I stumbled across a piece from 2008 in The Guardian talking about satire, and how Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin impression is the reason John McCain lost.
Maybe, maybe not. But I find the following observation intriguing, especially when applied to Obama:
A presidential candidate can sidestep a controversial issue such as the grim spectre of another Great Depression. A candidate can dance around two failed wars, a trillion-dollar deficit, the instantaneous disappearance of several million jobs, or having a bunch of high-level cabinet posts staffed by clowns.
But not even the most gifted candidate can defend himself against the combined, cohesive forces of unilaterally condescending satire. Those whom the gods would destroy they first make ridiculous.
This explains why no one was allowed to mock Obama. If he’d gotten all he had coming to him, he wouldn’t have survived.
For the record, though, I don’t satire because I want to ruin a politician’s career. I just like having fun.
Instead of getting angry and yelling at the bad and the dumb – which is quite exhausting – I mock them as cleverly an entertainingly as I can, which spreads joy amongst the people who share my values.
Also – bonus – it’s actually more hurtful to the bad and the dumb.
“Lampoons and satires are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.”
— Joseph Addison
“Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity is the only test of humor.”
— Lord Shaftsbury
[A slight paraphrase]
“As men neither fear nor respect what has been made contemptible, all honor to him who makes oppression laughable as well as detestable. Armies cannot protect it then; and walls that have remained impenetrable to cannon have fallen before a roar of laughter or a hiss of contempt.”
— E. P. Whipple, American essayist
If all the above is true then how do you explain Biden’s success as a serious candidate for President??
“No one in this world, so far as I know … has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.” — H. L. Mencken
[Source: https://bit.ly/2WiCMHk ]
Most people don’t conduct a serious analysis of a candidate’s political philosophy and applicable policy desires or support. They will respond to humor and base assertions which exist on the same level as their overall interest in any election.