Copenhagen, Denmark, February 15, 2015. A meeting in a cafe to discuss
free speech and blasphemy, just over a month after the massacre at the
Paris offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Inna Shevchenko of the Ukrainian feminist protest group Femen opens the
Last updated at 3:12PM, May 19 2015
Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical weekly whose staff were gunned down
by Islamists, faces an uncertain future after its top cartoonist
announced his departure today as its editor tried to defuse a revolt
Spitting Image alter ego, a tiny figure who sat literally in David
Owen’s pocket. So just how much are our current crop of politicians
haunted by the spectre of satire? Do they get the night sweats at
visions of Russell
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Show all
Satirist risks Dawkins’s wrath with his creation
Kevin Dowling Published: 27 September 2015
* Print
A firm is to publish a satire on Richard Dawkins by Dan Rhodes, after
the writer published 400 copies himself as a test and the evolutionary
biologist did not sue A firm is to publish a satire on Richard Dawkins
by Dan Rhodes, after the writer published 400 copies himself as a test
and the evolutionary biologist did not sue (Dwayne Senior)
AN AWARD-WINNING novelist will finally see his “fictional” satire about
a cantankerous evolutionary biologist called Richard Dawkins published
in paperback this week.
Subscribe now
Heath Robinson’s Great War: The Satirical Cartoons
appearance on the BBC since he was sacked for punching a producer.
In his role as host of the satirical news quiz Have I Got News For You,
Clarkson frequently found himself the butt of jokes made by a panel
comprised of his fellow Sunday Times columnist Camilla Long, Private
Some viewers complained that it was anti-Muslim propaganda rather than
satire because it was reminiscent of an image displayed on posters at
the Monday night marches by the anti-immigrant group Pegida – Patriotic
Europeans
Opinion
Satire is dying because the internet is killing it
Arwa Mahdawi
Facebook’s [satire] tag may prevent people believing Kim Jong-un was
voted the sexiest man alive, but the damage is done
facebook
‘The problem with satire in an age of finite attention and infinite
content is that it makes you stop and think.’ Photograph: David
Sillitoe for the Guardian
Forget self-driving cars or virtual reality nano-technology algorithms,
the newest innovation to emerge from Silicon Valley is square brackets.
Facebook is testing a “satire tag” that will clearly label fake news
stories from well-known satire sites like the Onion as [satire]. No
longer will you need to rely on outdated technology such as common
sense to realise that content like Area Facebook User Incredibly Stupid
is [satire], the square brackets will do it for you.
It should perhaps be noted that Facebook isn’t introducing the satire
tag because it thinks we’re all morons, but rather because it knows
we’re all morons. In a statement, the social network explained that it
had “received feedback that people wanted a clearer way to distinguish
satirical articles from others”.
Some of those people may well be journalists who have had embarrassing
lapses of satire-blindness in the past. The Washington Post, for
example, was once fooled into reporting that Sarah Palin was, in a
somewhat unlikely career move, taking a job at al-Jazeera. And the
man alive, even using the accolade as an opportunity to run a 55-image
slideshow of him, complete with quotes from the Onion spoof. Although,
it’s possible this may itself have been satire – I’m unsure.
And that’s the problem. The internet has become so weird, so saturated
The point of this carefully curated list is that you often can’t tell
the difference between satire and real news online. There are several
reasons for this. The first is the underlying business model of the
internet. We don’t like to pay for stuff online so the internet is
clicks.
The second big contributor to satire-blindness is our diminishing
attention span. The average American attention span in 2000 was 12
seconds; in 2013, it was eight seconds. This is less than the average
attention span of a goldfish (nine seconds).
As Vladimir Nabokov once said, “Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.”
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the internet, it’s that
everyone prefers games to lessons. The problem with satire in an age of
finite attention and infinite content is that it makes you stop and
think. It interrupts the speed and simplicity of the
discover-click-share cycle that makes platforms like Facebook lots of
money. By introducing satire tagging, Facebook has helpfully gone some
way in eliminating the unhelpful friction of thought and, in doing so,
made life easier for us all.
Should the satire tags prove to be a success, I’m hoping Facebook will
extend the square bracketing and provide clear labelling for every post
on my newsfeed. Here’s to a future filled with [millennial
Opinion
Laugh if you like. But we need satire more than ever
Owen Jones
Illustration by Mitch Blunt
'Satire is so subversive – and often politically fatal for those who
rule – because it exposes the absurdities of power.' Photograph: Mitch
Blunt
strangers; a tool to broaden horizons, or to be bombarded with
nonsensical junk. But our social media, increasingly, are assuming a
role that is crucial in a democracy: satirising and ridiculing the
powerful.
small-fry account the Twitter trend of the moment.
Political satire is booming online, where taking the mighty and the
powerful down a peg or two is a sport. On the web you can find Vine
videos of George Osborne looking spaced out at prime minister’s
on our TV screens.
Satire is so subversive – and often politically fatal for those who
rule – because it exposes the absurdities of power. Authority attempts
to assert itself partly through a veneer of respectability and
ago, “Where is the Spitting Image of today? ... Imagine the sport the
show could have with Cameron and Clegg. But I don’t care whether it’s
puppets or cartoons or real people. Just give us some decent satire.”
The humorous ridiculing of the powerful has a proud pedigree in
Britain. Back in the mid-19th century, it was Punch magazine that
championed satire, being sympathetic to the rising demands of democracy
against the country’s oligarchic, unaccountable elite. More recently,
satire has episodically flourished on our TV screens: That Was The Week
That Was audaciously challenged the stultifying deference of the early
60s; Not the Nine O’Clock News stuck it to the political elite as
disproportionately young audience, entertaining and informing them.
Stephen Colbert takes on the US’s ranting rightwing shock jocks.
Depressingly, we’re even exporting satirical talent such as
Birmingham-born John Oliver, who presents Last Week Tonight on HBO.
likely to see politics as a realistic vehicle to transform society.
But quality satire does not just scrutinise and ridicule the great and
the good. It helps engage those who otherwise find politics tedious.
Politics can be made fun, raucous and appealing (at least for those not
and derided. There’s too little punching up. Where is the scrutinising
– and yes, ridiculing – of the poverty-paying bosses, the tax dodgers,
or the bankers responsible for economic disaster? Satire can be
brilliantly effective at encouraging us to challenge the way our
society is run. It is a more crucial element of our democracy than we
Comedy
Laughing in the face of danger: the state of satire in the Muslim world
Cartoons depicting Muhammad are unthinkable in Muslim countries. But
there are plenty of homegrown satirists poking fun at reactionaries,
autocrats and jihadis. Our writers in Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan,
Iran, Lebanon and Iraq explain where the line is drawn
Bassem Youssef
Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef gets some last-minute makeup done
before appearing on his TV show as an ultra-conservative politician.
Photograph: David Degner/David Degner/Getty Images
don’t have much to laugh about these days: mayhem and death, war and
repression, dictatorship and terrorism are daily fare across the
region. Yet satire and humour, much of it fairly black, are alive and
kicking, from Iraqis poking fun at the Islamic State (Isis) to Saudi
standup comics, and Palestinians grinning and bearing life under a
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed Caliph of Isis, is the object
of plain ridicule. Karl Sharro, the London-based Lebanese satirist,
brilliantly “re-created” a session between Baghdadi and his
psychiatrist. Having declared the caliphate, the jihadi chief is
Yekthar – tolerated by an autocratic Saudi regime that is currently
flogging a jailed liberal blogger and does not allow women to drive –
an issue that is brilliantly satirised in Butairi’s Bob Marley-inspired
“No Woman, No Drive” video. Surprisingly, the show has survived,
perhaps because it uses coded messages about social and economic issues
Yet Isis is, in a sense, an easy target in the grim aftermath of the
Arab spring – and the dichotomy between jihadis and dictators
fashionable but false. “A lot of this is at the expense of satire
against counter-revolutionary regimes we are not laughing at any more,”
says Sharro. “Now there is a sense of an existential battle so we are
internet’
In some respects, the state of Egyptian satire can be summarised by the
fact that Egypt’s most famous contemporary satirist no longer feels
safe to work. And that when he was in work, he came under pressure from
every government he lampooned. For a golden period, between 2011 and
2013, Bassem Youssef, a heart surgeon in a past life, was the poster
boy of Egypt’s revolution. His political satire show, which he first
broadcast on YouTube from his spare bedroom, and which later drew up to
30 million viewers on television, took aim at politicians from across
spawned, it was Youssef’s show that was the most visible emblem of the
enhanced public discourse of the post-revolution period. Within two
years, Youssef was the most-watched satirist in the Middle East, and
became known internationally as Egypt’s Jon Stewart. Like Stewart,
Youssef played humorous video clips of his targets, and then
But his experiences under the rule of first Morsi, an Islamist, and
Egypt’s first post-revolution president, and then the man who ousted
him, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, highlight the limits for satirists in Egypt.
Under Morsi, prosecutors detained and questioned Youssef on charges of
insulting both the president and Islam in general. A devout Muslim,
Within weeks, his own channel had pulled the show. While the government
has locked up other journalists, in his case there was no direct
government order to end his satire. According to Youssef, he was the
victim of the environment the government had helped create in which
media moguls are only too happy to do the authorities’ work for them.
more, there was no direct order to do so – even from his new employers.
But he felt that the threat posed by either the government or its
supporters was too great to justify the continuation of his satire.
In Egypt’s mainstream media, Youssef’s departure has left a void. But
his satirical baton is still carried by a younger generation of
cartoonists and writers who push social and (sometimes) political
boundaries in a few daring websites, magazines – or to their own
substantial followings on Facebook. One such writer is 23-year-old
Wageeh Sabry, who started producing satirical sketches on Facebook last
summer – ironically around the time that Youssef finally wound down his
show. At first Sabry was just talking to his friends, posting
Sabry doesn’t take direct potshots at political figures or events. But
the surreal scenes he dreams up are a satire of the Egyptian moment.
Recently, he imagined a bizarre conversation with a ghost at an
“atheist cafe”, a riff on a recent raid on a cafe the authorities said
chants pro-regime slogans at their commander.
“In the mainstream media, there aren’t satirical journalists who talk
about religion, sex, politics. The only one who broke these boundaries
was Bassem Youssef,” says Sabry, who is mentored by Youssef. “If I was
Patrick Kingsley and Manu Abdo
Turkey: ‘Erdogan sued, but satire had the last laugh and the prime minister
lost’
The Turkish political satire magazine Penguen (Penguin) was founded in
2002 by four Turkish cartoonists, Metin Üstündag, Selçuk Erdem, Bahadır
Baruter and Erdil Yaşaroğlu. It has since become one of the country’s
While political caricatures in Turkey go back to Ottoman times, –
Sultan Abdülhamid II, who failed to see the humour in satire and the
depictions of his large nose, went on to ban them – they saw their
golden age in the 1970s and 80s when Oğuz Aral, often considered the
father of several generations of Turkish cartoonists, founded the
hugely popular magazine Gırgır (Chuckle). Penguen’s co-founders emerged
from Aral’s school of political satire.
The magazine has never shied away from controversy. After a Turkish
– a Turkish government leader known for his lack of a sense of humour
and his love of suing unruly cartoonists – and promptly found itself
facing a court case for defaming authority. This time satire had the
last laugh and Erdoğan lost. But the threats against political satire
and cartoon artists in Turkey, a country that currently ranks 154th out
of 175 on the RSF Press Freedom index, are not just of a legal nature.
His mosque cartoon again became the subject of heated debate – and
threats of violence – after the attack on French satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo last Wednesday. Ibrahim Yörük, a writer for the newly
founded Islamic daily Vahdet, tweeted, using the hashtag #CharlieHebdo:
Syria: ‘Ali Farzat was dragged from his car and had his hands broken’
Satire is a popular, and dangerous, political weapon in Syria, where
its practitioners choose targets at their peril. Before the uprising
that has ravaged the country over the past three years, political
vocal chords removed.
Now Syrian satirists tend to restrict themselves to safer targets. It
is the terror group Isis, which controls part of Syria’s north and much
of its east, that has become the focus of pointed satirical attacks
from both the opposition and regime. State-run television has begun
regularly deriding the group through comedic sketches and cartoons.
Martin Chulov
Pakistan: ‘Only satire that has the sense to limit its targets is tolerated’
When I sent my collected satirical columns, The Diary of a Social
Butterfly – narrated by a ditzy, wealthy socialite in Lahore – to a
publisher in India, she snapped it up. Later she told me: “I expected
generates cannot imagine there is much scope there for humour. But in
fact Pakistanis have a long tradition of laughing at themselves. Urdu
literature is replete with first-rate satirists – Akbar Allah Abadi,
Ibne Insha, Mushtaq Yusufi. Bhaands, traditional performers who
entertain with fast and furious monologues of cutting political
impersonators have their own television shows.
There are three separate satirical programmes on Geo, the country’s
biggest and most watched independent television channel, where
politicians come in for a regular drubbing. It broadcasts Hum Sub Umeed
Say Hain (We Are All Expecting), known for its biting political
comment, as is Dunya’s satirical programme Hasb-e-Haal. The Friday
Times, a weekly from Lahore, has published a series of fictitious
satirical diaries over the years: Dear Diary by Benazir Bhutto;
Ittefaqnama by Nawaz Sharif (the current prime minister); Mush and
Bush, a telephone conversation between General Musharraf and President
publisher, Jugnu Mohsin. Subversive cartoonists, such as Sabir Nazar,
Feica, Zahoor and Javaid Iqbal, whose work is published in leading
national newspapers, are household names. So satire is alive and
kicking in Pakistan. But only satire that has the sense to limit itself
to permissible targets is tolerated.
Bush during General Musharraf’s regime, it escaped censure.
The one place that satirists can safely let rip against the military
and jihadists alike is cyberspace. One of the country’s foremost wits
is an anonymous character on Twitter called Majorly Profound.
Moni Mohsin
Moni Mohsin’s satirical novel, Duty Free, is published by Vintage
Mana Neyestani
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now lives in Paris. Photograph: PIERRE DUFFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
Iran: ‘Despite restrictions – and floggings – satire is present in everyday
life’
Satire in Iran starts with two familiar words: Gol Agha. That was the
title of a weekly publication founded in 1990 by one of Iran’s most
celebrated satirists, Kioumars Saberi Foumani, who also went by the pen
name Gol Agha. It was the first such publication in post-revolutionary
Iran, maintaining its dominance for more than two decades after its
debut, adding monthly and annual editions as well as producing a new
generation of satirists and cartoonists.
Throughout the reformist years under Mohammad Khatami in the late 90s
small publishing house today.
Iranian satirists and cartoonists face strict red lines in their work,
such as longstanding bans on depicting clerics, ridiculing religions or
satirising anything to do with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Many defy those bans online, publishing anonymously if they
reside inside the country.
complaint.
A number of satirists and cartoonists have been forced to flee Iran in
the past decades, including Mana Neyestani. He fell victim to the
state’s aggression in 2006 when he spent two months in jail for a
his life away with a bullet.”
Despite restrictions, satire is present in everyday life in Iran. State
censorship and strict rules imposed on satirical publications or TV and
radio programmes mean that mobile phones are perhaps the most popular
medium for reading jokes. Tech-savvy Iranians use texts and instant
messaging services on a daily basis to share satirical takes on
everything from politics to football.
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Lebanon: ‘There is more tolerance for satire than elsewhere in the Arab
world’
Lebanon has perhaps more space and tolerance for satire in its
political discourse than any other country in the Arab world. Each
television channel has at least one show that regularly mocks
influence brokers and security chiefs are all derided with the aid of
Spitting Image-style rubber puppets, much to the enjoyment of citizens
who revel in using satire as a means to expose the powerful, when they
can’t be held to account in other ways. The feudal lords who run much
of Lebanon are all widely known by the caricatures that have appeared
which ridicules Isis. Photograph: Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters/Reuters
Iraq: ‘Now the country faces the threat from Isis, satire is back with venom’
In the years following the fall of Saddam Hussein, political satire was
resurgent in Iraq. New money brought new channels and cable TV. A
long-dormant tradition of holding rulers to account through sketches
As the new ruling class squandered, and the Americans floundered, some
of the more penetrating, brusque satire ever seen in the Middle East
featured proudly in news stands, or on primetime.
and the biting tone of the cartoonists and commentators soon died down.
Now, though, with al-Maliki gone and Iraq facing its latest existential
crisis – a threat from Isis – satirical venom is back. Isis has been
lampooned on state television, which spent a reported $750,000 on a
series mocking the terror group. Another channel serialised a cartoon
followers are now trying to impose by the sword.
There is little self-censorship in satirical depictions of Isis, but
some artists and producers have refused to have their names associated
with the pieces, for fear of reprisals.
protections for those who subject prophets, or revered religious
figures, to ridicule and few – if anyone – willing to try it. Iraq’s
political satirists are testing other boundaries – political, societal
and sometimes cultural. For now, they have more room to move than at
most points since the fall of Saddam.
Jonathan Jones on art
Charlie Hebdo: cartoon satire is a more potent weapon than hate
Humour is an essential force in the defence of free speech, as the
executing cartoonists.
How can we assert the survival of satire and artistic freedom in the
wake of such a brutal totalitarian act?
Open mic
Is Jeremy Corbyn too nice for satire?
Brian Logan
A man being persuaded to compromise on his lofty ideals could make for
great comedy – but given the best satire kicks against the strong, it
could be hard to wring gags from the underdog Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn
Fruitful new realms of satiric possibility … the new Labour party
leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer
When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour party last
Saturday, did Britain’s satirists rub their hands with glee, or wring
them in despair? On the one hand, Corbyn requires a tricky gear change
from political comics, in that he simply doesn’t fit modern satire’s
default “they’re all the same, they’re all unprincipled careerists”
paradigm. Even his worst enemies would probably acknowledge he is
delighted by Corbyn’s arrival on the scene. He is a completely new
figure to joke about, and that same high-mindedness – as we’ve already
seen – opens up fruitful new realms of satiric possibility.
Related: Can Jeremy Corbyn ever be funny? Only on my joke Twitter feed
| Jason Sinclair
So what is satire’s approach going to be? Like the approach to Corbyn
more generally, it’s not yet settled. Witness the Sun’s contradictory
front pages last Monday and Tuesday: the first berated Corbyn for
rich. In the first Corbyn sketch, he was mocked for having “muddled and
contradictory opinions”. In the second, he was teased for having an
out-of-date dress sense. Truly, the new dawn of satire is upon us.
Sandwiched between those gags, another Dead Ringers line of attack
comedy gig in Brighton to coincide with this month’s Labour conference
in the city, speculated that the “Jez we can” phenomenon might
revitalise UK satire, because Tory-bashing jokes are too easy, too
familiar and totally ineffective. I doubt that’ll be the case. The best
satire derives from moral outrage of the kind it’d be hard to muster
against Corbyn. And the best satire kicks against the strong, not the
weak – given the volume and virulence of the establishment attacks
being directed at him, Corbyn clearly falls (in satire terms at least)
into the latter category. It’s revealing that one of the most popular
cartoon images of the Labour leader so far doesn’t depict him with
Y-fronts over his trousers or a mad, staring eye, but as Obi-Wan
Kenobi. Venerable, wise, unflappable, soon to be destroyed by the
forces of darkness, but whose spirit will live on. Satire will find
worse to throw at Corbyn, but – for him, at any rate – that’s a pretty
encouraging start.
Opinion
Just when we need political satire more than ever, Jon Stewart bows out
Hadley Freeman
the news, dance-free, looks sweetly old-fashioned – and yet his is the
one that has had, and will continue to have, the greatest impact on
political satire – because he genuinely cares about what he is saying.
This, I’ve finally realised, is why The Daily Show still works while
other similarly rigid but far lazier and more cowardly shows just look
like the walking dead. It is, for example, an indictment of the state
of TV political satire in Britain that no UK broadcaster has managed to
come up with anything even a hundredth as good as The Daily Show,
despite repeated attempts. Where America has The Daily Show, Britain
Fiction in translation
The Four Books review – satire from a Mao-era labour camp
Intellectuals are collected in a re-education camp during the Great
The work of the Chinese author Yan Lianke reminds us that free
expression is always in contention – to write is to risk the hand of
power. The Four Books is an Orwellian satire of life in a re-education
labour camp for intellectuals during Mao’s Great Leap Forward. In
District 99, one area of a sprawling re-education complex, no one has a
Opinion
In this rabbit hole of an August, politics is morphing into satire
Marina Hyde
into Wonderland
Noma Bar's illustration on politics and satire
‘With the best will in the world, I do not believe Corbyn is going to
stop the Tories being in power for 15 years. At least.’ Illustration:
game we loathe so much. The next, you’re being barred as a red Tory
from a club willing to accept Murdoch as a member. For lovers of
rolling auto-satire, this is certainly an exciting time to be alive.
In this fast-moving WTFscape, the only newspaper which is not cast as
headlined “Terrorists Destroy World Trade Centre”.
Given how many satires are set 20 minutes into the future, there is a
certainly a temptation to look at aspects of events in Greece and
wonder if they are some blacker forerunner to developments just around
as Tory or red Tory is the Morning Star
More satire back home, where to the delight of those who’d had enough
of people banging on about antisemites he may have associated with,
Jeremy Corbyn has chosen this moment to announce that he will apologise
Books
The Sellout by Paul Beatty review – a galvanizing satire of post-racial
America
Every admirer of Paul Beatty’s latest novel, The Sellout, will likely
have a different favorite line. There are more than enough surprising
and galvanic jokes in this caustic-but-heartfelt work of satire to make
that a possibility.
Comedy
Spitting Image was satire’s acceptable face
ITV ARCHIVE
* Share on WhatsApp
John O’Farrell hopes that the new satire show Newzoids will not opt for
the “they’re all as bad as each other” level of faux-satire (Opinion,
14 February). One of the pleasures of satire is imagining the victim
reading or viewing it at the same time as me, and is besides his or
herself with rage. Anyone who thinks that Spitting Image reached those
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Satirical Facebook post featuring rap legend Ice Cube as gun-toting refugee
terrorist goes viral
post
A brilliant pro-refugee satirical Facebook post featuring rap legend
Ice Cube has gone viral.
“They’re here. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
Satire: The Facebook post
Mikey told the Huffington Post he created the post “to basically mock
Writing on Facebook the same day, he said: “Since I posted this
earlier, I’ve had over 100 friend request from Muslims all over the
world laughing at the satire behind it and Britain First supporters
outraged by it thinking its real.
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What is Charlie Hebdo and why did terrorists target French satirical
magazine?
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Getty / Rex Charlie Hebdo
Controversial: French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is edited by
Stephane Charbonnier
Masked gunmen have stormed the Paris offices of satirical newspaper
Charlie Hebdo killing at least 12 people before escaping.
What is Charlie Hebdo?
Charlie Hebdo, French for Charlie Weekly, is a satirical weekly
newspaper published every Wednesday that was first founded in 1969. It
publishes cartoons, jokes and 'news' reports.
Reuters Charlie Hebdo
At work: A journalist in the Paris newsroom of French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo
A fierce advocate for free speech, Charlie Hebdo is also known for its
satirical, and often controversial, cartoons.
Where are they located?
As many as 12 people are feared to have been killed after gunmen burst
into the office of the satirical magazine
* Charlie Hebdo: Anonymous declares 'war' on jihadists in retaliation
for Paris massacre with #OpCharlieHebdo
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Are we too politically correct? Equality film gives satirical version of the
future
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Equality satirical video Video loading
IFRAME:
A short film created by YouTube users takes a unique look at the future
by satirising political correctness.
Created by Neel Kolhatkar, 20, and titled #Equality, tackles a number
One", rather than having a name.
In a 'twist', the futuristic satire is then revealed to actually be a
projection of what life will be like in 2016.
Futuristic: The short film takes a satirical look at political
correctness
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YouTube Banksy's satirical film in Gaza
Mural: Banksy's graffiti depicting sad kitten on wall in Gaza
wall of a destroyed building.
In a satirical film posted on his website, which is mocked up as a
travel advert, Banksy appears to enter Gaza through a series of
underground tunnels, before filming children playing among piles of
everywhere (no cement has been allowed into Gaza since the bombing)'.
YouTube Banksy's satirical film in Gaza
'Bomb damage': Weeping depiction of Greek mythological figure
electricity and drinking water cut off randomly almost every day."
YouTube Banksy's satirical film in Gaza
Film: The two-minute clip shows Banksy enter Gaza via tunnels
Ex-FIFA executive Jack Warner attacks USA in video defence - but uses
evidence from satire website The Onion
* 19:04, 31 May 2015
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Has Jack Warner been fooled by an article from satirical website The
Onion? Video loading
Watch next
hospital
It was, of course, full of satire, including this extract: "At press
time, the U.S. national team was leading defending champions Germany in
the World Cup’s opening match after being awarded 12 penalties in the
There have been fears of a backlash against the Muslim community in the wake
of the attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo
*
France is on high alert following the deadly assault by a pair of
heavily armed, seemingly military-trained gunmen on satirical magazine
Charlie Hebdo yesterday that left 12 dead.
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Beeb should hire Bouncy Rusty if it insists on outdoing satire with its
right-on weather recruiting
role in Vietnam and Cambodia
Satire is a risky business. What may seem hilarious and far fetched can
fall flat when the joke is overtaken by events.
scriptwriter could come up with.
American comedian Tom Lehrer said satire died in 1973, when the Nobel
Peace Prize was awarded to US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – who
had masterminded the saturation bombing of Cambodia that killed
Job done?: Tony Blair has stood down as Middle East peace envoy
Meanwhile, a story which would be any satirist’s dream was unfolding at
home.
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Getty The co-editor of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo,
Laurent Sourisseau, nicknamed Riss
The co-editor of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Laurent
Sourisseau
Getty
French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo
Witnesses reported seeing two different men on scooters taking pictures
But the mainly left wing staff believe their management is now solely
interested in the profits, while the publication tones down its once
biting satire.
Hebdo was accused of hypocrisy last week after it suspended a
Female diver completely covered by black box as she performs - but is it
censorship or satire?
* 14:37, 5 Oct 2015
literally eating their f*****g skin in a jar.’
Yes, we’re aware it’s satire. Or an attempt at satire.
MORE: Vegemite (Australian Marmite) could be banned because people are
You may recognise ‘Cassidy Boon’ as the woman reported to be suing a
swimmer who rescued her from drowning for touching her without her
consent on satirical website The Portly Gazelle.
Picture: YouTube/CassidyBoon)
Vlogger Cassidy Boon (Picture: YouTube/CassidyBoon)
recent election results proven to you that people just suck?
Why would I want to have anything to do with them? Satire. Just about.
DMR
She’s wearing a fried egg dress – she works in a cafe. See what she did
there? We have a master of the satire on our hands here.
A UKIP voter, Harriet prides herself on being common. So much so, that
and through – so here are 14 reasons why they deserved to win.
1. Clever, edgy and satirical Country House is the better song
lyrically.
win
9. Blur are better at satire and character assassination – Charmless
Man showcases Blur’s weird blend of humour and sadness: ‘He talks at
speed / he gets nose bleeds / He doesn’t see / his days are tumbling /
‘Before Lord Brittan died, the police, referring to a rape accusation,
suggested he should take part in an identity parade. That seems beyond
satire. How could a well-known public person, already named and
identified by his accuser, usefully take part in such a charade?’
Punch and Judy Rebooted is touring the UK throughout August and is full
of cheeky satire.
For more details, see Gold’s Facebook page at
first fragrance, due this month.
Factor in her role in British director Ben Wheatley’s ensemble satire
High-Rise, which has just premiered in Toronto, and it’s evident that
Martin is no von Trier flash in the pan. She smiles at the mention of
Paris Peace Accords jointly with Le Duc Tho, who turned the Prize
down. The American humourist Tom Lehrer later quipped that
Kissinger’s award represented the “death of satire”
* 5/5 Josef Stalin
1945: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was nominated for “his efforts
South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show'
since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented
the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah
during the show as a 'Political father'
2015 Getty Images
bunch – old-fashioned-looking Oxbridge graduates without a tie-dyed
acid casualty among them. Appearances can be deceiving, but because
they were satirists, they weren't necessarily counter-cultural by
inclination. The key to the British idea of comedy was people not being
afraid to be ridiculous – everything didn't have to have a higher
was also a lucky chemical balance between me bringing a bit of fresh
brashness and brutality to people who, while not exactly old lags, had
certainly done their time in the satirical trenches with David Frost.
Read more
South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show'
since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented
the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah
during the show as a 'Political father'
2015 Getty Images
which.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm
Questions of satire, reality and historical anachronism came to mind
upon reading yesterday’s revelations about David Cameron. According to
a controversial new biography, the Prime Minister inserted a “private
Therefore, it could be argued that a person might possess such an image
for the purposes of satire, political commentary or simple grossness.
French soldiers patrol in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris as the
capital was placed under the highest alert status after heavily armed
gunmen stormed French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and shot dead
at least 12 people in the deadliest attack in F Eiffel Tower
France has been on high alert since since the Charlie Hebdo massacre in
January when Islamist terrorists murdered 12 people in the offices of
the satirical magazine for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.
In August, three passengers on a train from Amsterdam to Paris subdued
The Empire State Building is lit up in the colors of the French
flag to pay tribute to the victims of the shooting by gunmen at the
Paris offices of weekly satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, in the
Manhattan borough of New York
* 2/8 London, UK
Rome's city hall (Campidoglio) is lighted with France's colors,
blue, white and red in Rome in remembrance of the victims of an
attack against Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly which killed 12
people in Paris
* 6/8 Berlin, Germany
The writing on the facade of the French embassy reads 'Je suis
Charlie!' (I am Charlie!) to commemorate the victims of the
terrorist attack on French satire magazine 'Charlie Hebdo', during
a vigil at the French embassy in Berlin
* 7/8 Paris, France
A sign on the Arc de Triomphe reads "Paris is Charlie" in
solidarity with the victims of the shooting at the satirical
newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris
* 8/8 Paris, France
THE rights and wrongs of free expression can sometimes seem so
complicated that we tie ourselves in knots. Yet a couple of weeks ago
they became crystal clear. No matter what offence the French satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo had or hadn't caused it should never have been
censored with a machine gun.
it, and sit there and be provocative and outrageous but without, I
think, any intention to horrify. I think the violence in it is comic in
tone, satirical and completely silly."
There'll be action of a different sort, when Firth starts filming Deep
Guests at the University of Nottingham's Portland Building could pick
from a number of talks including how to get agents, self-censorship and
writing satire.
Organisers from Writing East Midlands said the wealth of talent on show
The author of Framed, who is also a member of the Nottingham Writers'
Studio, said: "I've been in a really interesting talk about satire. My
books are dark, but do have a humorous undertone and I wanted to create
more laughs in my next book."
Theatre Royal.
The satire on London society has a cast of 21 community actors ranging
in age from 19 to a "very young" 75.
* Profile image for bomdia
bomdia | August 02 2015, 12:46PM
At least the 'Lost That Loving feeling' web site satire on the
picture has some humour to it.If Fawaz has actually posted this
(presumably in an attempt at humour) it shows yet again his
audience seated facing the splendid auditorium.
Sheridan's play is a satirical but strident critique of the outrageous
immorality and gossip culture prevailing in 1770s London society, and
the text positively bites. But there are some elements of farce – the
disability.
But when satire and humour is used to incite discrimination or hatred
of a minority race, religion or disability, then it crosses a line of
what is acceptable and what isn’t.
understanding, break down barriers and make difficult subjects like
disability, race and religion easier to understand. I do, however,
strongly believe that humour and satire need to be deployed sensitively
and carefully. Any humour that encourages hatred of minority groups and
deepens the divisions in our society leading to a lack of understanding
"But when I explored my culture and how my parents had come to England
and the sacrifices they had made I began to understand why the way they
were. That's when the book turned into more of a satire rather than
something that was a criticism of what I'd been through."
directly from Bienaime's studio.
Byron's great mock-epic, satiric poem both shocked and fascinated his
readers. He began writing it in 1818 and after 16 cantos left it
unfinished at his death in 1823. Unlike the womaniser who was his
Gorman talks to the local comedian and broadcaster
Politicians beware, satirical sharp-wit Matt Forde is tough on
politics, tough on the causes of politics.
4. Politics Blog
In this joke of an election, who needs satire?
Ideology is dead and politics is now a theatre of personality. No wonder we
with Ballot Monkeys, a sitcom to be written and broadcast in the seven
days running up to the election. All four of the main parties will be
satirised, from Ukip preposterousness to Labour ineptitude. Writers
Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin are veterans of political comedy (Drop The
Dead Donkey was a brilliant indictment of the Major years) and this TV
can just let them speak for themselves.
As well as being the last great British satire show, The Thick of It
was actually an old fashioned family sitcom. Its laughter lay in strong
characters in classic love-hate relationships that made everything from
setting was really just scenery. Yes, it provided a plot and
contextualised the characters’ actions. But it’s hard to think of one
concrete, significant Labour policy that was satirised or one
philosophy that was scrutinised. At the end of the second series, when
the election was called, what did Malcolm Tucker tell the Labour staff
they were fighting for? Their jobs. The Thick of It was perfect
political satire for an age in which politics as a moral enterprise is
slowly dying. What we’re left with is politics as the theatre of
personality. And the personalities are ripe for parody.
5. USA
The Book of Mormon satirical musical arrives in Utah
Book of Mormon starts sold-out, two-week run at Salt Lake City theatre just
9:22AM BST 28 Jul 2015
The biting satirical musical that mocks Mormons today begins a
sold-out, two-week run Tuesday at a Salt Lake City theatre two blocks
from the church's flagship temple and headquarters.
3. Theatre
Ubu Roi: an unforgiving satire on manners old and modern
Almost 120 years after its notorious Parisian premiere, Alfred Jarry's Ubu
dinner-party hosts (whom the boy’s vandalising imagination transforms
into the rampantly horrible Ma and Pa Ubu), Donnellan lends it the air
of an unforgiving satire on deranging modern manners.
As I noted in my review, even if the scatological puerility is honoured
4. TV and Radio reviews
Radio satire has become dull and predictable
Pete Naughton laments how Radio 4's topical comedy can raise no longer raise
4. Labour
The Labour leadership election is terrible for satire. Bring back Ed Miliband
Spare a thought for Britain's starving satirists, who'll find scant material
in the likes of Andy Burnham, Liz Kendall and Yvette Cooper
feel that politics is so much the poorer for it.
From a satirical point of view, Ed was gold dust. Ed was box office. Ed
was to political comedy what Muhammad Ali was to boxing, and it saddens
me that the quartet of Labour MPs running to succeed him seem
lovely woman, a great MP, an effective minister, a loving wife and
mother. But apart from her "ice-pixie" nickname there is literally
nothing to work with in the comedy department. Satirists will be
heading down to Job Centre Plus en masse if she sneaks through on
second preferences.
4. Film news
Nicolas Cage will chase Bin Laden in new satire
The Oscar-winning actor will play the real-life construction worker who set
Larry Charles, the director of Borat, is back with a new
near-the-knuckle satire: and he's cast Nicolas Cage as the lead.
Cage will star as Gary Faulkner, a real-life construction worker from
5. France
The history of Charlie Hebdo, bastion of French satire
The legendary French magazine, target of an attack that killed 12 people, has
long tested the boundaries of satire and controversy
Oliver Duggan
They never shied away from the most controversial of topics. From the
death of Charles de Gaulle to the birth of Islamic extremism, the
journalists of France's foremost satirical magazine have endured a
turbulent history.
* How Charlie Hebdo's editor stood up to terror
04 Feb 2015
* Bomb attack on French satirical newspaper
02 Nov 2011
* Unity rally for Paris shootings: as it happened
The magazine was ultimately cleared of "racial insults" for publishing
the cartoons and a court ruling upheld Mr Val's right to satire Islamic
extremism.
The saddest feature on the political landscape is the stifling of
satire and criticism. Hecklers are treated as if they are dangerously
reeking in body odour. No politician should be beyond criticism,
whatever the form (except of course assassination). They have bounced
posted by Morning Star in Arts
Dear White People is a stinging satire on black stereotyping in the US,
says MARIA DUARTE
__________________________________________________________________
THE FALLACY of a “post-racial” US under President Obama is at the core
of this razor sharp yet hugely entertaining political satire, which
puts racism firmly back on the agenda.
Writer-director Justin Simien’s debut feature, in which he takes
college stereotypes and gives them a delicious new twist, is a
provocative and stinging satire which is laden with humour.
White hosts the no-holds barred radio show Dear White People — in which
posted by Morning Star in Arts
MARIA DUARTE enjoys a darkly comic satire on the pressures of
Argentinian life Wild Tales (15) Directed by Damian Szifron 5/5
__________________________________________________________________
ORDINARY people imploding under the mounting pressures of contemporary
capitalism are the protagonists of this hilarious yet wickedly dark and
violent satire.
The Oscar-nominated Wild Tales comprises six short stories intertwining
posted by Morning Star in Arts
Set in Trinidad during Carnival, Mustapha Matura’s brilliant satire on
colonialism gets a long overdue revival, says MAYER WAKEFIELD Play Mas
Orange Tree Theatre Richmond-upon-Thames 4/5
__________________________________________________________________
Taxing time with scatological satire on the hyper-rich Islands
__________________________________________________________________
Horton isn’t that play.
Intended as a satirical allegorical exposé of the machinations of the
super-rich and powerful, Horton sites the play’s action on Haven — in
what appears to be a post-apocalyptic swimming pool — where debauched
__________________________________________________________________
True satire can’t be silenced
__________________________________________________________________
The atrocity that saw the murder of eight journalists and cartoonists,
a visitor, a caretaker and two police officers at French satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo this week — and the hunt for the killers which
at time of writing appeared to be approaching a bloody denouement
yesterday — has rightly dominated the global news agenda.
It is shocking in this day and age that journalists and satirists
should be gunned down merely for the act of poking fun at a concept,
albeit one dear to many millions around the world.
The use of satire to skewer bloated egos and lance suppurating cankers
of hypocrisy on the body politic is, ironically, a great literary and
journalistic institution in and of itself.
The Oxford dictionary defines satire thus: “Noun: satire: The use of
humour, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticise
people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of
wears no clothes but appears to have a particularly nasty rash.
Satire is by its very nature savage, scurrilous and iconoclastic — at
least if it’s any good. There would be no point otherwise.
The term “a gentle satire” gets bandied around quite frequently but
what it really means is that it is rubbish and not really funny.
with Dave Allen — or pretty much anyone else for that matter.
True satire grabs you by the throat and shakes you until you collapse
either in paroxysms of mirth or convulsed with fury — it doesn’t coyly
tickle you with a feather and run away.
There are those of course who deride satire as mean-spirited and
puerile. Curiously these tend to be the very people being satirised, or
those who have had a total sense of humour bypass.
As with any medium, quality varies wildly and much of what passes for
satire these days does not truly live up to the name.
But even a cursory examination of the history of the form throws up
and Gillray.
Satire is the principle weapon of the powerless against the powerful
and as such must be cherished and preserved for as long as pomposity,
arrogance and the abuse of authority exist.
The satirist traditionally ploughs a lonely furrow and the role is
fraught with perils, but losing your life for expressing an opinion,
however controversial, should not be one of them.
What those behind the callous murders this week have failed to
comprehend is that satire is synonymous with rebellion and resistance
to authority.
“Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of
censorship.”
Paddy McGuffin charlie hebdo satire
__________________________________________________________________
Lord Lamont, a friend of Lord Brittan, said aspects of the case were
“beyond satire”.
Boris Johnson stands with Bernard Hogan-Howe GETTY
and intolerance in Germany
Oliver Masucci, the actor who plays Hitler in the satirical film 'He's
Back' has revealed racist tensions within Germany despite the country
portraying the image migrants are welcome.
Masucci CONSTANTIN FILM
The actor stars in a new satirical film about the Nazi leader
He said he and the director of the movie paid an actor to shout
Last week outspoken Clarkson made his return to the BBC by
guest-hosting satirical panel show Have I Got News For You.
IFRAME: //renderer.qmerce.com/interaction/56130d0f74a791dd4b4acb19
Sylvanian Family characters dressed as ISIS militants lurk in the
background of a school scene MIMSY
Detectives said the satirical piece was inflammatory
ISIS militants raise their guns in the air in the desert GETTY
Tyrants and megalomaniacs are always vulnerable to ridicule.
Charlie Chaplin got Hitler down cold in the 1940 satire The Great
Dictator, although there has never been anything to beat Mel Brooks’
The Producers, with its show-within-ashow Springtime For Hitler.
The cover is the latest in a long line of controversial images from
Charlie Hebdo, including depictions of the Prophet Mohammed and
satirical images of the Pope.
Various items and pieces of wreckage have since been founded washed up
amid fears of a Paris-style terror threat, where extremists launched a
series of attacks starting with a mass shooting at the offices of
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Minutes posted on the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) website
It began when brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi entered the offices of
Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed 12.
During a three-day reign of terror a policewoman was also shot dead and
Last month an extremist beheaded his boss and tried to blow up a gas
plant near Lyon. In January extremists murdered 17 people in Paris at
the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and at a Jewish
foodstore.
* News
* World
* Charlie Hebdo: The French satirical magazine with a history of
controversy
Charlie Hebdo: The French satirical magazine with a history of controversy
FRENCH satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has previously provoked fury for its
controversial and non-conformist content.
magazine office
Charlie Hebdo - known as a French version of British satirical
publication Private Eye - courted controversy again in September
2012 after it published a series of satirical cartoons of Prophet
Muhammed
reading: "No god but Allah".
Charlie Hebdo - known as a French version of British satirical
publication Private Eye - courted controversy again in September 2012
after it published a series of satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammed.
That edition sold out within hours.
Charlie Hebdo's journalist Gérard Biard commented at the time: "The
caricatures are meant to satirise the video and the violence it has
stirred and to denounce that violence as absurd.
Details:
ALP presents this fully affiliated version of the satirical
film, Shaun Of The Dead, about Shaun and his mate Ed who find
themselves amidst a zombie apocalypse.
After all of the brouhaha and vociferous debate about free speech, The
Interview turns out to be a crass, lumbering and toothless political
satire.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone's bad taste puppet satire Team America:
World Police trampled over similar ground in 2004 with considerably
more gumption and style.
it, and sit there and be provocative and outrageous but without, I
think, any intention to horrify. I think the violence in it is comic in
tone, satirical and completely silly."
There'll be action of a different sort, when Firth starts filming Deep
Comments (0)
He's the sharp-tongued satirist who has made a living out of lampooning
everything from Benefits Street to Katie Hopkins, but Charlie Brooker's
viewing habits might surprise his fans.
tongue-in-cheek look at the week's news, film, TV and tweets.
But after recording an episode of the scathingly satirical show, he
admits 'I can't watch anything for a bit'."
mind-bending episode yet".
The 90-minute episode of tense dystopian satire was a far cry from what
most people would normally expect of a festive special. "I suppose it
threw people, because it was kind of a horror movie, and it wasn't
He was shocked when he saw the recent terror attacks on the news,
against the offices of satirical Paris comic Charlie Hebdo.
"It took a while to sink in. I was initially like 'Jesus Christ', and
9297600-large
The vigil held in Paris after the murder of 12 journalists at satirical
magazine Charlie Hebdo
Gloucester ebay seller flogs Charlie Hebdo magazines for £100,100
* [9320330.jpg]
The vigil held in Paris after the murder of 12 journalists at
satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
* [9320330-thumb.jpg]
hands on the magazine.
It is the first published work from the satirical magazine since 12
people in its Paris office were killed by Islamic extremists supposedly
in retaliation for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
they will be supplying the new edition to British readers.
Copies of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo will be on sale in
Cheltenham.
Other notable credits include a Prime Minister forced into a
compromising position in Charlie Brooker's satirical drama series Black
Mirror, a womanising journalist forced to report on his hometown,
following a spate of shootings in 2013's Southcliffe, the title
Other notable credits include a Prime Minister forced into a
compromising position in Charlie Brooker's satirical drama series Black
Mirror, a womanising journalist forced to report on his hometown,
following a spate of shootings in 2013's Southcliffe, the title
for the people killed in the terror attacks on the French capital.
The killings started at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in retaliation
at its depictions of the Prophet Muhammad.