Funny or Outrageous?

Over the weekend, the New Yorker published a magazine cover that a lot of people are talking about. It's quite the acid test -- the political blogs I read are expending a lot of bandwidth debating whether the cover is shrewd satire or racist twaddle. My sister and some of my friends found the cover disturbing, but my first reaction was "damn, that's funny." My second reaction was, "uh-oh..." I knew it would become the outrage du jour, and it did.

Interestingly, the New Yorker cover distracts from Ryan Lizza's article on Obama's career in Chicago, which is very long, very interesting and a must-read for anyone following this campaign. Frankly I'm surprised that the article itself hasn't garnered more attention this week. In this case and in others in this campaign season, the outrage becomes the issue, and the analysis on the TV and on the web is rather shallow. Marc Ambinder wrote a short piece on this trend here.

If you read the article, I think you'll realize that the New Yorker misread the current zeitgeist, because the cover became the message, rather than the article. Good satire never misses the zeitgeist.

Satire is tricky stuff. It's worth pondering why it's OK for the New Yorker to satirize the ridiculous assertions that the Obamas are flag-hating terrorist militants, but, as my sister pointed out in an email to me, depicting a "white guy covered in black face paint with a big white smile singing "doodah" on a vaudeville stage," satirical or otherwise, would be hard for America to take.

The editor of the New Yorker is unapologetic, stating that most Americans would see it for what it is. Most, maybe, but some Americans will undoubtedly see the cartoon as a clever illustration reinforcing their own misconstrued beliefs about Obama. Is the New Yorker responsible for that? Should Obama's campaign have laughed it off, instead of expressing outrage? Why is it OK to satirize the ridiculous assumptions about Obama's patriotism and religion, when it would probably NOT be OK to satirize American black culture?

And most importantly, is it funny or outrageous? I want to know what you think. Please Leave a comment.