Kat Williams
‘Discuss the role that Illustration can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval.’
Illustration, particularly satire cartoons and caricatures, can be used to great effect during times of social and political upheaval.
Many have argued that satire offers little more than light relief from the harsh realities of political issues. According to satirical comedian Peter Sagal (2012), satire’s role ‘is to help people deal with the political reality [and] keep them from being depressed and anxious’. He is skeptical about the claim that political satire can actually change things, adding that ‘no politician has ever said to me, “What you said made me rethink my actions,” but lots of people have said, “That funny joke you made helped me cope with the fact that a jerk like that is in power.”’ His point is seconded by past director of satirical magazine The Onion, Baratunde Thurston (2012), who says that the the ability to laugh at politics makes it more bearable, adding that ‘it’s not as if satire, or comedic influence in general, is going to radically change someone’s mind.’
However, it can be deduced by looking at historical examples that the use of satire as a political weapon can cause a more significant reaction amongst both the public and their leaders. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was reported to have said that the English caricaturist James Gillray ‘did more than all the armies in Europe to bring me down’ (circa 1814). Whilst violence inflicts physical damage upon a campaign, satire can be used to directly and specifically target an individual, stripping them of their perceived superiority and exposing their vulnerabilities and insecurities, placing them in a defenceless and embarrassing position in the eyes of the ‘Maniac Ravings, or Little Boney in a Strong Fit’ (Gillray, 1803)
public.
Humour is the key to satire’s success. According to Srdja Popovic and Mladen Joksic writing for Foreign Policy in 2013, humour brings the advantage of a ‘cool factor, which helps movements attract new members’, and incites ‘clumsy reactions from a movements’ opponents’ (2013). In fact, humour is so effective in promoting solidarity that it is recognised as a form of nonviolent activism, defined by The Center for Applied Nonviolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS) with the term ‘laughtivism’ (Popovic 2013).
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