Just to be clear, Alex P. Keaton was satire

[mdmc]

Michael J. Fox trying to stick it to the Young Republicans.
The Young Republicans took the spoof as their God.

Michael J. Fox didn't mean for Alex P Keaton to become a poster child for the right.

Sometimes satire is like it.

[Prefer]

1. Archie Bunker was intended to promote Bigotry!

[Ian David]

4. Archie had Meathead to act as a foil so most people understood he was wrong. n/t

[panader0]

5. Well, Meathead was intended to promote hippies.

[skooooo]

14. Promote? Hardly. Norman Lear was lampooning both sides.

[Ian David]

2. So was Andrew Dice Clay. The reason why he retired was because people didn't "get it."

The emotional toll on him from being parroted by bigots and misogynists became too much for him.

[mdmc]

6. i really didn't know that

I thought he was a perv.

[Skittles]

8. he was

and a very sad, ugly one at that

[Ian David]

12. He saw his character as Archie Bunker, someone to be held up to ridicule for his ignorance.

Instead, he became a role-model for bigotry, and it got so bad that it damaged his relationship with his mother.

He actually stopped doing stand-up at the height of his popularity.

[Skittles]

7. aw, poor baby n/t

[skooooo]

15. There was nothing sympathetic about him, that's why it didn't work...imo.

[SmileyRose]

26. it's just that he was so unfunny.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. So has Dr. Colbert.

There are far too many GOP sheeple who don't know he's poking fun at their political beliefs.

[mdmc]

9. didn't he fall out of THAT favor during the press club deal-i-o

or did that slip by the wingnuts?

[ColbertWatcher]

18. I don't remember there being too many who knew about him prior to that...

...but on other forums, there are quite a few GOP sheeple who agree with his positions on things.

And don't forget that Tom DeLay used a video from The Colbert Report on his PAC website to refute a critic's argument against DeLay.

That was so weird I hope I posted correctly, here's a link in case I didn't...

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/05/25/i_kid_you_not_tom_delay_using_greenwaldcolbert_interview_to_raise_money.php

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Michael J. Fox was an actor in a comedy show

People were supposed to laugh at him. That was the whole gag.

But the first rule of satire is, make sure that the audience understands who is being satirized. In the case of Family Ties, both the parents and the son were objects of satire-- the parents were stereotypical aging hippies/liberals, the son was a stereotypical Young Republican. No misunderstanding there.

However, in the New Yorker cartoon, the attempt at satire, if it was indeed directed at the right wing portrayal of Obama, failed miserably, in that it was Obama, and his wife, who are being caricaturized and thus are the apparent targets of the satirist. Any good satirist knows that if you want to satirize someone, you make it clear who the target is. Thus, if the point was to satirize the right wing, right-wingers should have been the ones caricatured in the cartoon, not the Obamas.

[mdmc]

23. the parents weren't the butt of the jokes

they were liberals. Good liberals.
Alex P. Keaton was a cartoon. Right down to the Christmas show (Scrooge).

So you think that toon has the effect of satirizing Obama? How? He is patriotic (no flag burning), he is a Christian (although his name is odd), his wife is much more of a pacifist then a radical (she don't have no afro), and the couple doesn't have a pic of Obama hanging anywhere.

Take the theme The politics of fear and make a cartoon. I couldn't do any better then the ny'er/

[Art_from_Ark]

27. Viewing the show as a liberal,

you might focus on the Fox character as being the one that was being satirized. And, yes, he was a stereotypical Young Republican. But the parents were also stereotyped as typical aging hippies/liberals.

The cartoon was definitely satirizing Obama and his wife. Having produced a bit of satire myself, I know that the first rule of satire is to make it clear who the object of your satire is. The magazine cover shows caricatures of Obama and his wife-- with nothing even vaguely referring to right-wingers in the picture.

Think of it this way-- If I were to draw a picture of Al Gore, with a big nose, wearing a dunce cap, holding up a piece of paper that reads "Internet Patent", would you think that the objective of my cartoon is to satirize the right-wingers who insisted that Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet? Or would it be more effective if I drew a bunch of right-wingers scrambling over each other, each holding up signs, with one saying "Al Gore didn't invest the Internet-- I did!" and the others saying "No, I did!" "No, I did!"
"No, I did!"

[tbyg52]

11. Ditto Randy Newman.

(Early Newman, not the movie composer version.... ;) )

[timtom]

20. Oh, yeah!

"Short People". That was the mainstream one. Of course, all his stuff was so dark and acerbic. He's also one of my faves.

[tbyg52]

24. Ditto. I gotta be real careful who is around when I play him.

Because if they don't get it they think you're a terrible bigot or a raving lunatic!

[Dukkha]

13. remember Alex P Keaton was a pill popper

on that episode he was taking speed to cram for an exam. Substitute amphetamine with oxycodone and there you go!

[Atman]

16. But THAT is what's so scary about Republicans...you can't satire them.

They're beyond satire. Most examples of "Republican behavior" are practically satire in and of themselves. That is largely why Democratic radio never seems to take hold; we "get" satire. But when Rush Limbaugh plays the sounds of chainsaws and dying animals as an intro to his environmental whacko bits, his fans don't think it's satire. They applaud it. They believe it is who we are.

BTW...that's what the New Yorker was trying to do.

.

[Ian David]

17. Buffalo Bill... Monty... n/t

[eleny]

19. And he made the character so likable despite his views

[JHB]

21. No need for MJF. The real-life Alexes were already in place...

Family Ties debuted in 1982.

In 1981, the new chairman of the College Republicans National Committee was Jack Abramoff (yes, THAT Jack Abramoff).

He and two pals/allies changed the CRs from a "Biff & Buffy Party Club" to a ratfucker training ground.

Those pals' names are also depressingly familiar: Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.

Alex Keaton was never a "god" for the young rethugs, just an entertainingly tame caricature who occasionally had good lines worth stealing.

[Lex]

25. "Alex Keaton was never a "god" for the young rethugs,"

I absolutely agree.

[Lex]

22. Some people still don't get that Colbert is satire.

The right-wingers really are so nuts that it's hard to satirize them.