Home » Culture & Society

Sarcasm / Satire / Humor / Wit in American Politics

2 Comments

6 Like

Like 6

Pin It

Ranked #8,537 in Culture & Society, #174,618 overall

Saving Ourselves Through Sarcasm

With the 2008 presidential election on the horizon, it's time to get active and keep our wit about us.

Humor is an essential aspect of our political dialogue/diatribe, and the humor defense mechanism is well-documented throughout history. While he didn't invent political cartooning, Benjamin Franklin's 1974 Join, or Die image about colonial unity was used to support colonist involvement in the French and Indian War. And although Franklin's cartoon is not explicitly pro-war, it does succinctly illustrate the need that colonists felt they had to defend themselves at the time. On the other side of the globe in 1810, Francis Goya's The Disasters of War illustrated another danger to the people--endless international agression. With humor being used to battle both tyranny and ennui, it has a significant impact on our political discourse.

Find Bush Kittens and other images at Some of Nothing.

Contents at a Glance

Liberals We Laugh At
Sometimes Funny
Jon Stewart Shoots Unfriendly Fire
Stephen Colbert Goes all Truthy on Bush'...
Unconventional
Great Stuff on CafePress

Republicans just aren't funny

SamSederShow.com | Reporting for the Majority: Sam Seder is the best liberal radio personality out there. He's had 3 different shows on Air America and has mastered every one (although his latest show--Seder on Sunday--is a bit over-produced). He's fiercely logical and fiercely funny. And he was one of the first radio personalities to feature bloggers regularly. In other words, Seder has used humor to attract listeners and then has helped change the way we communicate about politics. Well done!
Bill Maher - Politics on The Huffington Post: Everyone (or almost everyone) knows about Bill Maher on HBO, but he's also a great blogger. As we've seen on the Huffington Post, Maher is almost as funny in print as he is on the teevee.
Molly Ivins: AlterNet Columnist: Molly Ivins may be gone, but her great work and wit are here to stay. She has some amazing editorials. If only there were more like her!
Tom Tomorrow: Tom Tomorrow brings a bit of the cartoon funny to politics. He takes some easy shots but also brings new wit to some old ideas. Enjoyable.
Jesus' General: "Gen. JC Christian gives us God's own take on current events. The General is not a homosexual."
Jesus' General is a great parody blog that highlights Republican idiocy in a big way.
Rox Populi: Great funny blog and great links to lots of other great funny blogs!

Sometimes Funny

Not Always Liberal

Basic humor for everyday wear. A little something for all.

New York Times Laugh Lines: The editors of the Week in Review think they collect the best political humor on the web. You can be the judge of that.
Home | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: The Onion, America's Finest News Source, is an award-winning publication covering world, national, and * local issues. It is updated daily online and distributed weekly in select American cities. (aka biting sarcasm--fair and balanced)
Political Humor - Jokes Satire and Political Cartoons: Daniel Kurtzman is a pretty good source for political humor and political cartoons (updated daily with jokes, cartoons, satire, videos, and funny news).
CartoonStock - 100,000 Cartoon Pictures and Political Cartoons.: Cartoon library, fully catalogued and searchable, download cartoon pictures and political cartoons. Browse and buy cartoons for publishing, presentations, on-line rights and merchandise or commission new artwork.
Funny or Die - Politics Videos: YouTube for comedy. Funny or Die offers funny videos featuring celebrities, comedians, and you. This is the political channel.
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Official Website | Current Events & Pop Culture News, Comedy & Fake News | Comedy Central: The Daily Show website offers an expansive archive of Daily Show footage. The site is a bit quirky but good stuff can be found.

Jon Stewart Shoots Unfriendly Fire

and the gang at Crossfire gets theirs

One of the few great television moments in recent history. Jon Stewart goes on Crossfire way back in October of 2004 to speak on behalf of the people and explain to Tucker Carlson that he's hurting America. I'd like to think that there's little chance of this one sliding down the memory hole (unlike "Me Ain't Culpa," in which Stewart hilariously/genuinely reacts to Condi's claim that the "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" PDB was an "historical" document [Update: Me Ain't Culpa lives!!! as of 10-18-07]), but you never know.

Stephen Colbert Goes all Truthy on Bush's A--

Bush is now afraid of bears (or col-berts)

Just as funny and just as uncomfortable as Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire, Stephen Colbert makes the most of his appearance at the White House Correspondent's Dinner in April 2006. This video is just part one, so be sure to also enjoy parts two and three. Colbert shows us all how humor and satire really should be used in the fight for one's country. He leads by example.

Unconventional

Sam Seder and Max Blumenthal get put on terrorist watch list by republican conventioners

Both Sam and Max highlight Republican hypocrisy in these funny videos in which they each get kicked out of a different Republican convention. The question is...who wins the funny boot? (note: Max kind of cheats with the great quote from Tom Delay about how abortion is bad because reducing unwanted births increases the need for the US to import cheap labor from out-of-country)

Sarcasm / Satire / Humor / Wit in American Politics

Saving Ourselves Through Sarcasm

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Liberals We Laugh At

Republicans just aren't funny

Sometimes Funny

Not Always Liberal

Jon Stewart Shoots Unfriendly Fire

and the gang at Crossfire gets theirs

Stephen Colbert Goes all Truthy on Bush's A--

Bush is now afraid of bears (or col-berts)

Unconventional

Sam Seder and Max Blumenthal get put on terrorist watch list by republican conventioners

1

Sam Seder gets thrown out of the RNC 2004 1 point

2

Young Republican Chickenhawks 0 points

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Great Stuff on CafePress

amusing liberal expressions

Other Political Humor Lover Lenses

(say that 3 times fast)

New Flickr Photos

1

2

3

4

5

Please pick your widget size and display. Then click "Make the Widget" to get the code that's just right for you.

Voila! Just copy and paste this code into your own site. Have fun!

Oopsey! Please login to Squidoo in order to add this module to your lens.

Mostly Political Humor

Unfunny But Informative

for the serious deconstructor

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43