July 16 at 11:50AM
Take That, New Yorker Cartoon Department!
I suppose this David Horsey cartoon of John and Cindy McCain is about as funny as the New Yorker's cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama (or most political cartoons for the matter)…
How did McCain get dragged into this whole thing? He was actually defending Obama.
I'd like to highlight a point that nobody else seems to be making: It's really not an issue of whether the New Yorker was satirizing or disseminating Obama smears. It's that satire is a whole lot easier to recognize when it's funny.
By the way, in case you were confused, that Horsey cartoon above is satire. Trust me, it is.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
PERMALINK:
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/16/new-jibjab-video-of-obama_n_113016.html
Horsey got it right.
The difference between the NYers cartoon and Horsey's is that McCain really did sing "bomb Iran" and his wife really did steal pills from her nonprofit. However, Obama is not a Muslim and his wife is not a black panther. Satire is comedy that amplifies and exaggerates the truth. Slander is knowingly lying about someone in a way that damages their reputation. Therefore the McCain comic is satire, the Obama comic is slander.
It would be funnier if they were perscription drugs from Canada or if she said that he was kicked off his health insurance because of his pre-existing conditions.