A Man Without a Country: Political Satire in George W. Bush's America - Kurt Vonnegut (2005)

• published: 20 Feb 2014
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Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of Political satire is usually distinguished from political protest or political dissent, as it does not necessarily carry an agenda nor seek to influence the political process. While occasionally it may, it more commonly aims simply to provide entertainment. By its very nature, it rarely offers a constructive view in itself; when it is used as part of protest or dissent, it tends to simply establish the error of matters rather than provide solutions. Satire became more visible on American television during the 1960s. Some of the early shows that used political satire include the British and American versions of the program That Was the Week That Was (airing on the American Broadcasting Company, or ABC, in the U.S.), CBS's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and NBC's Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. During the months leading up to the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh-In and repeated the program's catch-phrase "Sock it to me."[9] Other forms of satire of the 1960s and early 1970s typically used the sitcom format, such as the show All in the Family. When Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975, the show began to change the way that comedians would depict the president on television. Chevy Chase opened the fourth episode of the show with his impersonation of a bumbling Gerald Ford.[10] Chase did not change his appearance to look like President Ford, and he portrayed the president by repeatedly falling down on the stage. Some of the other famous presidential impersonations on Saturday Night Live include Dan Aykroyd's Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter caricatures, Dana Carvey as George H. W. Bush, Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton, and Will Ferrell as George W. Bush. Fred Armisen was the first cast member to impersonate Barack Obama, and the show's Barack Obama impersonation is currently performed by Jay Pharoah. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Saturday Night Live gained wide attention because former cast member Tina Fey returned to the show to satirize Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In addition to Fey's striking physical resemblance to Palin, the impersonation of the vice presidential candidate was also noteworthy because of Fey's humorous use of some of exactly the same words Palin used in media interviews and campaign speeches as a way to perform political satire.[11] Saturday Night Live also uses political satire throughout its Weekend Update sketch. Weekend Update is a fake news segment on the show that satirizes politics and current events. It has been a part of SNL since the first episode of the show on October 11, 1975. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report use stylistic formats that are similar to Weekend Update. On The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart uses footage from news programs to satirize politics and the news media. Stephen Colbert performs in character on The Colbert Report as a right-wing news pundit. Both television programs are broadcast on Comedy Central. With their shows, Stewart and Colbert have helped increase public and academic discussion of the significance of political satire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_satire A Man Without a Country (subtitle: A Memoir Of Life In George W Bush's America) is an essay collection published in 2005 by the author Kurt Vonnegut. The extremely short essays that comprise this book deal with topics ranging from the importance of humor, to problems with modern technology, to Vonnegut's opinions on the differences between men and women. Most prevalent in the text, however, are those essays which elucidate Vonnegut's opinions on politics, and the issues in modern American society, often from a decidedly humanistic perspective. In January 2007, Vonnegut indicated that he intended this to be his final work, a statement which proved to be correct with his death in April 2007. This stood true until a short-story collection of his unpublished work was published posthumously in 2008 entitled Armageddon in Retrospect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_Without_a_Country