A successful satire is one that depicts or states something that has at least some kernel of truth, in an exaggerated but a humorous manner, which has the surprising, and perhaps even pleasing, effect of illuminating the truth which was hitherto hidden or less noticeable.  Thus, whatever is depicted in this exaggerated manner in an attempted "satire" can generally be treated as what the satirist intends to convey as the truth regarding the subject matter, whether it is, in fact, a truth or not. 

What a satire generally cannot do is to depict or state something that is patently false, especially a falsehood that has been intentionally fabricated by a group of people for their known agenda, without even showing a some small sign within the depicted image or statement that it is false or unusual, and to claim that its intention was to convey the opposite of what it depicts in such a straightforward, unqualified, manner.  If the intention of the editors of the New Yorker magazine, in this particular case, was to showcase the absurdity of the depicted image, as they claim, then maybe they could have artfully depicted some "other" people waving images similar to what they have put on their magazine cover, with mirror put for those other people to see themselves waving those images.  But when they have created an image that can be a carbon copy of what the rightwing demagogues would love to create and spread as widely as possible straight for their purposes, just because New Yorker magazine is generally known as a "liberal" magazine does not make the cover have any different meaning than if the same cover was created and spread by some other group of people. 

Generally, when you utter certain forms of words, or spread certain images, your words or images normally have the same meaning, regardless of who you are.  If you yell to someone, "You are a thief!", even with a mocking gesture, you have just said to him that he is a thief.  Although, based on what he knows about you and your mocking gesture, he may not believe that you really believe what you said.  However, it will be normally difficult for you to claim that you have just said the exact opposite of what you have actually said, for example, something to effect of "You are an angel!"  And, needless to say, these two convey very different meanings.

by Nathan Nahm (9 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 144 comments [61 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Jul 16, 2008 at 5:33:43 PM

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Hey buddy, can you spare a movie ticket? 

by waldopaper (15 articles, 3 quicklinks, 34 diaries, 609 comments [84 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jul 17, 2008 at 6:20:36 AM

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