Who Can’t Take a Joke?
July 21st, 2008 © by Susan Swartz
My husband spotted the New Yorker cover online and called me over to his computer. I peered over his shoulder and started laughing. I thought the figure on the left, because it had an Afro, was supposed to be Barack Obama. And the figure on the right was John McCain, in some kind of military cap.
But I didn’t have my glasses on, and it was a blur. I thought it might be two stereotypical images of each candidate. The black guy and the warrior.
On closer inspection I groaned, “Oh, dear.” My husband said, “This isn’t good.”
We’re Obama fans. We’re also New Yorker loyalists. We usually get the jokes in the magazine, which you hope will always be the case because once you stop getting New Yorker humor you might as well declare yourself hopelessly un-hip.
Still, I winced. Sure, it was about all the dumb things uninformed, prejudiced narrow-minded people say about the Obamas. Absolutely ridiculous, all those charges.
If it was a joke, why was it taking so long to get?
But what if people looked at that cover and thought it more real than ridiculous? It was too late to keep that New Yorker safe on liberal coffee tables. What would happen when the cover was all over the newsstands and magazine racks and someone looking for the worst in Obama saw it and said, “Yep. Always thought that.”
My daughter argued it is not the New Yorker’s responsibility to make sure everyone gets their message. And I liked that she was defending the media but still I worried about a fence-sitter subliminally being altered by this silly image. And then, come November, getting in the voting booth and suddenly flashing to Michele Obama with an ammo belt.
If it was a joke, why was it taking so long to get?
On TV one superior expert on pop culture chastised the clueless for not understanding the notion of satire. And I started to feel defensive, because I happen to adore satire. But is it satire if you have to explain it? Another pundit offered that exposing such ludicrous prejudices might compel the media to focus on all the bad Obama misinformation out there. And I thought okay, then perhaps this could work in Obama’s favor.
But then the Obama campaign people got huffy and called it offensive and I thought something really is off about this. Then McCain’s people chimed in to agree it was inappropriate. And I started to think that the Obama side would have been better to just roll their eyes and keep their sputtering to themselves. Because maybe the McCain people were thinking, “Oh, this is sweet.” Because, if nothing else, the flap got that left wing latte slick in trouble.
I like flying with the New Yorker. I’m always behind a few issues and three of them slide easily into a carry-on and provide several hours of good reading. And out loud laughs. One of my all-time favorite New Yorker cartoons shows two shapely nymphets in bikinis with high perky breasts. One says, “I never thought 80 would be this much fun.”
You see. This is ridiculing the youth obsession of our culture and the fantastic promises of the anti-aging industry. But I don’t really have to explain that, do I?
You get it. It’s satire. The joke’s on us.
The Obama cover could have been satire but as a joke, who was it on?
Photo courtesy of the Associated Press and The New Yorker Magazine
Tags: Barack Obama, Juicy_Tomatoes, New_Yorker, Susan_Swartz
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