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Quote of the Day: Nettling the Humorless and Pricking the Pompous
“What is satire if not a marriage of civil disobedience to a laugh track, a potent brew … that acts as a nettle sting on the thin skin of the humorless.” — Mona Eltahawy
Satire is a nettle sting on the thin skin of the humorless. I like the sound of that. I like it so much that I think that we on the Right ought to adopt that as our slogan for the next four years.
So Ricochetti, if your talent runs toward satire, the mating of criticism and wit, your time has come. Fortunately, the Democratic establishment for the next four years will be target rich with humorless scolds just ripe for satire. Think of just the more visible members of the Democratic establishment: Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Schumer, Maxine Waters, AOC, Omar, et al. Has there ever been a gallery more crowded with flawed humans outside of Rikers Island?
We’ll expose Pelosi’s testiness, Omar’s next marriage to a brother, and almost every word that drips from Schiff’s crooked little mouth.
Flaying the Left’s foibles, vices, and hypocrisies should be as easy as shooting at sitting ducks, whether it’s Pelosi getting her hair cut at a shuttered San Francisco hair salon, or Newsom attending a large dinner when he’s been telling Californians for weeks that they ought not to gather in large groups.
We’ll expand our satiric targets to the brown-nosing sycophants of late-night television and every biased writer of the mainstream media. They’ve been attacking Trump and the Right for four years. It’s our turn now that their chosen one is in power.
Jose Pluma got us off to a good start with his brilliant satire on the Left’s proposal to erase up to $50,000 of college loan debts. Pluma shows just how harebrained the idea is.
Sometimes it’s enough just to quote the Left. In Freeven’s recent post, he quotes the mayor of Wauwatosa, WI, after a gunman shot up a shopping mall in his town, wounding eight. Have you ever heard greater nonsense than the Mayor’s reaction to the shooting? “The Mayfair Mall has a strict no-gun policy…. If the shooter had complied with that policy, no one would have been hurt yesterday.” Think about that.
We wish Biden and company the best. We’re the loyal opposition, after all, a concept I heartily approve of. We hope the Biden administration will expand freedom and promote the general welfare, and we’ll applaud when those things happen. But history tells us that the Left will overplay its hand and fall back on what they’re comfortable with: to restrict freedom and expand the state.
Any movement in that direction and we pounce.
Published in General
Thanks for the shout out!
And, yes, I’m looking forward to the next four years. . . for the satirical possibilities.
The problem with satire is twofold:
If you would like to participate in the Quote of the Day series, our sign-up sheet for November awaits. There is one more opening this month the 26th. That’s Thanksgiving Day in the US.
If, on the other hand, you want to share with Ricochet the thanks you have to give, you might consider Group Writing, for which the theme this month is: Cornucopia of Thanks.
I like to bring out one of my favorite Stan Freberg quotes on occasions like this: “First, satire has to be funny. Otherwise it’s just whining.”
Given the left’s humorlessness (as Kent noted) they will only respond with anger. And it is so hard to satirize the progressive left – as soon as satire is created someone will make it true.
I don’t know about now, but back when my not-yet-then-wife was doing her student teaching at a Lutheran school in Wauwatosa in 1969-1970, the town was considered a very wealthy suburb of Milwaukee. I visited her one weekend, and it was there that I learned to my dismay that some people were already souring on the expense of our space program. On the way back to St. Paul I was in a car full of Wisconsin people, and kept my mouth shut while the Vikings were beating the Packers.
I’m not sure why, but that statement seems to be a good match for the place.
Case in point are the numerous Babylon Bee articles that in short order are acted out in real life.
Satire is useless against the Left. In order for satire to be useful it requires that the audience has both some self awareness and a moral compass. The last few years has proven the Left possesses neither.
Now, now, Nohaaj, don’t be so pessimistic. Unfortunately, you’re probably right. Full of certainty and self-righteousness, they will probably not even feel the satire as it bounces off them.
Satire may be useless in changing the minds of the true believers and oppressors, but it could lift the spirits of those whom they try to hold down and bring a few of those on the periphery over to the bright side.
Oh, Mr./Ms progressive, there you go again! ;-)
By the way @kentforrester, I really like this post.
@nohaaj is totally right. We can amuse ourselves as much as we like, but the Left has only one reaction to someone poking even gentle fun at them:
How many feminists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
Or sneering, which, while personally satisfying, tends to turn off the almost-ally.
“That’s not funny!”
Got it in one.
There’s another version. Can’t post it here though.
I googled it – there is an amazing number of answers.
I got mine from Drew Carey’s book, Dirty Jokes and Beer.
Ah, but the audience for our satire is not the Left itself. It’s the independents, the moderates, and the people who just aren’t all that political. They make up the voters we need to get on our side, and they will laugh if we clearly show them the laughable.
Make fun of them? That’ll work. Unless they’re the ones counting the votes.
ESPECIALLY if they’re counting the votes. The best jokes and satires have always been at the expense of those in power or those perceived to be in power. It couldn’t be stopped in the Soviet Union, and it won’t be stopped here—- even if we should become the Soviet Union.🙂
The first time I heard the feminist/light bulb joke was when I was in college (1970-74).
Prophetic.
In the course of getting my Philosophy/Comparative Religion degree I remember writing a short essay on how humorless Islam tends to be, especially in comparison with Christianity and Buddhism.