TV Satire and its Targets
-
Laura Basu
Abstract
The question of the relationship between satire and its targets is also one of both mediality and politics. When it comes to television political satire, that relationship is extremely intimate. This might in turn make it difficult for satire on television – a notoriously top-down medium – to be very critical of politics. Building on investigations into “new political television”, this chapter compares the relationships of three very different British satires, namely Have I got News for You, The Thick of It, and Brass Eye, with their political targets, asking to what extend they are collusive, incorporative or antagonistic. Is it possible for TV satire to be truly subversive?
Abstract
The question of the relationship between satire and its targets is also one of both mediality and politics. When it comes to television political satire, that relationship is extremely intimate. This might in turn make it difficult for satire on television – a notoriously top-down medium – to be very critical of politics. Building on investigations into “new political television”, this chapter compares the relationships of three very different British satires, namely Have I got News for You, The Thick of It, and Brass Eye, with their political targets, asking to what extend they are collusive, incorporative or antagonistic. Is it possible for TV satire to be truly subversive?
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- About the contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Mapping the Field
- Satire and dignity 19
- The Authenticity of Play 33
- Cultural Flow 47
-
Space
- Reshaping the Border Zone. An Approach to Satirical Space 61
- Mediating satire 71
- Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire 81
-
Target
- Contesting Political Boundaries in Contemporary Moroccan Satire 95
- How to Burlesque a Burlesquer 105
- Who is the ape, who the human? Reize door het Aapenland (1788) and Die Affenkönige oder die Reformation des Affenlandes (1789) considered 135
-
Rhetoric
- Looking backward. The rhetoric of the back in visual satire 147
- "A bull is a ludicrous jest": fable and the satiric bite in Arbuthnot's John Bull pamphlets 175
- Bas Jan Ader's Ludic Conceptualism 185
-
Media
- Absolutely Fabulous 197
- TV Satire and its Targets 207
- Enlightenment Subverted 217
-
Time
- On the power of Money and the King of Spain's son-in- law 235
- Who are the Frogs? The Transmigration of a Symbol of Nationality 247
- Hydropathe Caricature 259
- Conclusions 269
- Index 275
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgments vii
- About the contributors ix
- Introduction 1
-
Mapping the Field
- Satire and dignity 19
- The Authenticity of Play 33
- Cultural Flow 47
-
Space
- Reshaping the Border Zone. An Approach to Satirical Space 61
- Mediating satire 71
- Arab Sitcom Animations as Platforms for Satire 81
-
Target
- Contesting Political Boundaries in Contemporary Moroccan Satire 95
- How to Burlesque a Burlesquer 105
- Who is the ape, who the human? Reize door het Aapenland (1788) and Die Affenkönige oder die Reformation des Affenlandes (1789) considered 135
-
Rhetoric
- Looking backward. The rhetoric of the back in visual satire 147
- "A bull is a ludicrous jest": fable and the satiric bite in Arbuthnot's John Bull pamphlets 175
- Bas Jan Ader's Ludic Conceptualism 185
-
Media
- Absolutely Fabulous 197
- TV Satire and its Targets 207
- Enlightenment Subverted 217
-
Time
- On the power of Money and the King of Spain's son-in- law 235
- Who are the Frogs? The Transmigration of a Symbol of Nationality 247
- Hydropathe Caricature 259
- Conclusions 269
- Index 275
