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As we transition into an era of high White House approval ratings and slightly healthier national pride, lampooning our new President becomes a more difficult proposition. With George W. Bush a simple headshot was enough to get some laughs, but with Barack Obama satiristas and editorial cartoonists have their work cut out for them. Keeping [...]

As we’ve grown older strange things have happened in our relationship to Weird Al Yankovic. Not strange as in “creepy,” but strange as in irregular. For a long time we simply didn’t get him, we didn’t have the requisite pop culture knowledge to understand what he was doing. Then we loved his parodies, because he [...]

We find it fascinating that both the Republicans‘ and Democrats‘ zoological shorthands come from Thomas Nast cartoons. Supposedly today’s press is supremely powerful, but back in the 19th century clever satire could eventually become official signage. Today, the best we can do is delightful postmodern bricolage and pastiche, taking wonderful symbols like those popularized by [...]