# New Yorker Cover - Obamas - Tasteless? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2008, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428 "2008-07-14T13:46:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/61 "2008-07-15T02:21:52Z")
[QUOTE=Lakai] Really? Could you give an example? I just don’t see it. [/QUOTE] Sorry; I just moved from Chicago to Seoul, so I had to dump all my issues of the New Yorker as they would not all fit in my suitcase. 🙂 I do remember that a lot of political commentary in the NYer portrayed Obama as inexperienced and his following as blind (or at least, that’s the vibe I got), but unfortunately I can’t cite any particular articles. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/62 "2008-07-15T02:24:16Z")
You couldn’t even take one or two of them?! ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/63 "2008-07-15T02:55:44Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] You couldn’t even take one or two of them?! [/QUOTE] I packed only what I thought I needed and I still exceeded the weight limit by a fair amount. There wasn’t enough spare room for a bobby pin by the end. Plus, back issues of the NYer were not high on my ‘to-pack’ list. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![cindyash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4da419/32.png) [@cindyash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cindyash)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/64 "2008-07-15T02:59:56Z")
Ive have been subscribed to the NYer for years. I saw that cover, and thought long and hard about it, about its implications and its uses. Decided to cancel my subscription. Its cutting off my nose despite my face becuase I do love the magazine. But I can’t believe they would be so incredibly stupid not to see how this could be used by the right, how it would increase the fear mongering they are trying to stop, and how they have increased the chance that we will have another 4-8 years of Bush aka McCain. I wish there was more I could do than just unsubscribe. One thing I did find interesting when I called their customer service number; first thing you hear is a recorded explanation for the cover, that it is satire etc etc. There was also an interesting interview with David Remnick (ed of NYER) explaining why he used it (mmm, not sure how to do a link here…stay tuned) ---
**Author:** ![cindyash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4da419/32.png) [@cindyash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cindyash)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/65 "2008-07-15T03:03:49Z")
Here it is > **[David Remnick On That New Yorker Cover: It's Satire, Meant To Target...](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/david-remnick-on-emnew-yo_n_112456)** > > This week's New Yorker cover shows Barack and Michelle Obama as Muslim terrorists burning a flag in the Oval Office. Why would they publish such a thing? We asked New Yorker editor David Remnick. Here's what he said. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/66 "2008-07-15T03:23:57Z")
Am I the only person who thought of Jonathan Swift’s [_A Modest Proposal_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal)? I suppose that there were people in early 18th Century Ireland who got their panties all in a bunch thinking that Dean Swift actually advocated that the Irish Question could be resolved by turning Irish babies into sausage. That Little Old Lady from Dubuque line cuts a little close to the bone. All this broohah proves is that not all of Senator Obama’s people are sophisticates. ---
**Author:** ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/67 "2008-07-15T03:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] I can see the satire but there are unintended consequences. There are many who are too thick to see the joke. They will see it as a major publication corroborating their beliefs. [/QUOTE] Agreed. I am now lobbying for a cover with Laura Bush crashing her car and lifeless bodies everywhere, or maybe W snorting some coke off a co-ed’s boobs. How about John McCain crashing not one but four of our military airplanes, with a silly grin and an “Oops!” caption. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/68 "2008-07-15T04:26:34Z")
R. Crumb did an amazing satire of racism (link NSFW http :// www . heretical . com /miscella/rcnoa.html ) for his magazine Weirdo. Which was subsequently illegally reproduced by a racist newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/69 "2008-07-15T04:33:24Z")
Just as hilarious is “When the goddamn Jews take over America.” http: [//www.heretical.com/miscella/rcjoa.html](https://www.heretical.com/miscella/rcjoa.html) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/70 "2008-07-15T05:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=Long Time First Time] IMHO that’s a big reason they ran it. So that the New Yorker readers (who get it) can laugh at the rubes who wring their hands or take it seriously. [/QUOTE] Although this thread seems to indicate how much of the hand-wringing and serious-taking is coming from the New Yorker readers. Which is itself very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/71 "2008-07-15T05:17:32Z")
[QUOTE=cindyash] Ive have been subscribed to the NYer for years. I saw that cover, and thought long and hard about it, about its implications and its uses. Decided to cancel my subscription. Its cutting off my nose despite my face becuase I do love the magazine. But I can’t believe they would be so incredibly stupid not to see how this could be used by the right, how it would increase the fear mongering they are trying to stop, and how they have increased the chance that we will have another 4-8 years of Bush aka McCain. I wish there was more I could do than just unsubscribe. [/QUOTE] Explain to me how this will be used by the right? How is anyone going to put this in a news report without mentioning that it was meant as a satire? [QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] Sorry; I just moved from Chicago to Seoul, so I had to dump all my issues of the New Yorker as they would not all fit in my suitcase. 🙂 I do remember that a lot of political commentary in the NYer portrayed Obama as inexperienced and his following as blind (or at least, that’s the vibe I got), but unfortunately I can’t cite any particular articles. [/QUOTE] Sorry to hijack on this issue (which is near pointless now), but Hendrik Hertzberg, who usually leads off in the comments section, is an Obama supporter. Here is what he had to say in a blog entry for when Obama sealed the nomination: > [@](#): > > As I walked to the subway, I felt goofily happy. Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. It’s like a dream. I was just wondering how you got a totally different vibe. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/72 "2008-07-15T05:41:36Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] …I think that this will be seen by scads of people who would never normally look at The New Yorker. And that audience may be influenced by it. [/QUOTE] I think that audience was already influenced by it before this was even published. [QUOTE=cindyash] …Its cutting off my nose despite my face… [/QUOTE] [nitpick]It’s cutting off my nose _to spite_ my face.[/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/73 "2008-07-15T06:31:29Z")
[QUOTE=Santo Rugger] I think that audience was already influenced by it before this was even published.[nitpick]It’s cutting off my nose _to spite_ my face.[/nitpick] [/QUOTE] That’s right up there with “…for all intensive purposes” and “the point is mute”. Probably a good Pit thread. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/74 "2008-07-15T07:41:58Z")
**Lakai** , I didn’t mean to imply that everyone working at the NYer is anti-Obama. I just remember that in general, the NYer gave off the vibe that they were more for Hillary than Obama - at least before Obama sealed the nomination. ETA: I could be remembering wrongly, of course. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/75 "2008-07-15T07:52:02Z")
It doesn’t come across as the kind of satire I’m familiar with, though of course I am not living within it all, or would even care about it if I was. It seems like it’s missed a few steps and is trying to be too clever. But then, that may be de rigeur for _The New Yorker_, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/76 "2008-07-15T08:00:50Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] **Lakai** , I didn’t mean to imply that everyone working at the NYer is anti-Obama. I just remember that in general, the NYer gave off the vibe that they were more for Hillary than Obama - at least before Obama sealed the nomination. ETA: I could be remembering wrongly, of course. [/QUOTE] I understand. It’s mute point anyway. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cindyash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4da419/32.png) [@cindyash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cindyash)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/77 "2008-07-15T15:01:51Z")
\>Explain to me how this will be used by the right? I don’t have to explain, it already is happening. The right are holding it up and saying look even the NYer is saying the rumors are true. Yes its satire, and any one who reads the NYer would know that. But too many are too ready to believe those kind of rumors and others are too ready to listen to fear mongers Re Modest Proposal: the beauty of this piece is that there is a focus to the satire. Even those who knew nothing about the history (I didn’t when I read it as a freshman in college) would get what its saying. In this cover, you have to know what it is satirizing. Yes, its the rumors, but you don’t know that clearly by looking at it. If you know nothing about Obama and have been listening to your church and Faux news, you look at it and say, oh yeah, thats right. \>But then, that may be de rigeur for The New Yorker, I suppose Its not, thats the troubling thing. I have seen covers that made me laugh out loud as soon as I saw it out of the mailbox. I have read some incredibly well written articles that could run circles around Modest Proposal. So this was really out of character. It was just stupid. Santo, thanks for the correction. I am well known else forum for my misspellings and miswordings of idioms. “…for all intensive purposes” was another one I used for years till someone on another forum nicely corrected me. I do have a hearing loss and sometimes it affects how I hear idioms. I read and see those phrases, but somehow it doesn’t register in my writing, unless I am very careful. My apologies; Im afraid at this point tho I can change much without such reminders 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/78 "2008-07-15T15:29:23Z")
[QUOTE=cindyash] But too many are too ready to believe those kind of rumors and others are too ready to listen to fear mongers [/QUOTE] For ye have the stupid always with you, but Obama ye have not always. Eight years, tops. ---
**Author:** ![KSO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/79 "2008-07-15T15:59:16Z")
I’m enjoying the outrage more than the satire. I thought righteous outrage over cartoons was the exclusive province of backwards Islamic fundamentalists and not sophisticated, nuanced Obama-supporters . . . ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428/80 "2008-07-15T16:09:16Z")
Oy, veh… over the last 4 days I have come to find out that 99+% of the population around my workplace have NO IDEA whatsoever that this is parodying the “terrorist fist-bump” news blurb. And one of them wants it blown up to put on her wall, and I quote: \*“but that IS how I feel about them!!” \* Imean, really… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-yorker-cover-obamas-tasteless/456428.md?page=5)