw nerves. "What possessed them to do this?" asked New York Democratic consultant George Arzt, echoing comments boomeranging around the blogosphere. "It feeds all the rumor-mongering that is going on just under the radar."

To which we say: Lighten up. The cartoon could have been more clearly identified as an over-the-top look at how the Obamas are portrayed by some of their harsher critics. But, still, it's a cartoon. And if the nation can't laugh at politics, well, what can it laugh at?

The audience the cover was intended to reach certainly understood the satire, as editor David Remnick pointed out, saying "context means a lot." Satirical covers are not new to The New Yorker. If a wider audience taps in and doesn't get it, Arzt's fears might have some validity, but they're overblown.

After an Obama spokesman initially described the cover as "tasteless and offensive," the candidate himself got it right: It was a question of editorial judgment and "that's why we've got the First Amendment," he said. Though the cartoon might have offended some Muslims, "ultimately, it's a cartoon" and Americans have more pressing issues to worry about.

The proliferation of political satire — from Saturday Night Live to The Daily Show — demonstrates that Americans have the freedom and security to lampoon themselves and their leaders.

With John McCain, 71, comedians are comfortably recycling age jokes, but with Obama, they are testing new boundaries. Go too far, and they risk being accused of racism, insensitivity or offending those who put Obama on a pedestal. There are limits. But people on pedestals are ripe to be mocked. It's very much the American way.

The Source