satire – News Stories About satire - Page 4

Onion Preps Timely Election Coverage—No, Really

Nov 3, 2008 2:39 PM CST

Onion Preps Timely Election Coverage—No, Really

(Newser) - The Onion, bucking a 20-year trend, plans to cover tomorrow's election results in something resembling real time, the AP reports. The "satirical newspaper of record" and its website have prepared articles and videos in advance, requiring long hours unfamiliar to its writers. “It has become sort of necessary...

Chocolate News Could
Fill Chappelle Void

TV REVIEW

Oct 15, 2008 3:42 PM CDT

Chocolate News Could Fill Chappelle Void

Grier counters Comedy Central's 'vanilla' news satires

(Newser) - Comedy Central may have found a Dave Chappelle-worthy replacement in David Alan Grier, Paul Farhi writes in the Washington Post. His Chocolate News is a “wholly inappropriate—and riotiously funny” 60 Minutes-style program in which Grier offers the news in “Lou Dobbsean rant” and mocks such figures as...

Stone's W.
Aims for
the Center

MOVIE PREVIEW

Sep 24, 2008 1:19 PM CDT

Stone's W. Aims for the Center

Portrait of the president is for the 60% of folks with an 'open mind'

(Newser) - Oliver Stone is looking to attract the political center with his new movie, W., about the life our 43rd president, USA Today reports. The film, a satirical biopic starring Josh Brolin as George W. Bush, is neither hagiography or damning indictment. “I'm not interested in that radical 15% that...

George W. Bush:
Motivational Speaker

Opinion

Aug 15, 2008 12:13 PM CDT

George W. Bush: Motivational Speaker

The Decider knows how to put a sunny spin on anything!

(Newser) - “There are many things George W. Bush should do after his presidency,” writes Joel Stein of the LA Times, “most of which involve apologizing.” But since that’s not the Decider’s style, Stein has another career suggestion: motivational speaker. No one knows how to look...

GOP Parodies Obama's Facebook Page

Jul 30, 2008 1:00 AM CDT

GOP Parodies Obama's Facebook Page

'Barackbook' highlights candidate's controversial 'friends'

(Newser) - The GOP is lampooning Barack Obama's popular Facebook page with something it calls Barackbook. The fake Facebook clone features a frowning Obama whose status reads "hoping to settle on an Iraq policy before November," Wired reports. In addition, the imaginary FriendFeed highlights controversial figures associated with the candidate,...

VF Spoof Bumps New Yorker

Jul 23, 2008 9:15 AM CDT

VF Spoof Bumps New Yorker

McCain's on a walker while Cindy cradles drugs in Vanity Fair illustration

(Newser) - Vanity Fair has taken a jab at the New Yorker, posting a spoof of the magazine’s controversial Barack Obama cover on its website. VF’s "cover" shows a doddering John McCain gripping a walker and fist-bumping his wife, Cindy, who cradles a pile of prescription drugs. In the...

Obama Cover Misses Point of Satire

OPINION

Jul 20, 2008 6:28 PM CDT

Obama Cover Misses Point of Satire

It supported a lunatic idea, without slamming an established one

(Newser) - The now-infamous New Yorker cover depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim extremists rankled readers because it is not satire, Lee Siegel argues in the New York Times. Satire tackles "social rottenness once it has become a visible and established part of life," writes Siegel. But the New ...

Pundits Cringe at 'Irony Deficiency' in Cartoon Flap

OPINION

Jul 15, 2008 1:28 PM CDT

Pundits Cringe at 'Irony Deficiency' in Cartoon Flap

Cynicism has killed satire, perhaps even humor altogether, in post 9/11 age

(Newser) - Many writers are scratching their heads at the incensed reactions provoked by the New Yorker’s Obamas-as-terrorists cover. Here’s some rebuttal:

Liberals “have come to regard all images or texts that contain negative stereotypes as too politically dangerous to run,” Gary Kamiya writes in Salon. “Not

...

Obama Camp Rips New Yorker Caricature

Jul 14, 2008 3:15 AM CDT

Obama Camp Rips New Yorker Caricature

'Offensive' drawing features Barack in turban, rifle-toting wife

(Newser) - Barack Obama's campaign has ripped an "offensive" New Yorker cover illustration depicting the candidate in a turban, fist-bumping his afro-sporting, AK-47-toting wife, Politico reports. The cover, intended by the magazine to lampoon the cartoonish image of Obama propagated by some of his right-wing critics, has sparked a flurry of...

Choose Your Own Adventure, This American Life Style

GLOSSIES

Jun 29, 2008 8:50 AM CDT

Choose Your Own Adventure, This American Life Style

Radar makes funny at the expense of Ira Glass' popular franchise

(Newser) - This American Life, providing "a valuable census of liberal America's cultural consciousness since 1996," comes in for a little ribbing from Walker Boyd in Radar. Boyd spoofs Ira Glass's radio and TV narratives with a Mad Libs-type story generator. Now "your dreams of Ira narrating some touching...

Is Franken
Too Vulgar
for Politics?

OPINION

Jun 18, 2008 6:51 AM CDT

Is Franken Too Vulgar for Politics?

Pundit thinks funnyman-turned-politician's 'satire' reinforces system's failures

(Newser) - Al Franken was cracking tasteless jokes for decades before entering politics, but it may be his opponent in the Minnesota Senate race who'll be accused of coarsening debate if he dares to brings them up, Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post. Franken calls his work "provocative, touching, and...

SNL Launches Political
Satire Site

May 9, 2008 8:09 PM CDT

SNL Launches Political Satire Site

Site serves as storehouse of show's long-running satire

(Newser) - Saturday Night Live has unveiled a new website to showcase the program’s political humor, Broadcasting and Cable reports. Visitors can check out clips of the show’s political sketches and candidate appearances at http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/politics, or vote for their favorite president/candidate impersonator—dating back from Dana Carvey's...

Study: Viewers Get News From Daily Show... Not

May 9, 2008 9:03 AM CDT

Study: Viewers Get News From Daily Show... Not

Jokes funny only if audience is already up on current events

(Newser) - Claims that young people get more news from Jon Stewart's Daily Show than from traditional sources are bunk, a journalism think-tank has concluded after examining a year's worth of episodes. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found that while the comedy show had much of the same content as new...

All the News That's Fit to Invent: The Onion Hits 20

Mar 2, 2008 4:51 PM CST

All the News That's Fit to Invent: The Onion Hits 20

From a Wisconsin dorm to a NYC highrise, satirical newspaper's key lies in lies

(Newser) - When a wisecracking newspaper was born in a Wisconsin dorm room in 1988, no one predicted it would one day be installed in sleek Manhattan offices, producing fake print and television news, and rolling in dough. But the Onion's president isn’t surprised, CBS reports. The paper “attracts this...

Ferrell to Stump This Fall, But Only Onstage

Jan 19, 2008 10:45 AM CST

Ferrell to Stump This Fall, But Only Onstage

Comedian plans candidate character for upcoming solo show

(Newser) - Will Ferrell is working on a one-man show that could hit Broadway this fall, and he may focus the routine on an interactive bit starring a mock presidential candidate, Politico reports. The onetime "Saturday Night Live" George Bush doppelganger plans to incorporate a stump speech, question-and-answer session, and political...

Paris Sues Hallmark Over Card

Sep 8, 2007 6:00 PM CDT

Paris Sues Hallmark Over Card

Heiress objects to use of her trademarked 'that's hot' catchphrase

(Newser) - Perhaps losing her cool, Paris Hilton is suing Hallmark for swiping her registered 'that's hot' catchphrase and plopping it, along with her face and name, on a greeting card. The heiress is demanding at least $100,000 in damages for the heist without her consent, CNNMoney reports, but Hallmark says...

Aussie Comics Penetrate Tight Sydney Security

Sep 6, 2007 2:00 PM CDT

Aussie Comics Penetrate Tight Sydney Security

Fake Osama, other pranksters mock Bush, embarrass police

(Newser) - Only one was dressed as Osama bin Laden, but all 11 eleven members of an Australian comedy troupe were arrested in Sydney today after they posed as a Canadian delegation and drove through two security checkpoints near President Bush’s hotel. The stunt was an embarrassment to Sydney police, who...

Fake Steve Jobs Blogger Outed

Aug 6, 2007 6:12 AM CDT

Fake Steve Jobs Blogger Outed

Times tracks down Forbes editor behind popular lampoon

(Newser) - The New York Times has tracked down the identity of the mystery writer behind a popular satirical site posing as the personal blog of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The musings of "Fake Steve" have lampooned Silicon Valley, industry bigwigs and Jobs himself. “I’m stunned that it’s...

Satire Finds a Stage in Baghdad

May 21, 2007 3:41 PM CDT

Satire Finds a Stage in Baghdad

Iraq's waning community of actors is free of censorhip, but under siege by extremists

(Newser) - At least someone is laughing: At Iraq's National Theater a one-act play called "The Intensive Care Unit" satirizes the country's bombed-out chaos. The prevailing mood, the Washington Post reports, is jovial and non-sectarian; performances are all matinees because no one dares venture out at night.

Dylan, Dr.Seuss Can't Mix

Apr 13, 2007 11:57 AM CDT

Dylan, Dr.Seuss Can't Mix

Humble parodists no match for corporate Goliaths wielding copyright law

(Newser) - Dr. Seuss's estate has knocked down a website by artist/jokerman Kevin Ryan, featuring the fantasist's verses set to fake Bob Dylan music. The loss of the brilliant mash-up prompts Salon's Dan Brekke to explore how the times are a' changin' for copyright law, particularly in the murky and amorphous area...