Well-done satire is hardly lazy: it requires
- careful observation of the subject being satired. We've all seen poor attempts at satire that were spoiled by a bad impersonation on the part of the satirist.
- incisive understanding of what penetrates the audience. Anyone can get on stage and perform Bush the buffoon. Fish in a barrel; preaching to the choir. Good satire requires finding a deeper truism that the audience will connect with.
- good timing. Nobody does Dukakis parodies anymore.
To suggest that political satire
as a genre is "lazy" reflects a lack of understanding; to suggest that it's the "laziest" form of comedy, a profound lack.
Then again, anyone who'd cast a vote based on a YouTube video has deeper issues than their ability to assess comedy.
hurrah, some antagonism at last!
An excellent summary of the fundamental principles of satire. Or, as you say, GOOD satire. I think that more or less sums up my opinion on this video. No offence DC_Deep, that's just my taste.
It is, after all, very easy to come up with a list of things you don't like about political party X, then get some actors to tell the camera how much they like those things. And yet a lot of people seem to like the video. That's why political satire is a lazy genre, because you can get a laugh with consummate ease. I don't mean, of course, to say that all political satire is rubbish: I do like for example that essay by Jonathan Swift where he suggests cannibalising babies as a solution to Ireland's famine. That's rather imaginative, I think, and therefore good. So there's my view of things.
but I didn't say I would cast a vote based on a youtube video. I would never say that......but I might think it......
PS incidentally i like your signature thing about fabric, that's GOOD satire.