Bob Moran – When Satire Becomes Reality | Jerm Warfare
Reality Check
When Satire Becomes Reality, Cartoonists Become fiction – 25 Nov 2024 | Jerm Warfare
The line between satire and reality has blurred so much that it is now tricky to distinguish between the two, argues British cartoonist Bob Moran. It’s a dangerous time for cartoonists.
Jerm invited British cartoonist Bob Moran to his podcast after reading his fascinating post on X:
“I find the Australian Breakdancer phenomenon really interesting. One of the major problems that’s occurred, due to the alarming shift in public consciousness that’s taken place over the last few years, is that totally absurd ideas and behaviour have been cemented as intelligent and normal. Things that were previously intrinsically funny, like big hairy men dressing up as women, have become deadly serious, normalised concepts. This has shifted the parameters for satire. It’s removed most of the satirist’s room for exaggeration. It’s meant that the public can’t tell the difference between when they’re being invited to laugh at something, and when they’re being asked to sincerely embrace a total denial of reality.
Bob Moran on X
What’s started to happen, is a new form of what might be called ‘Method Satire‘. This is different to the mechanics of something like Borat or Ali-G. Sacha Baron Cohen created those characters, embodied them, and then made it look as though he was interacting with real people who didn’t know it was a parody. This was obviously false, they DID know who he really was, but it was funnier to pretend they didn’t. Crucially, it was presented to the audience as a comedian doing a funny character. We all know that it’s Baron Cohen in costume, doing a silly voice, so we get the joke. Nobody watching Borat was supposed to think he was a real journalist from Kazakhstan.
In recent years, we’ve seen an increasing number of people, not generally professional actors or comedians, but ordinary members of the public, playing a character designed to highlight the absurdity of the times we’re living in, in the hope that the public won’t even realise it’s a joke. Thereby, highlighting the new levels of insanity to which we’re accustomed. Some have been impressively dedicated to the cause. Remember the male school teacher in Canada, who dressed up like a woman with comically huge breasts? He never really broke character, and most people assumed he was a genuinely bonkers trannie. There have also been numerous people appearing at official hearings and town meetings in America, pretending to be hysterical trans characters, in the knowledge that no matter what they say, the officials will take them seriously.
For the Olympics, a group of people in Australia – which despite falling into abject tyranny, still seems to have a sense of humour – decided to mock the concept of breakdancing being an Olympic event, by entering a female comedian, pretending to be a breakdancer with a P.H.D in breakdancing. The whole point being, that the public would assume this was real. Look at how many are still reacting to it by saying things like, “This is what happens when you apply DEI to everything. How ridiculous.” These people are making complete tits of themselves, while assuming they’re laughing at a real person trying to breakdance. The Australians even gave a few clues. The promotional videos of ‘RayGun’ make it very obvious that she’s an actor, yet still people respond by saying, “This is like a clip from a comedy sketch show.” Well, yes – that’s because it is. At first, I thought the people behind the stunt must be disappointed by how it was received as real.
But I now realise that it was their intention for nobody to get the joke, as a way of mocking our current paradigm. This is the new concept of performative satire; designed to be taken seriously, even by those who laugh at it. I’m fairly certain that exactly the same thing is going on with that boxing bloke. It may even be that the women’s rights groups, campaigning against men competing in female sporting events, are behind the creation of the Khelif character (who, incidentally, bears an uncanny resemblance to Baron Cohen). If they are, it’s a very smart move.”
As a cartoonist, Jerm can relate.
What Bob says here is true. The line between satire and reality has blurred so much that it is now tricky to distinguish between the two. I like Bob’s point that nobody knows whether the Australian breakdancer is a joke.
It’s a strange time we live in.
Cartoons are normally about taking things to the absurd, but that’s literally happening around us. It’s as if there is an agenda to put cartoonists out of business!
Cartoons are windows into the human condition and into society. They are the equivalent of showing a still image of an event.PATRICK CHAPPATTE
The Aussie breakdancer video
In case you haven’t seen it and because the Olympic Committee is trying to have it taken down everywhere, here it is in full.
Bob’s cartoon in question
In the conversation, Bob mentions a big cartoon he’s working on. Here it is.
You can also see on his website.
“Mainstream political satire is a bit of a fraud really. It doesn’t really work. The satirist has to be on the fringes, has to be on the periphery to be effective.”
Bob Moran
Podcast:
Bob and Jerm chatted about the challenges facing satire, as well as:
- AI’s threat to creativity
- the role of humour in addressing controversy
- the need for satirists to become more aggressive
- political correctness
- transgenderism
- the manipulation of statistics
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own.”
Jonathan Swift
Source: When satire becomes reality, cartoonists become fiction – Jerm Warfare
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