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February 24, 2021

Free “The Realist”

I just stumbled across an open access archive of 146 issues of The Realist, Paul Krassner’s 1960s political and cultural satire magazine. Thanks, JSTOR!

I read it when I was in high school and college in the 1960s and early 1970s. It was far more savage than MAD magazine, more explicit in topics and language, and went after riskier targets. The epitome of this was his parody of William Manchester’s book about the JFK assassination, The Death of a President — a parody that ended with an act by LBJ on the plane carrying Kennedy’s body to Washington that is still so crude and shocking that I’d have to use euphemisms to describe it. Instead, here’s an article that puts it in context.

That was Krassner pulping a topic with a meat hammer, but The Realist was often more clever and addressed very real issues: craven politicians, the abuse of power, the institutionalized oppression of the vulnerable, the US as a warmonger, the heartlessness of capitalism. To be clear, the LBJ article also addressed real issues: The growing JFK hagiography, LBJ’s lust for power and crude lack of empathy, the masculine all-consuming and sexualized power dynamic, the media’s genteel cowardice, etc. It just did so atypically in the form of a short story

Krassner was one of the co-founders of the Yippies. He published The Realist until 2001. He died in 2019.

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Categories: culture, free culture, humor, libraries, open access, politics Tagged with: humor • open access • satire Date: February 24th, 2021 dw

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February 3, 2014

The awesomeness of songify

The latest from the Schmoyoho Bros is awesome in every direction. I love it as political satire, but I think it’s pretty great just as a piece of music. And then keep in mind that the Gregory Brothers (the family behind the pseudonym) have pretty much invented a new form of music and satire, just as Reddit invented a new form of journalism with the AMA. The pace of invention of new rhetorical forms is itself awesome.

Awesome.

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Categories: culture, humor, politics Tagged with: autotune • politics • satire Date: February 3rd, 2014 dw

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April 27, 2011

America is not so easily fooled!

So, sure, “President” Obama has released his long-form birth certificate. But where’s the proof that Hawaii is a state?

WHERE’S HAWAII’S BIRTH CERTIFICATE? WHAT IS IT TRYING TO HIDE? DEMAND THE TRUTH AMERICA! OTHERWISE THIS USURPER WILL MAKE US LOOK LIKE FOOLS!!!!!

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Categories: politics Tagged with: birther • obama • satire Date: April 27th, 2011 dw

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March 29, 2011

Angry Birds – Dictator levels

Brilliant. (Via Ethanz)

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Categories: games, humor, politics Tagged with: angry birds • game • humor • politics • satire Date: March 29th, 2011 dw

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October 25, 2008

Hitler is a meme


Adolf Hitler Is A Meme

Yeah, it’s Hitler. Yeah, it’s funny. Yeah, those things aren’t supposed to go together. But I think this is a terrific piece. Brilliant, even.

Now let the pre-emptive defense begin [SPOILERS AHEAD]: Would the Internets have brought down Hitler? Nah. But that’s the overstatement that makes this video provocative and funny. And the statements revealed by the overstatement I think are true: The Internet is able to trivialize everything, for better and for worse. E.g., The connected culture of the Internet makes it harder to take demagogues (or at least a certain style of demagogue) seriously.

Or, as Barry Goldwater once didn’t say: Trivializing the self-aggrandizing is no vice, although aggrandizing the trivial is not much of a virtue.

FWIW, I can’t find a way to take the reference to “6 million views,” with its obvious call to the 6 million members of my family who were murdered, that isn’t disturbing.

[Tags: hitler internet_culture lolcats satire banality_of_evil evil_of_banality ]

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Categories: Uncategorized Tagged with: digital culture • hitler • humor • lolcats • satire Date: October 25th, 2008 dw

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July 27, 2008

Citizen media satire

The Guardian’s satire of citizen media has some biting lines, but it’ll be interesting to see how funny — that is, truthful — it seems in, say, five years.

[Tags: satire media journalism citizen_journalism ]

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Categories: Uncategorized Tagged with: humor • journalism • media • satire Date: July 27th, 2008 dw

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June 19, 2008

YouTube satire

I’ve been enjoying the Public Service Administration’s Election 08 satires. The Message To Ralph and Bass Motives are very funny, as well as the better known parody of the Yes We Can video. Warning: Totally Obama slanted. In fact, I think their anti-Hillary stuff is the weakest of the lot (well, the Monty Python mashup is funny).

[Tags: satire humor politics obama ]

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Categories: Uncategorized Tagged with: humor • obama • politics • satire Date: June 19th, 2008 dw

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March 1, 2008

Diebold accidentally releases result of 2008 election: The Onion

From The Onion. [Tags: politics humor satire diebold ]

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Categories: Uncategorized Tagged with: diebold • humor • politics • satire Date: March 1st, 2008 dw

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