Abstract
This article aims to discuss the role humour plays in politics, particularly in a media environment overflowing with user-generated video. We start with a genealogy of political satire, from classical to Internet times, followed by a general description of “the Hitler meme,” a series of videos on YouTube featuring footage from the film Der Untergang and nonsensical subtitles. Amid video-games, celebrities, and the Internet itself, politicians and politics are the target of twenty-first century caricatures. By analysing these videos we hope to elucidate how the manipulation of images is embedded in everyday practices and may be of political consequence, namely by deflating politicians' constructed media image. The realm of image, at the centre of the Internet's technological culture, is connected with decisive aspects of today's social structure of knowledge and play. It is timely to understand which part of “playing” is in fact an expressive practice with political significance.
Highlights
This article aims to discuss the role humour plays in politics, in a media environment overflowing with user-generated video
We start with a genealogy of political satire, from classical to Internet times, followed by a general description of “the Downfall meme,” a series of videos on YouTube featuring footage from the film Der Untergang and nonsensical subtitles
Already enjoying a long existence in political and social life, political satire has been renewed by the new media environment, as illustrated by the case of the Downfall meme, which we will discuss
Summary
In the history of humour, different perspectives are brought together as the dominant discourse has itself undergone changes through times. After the French Revolution, caricature became a weapon, and those who wielded it started to suffer the same fate as the artists of words: prison This potential was soon understood in the nineteenth century press, joining the satirical drawing to the critical spirit of the text, in an attack with varying degrees of subtlety These authors note 1950's and 1960's network executives mainly stayed away from satire, for fear it might be “too esoteric” for “mass audiences,” while cable channels could choose to alienate part of the audience, and, of the advertisers This liberated them from the shackles of the need to provide “mass entertainment,” allowing less consensual forms of humour. Already enjoying a long existence in political and social life, political satire has been renewed by the new media environment, as illustrated by the case of the Downfall meme, which we will discuss
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