Satire-Gate: The New Yorker's Obama Cartoon Scandal
Thursday July 17, 2008
The New Yorker tried to take a swipe at Obama bashers with its controversial cover cartoon depicting Barack Obama dressed in Muslim garb fist-bumping his Afro-wearing, machine gun-toting wife in the Oval Office. Instead what it delivered was one of the most dramatic failures of political satire in recent memory.Here's a roundup of reaction to the cartoon scandal:
Obama spokesman Bill Burton: "The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."
Artist Barry Blitt, creator of the cartoon, defended himself by saying, "It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is."
Cartoonist Daryl Cagle: "A cartoon that fails to communicate its message in a way that readers understand is nothing more than a bad cartoon."
Cartoonist Ted Rall: "If The New Yorker wants to get into the political cartoon business, it ought to hire some political cartoonists. Until they hire some smart editors, The New Yorker ought to stick to what they do well: gag panels about Upper East Siders at cocktail parties."
Jon Stewart, meanwhile, took on the media and Obama for overreacting to the Obama cartoon: "Obama’s camp initially agreed that the cartoon was, quote, tasteless and offensive. Really? You know what your response should have been? It’s very easy. Here, let me put the statement out for you. Barack Obama is in no way upset about the cartoon that depicts him as a Muslim extremist, because you know who gets upset about cartoons? Muslim extremists. Of which Barack Obama is not. It’s just a f**king cartoon!” (Watch video clip)
Stephen Colbert also chimed in: "I like this because I finally understand a cartoon in The New Yorker." (Watch video clip)
Take Our Poll: What do you think of The New Yorker's Obama cartoon?
1) It's offensive and unfunny
2) It's effective satire
3) It's just a cartoon. Why is everyone overreacting?
See also:
Cartoons Lampooning The New Yorker Cartoon (About.com Political Humor)
Satire, Like Most Art, Is In The Eye of the Beholder (About.com US Politics)
Satire on the Street (The Daily Show)
A Detailed Analysis of the New Yorker Fallout in Cartoon Form (23/6)
Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke (NY Times)
Obama Releases List of Approved Jokes About Himself (Borowitz Report)
Obama Unfunny? You Be the Judge (Politico)
Comments
There’s nothing funny about Obama. There’s nothing appealing about him either. The media created him and now some of them want to lampoon him. Ho hum.
Clever, artsy folks in the bi-coastal cities likely would not be aware of this, but in “the heart-land”, there really are people so misinformed that they would look at such a cover and it would confirm their misinformation about Obama. The Washington Post recently ran an article about Obama perceptions in Findlay, Ohio, one of which was that if elected, Obama would bring his family from Africa to America as illegal immigrnts. The ‘undecided’ vote, which includes poorly informed voters, is hotly contested this year. That being the case, the New Yorker cartoon could help McCain with those voters.
I thought the cartoon was very funny(and I am an Obama supporter).With the damage done by the busheviks just now starting to kick in(like a hangover after a drunken binge),this is not a good time for the American people to lose our sense of humor.
I appreciate satire. The problem with The New Yorker cover is that there is no caption or tag line to identify it as such, so those merely glancing upon it at newsstands would likely not “get it.” The New Yorker and Jon Stewart, among others, are laboring under the assumption that the majority of Americans are smart and sophisticated. Sadly, they are wrong.
Here in Tennessee, where even a state Democratic official admitted to believing a Fox News story which alleged Obama’s ties to terrorists, the illiterate masses look at this cover as an affirmation of their worst fears. They’ve already convinced themselves that Obama is a Muslim, that his wife is a radical, and that the color of their skin should preclude them from ever living in the White House. Perhaps the editors of The New Yorker should have looked beyond the ends of their own noses before publishing what will likely go down in history as the worst “joke” in the history of journalism.
I only wish the POLL would have included a 4th choice —
“Offensive and funny.”
That’s how I found it, anyway.
The offensive part not having so much to do with the Obamas, themselves…simply because any candidate for high office must be prepared to take some blows. It’s the old adage — ‘if you can’t stand the heat…etc.’
But rather, I found offensiveness in the cartoonist’s obvious attempt at making light of terrorists, in general.
I’ve not seen any humor out of that group, yet.
Sure, it would be nice to see the occasional fake bombing, dud hand-grenade, or water-loaded super-soaker out of those folks, instead of the usual fair.
But then, they’d just be yet another bunch of comedians, awaiting their own late-night talk shows, I suppose.
I have no problems with humor.
But, I have many issues with terrorism.
There’s a huge difference.
So, terrorists — make a note of it, hmm?
The idiots trying desperately to defend this racist cartoon need to shut up. A “satirical” cartoon can only be legitimate if the TARGET of the cartoon is featured. Where in this cartoon are the people who the New Yorker (after the fact!) said were supposed to be the target of the cartoon–the white Red-Stateers who persist with anti-Obama hysteria? They’re nowhere. So the desperate, obvious lie some have clung to defend the indefensible is exposed, and by your own standards no less.
But then again considering that whites are the readership of the New Yorker small wonder the cover doesn’t defame them.
What’s needed is a Don Imus-style reaction to the New Yorker. The editors who approved it and the cartoonist who did it must be fired and the New Yorker made to apologize not just to Obama but the black community as a whole.
For those who say, laugh it off. All right, take some of your own medicine. Imagine a cartoon with a roomful of white magazine editors sitting around a table. This all-white group has a picture of Michael Jordan on the wall. Meanwhile the whites brag about how they’re SO dedicated to diversity. In the background is a sign that says, “Editorial Meeting of The Jew Yorker.”
Don’t get mad folks. The cartoon is actually targeted at PC-types who can’t take a joke.
All the sturm und drang is great for the New Yorker’s circulation so they actually did not blunder as badly as people think. God bless America where anyone can make a colossal head-up-ass blunder and still profit from it. Frankly, I got it and saw the humor from the start. All these Obamanations are running around like bratty school children shrieking “Oh, oh did you see what he did. Teacher, he’s being bad again…” Grown ups got it. Time to get back to the issues. Although it was a perfect opportunity for Obama to appear presidential, frankly I’m more concerned about his sell-out vote on the domestic spying legislation and the farm bill. I expect that “change” and “hope” may really mean that we hope he won’t sell us out which means nothing has changed very much at all.
Bottom line is I do believe he will be the next POTUS despite the “help” from his Obamanation friends at the New Yorker
It’s just plain lousy, as cartooning goes (but ‘badly done’, oddly enough, is not a choice associated with the poll, though I suppose choice #3 covers ‘lousy cartoon’, at a stretch).
Too bad too, as all the conversation regarding this cover might have been useful, if the cartoon fulfilled its intent.
P.S. It is interesting that the flag in the fireplace doesn’t seem to burn…but I doubt that is some kind of subtle message, rather it’s probably just poor artwork.
To TennMom who stated… The New Yorker and Jon Stewart, among others, are laboring under the assumption that the majority of Americans are smart and sophisticated. Sadly, they are wrong.
She is right, the majority voted for Barack Hussein Obama.