Why Satire

This paper is dedicated to Charles Burkart, a loving family friend and wonderful debater who will be sorely missed.

Comedy is an incredibly diverse genre. regardless of your tastes—Stand-up, Rom-coms, Black Comedy, scholarly to crude, there is a wide variety of comedic forms from which to choose. However, why are there so many forms of comedy and why are some forms preferred over others?

Social and political satire rose in the public’s consciousness during America’s 1970s.  Looking back at this decade, it is easy to see why; there were many reasons for people to be angry. With the Vietnam War, multiple civil rights protests, and a counterculture movement, people were separating from the nuclear white picket fence American image of the 1950s and early 1960s. All forms of entertainment closely followed that ideal, and any outliers were shunned. The 1970s saw an explosive boom of free-thinking people daring to say what was on their mind, and this, of course, led to the growing prevalence of satirical media. 

By examining the satire of the 1970s, we can see how certain social/ political events can influence the psyche of a nation to the point where a decade’s preferred entertainment is shifted. The point of comedy is to be corrective, and satire is the most corrective form. The 1970s had a need of corrective media, so the rise of satire was not completely surprising. Satire was used in the 1970s to correct actions and opinions around social-political events, to voice the populace’s opinions safely, and to bring balance to a turbulent, counterculture decade.

The 70s was known for the peace movement, a cultural backlash against the societal norms and values of the preceding decades.  However, it was not all flowers and great music; it was also about the Vietnam War. The 1970s saw the Christmas bombing of 1972 and the ending of the Vietnam War a year later. Americans were losing faith in the government with the Kent State shootings in 70, and the Watergate scandal, which started in 1971 and lasted for years. Due to the scandal, Nixon resigned as president in 1974, the first president to ever do so. Not helping matters was then president Ford’s complete pardon of Nixon that same year. 

Civil rights were also changing radically. In 1973, Roe v. Wade legalized abortions. The supreme court also ruled in favor of bussing children to schools to further desegregation in 1971. Beverly Johnson became the first black model to be on the cover of Vogue in 1974. Judy Chicago debuted "The Dinner Party" sculpture piece in San Francisco with plates and fabric runners honoring 39 important women in history in 1979. Entertainment was also garnering controversy, because of artists from Andy Warhol to Led Zeppelin

The 1970s saw a rise of a counterculture movement as well, where educated young people tried to separate themselves from the ideals of the 1950s and 1960s. The events of the time, Vietnam, segregation, America’s involvement in foreign affairs, to name a few, combined and evolved with the artistic and musical movements of the 1960s and 1970s (Zeppelin, Warhol, Stones). In essence, the events provided a fertile field for the counterculture movement’s psychological growth which was then immediately reflected in every artistic outlet, but never more poignantly than in satire. The younger demographic of the 1970s were rising, and they were not afraid to speak their mind and try to correct what they saw. 

Charles H. Burkart graduated from Indiana University in 1975 and provided many insights into the time frame during an interview. When asked about the counterculture movement, he listed Woodstock (1969) and Disco Fever (1975) as examples of how the youth of the time wanted to diverge from the ideals of previous decades. "The 1970s was an era of questioning, of disillusionment and experimentation.” When asked about the political leanings of these counterculture youths, Burkart said "The protesting youths in college had liberal views…there was a cynical distrust and doubting of the government. The satirical media reflected the zeitgeist of the age” (Burkart, 2018).

When discussing the specific government decisions that sparked this “zeitgeist” the Draft Lottery was mentioned, Burkart talked about how the lottery made the government seem chaotic, with the people who were to be drafted coming at random. On the topics of the presidents Nixon, Ford, and Carter, Burkart replied “Nixon was unpopular with the youth, and everyone talked about Watergate. Ford was a buffoon. Carter was a non-entity, not great, but no one really cared.” He then spoke about Ford’s pardoning of Nixon. “People didn’t like that it happened, but we really were just happy he was out of office. People didn’t get as upset as they would’ve if it had happened today” (Burkart, 2018).

On other political events, like America's mediation in the Yom Kippur War, Burkart said "It was understandable since there was such a strong Jewish Lobby. But the youth were fed up with wars and foreign conflicts and were unhappy that we were involved in another one.” He mentioned how the youth of the 1970s were unhappy with the conservatism of the people in power, who lived through the WWII era. “We were the baby boomers” (Burkart, 2018).

Asking about some of the civil rights movements, he mentioned how the supreme court's decision to desegregate buses raised controversy in urban areas like Boston. He said that the 1970s had a lot to say about sexual rights, such as Roe v. Wade and de-stigmatizing homosexuality. When asked about music and the arts, he held that "The Doors, Jimmy Hendricks, Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin were all part of the counterculture movement. Elvis and his kind of music was seen as tired and quaint.” On the topic of art during this decade, Burkart said "Warhol was seen as a sell-out who tried to make money with minimal artistic effort, what with his pop-art and the whole Campbell Soup can thing. His movies weren't impressive or artistic either… I've seen them, and they aren't very good” (Burkart, 2018).

What is it about satire that appealed to these new, outspoken youths? An in-depth review of satire is required. Jay Ellens, a psychologist and theologian, says “A text may be identified as satire if it has a target which is the object of attack, either directly or indirectly, and has a preponderance of the essential attributes of satire. These latter consist of a mixture of unbelievable elements (absurdities, fantastic situations, grotesqueries, and distortion), ironies, ridicule, parody, and rhetorical feature. It is not enough for these techniques just to appear in a work in an isolated fashion, they must dominate it by being the very essence of the work. It is this domination which distinguishes a genuine satire from other works containing some satire,” in his book about biblical satire (Ellens, 141). The British writer Keith Suter, who is the foreign affairs consultant on Sydney’s Channel 7 and was awarded the Australian Peace Medal in 1986, defines satire as “…a form of comedy that ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations or countries) with a view to encouraging change” (Suter, 1).

Satire is a comedic form that attempts to fix the subject matter through derision; the goal being to highlight the flaws in the subject matter by poking fun at it. By doing this, the comedian hopes to convey the message that “This thing is broken. Just look at all of this! It needs to be fixed!” Satire is the most corrective form of comedy. Many say that the point of comedy as a whole is to be corrective but comparing satire to other forms of comedy will grant clarity. For the sake of conciseness, the focus will be on broadly accessible media, like television.

The 1920s and 1930s were predominantly physical humor. This was a byproduct of it being the silent film era. Not much depth can be brought across with only pantomime. Because of that, the stories tended to be simple things that focused on entertaining the audience, nothing more. Look at a Buster Keaton film. The deepest the messages usually are "underdog wins" or "boy gets the girl" in a Robin Hood-esque scenario. The 1950s and 1960s were mostly family-values-based. Comedies focused on the "shenanigans" of the average American family. It was funny because people can relate. "My son crashed his bike into a tree too!" and so on. But the comedy of the 70's shifted drastically into social and political messages meant to shame the people in power and put a voice to the overall anger that the populace felt. No more "boy gets the girl" or "my son threw his football through the window”. Now it was “politicians are moronic puppets, corporations are stealing your money, and everyone is complacent and stupid.”

Looking at the kinds of comedy will shed light on why satire was used over other variants. Comedy can be separated into two main categories, verbal and physical. Verbal has the highest possibility of conveying complex messages, and the main types of verbal comedy are word-play (like puns), moral comedy (like black comedy), and situational comedy (like satire and farce). While word-play comedy can be clever, it is usually comprised of the re-workings or interpretations of words and phrases in unusual ways. There is not much room to work in events and topics while trying to play with the English language. This kind of comedy has a very narrow scope. Moral comedy hits a little closer to home. It tends to hit on universal topics, so everyone can relate to them. However, that universal aspect means that it does not synergize with topics that are opinionated, like social/ political events. It creates cognitive dissonance based on what is known to be right and wrong, which can be useful when talking about things like wars and civil rights movements. Examples of black comedy can be found in media from the time period, like MASH. Clearly, the best type of comedy for correcting current situations is situational comedy. It is very reliant on what is going on at the moment, which unfortunately means it does not age well. However, it is incredibly powerful at the time it is first created. It can talk about opinionated things, since it does not rely on broad ideals the same way moral comedy does, and it has the freedom of scope to cover many things, unlike wordplay.  

This is why satire became the dominant form of comedy in the 1970s. It packed the punch needed to rail about the issues people were facing right there and then. Instead of saying "This is funny because it is immoral” which some people could disagree with, it would say “This politician said/ did this yesterday. Why would they do that? This whole thing is broken, and it is funny because everyone is stupid.”

Satire is exaggerated, most of the time, in an effort to ensure that everyone knows the faults of the comedic subject. If satire was subtle, it would be scholarly. The people in the 1970s did not want scholarly humor that subtly talked about current themes. They wanted scathing critiques of politics that assuaged the anger they were feeling; they wanted a way to get their point across without the danger of protests and riots. A standing in or a student walkout may have a strong message, but it could also hinder the cause by giving people ammunition to use against the protestors. "They're a violent bunch of youngsters.” Instead, they used satirical shows that featured the absurdities of war. Something that thousands of people watched, that shared the message of people struggling against an uncaring disaster like war and trying to hold onto their humanity like MASH. And although MASH was not about the Vietnam War, if the counterculture movement of the 1970s did not encourage people to speak up against what they saw as injustices, if the 1970s was as white-bread American as the 1950s and early 1960s, MASH would not have had the mass appeal that it did, and still does to this day. Of course, there were many satirical shows in this time period.

People felt the need to satirize what was happening in order to control their environments. They felt that their needs were not being met. Maslow created a series of needs that humans have to achieve in order to live holistically. The first is basic and physiological needs: such as sleep, food, lodging, etc. The next step up is safety and psychological needs; personal, social, financial security, and health and well-being. The hierarchy ends with self-fulfillment needs; this includes esteem and self-actualization (McLeod). The populace in the '70s has lost faith in their government. Wars, protests, and civil rights disputes caused many to feel as if their security was threatened. Those attacked in riots or those who encountered discrimination, felt that they were wronged and unjustly treated. Their social security was threatened. And those people who were attacked in the riots and the people who were discriminated against certainly felt that their personal security and well-being were also threatened. This is why people tried to protest, but when that led to more violence in certain circumstances, they had to seek out other outlets to change their environment while also protecting their safety needs (McLeod).

All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Good Times were all created by the same man, Norman Lear, who used satire to fight against bigotry. His character Archie Bunker was a racist, and the basis of the show was to use this character to make fun of racists. Lear covered many topics, such as race, homosexuality, and even abortion. His character Maude Findlay had an abortion in late 1972, two months before Roe v. Wade. “Richard Nixon was caught on tape complaining about All in the Family's blatant glorifying of homosexuality.” And the evangelist Jerry Falwell once called Lear "the greatest threat to the American family in our generation” (Spitznagel, 9). Needless to say, Lear's depiction of an obnoxious, blue-collar bigot shook up 70's television and showed the populace just how ridiculous people like that could be. Lear based the character of Archie Bunker on his father, and most people watching the show could relate the character to someone they knew (Spitznagel, 12). One direct tie-in between the then political climate and the show appeared in season 1 episode 2, where Archie tries to write a letter to President Nixon. “Dear Mr. President, Your Honor, Sir: I personally don't agree with all the contegration on the college campuses. Or them ecology nuts, who only see disaster in this great country of ours. But like "Duke" Wayne would say, "We came off the mat before when the going was tough." And I know that, so long as we all work together, this nation under God shall not diminish from the earth. Anyway, my regards to your vice, Mr. Agnew. And special regards to Mrs. Nixon, and Tricia, who I know you wouldn't let drink no water, exceptin' the best” (IMDb).

Another example of political satire is shown in season 2 episode 9.

Archie: “It's because of this depression, or recession, or whatever they're calling it.”

Mike: “Nixon calls it a recent upswing in the economic picture” (IMDb).

And season 2, episode 7 features satire on racial issues.

(Archie & Mr. Byrd meet)

Archie: “You're colored.”

Mike: “Gee Arch, we didn't think you'd notice.”

Archie: “You didn't sound colored on the phone.”

Mr. Byrd: “I used the white telephone” (IMDb).

Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance also sheds light on the populace’s motivations. Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, life situations, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to a modification of the attitudes, situations, etc., to reduce the discomfort and restore balance (McLeod). So, if the government is not providing for the populace, thereby depriving them of a basic need, it creates an urge to achieve balance. Both Festinger and Maslow say that people will do whatever necessary to achieve harmony within their lives, whether it is the drive to reduce dissonance or the desire to fulfill all needs. Festinger listed three ways in which a person will try to reduce dissonance: change the circumstance, acquire information that makes the circumstance a moot point, or shift perspectives until the circumstance is negligible (McLeod). The people in the 1970s used everything at their disposal (protests, art, and entertainment) to change the circumstances with which they were dealing (war, civil rights, etc). They used satire, because it is the most corrective form of comedy, to try to spread messages about their discontent, in order to reduce their dissonance, and because it was a safe option that had the farthest reach, therefore satisfying Maslow’s second tier of needs (McLeod).

Saturday Night Live was first aired in 1975 and was meant to be a variety show to fill time. It quickly became a comedy show, featuring performers who delighted in the scathing satirical pieces that the show would soon be known for. In fact, the first host, on the first episode, was George Carlin. In his debut, he started strong by saying “The term Jumbo Shrimp has always amazed me. What is a Jumbo Shrimp? I mean, it's like Military Intelligence- the words don't go together, man” (IMDb).

SNL began its history of political parody when Chevy Chase portrayed then-president Ford as a bumbling idiot. In season 1 episode 2, Chevy held a "news" show where the breaking story was "Good evening, I'm Chevy Chase, here to keep you up on what's going down! President Ford's regular weekly accident took place this week in Hartford, Connecticut, where Ford's Lincoln was hit by a Buick. Alert Secret Service Agents seized the Buick and wrestled it to the ground. The president was unhurt except for putting his thumb in his eye. Alert Secret Service Agents seized the thumb and wrestled it to the ground” (IMDb). Political satire can be found in every episode, like season 1 episode 5, “Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been cited for contempt of Congress! Kissinger commented, ‘So what? Congress has at least as much contempt for me as I do for him. Besides, Nixon lied, didn’t he? And he gets to sunbathe while I get terminal jet lag’” (IMDb).

Ford tried to capitalize on the popularity of SNL by staging a cameo appearance and letting his press secretary, Ron Nessen, host. However, Chevy Chase, who played Ford, used SNL to try to push him out of office. Scathing pieces, including one right before the election, bashed the president. "[M]y leanings were Democratic, and I wanted [Jimmy] Carter in and I wanted [Ford] out, and I figured look, we're reaching millions of people every weekend, why not do it,” he explained to CNN in a 2008 interview (Howard). Burkart said that SNL was one of the shows he watched all the time; SNL, All in the Family, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus were the main shows everyone raved about (Burkart, 2018).

Another useful theory concerns Adler’s work on social health. Much like Maslow, Adler stated that a healthy person depends on three factors --occupation, society, and love-- being in balance. Just as we saw that people were not fulfilling Maslow's second tier in the '70s, they also weren't fulfilling the social factor in Adler's social theory. Adler believed that the social and community realms were just as important as the individual ones and that social interest is key. He defined social interest as trying to better your community and environment by helping those who share it with you, and that doing so can further the benefits to you and society as a whole (McLeod).

MASH, the movie, was released in 1970 and was popular enough to spawn a tv show of the same name in 1972 It featured a group of doctors fighting in the Korean war, and how they coped with what they saw on a day-to-day basis. Since this show aired during the Vietnam War, the writers had to be careful not to show overt disdain for the war. While the more liberal characters made comments on the sobering aspects of the war, the ‘regular Army’ folk like Margaret Houlihan kept the patriotism high. And employing the guise of ‘comedy’ enabled them to get away with a lot more than if they were writing a drama or documentary piece. Using comedy like this was one of the ways people managed to protest without drawing the ire of opposing parties or people in power (remember how Nixon spoke out against Norman Lear). The blend of satire and black comedy in MASH showed how bloody and cruel war can be, in the more somber moments of the show, and also the ridiculousness of the whole thing. In season 1 episode 1, Hawkeye writes the following letter to his father “You said I sounded a bit callous in my last letter Dad. Let me see if I can put things in a better way. At this particular Mobile Army Hospital, we are not concerned with the ultimate reconstruction of the patient. We care only about getting the kid out of here alive enough for someone else to put on the fine touches. We work fast and we're not dainty. We try to play par surgery on this course. Par is a live patient” (IMDb).

MASH also had a lot to say about sexual rights, with the character of Klinger. In season 2, episode 3…

Sidney: “Sign this, soldier.”

Klinger: “What's it say?”

Sidney: “It says that I have examined you and found you to be a transvestite and a homosexual.”

Klinger: “I ain't any of those. Where do you get off calling me that?”

Sidney: “I think I got the idea from your cleavage.”

Klinger: “Listen, all I want is a Section 8. You know what you can do with this.”

Sidney: “Hey soldier. You forgot your purse” (IMDb).

There are many, many satirical movies from this time period. To narrow it down to things that were actually consumed by the general populace, Burkart elaborated on what movies he remembers watching during that time period. Network, MASH (movie, not the show), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, A Clockwork Orange, The Deer Hunter, and Three Days a Condor, these were all listed (Burkart, 2018). There were many others from that time period, like Soylent Green, Blazing Saddles, and on an international note, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer and the Monty Python films (Holy Grail and Life of Bryan).

The themes of these films were political and social disarray, with people being taken advantage and made a fool of, or used and hurt. They used satire to showcase how they thought society was broken (war, civil services, politics, media, etc). In Network, they satirized how corporations do not care about the people they employ, just their profits.

Howard Beale: “I'm gonna blow my brains out right on the air, right in the middle of the seven o'clock news.”

Max Schumacher: "Well, you'll get a hell of a rating, I'll tell you that. A 50 share, at least. We could make a series of it. "Suicide of the Week." Aw, hell, why limit ourselves? "Execution of the Week."

Howard Beale: "Terrorist of the Week."

Max Schumacher: “I love it. Suicides, assassinations, mad bombers, Mafia hitmen, automobile smash-ups: "The Death Hour." A great Sunday night show for the whole family. It'd wipe that fuckin' Disney right off the air” (IMDb).

And while not all of the satirical movies were complete political satires, they do have counterculture elements; just look at Blazing Saddles, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Harold and Maude.

Continuing this trajectory, what tour-de-force of entertainment would be complete without visiting the world of live comedy. Dick Gregory started standup in the military during the 1950s, and afterward, he hit the ground running, becoming the first black stand-up artist to headline the Playboy Club, where Hugh Hefner offered him a job. He was a fierce critic of the Vietnam War and a prominent participant in the Civil Rights movement. He marched with both Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and participated in several hunger-strikes and protests that led to his arrest. He continued to perform stand-up, and to speak and write as an activist, into the 1970s and beyond.

The Smother Bother’s Show, canceled in 1969 due to their satirical remarks, was synonymous with the counterculture movement that started in the late 1960s and carried into the 1970s. The Smothers were talented musicians who pushed the envelope by satirizing politicians in comic songs and inviting anti-war activists such as Pete Seeger and Joan Baez onto their show. They invited a lot of musical artists, such as the Doors, onto their show.

George Carlin pushed the envelope whenever he could but was not an explicitly political comedian. He fought censorship and was a consistent critic of American society as a whole, especially corporate America. Carlin was also a humanist, and his comedy tackled the forces -- political, social, and corporate. As shown by his being the very first SNL host, he earned a reputation of using hilariously biting satire -- he is a joy to listen to.

The satirical media was more persuasive than one from that decade might have thought. Bandura's Bobo doll experiment (1961-63) showed how influential media was to children. Prior to the experiment, it was thought that watching something violent, like boxing, was cathartic and would drain the aggressive behavior. The bobo doll experiment showcased how children would not only mimic the behavior exhibited, but how the behavior would inspire them to come up with new and violent behaviors on their own. This was the first recorded case of "violent media is bad," but for our purposes, it also helps explain how the wave of satirical entertainment could actually do what people hoped it would (McLeod).

While this pattern is evident in other countries, it is prudent to look at how American satire differs from the foreign variants. American satire tends to ridicule the intended target. Compared to the British form of satire, which epitomizes sarcasm, dry wit, and understatement, it appears far more caustic. British satire would not showcase a politician as a bumbling idiot, they would have that politician going about their daily life while other people throw out dry quips meant to showcase how they are acting idiotically. Subtlety is the name of the game.

For instance, there is a very interesting contradictory position taken by two journalists, Michael Learmonth, and Chris Addison. “The Lure of Latenight” written by Michael Learmonth, an American, spoke about how politicians can use late night comedy shows to seem more human to their constituents and cater to the educated demographic who frequents these satirical shows (Learmonth). Meanwhile, Chris Addison, from Britain, wrote, "Leave the jokes to the comedians: the reporting style of the BBC's Nick Robinson is a symptom of a culture that infantilizes politics. But politicians are as much to blame as the news media.” According to the article, the British populace hate when their politicians try to become media darlings; they would rather their politicians be out of the public eye, assuming that means they are working diligently in their offices (Addison).

Learmonth seems to praise political strategists by “say[ing] the shows are key to courting ‘the irony demo’: the coastal, college-educated cadre of young viewers who get much of their political analysis in the form of satire” and that, “It's an opportunity to humanize themselves” (Learmonth, 13). Also, In reference to recent events, he points out “Politicos still covet the mainstream media forums like ‘Meet the Press’ and late-night stalwarts Letterman, Leno and Conan (and even ‘Saturday Night Live’) have been a staple for political celebs like John McCain and Barack Obama since Bill Clinton appeared on the ‘Arsenio Hall Show.’ in 2016” (Learmonth, 13).

On the other hand, Addison states, “Satire's role is to prick the hot-air-filled bubbles above the mouths of politicians. Satire isn't supposed to be the primary way we consume politics; it's something extra, something to balance the serious, high-minded way politicians present themselves, their actions and their policies to us” (Addison, 19). Later on he adds, “…The second, and to my mind far more blameworthy, party is the news media. The reporting of politics on television and radio in this country is itself turning into a joke. The reporting is overlaid with a patina of knowing, matey awfulness, and every report seems to start from the standpoint that all the politicians involved are foolish and the reporter could have told them it would end up this way” (Addison, 20).

It must be pointed out that American satire is far more brutal than most. This is in thanks to our first amendment rights. Sure, cable companies can still pull the plug on shows that garner too much bad publicity (See Network), but the populace does not have to worry about being silenced for promoting differing viewpoints. In other countries, this is not always the case. Since satire is so often aimed at the social and political sectors of life, there is a real danger of being silenced in countries where free speech is not as staunchly protected as it is in America.

The article, “No Nation Could be Broker” by Stuart Ward, puts forth a good inflection point for the British satirical boom. “The end of empire provided fertile ground for new innovations in British comedy. The satire boom has generally been interpreted as a symbol of profound changes in the dominant values of post-war British society.” To clarify, he adds, “…the encroaching external realities of the post-war world provided new avenues for comic exploration of the imperial ethos and the myth of Britain's world role” (Ward).

British satire started to encroach into the media during the 1960s. “That Was The Week That Was --TW3-- was a revolutionary British comedy program that triggered the television satire boom of the early 1960s. It was a 'live' biting, late-Saturday night show, that broke new ground in television's relationship with politics, and it ridiculed aspects of British life that were previously too sacred to be attacked: politicians, religion and even royalty” (Suter, 1). Suter gives us more reasons for the British satire boom. “Britain in the early 1960s was ideal for satire. Britain had won two world wars but somehow lost the peace. The German and Italian economies were picking up faster than the British one, and even the French now seemed to have political stability. The Conservative Party, led by the elderly Harold Macmillan, had been in power since 1951 and it seemed to have run out of ideas as to how to move the country forward. In January 1961, the elderly American president, Dwight Eisenhower, was replaced by the dynamic youngest president ever elected in US history: John Kennedy. The Americans were beginning to run the world at a time when most Britons could still remember the day when they did. They resented their second-class world status. A century and a half of British global dominance was slipping away” (Suter, 1). Sadly, That Was The Week That Was was canceled in 1964 due to the current political party's dislike of it.

Another great British satire is Beyond the Fringe. “Beyond the Fringe began in Edinburgh and then went to London's West End in May 1961. It was a comedy created by four graduates: Peter Cook (Cambridge), Dudley Moore (Oxford), Jonathan Miller (Cambridge) and Alan Bennett (Oxford)” (Suter, 2). Peter Cook and Dudley Moore became incredibly famous names in the British standup scene. They worked together on many comedy sketches, banding together to become the team “Cooke and Moore.” The duo can be seen in the movie Bedazzled, and Cook is in a phenomenal satirical film called The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer.

Shows like Yes Minister can trace their roots back to TW3, as illuminated by an article with the creators. In “Oh no, minister: satire needs scandals, says Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. Politics no longer provides them” Lynna and Jay tell us that, in their opinion, satire isn’t viable unless the people you are satirizing do things that the public disproves of. If nothing is “shocking” or people do not care, satire falls flat. It cannot be corrective. As stated previously, satire is the most corrective form of comedy (Lynn, Jay).

Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the show Faulty Towers can be traced back to the old British radio program The Goons Show (Suter, 2). Monty Python has many examples of classic British humor, such as understatement and absurdism. However, those of us not from Britain may miss its satirical elements. Certainly, it is easier to see this if you are familiar with the culture that the work is satirizing, but there is no doubt that Monty Python is a satire in part. One simply needs to look at Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and if you are looking for some original Flying Circus material, Ministry of Silly Walks.

Now, in all honesty, it was rather hard to find foreign satire from places other than Britain. There is a comic strip called For Better or For Worse which started in 1979. It is a semi-autobiographical strip depicting the lives of a Canadian family and friends (Rizzo). A Canadian book, The Apprenticeship, is a rather caustic satire about the struggles of a Jewish population living in French Canada (Ower). There is an article about a literary satirist from Britain’s 19th century which showcases the prevalence of British satire. His representation of childhood owes much to his consciousness of the newly emergent Edwardian 'nuclear family' (fewer children, greater supervision) and can be closely compared with Freud's analysis of the psychological pressures on the child (Frost). It is also an interesting read.

There is information on an Egyptian TV personality, who, trying to ape Jon Stewart, created Al-Bernameg, Egyptian for "The Show.” Much like Stewart’s Daily Show, it was a satirical news program created by Bassem Youssef which was shut down now due to the pressure the government put on it (Dictatorship vs. a bad review). Youssef was constantly threatened, members of his crew would be beaten up, and once, when Jon Stewart himself was a guest on his show, Stewart was flown in as a secret guest and escorted onto the set with a black bag over his head in order to remain hidden from the government. On that episode of the show, when Stewart mentioned his interesting entrance, Youssef said, "Satire gets you into trouble,” to which Stewart replied: "It doesn't get me into the kind of trouble it gets you into” (Steinberg).

Piggy-backing on Al-Bernameg, we have The Daily Show, The Late Show, Last Week Tonight, and many more derivatives of the satirical news show. Norman Lear’s use of racism to make fun of racists was similar to Stephen Colbert’s show The Colbert Report, where he used the character of a right-wing Republican to make fun of people on the right wing; or more accurately, The Colbert Report is similar to Norman Lear’s work.

With the current, turbulent political climate, it is easy to see why the people enjoy satire. It highlights current events, letting people know about the “news” (loosely) why also adding a layer of clever comedy. It causes people to feel clever, “I understand this joke! I am knowledgeable about current events. Look at me understanding humor.” It is also more entertaining to watch the news with comedy added.

Depending on your political leanings, and to some degree, your upbringing, you may or may not be a fan of current satirical media. It is interesting to see how the forward-thinking youths of the 1970s, who helped spring satire into its kingly position, are now the conservative old guard that we are butting heads with. History repeats in cycles, and I, myself, hope that satire will always continue to grow.  

Works Cited

Addison, Chris. "Leave the jokes to the comedians: the reporting style of the BBC's Nick Robinson is a symptom of a culture that infantilizes politics. But politicians are as much to blame as the news media.” New Statesman, 2 Aug. 2010, p. 22+. Popular Culture Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A23493197439/PPOP?u=lirn3197259&sid=PPOP&xid=ce5b2357. Accessed 10 Dec. 2018.

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