“They sound so elitist,” famed cartoonist Art Spiegelman said of the liberals decrying the New Yorker’s Obama cover. “The essence of what they’re saying is, ‘I get it, but I don’t trust the people in Kansas to get it.’ But isn’t that what the whole hope and change thing is supposed to be about? That they will get it.”
On the same theme — that Kansans are incapable of recognizing satire — Washington Post columnist Philip Kennicott wrote: “The cover, like so many self-deprecating, wryly funny, overly self-referential New Yorker covers before it, is just another prism through which New Yorker readers confirm something that is true and easily caricatured at the same time: They are an elite, a minority, and while they might be more educated or sophisticated or adept at the play of humor, they will always be outvoted by Texas. And Kansas. And the rest of the states beyond reach of the A train. The cover says as much about the political influence of Manhattan as it does about the prejudice of the rubesoisie.”
30 Comments
If sophistication goes hand in hand with degradation, of which the cover is in my opinion, then I guess the readers of the New Yorker are more sophisticated than the average Kansan.
I think the New Yorker cover is tasteless in that it isn’t funny nor is it telling anything that is even vaguely true. Obama is an American, he is not a muslim or a terrorist, and his wife is not a black panther. As I said earlier, the New Yorker just doesn’t like the idea of Obama being the next president, so they have constructed a cover full of lies about Obama. Don’t tell me because I live in Kansas that I don’t recognize satire. I have lived in several other states on the west coast and midwest besides Kansas. I have only spent 9 percent of my life in Kansas. People that live in Manhattan think that they are so much “better” than the rest of the country.
As the only subscriber to the New Yorker on this blog and perhaps in Kansas I can assure you that this cover is only one in a long tradition of satiric political covers that the magazine has published. It is no more out of line than many of the others. The more I see it, the funnier it gets. The satire and the target of the satire are obvious.
That liberal ideologues cannot see the cover for what it is does not surprise me. Ideologues on both sides of the spectrum commonly develop blind spots in their senses of humor.
The cartoon destroyed many misconceptions regarding Obama by making fun of them and bringing them out into the open where they have been discussed and exploded in every news publication and on every news program in the land. The Obama campaign should be grateful rather than critical. Probably they are, but as this is America, they almost have to respond like Nancy Grace to the latest murder/abduction – That is with false outrage.
I consider the New Yorker America’s finest magazine. It consistently delivers great reads. And in this case, destroyed the Swift Boating of Barack Hussein Obama.
If being ’sophisticated’ means spending $800 a month for a parking place for my car, $2500 a month rent for a 2 bedroom apartment, and 2 hour commute packed in a smelly, hot train with who knows what kind of lowlife criminals…then no thanks! I will gladly be an unsophisticated Kansan!!
After the continuing evolution battles, “protecting marriage,” Phill Kline, Operation Rescue and Fred Phelps, can we really blame them?
By the way, an actual cartoonist weighs in here.
P.S. Besides, at least one publication is saying the people of Kansas get it.
What’s laughably funny about this, is the more Osama Obama supporters complain about it, the more the magazine cover becomes self-defeating and a double entendre spinning on it’s own axis of hidden meaning.
Leave it to Libs to shoot themselves in the foot.
heh
What’s laughably funny about this, is the more Osama Obama supporters complain about it, the more the magazine cover becomes self-defeating and a double entendre spinning on it’s own axis of hidden meaning.
Gratuitous epithet notwithstanding, this is (unfortunately) quite correct.
Remarks from a correspondent in Washington for BBC News on Americans, humor, satire, whether Obama has a sense of humor (THIS is the latest criticism of him!). I found it interesting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7508679.stm
Kansans do see the world and politics from a different perspective. I choose to live here but welcome keeping informed of what others around the world are thinking, what is driving their opinions and in which directions. I believe strongly in the “No Man Is An Island” way of thinking.
I love to go back east, visit, listen and participate in conversations that just don’t happen here as often without someone feeling (or feigning) outrage. I think in Kansas our acceptance meters are set lower and maybe that keeps us more naive and less worldly. There is a certain politeness about Kansans that may be less than sincere but exists. We also don’t seem able to laugh at ourselves as easily.
From Linda’s link:
Barack Obama used to be funny.
Who can forget his comment about smoking and inhaling dope: “Of course I inhaled. I thought that was the point!”
When he introduced himself to the American public he used to start most of his speeches with a quip about how his wife was really the boss and would not let him run for office unless he quit smoking.
This was funny because it jelled with Michelle’s feisty image.
Nowadays Barack Obama is boxed in by a pincer movement of political correctness: his race on one flank, his squeaky-clean image as the torch-bearer of hope and change on the other.
The guardians of Mr Obama’s saintly image do not tolerate satire of any sort and the New Yorker cover has merely reinforced those limits.
Joke about Barack Hussein Obama at your peril!
I think the cover was funny…and so true of politics today.
The only unthruth in the cover is mrs odamnUSA”s hairdoo….
well uh im from kansas,,,,,,,,, and i just DONT UNDERSTAND
beber says:
“As the only subscriber to the New Yorker on this blog and perhaps in Kansas”
As Mary would say, “Oh PUL-EEEZE!”
Stupid and arrogant. A two-fer in the finest tradition of kansas.
(how long will it take for anti,rfl,boxlicker to chime in?)
Poodle dancing.
So you’re the other subscriber, Stinky?
KFG,
CHIME
Stupid and arrogant. A two-fer in the finest tradition of kansas.
——
KFG, do you have sand in your vag, or are you normally this cranky?
Kansans will gawk at the cover in line for the check out, and smugly say “See, I told you so!”
How remarkable!!
Would a New Yorker cover showing McSame humpin’ his current on a hospital bed, right next to his ex undergoing surgery to repair her accident damage, be considered satire?
Wow, the level of put down on this thread is something only a five year old could aspire to reach.
Big eye roll.
Sorry to all five year olds…
And I see you are missing a couple of nics today. RFL? Boxlicker?
Too lazy to type for ALL of them?
“Wow, the level of put down on this thread is something only a five year old could aspire to reach.”
Conceded Stinky, beginning with yours.
OMG, I’m waiting for beber to say
“Oh yeah, well.. uh… yer ugly and yer mama dresses you funny”.
Or how about
“My daddy can beat up your mama”
Like I said. Stupid and arrogant to think you are the only subscriber in Kansas.
Please share your delight with (Fernando’s) excellent post by using a junk email address, and sending large attachments to:
postmaster@berlinshotel.com
Thanks!
Would a New Yorker cover showing McSame humpin’ his current on a hospital bed, right next to his ex undergoing surgery to repair her accident damage, be considered satire?
Yeah, but since it’s very close to reality, it wouldn’t be partioularly funny.
What makes the cartoon funny is that it compounds the ridiculous upon the ridiculous in an exponential fashion. At least, that was my reaction.
I’m not surprised (btw) that Mary “got” it. I’m very surprised that you seem to have gotten a very different meaning from it.
Oh well.
Well, Rhonda, your righteous indignation has been noted. Now just get out of your office a little more often!
How about McCain in a bird cage! Naw, again too close to reality.
“Like I said. Stupid and arrogant to think you are the only subscriber in Kansas.”
Satire is lost on you Stinky. Of course there are other subscribers in Kansas. Some libraries take the magazine.