Thursday, July 17, 2008
Hitchens on New YorkerGate
Hitchens the literary critic is much pained over the Obama-era rule that we must expunge political campaigns -- or at least certain political campaigns -- of all satire:
Ludicrous as it might seem to have John McCain enlisted as an art critic, and obvious as it should be that the New Yorker would never do anything deliberately to hurt the Democratic nominee, it remains the case that a Newsweek poll has just found 12 per cent of voters believing that Obama is a practicing Muslim and another 12 per cent (possibly the same 12 per cent) convinced that he used a Koran for his swearing-in ceremony at the United States Senate. These are of course exactly the sort of people who do not read the New Yorker, or go in very much for the ironic and the satirical, so that as usual the aesthetic effort is somewhat lost on what ought to be its target audience.
Instead, you have sophisticates in the metropolis laughing at a portrayal of the fears of the lowly white hicks. This set-up could itself be the subject of a satire, but probably at some other time and in some other magazine. Mr Blitt himself could hardly have been more anxiously literal, contacting the liberal "Huffington Post" blog to assure them that "depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness it is". Let us by all means be certain that there is no ambiguity about our satires.
My question: If satire such as the now-infamous New Yorker cover is ruled out-of-bounds on account of Obama's candidacy, will it suddenly become acceptable if he is President? There is no reason to expect that it would. That could be extremely bad news for satirists of the left, who will walk on eggshells lest something that they say or draw offends their humorless multiculturalist allies. One is forced to wonder, therefore, whether an Obama presidency will usher in a golden age of political satire from the unapologetic right. Maybe, but -- readers of this blog notwithstanding -- there are perilously few metropolitan sophisticates on the right. Does the American right have what it takes to deliver the satirical goods? We will probably know by this time next year.
5 Comments:
By 
Mystery Meat, at
Thu Jul 17, 10:53:00 AM:
From Leah Garchik's column in today's San Francisco Chronicle:
"The authors and readers site Redroom.com threw a book-signing and hello-everybody party... The signer-in-chief was Will Durst, whose new book is "The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing."
When a guest asked him about the difficulty of making jokes about Barack Obama - witness this week's New Yorker brouhaha - Durst described his careful approach, saying he was taking baby steps toward joking about the candidate. "No one is willing to touch Obama," for fear of being called racist, he said. I asked him for an Obama joke, and he said that Republicans will run giant ads with one word, "Negro." But that's a joke on Republicans, not Obama, so I asked for another. "Every once in a while, when he's onstage," said Durst of Obama, "he looks like he's posing to be the fifth face on Mount Rushmore."
Then, it was Durst's turn to speak to the crowd. When he took off his shoes and climbed upon a chair for a few seconds of stand-up, Durst came through with flying colors. Obama "doesn't look black," he said, "unless he's standing next to John McCain."
"Good one!" I thought, but there wasn't a roar of laughter in response. "When there is a black guy in the audience," said Durst, "they won't laugh. They look at the black guy to see if it's OK to laugh."
By 
, at
Thu Jul 17, 11:18:00 AM:
Didn't SNL satirize this hands-off approach to BO (read "hands-off approach to BO" and tell me that in itself isn't funny) relative to Hillary Clinton during the Democrat nomination? There is plenty to mock here, from BO's mis-spokements to the media's ardent desire not to give him or his followers any cause for offense. It's time these 'sophisticates' grew up and learned how to laugh at themselves.
BTW, if at any time you thought I was in any way a "metropolitan sophisticate" I'd like to take this opportunity to disabuse you of the notion.
By Escort81, at
Thu Jul 17, 12:58:00 PM:
That could be extremely bad news for satirists of the left, who will walk on eggshells lest something that they say or draw offends their humorless multiculturalist allies.
Related to this, and perhaps more important, is what will happen in the first year of a possible Obama administration once the honeymoon is over with the Democratic-controlled Congress, parts of the Democratic base (some who voted for him in the primary, some who didn't but did so in the general), and with parts of the media. We are already seeing the very beginnings of this phenomenon, though it may not be a trend one can extrapolate. It would be quite a pitiful sight, however, if we are sitting here a year from now, 4 months into an Obama administration, with the Democratic party in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, and in circular firing squad mode (as much as that might be, on balance, not a bad thing for the country, in the sense that Washington is a net neutral effect on the rest of us).
Does the American right have what it takes to deliver the satirical goods?
Certainly, yes, but with an audience size that would make the HG cable channel look huge.
By , at
Thu Jul 17, 01:00:00 PM:
Thank God "there are perilously few metropolitan sophisticates on the right". The left produces far too many of these self-centered and essentially useless dolts as it is.
By , at
Fri Jul 18, 11:12:00 AM:
In Fruedian fashion your comments have summarily conceded said very much up in the air election to he whose name should not be mentioned.
(ObamaMort?)
I am amazed that both left and right can post nothing or anything that is even remotely recognizes that his O-2 ness has an opponent in this race other than his own mouth.
The new agers say that the Universe makes no differentiation between positive comments about BHO and negative but the echoes of the attention his coattails gather are enough to insure that you will see and hear a lot more shouts and echoes before all this is over. McCain needs to get some good and bad pub once in a while, after all he is the only alternative to the would be king on the horizon. MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,MCCain,MCCain.MCCain.MCCain.MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,MCCain,
MCCain,...there, that is some attempt at balance
