The Limits of Political Satire

In the car, Ian came across a free, urban calendar-of-events newspaper that I had in the back seat - the kind that yuppies read to learn about upcoming entertainment venues, and to read movie and restaurant reviews. I usually grab the paper - the Manchester Hippo - to try to figure out where to take the family over the weekend, but I didn't really intend the paper for the children themselves; like many such papers around the country, it's a bit decadent, and really geared more toward the 20- or 30-something bachelor or bachelorette than the budding second-grade reader.

But Ian is resourceful, and quite omnivorous in his reading if he doesn't happen to have a Pokemon text on hand: he even read "Java Secrets" in my back-seat once, although on that occasion, he resolved to bring his own book next time, for whatever reason. So he started reading to Daniel the one comic strip that he could find in the paper, which unfortunately happened to be a bit of political lampoon. No doubt, Ian spotted a cartoon and figured that it was probably something he and Daniel would enjoy...

In this particular cartoon, they showed two conservative male caricatures, one of whom looks uncannily similar to Dick Cheney, only with even more of an expression of fanatical determination, talking about how inter-gender harassment is really a myth and women should be grateful when you compliment them on their physique. There was discussion of "trollops" and Anita Hill... This week's cartoon emerged in the wake of the temporary setback caused by the many scurrilous accusations made against our next president, Herman Cain.

I was very sorry I had let Ian read this cartoon, although I don't think it made much of an impression on him, somehow, as he plodded through the political diatribe in his standard eight-year-old monotone, which prevails when he's reading something wholly unfamiliar and unremarkable.

But I appreciated Daniel's comment on the subject: "Usually comic strips are funny, like the ones that Uncle Andrew gets from the library."

(December 6, 2011)