parody

[VictoriaVeil]

Just wondering how y'all felt about the topic of using humor as a critique of politics? :)

[hippifried]

Works for Stewart & Colbert.

[Dino Velvet]

Just wondering how y'all felt about the topic of using humor as a critique of politics? :)

I prefer comedians going for laughs as opposed to applause. There are a few funny comedians that deal with politics. I'm more of a Conservative but I enjoy Stewart and Colbert. Not a fan of Bill Maher or Dennis Miller though. Their job is to make me laugh and they stink if they can't no matter the command of the issues.

[robertlouis]

There's a long and honourable tradition in the UK, even in the mainstream. Started with That Was The Week That Was in the 60s, through Spitting Image in the 80s and nowadays with Rory Bremner - who did the best Dubya ever, btw.

Some good political comics on your side of the pond, and I also like Stewart and Colbert, but the best for me, in politics as much as everything else he did, was the great Bill Hicks.

My politics are left of centre, but as I'm in the UK that probably makes me something between communist and terrorist in merkin terms lol.

And, if I may, you look particularly fine in that new avatar pic, Ms V.

[buttslinger]

In all seiousness, I would like to see them change the fiscal cliff to the fisical cliff, and the electoral college to the electorial college.

[robertlouis]

In all seiousness, I would like to see them change the fiscal cliff to the fisical cliff, and the electoral college to the electorial college.

Make that the electrical college so you tazer the bastards from time to time.

Oh, and the physical clit, of course. :whistle:

[Prospero]

Comedy and politics are totally connected. The clowns who ran for the Republican presidential nomination were funnier than most professional comedians! And humour certainly can play a powerful role. Robert Louis mentioned a number of key UK shows from the pst few years.But you have only to look at the impact Tina Fey's impersonations had on the political career of Sarah Palin to see how powerful good satire can be.
You might want to check out the cartoons of the late Jules Feiffer to see some brilliant humour about the Nixon era.

[buttslinger]

Volkswagen didn't think this National Lampoon fake Ad was very funny.

[martin48]

'When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died'

[Willie Escalade]

Comedy and politics are totally connected. The clowns who ran for the Republican presidential nomination were funnier than most professional comedians! And humour certainly can play a powerful role. Robert Louis mentioned a number of key UK shows from the pst few years.But you have only to look at the impact Tina Fey's impersonations had on the political career of Sarah Palin to see how powerful good satire can be.
You might want to check out the cartoons of the late Jules Feiffer to see some brilliant humour about the Nixon era.

With some folks touting a Palin 2016 ticket (seriously), Tina will have to break out those glasses once more...


Collection SNL Tina Fey Sarah Palin Joe Biden Queen Latifah Bush Nancy Pelosi - YouTube (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_cf9NqaZ4fw)

[Stavros]

Just wondering how y'all felt about the topic of using humor as a critique of politics? :)

William Shakespeare often uses parody, for example in King Lear where the fool objectifies in his eccentric appearance and in his rhymes the 'serious purpose' of the King, which become accentuated as Lear actually loses his kingly powers; in As You Like It Phebe and Silvius offer a parody of Rosalind and Orlando: the inverted love between Rosalind and Orlando in which the female (Rosalind) masquerades as a male to get physically close to her male love interest (Orlando), the attempts by the female Phebe infatuated with the Male/Female Rosalind/Ganymede trying to get away from the male shepherd Silvius. It may be that in Shakespeare parodies are an internal critique of power and relationships; one could argue that the the society of the Sicilian Court in The Winter's Tale is not just contrasted to that of Bohemia, but that the latter is a parody of the former, and thus becomes a critique of it. There are parallels throughout Shakespeare, notably in Hamlet, where Young Hamlet and Old Hamlet are contrasted with Young Fortibras and Old Fortinbras, and the third father-son relationship with Leontes and Polonius.

In recent years comedy has not been able to mount much of an intelligent response to politics, preferring satire as a cheap form of substitute, and I think that is true on both sides of the Atlantic. But parody need not necessarily be comedic; and surely the most powerful parody in politics, in literary terms anyway, is Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Even in our present day Laputa, our scientists are unable to extract sunbeams from cucumbers...I wonder why....

[trish]

I though politics WAS comedy. Every day while I read the paper I laugh 'til I cry.