Oh, Now I Get It

Growing up my cousin Jim was quite adept at taking the wind out of the sails of those of us who thought we had the ability to deliver a joke. Standing in a small group of between five and ten friends I concentrated on getting through the punch line without snickering or laughing before it was delivered. Relieved to the point of exhilaration when the group responded with a burst of laughter, I figured I was a born comedian with brilliant timing. Then, as everyone quieted Jim would scan the assembled, look at me, and pause long enough to garner everyone’s undivided attention—even those outside the group—and say, “Oh, now I get it!”

"You've got to be kidding. Don't they know everything gets
reduced to a soundbite?" (Photo courtesy of iStock.com)

His impeccable timing is what satire is supposed to achieve in its most effective form.  However, the danger of satire gone awry is not only can it be misinterpreted it can completely backfire.  If you aren’t certain what I’m talking about, then perhaps a definition of satire is in order.  A well accepted definition of satire is “the use of humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule to expose and ridicule people’s stupidity and vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.”

Sometimes the humor gets lost in the translation. Two satirists with a large following are Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report.  Both appear on the Comedy Channel making the intent of their satire fairly self-evident.  Yet, nothing could be further from the truth with the satirical material Colbert attempted to deliver last week.

I have no objection to the name
the Santa Dogs.

An issue that has confronted American society for some time is the name a sports team takes.  Teams with animal names like the Bears, Tigers and Lions are rarely the source of controversy, except for perhaps when it comes to performance.  In my hometown of Milwaukee we had a professional baseball team called the Braves.  Whether or not that was an acceptable name became a mute point when the team moved to Atlanta.  The replacement team chose a name closely associated with the city’s history, the Brewers.  Marquette University, in the heart of the city, chose to change the name Warriors to Golden Eagles—again, nobody seems too concerned about the rights of animals when it comes to sports monikers. However, one team does seem to raise the ire of a whole nation of people.  The owner of the Washington D.C. NFL franchise, Dan Snyder, has invoked his right as owner to maintain the name. In response to those leveling charges of racism he formed the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation. To point up the irony of this organization and its name Colbert proposed starting his own Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever.  

"Enough with the stereotypes. We're just two cute kids
on our way to school." (Photo courtesy of iStock.com)

Context is crucial to satire, especially when it is used to ridicule someone or something.  Most viewers caught the intent and saw the humor.  However, when someone from the Colbert staff, not the satirist himself, tweeted the new venture without the relationship to the actual Snyder foundation, a Cancel Colbert campaign erupted on Twitter sparked by reaction from Asian-American activists.  Nothing gives conservatives more satisfaction than watching two normally aligned liberal contingents fighting each other.

To show satire does not play favorites two days ago conservative Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann posted a cartoon featuring a door saying April Fools with people waiting in line to sign up for the Affordable Care Act. The problem was the previous day those enlisting in the program exceeded projections by more than a million.