satire

Why are non-White characters so absent from this urban/suburban narrative?

Like Drunk History and History of the World Part II, Cunk on Earth is very funny. But the larger joke is that fake news is winning.

The evangelical satire also offers insight and empathy.

To bridge our country’s divides, we need deep emotion rooted in moral complexity—not jokey white-bro solidarity.

It can prompt repentance, anyway—if we let it.

Religious satire was once an edgy form of humor celebrated by rebellious teens. Now it’s attracting adults who buy theater tickets.

We don’t have to choose between solidarity with victims of violence and with religious minorities. But the latter may be more challenging work.

In my copy of Elmer Gantry, one sentence is underlined six times: “He had, in fact, got everything from church and Sunday School, except, perhaps, any longing whatever for decency and kindness and reason.”

That sums up Sinclair Lewis’ 1927 satire of scandalous fundamentalist ministers pretty well. None of the underlinings are mine, though. I have a Kindle version of Elmer Gantry, so this is a “popular highlight,” a sentence noted by other readers, on other e-devices.

So, Sen. Paul filibustered and received brief assurances that at least there are some limits to the Obama adminstration's policy of targeted assassination. Alex Kane—in a Short Imagined Monologue, one of my favorite features at McSweeney's humor site—spells out some others. I for one would be reassured if the White House actually said this.