Politics and Satire. In the United States the First Amendment protects satirists. There is a great history of political satirists impacting American politics

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Ben Conway

Mr. Jenkins

AP English III 4-A

      14 March 2012

Political Satire: A Force in Politics

                On Thursday, January 12, 2012, Stephen Colbert, a popular faux newscaster and host of The Colbert Report, announced his presidential run for the office of  “The United States of America of South Carolina.” While the host of the satirical television show was not be able to run due to South Carolina’s voting laws, the announcement caused quite a showing of support, and in a Public Policy Polling poll, Colbert was ahead of former governor John Huntsman by a percentile (Shaw). The public’s response to Colbert’s announcement reflects the political power of present day satirists. Since adept political cartoonists, satirists, and comedians are able to expose the actions and ideas of national and world politicians with razor sharp levity, they play a key role in the political process by promoting political change and influencing public perceptions.

Satire is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as “trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly.”  With the up and coming 2012 presidential election as a catalyst political satire is in its prime. The political candidates will be “exposed and discredited” from many angles on television shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Saturday Night Live, and in political cartoons in newspapers around the country. This practice has a long and storied history that has changed politics significantly.

A critic of satire’s affect on politics might state that it is purely for humor and has no influence on political reality; satirical television shows are funny but not credible enough to sway political opinion. The expectation is that educated voters and practicing politicians look past the taunts and jokes of practicing satirists. However, this view is not the case. Political satire has played a key role in politics for over 2,400 years, starting with the dramatist Aristophanes, satirizing the leaders of Athens on their misconduct of the Peloponnesian war (Poremba).

While most leaders in history saw satire as innocent and juvenile, other leaders perceived it as a threat. Honoré Daumier was thrown in prison by King Louis-Phillipe in the early 19th century because he drew a representation of the King as Gargantua (Navasky). As a result of this cartoon, the King reestablished censorship “not of the pen but of the crayon” (Navasky). He felt threatened enough by a cartoon that he took such extreme action as to throw a caricaturist into prison.

In the United States the First Amendment protects satirists. There is a great history of political satirists impacting American politics starting with a founding father, Benjamin Franklin in his satirical article, Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (Poremba). Franklin articulated the grievances of the American colonists in 1773 and gave the Revolutionaries a direction and focus (Poremba). This work altered the American political perception and pushed them closer to revolution.

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The most effective form of satire, before the wide usage of television, was a political cartoon. They were very effective in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries because of the low literacy rate (Poremba). This visual message could reach a wider audience than just those who could read.  Cartoons drawn by Thomas Nast helped shape modern day politics by giving each party an animal to represent them (Shaw). Also, he was effective in bringing down Tammany Hall, a political machine run by the infamous Boss Tweed, by making the illiterate masses aware of the corruption-taking place. Boss Tweed famously said, ...

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