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 heights is suffering, in my view, from a kind of false memory syndrome. Many of the “victims” regarded it as a badge of honour to be depicted as a puppet on the show. Indeed, Norman Tebbit positively rejoiced in his skinhead alter ego. I am afraid that Spitting Image, in its early days at least, was funny, but did no more than reinforce political prejudices. It acted as a kind of licensed fool to the body politic. Newzoids will have a lot to do in the era of Charlie Hebdo to get anywhere close to “challenging the lazy prejudices of its own viewers”, as O’Farrell hopes.
John Allison
Warwick
Spitting Image was satire’s acceptable face
