The Offensive Art: Political Satire and Its Censorship around the World from Beerbohm to Borat PDF
Preview The Offensive Art: Political Satire and Its Censorship around the World from Beerbohm to Borat
THE OFFENSIVE ART This page intentionally left blank THE OFFENSIVE ART Political Satire and Its Censorship around the World from Beerbohm to Borat Leonard Freedman LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Freedman,Leonard Theoffensiveart:politicalsatireanditscensorshiparoundtheworldfromBeerbohm toBorat/LeonardFreedman. p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978–0–313-–35600–1(alk.paper) 1.Politicalsatire—Historyandcriticism.2.Politicalsatire—Censorship.I.Title PN6149.P64F742009 813’.54—dc22 2008032635 BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationDataisavailable. Copyright©2009byLeonardFreedman Allrightsreserved.Noportionofthisbookmaybe reproduced,byanyprocessortechnique,withoutthe expresswrittenconsentofthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCatalogCardNumber:2008032635 ISBN–978–0–313–35600–1 Firstpublishedin2009 PraegerPublishers,88PostRoadWest,Westport,CT06881 AnimprintofGreenwoodPublishingGroup,Inc. www.praeger.com PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Thepaperusedinthisbookcomplieswiththe PermanentPaperStandardissuedbytheNational InformationStandardsOrganization(Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 CONTENTS ListofIllustrations vii Preface ix Introduction:SatiristsandCensors 1 PARTI:(ALMOST)ANYTHINGGOES:POLITICALSATIREIN 9 AMERICAANDBRITAIN 1.PuncturingtheImperialPresidency:FDRtoGeorgeW.Bush 11 2.Censorship,AmericanStyle 34 3.Britain:FromBulldogstoPoodles 56 4.Censorship,BritishStyle 73 PARTII:ADANGEROUSGAME:POLITICALSATIREIN 89 AUTHORITARIANSYSTEMS 5.What’sFunnyAboutHitler? 91 6.StalinandMao:NoLaughingMatter 107 7.ImperialIronies:IndiaandtheRaj 128 8.TheMiddleEast:RagingAgainstCartoons 141 Conclusion:StillMoreSatire—AndWhyWeNeedIt 157 Notes 167 Index 191 This page intentionally left blank FIGURES LBJbyHerbBlock(1965) 17 NixonbyPatOliphant(1999) 19 ClintonbyTonyAuth(1988) 24 ‘‘Inheritance”byBruceBeattie(2006) 29 GeorgeW.BushbyGaryB.Trudeau/Doonesbury(2007) 31 NixonbyPaulConrad(1993) 35 PogobyWaltKelly(1953) 40 ‘‘Why?”byMikeLuckovich(2005) 45 MallardFillmorebyBruceTinsley(2004) 53 ThatcherbyNickyTaylor(2001) 62 BlairandBushbySteveBell(2001) 68 ThatcherbyKAL(1981) 80 AdolfHitlerbyanon.(1930) 92 AdolfHitlerbyBernardPartridge(1940) 102 AdolfHitlerbyDr.Seuss/TheodoreGeisel(1941) 103 Sovietbureaucracybyanon.inKrokodil(1925) 108 TheDoctors’Plotbyanon.inKrokodil(1953) 115 Mao/GooglebyPatrickChappatte(2006) 127 BritishGovernorofBengalbyGaganendranathTagore(1917) 132 IndiraGandhibyAbuAbraham(1975) 134 IrrationalityinCourtbyAliFarzat(2001) 146 ‘‘BombintheTurban”byKurtWestergaard(2005) 153 This page intentionally left blank PREFACE This is a book about political satire and the efforts to constrain it within several countries withdiverse politicalsystems,fromthebeginningofthe twentiethcenturytothepresenttime. Therearemanyotherbooksonpoliticalsatire,somebythesatiriststhem- selves and some by commentators on the subject; there is also a large amount of literature on censorship, some of which draws examples from political satire. The Offensive Art, however, is the first effort to draw togethermaterialonthestrugglebetweensatiristsandcensorsonanexten- sive,comparativebasis. Extensive—but,inevitably,farshortofcomprehensive.Readersmaywell complainthatIhavenotincludedtheirfavoritesatirist,oroverlookedcoun- trieswithrichstoresofpoliticalwit,ormadeonlypassingreferencetothe vast array of political satire that stretches from Aristophanes through Daumier.IcanonlypleadthatthematerialfromwhichIhavedrawnisinex- haustible,withnewabsurditiesburstingontothepoliticalsceneallaround the world every day; and in undertaking to explore so much territory in onemodestlysizedvolume,Ihavehadtobehighlyselective.Evenso,The OffensiveArtprovidessubstantialmaterialonsevenmajorcountries,draws onexamplesfrom20more,andincludesbothdemocraticsystems(PartI), andauthoritarianregimes(PartII). Sufficient,then,toilluminatethreecentralpoints. First:Therehasbeenpoliticalsatireinmostsocieties.Theextentvaries considerably, and in some extremely repressive regimes none of it is pub- lished,butalwayssomejokesters,somewhere,willmocktherulers. Second:Thereisconsiderablymoresatireindemocraticthaninauthori- tarian regimes. This, in fact, is part of the argument for democracy, and the bias of this book favors the relative openness of democracies— though, as this bookmakes abundantly clear,there is plentytosatirize in democracies. Third:Nowherearesatiristscompletelyfreefromcensorsofonekindor another.Ascomparedwithotherdissenters,satiristsenjoyacertainamount ofprotectionbyencasingtheirhostilityinhumor.Andthroughouthistory thejesterhas beenallowedtospeaktruthtopower.Yetfewpeopleenjoy
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