Thank You for Offending Us: In Praise of Satirists
Yes, I am proud; I must be proud to see Men not afraid of God, afraid of me.—Alexander Pope, 1738 To function in society, we rely on our ability to…
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Satire
8 posts
Ricky Gervais and the Manuel Problem
The only thing more predictable than the transphobic jokes in Ricky Gervais’ new Netflix special, SuperNature, was the criticism they elicited.
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The Flipside of Intersectionality: Heinrich Heine and the Platen Affair
The incident in question took place in 1820s Germany—amid the stuffy atmosphere that dominated life there between the defeat of Napoleon and the failed democratic uprisings of 1848, after the…
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The Microkindnesses of Larry David
Is Larry David a member of the British royal family? When Harry and Meghan sat down for their now fabled chat with the individual who expressed such interest in their…
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Not Quite the Satire You’re Looking For: “Somewhere in Europe” by P. J. Vanston
“It’s like a cross between Catch-22 and Lucky Jim for the Brexit generation,” declares a blurb on the back cover of P. J. Vanston’s 2020 comic novel Somewhere in Europe.…
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South Park: Our Great Modern Satire
Image by Joel Ormsby My introduction to South Park came in second grade. The episode was “It Hits the Fan,” in which the citizens of South Park began to overuse…
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It’s Time to Shame Astronauts
Something out of this world has happened on Twitter, and we, as progressives, can’t let this moment go unnoticed. Former astronaut and mediocre white man Scott Kelly posted a tweet…
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What Charlie Hebdo Can Teach Us About the Nature of Satire
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is once more at the center of a storm of controversy over the cover cartoon they posted in response to the recent Houston floods.…
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