i don't get satire? no, YOU don't get satire, New Yorker editors...

so, what's everyone's opinion about the New Yorker's "satirical" magazine cover? It has created some controversy.

i have listened to a lot of coverage about it on my overly liberal fave radio station NPR, but i have to say that those folks at the magazine are plain and simple elitest assholes. yes, new yorker editor, i understand satire and i get that this cover is satirical. in fact, i think your readership probably gets that not-too-subtle message as well. but, america (and by here i mean the masses) overall is not exactly well-versed in satire. let me explain:

in my high school english classes, i have taught a unit on political satire for the past five years. we read jonathan swift's "a modest proposal" and george orwell's 1984. we read the onion. we watch saturday night live skits and discuss the differences between comedy, parody, and satire. after a whole unit on this, i think most the students get it. but a few do not. understanding satire requires a lot of background knowledge and a decent set of critical thinking skills. if one does not have both of these qualities, that person is going to take something satirical on a literal level.

let me illustrate further: my first year teaching this unit, we decided to create a satirical school paper, a la the onion. students broke into groups to write articles, take polls, and create images/graphs for this said paper. we published it, and we didn't overtly write on the paper "DUDE--THIS IS SATIRE--DO NOT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY--IT'S A JOKE."

oh, but we should have.

my sweet little class project sparked chaos. non-American teachers get it b/c english wasn't their first language--they were offended. students started fighting b/c they took offense over the articles and polls. one of my best students came into my classroom and WHILE I WAS TALKING to another of my students, punched her square in the temple (have you ever heard anyone's skull rattle? it's not a pleasant sound) over the article this girl wrote which obliquely mentioned her. it was a total disaster. needless to say, i did NOT repeat that project in the following years.

with this in mind, i feel it was irresponsible for the New Yorker to publish such a cartoon, b/c although some of us will get that it's satirical, it will simply serve as fodder to encourage others' already strong (and ludicrous) opinions that obama is a muslim terrorist...even if TOLD that the image was meant to be satire, they're not going to care. they'll use it to justify their views. maybe those folks are hopeless anyways, but i'd like to think that they're not.

i will now descend from my soapbox.