Entertainment Weekly vs New Yorker

Illustrator Barry Blitt created a controversial cartoon called “The Politics of Fear” for the July 21, 2008, cover of the New Yorker. According to the New Yorker press release, the cartoon “satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.” Reactions from different sides were rather harsh —as I honestly understand and expected.

Huffington Post’s Rachel Sklar wrote in her Yikes! Controversial New Yorker Cover Shows Muslim, Flag-Burning, Osama-Loving, Fist-Bumping Obama, “Who knows if they’ll get this in Dubuque, but they sure aren’t going to like it in Chicago: This week’s New Yorker cover features an image of Michelle and Barack Obama that combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable: An image of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping his be-afro’d wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a revolutionary and packing a machine gun and some serious ammo. Oh yes, this quaint little scene takes place in the Oval Office, under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in which burns an American flag. All that’s missing is a token sprig of arugula.”

Kareem Shora, National Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Washington, D.C., responded to Barry Blitt’s cover on July 28, 2008, “Regardless of the artist’s intent to produce satirical commentary, it is possible that the imagery may reinforce the fears and prejudices that it was meant to critique.”

The following is from CNN’s Political Ticker blog: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.” John McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said he agreed with Burton’s sentiment. Obama himself refused to comment on the illustration that Sunday. 

A different perception was given by Cenk Uygur, from TheYoungTurks.com, who said, “I am not offended … I believe in the power of context. If this cartoon or illustration was in a conservative magazine, and they didn’t mean it as a joke, then I’d say, Yeah! That is very, very offensive. … Cartoon is a cartoon and people’s got to be smart and reasonable enough to get the joke.” Watch the video here.

A couple of months later, a satirical cover of the Obama New Yorker cover was recreated by Entertainment Weekly featuring Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Matt Tobey wrote on Comedy Central Insider, “Man, some things are just so great I can’t even muster the lazy wisecracks.”

Gary Susman states in his Popwatch blog, “We at Entertainment Weekly imagine our readers to be smart enough to recognize satire and parody when they see them, which is why, for this week’s cover story interview with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, we had photographer Jake Chessum shoot this spoof of the New Yorker cover. Were we right? Will folks get the joke and recognize what we’re making fun of?”

I honestly think that we need to be more open towards this kind of jokes. The world can be a scary place sometimes—just think of the financial crisis and every other crisis occurring right now. If we stop joking about important topics, we might get too serious and lose our common sense.

As a smart person said a long time ago, “Your freedom ends where my nose begins.” Do you get the New Yorker joke?