Tag Archives: political satire

FIVE MORE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES VIEWED THROUGH A MODERN LENS

Balladeer’s Blog’s previous look at Seven Ancient Greek Comedies with Themes That Are Still Relevant went over pretty well, so here are five more.

aristophanes picTHE BANQUETERS – By Aristophanes. This was the very first comedy from the Athenian whose name is synonymous with ancient Greek comedies, especially political satires. The nineteen-year-old presented a landowner from Athens whose two sons were being introduced to his phratry brothers at a banquet dedicated to Herakles. 

The sons were on opposite ends of what we would today call the political left & the political right. Following an argument between the two of them they switch friend groups to see who can handle the other’s daily life better. Jokes abound about values, hair styles, tastes in music and more. Continue reading

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POLEIS (CITIES): ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

Balladeer’s Blog resumes its examination of ancient Greek comedies. 

classical greecePOLEIS – In this post I’m looking at Poleis (Cities), written by Eupolis, one of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. This satirical comedy is dated from approximately 422 B.C. to 419 B.C.  Like so many other such comedies it has survived only in fragmentary form.

The title refers to the all-important Chorus in ancient Greek comedies. In this case the chorus consisted of actors costumed to represent some of the city-states which were under the influence of Athens at the time.

masc chair and bottleAs for how people can be “costumed” as cities, picture how it would be done with American cities. The chorus member representing New York might be depicted as the Statue of Liberty, Saint Louis as the Arch, Pittsburgh as a steel worker, Los Angeles as a brain-dead movie star and so on.

Part of the political satire dealt with the love-hate relationship that many subject- states had with Athens. Being the combination Paris/ Tokyo/ New York City of its time, Athens had a lot to offer its allied polities, but a certain air of tension always existed because of what some of those locations felt were Athens’ high-handed ways of dealing with them.

Eupolis depicted the personified subject-states/ allied states as workers with a not altogether beloved “boss,” Athens. Continue reading

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TRANSGRESS WITH ME: MAY 30th

Time for another installment of Balladeer’s Blog’s political humor feature Transgress With Me:

Mascot with demo and repub headsTHE MUELLER REPORT DID NOT DO ANYTHING TO CLEAR ROBERT MUELLER OF ANY POTENTIAL FUTURE KIDDIE PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES. I WILL ANSWER NO QUESTIONS. THIS IS MY LAST STATEMENT ABOUT THE COWARDLY “MURKY” MUELLER, ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST NOTORIOUSLY CORRUPT PROSECUTORS.  

EVERY INDIVIDUAL IS A MINORITY OF ONE.

THE POPE IS NOTHING MORE THAN THE HEAD OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHILD MOLESTATION RING, YET HE THINKS HE’S FIT TO LECTURE THE REST OF US.

AMERICAN “EDUCATORS” (LMAO) FORFEITED ANY RIGHT TO RESPECT WHEN THEY BEGAN ABUSING THEIR POSITIONS TO FORCE THEIR POLITICAL OPINIONS UPON THEIR STUDENTS. AND WHEN THEY BECAME MORE LIKE CLERGY, FORCING THEIR SIMPLE-MINDED NOTIONS OF RIGHT AND WRONG UPON THEIR STUDENTS.

Robert Mueller surrenders

I HAVE NO STATEMENT TO MAKE REGARDING IF THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN DURING AN ARREST OF ROBERT MUELLER FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE. I WILL ANSWER NO QUESTIONS IF HE WAS WEARING PANTS.

ACCUSED RAPIST AND ACCUSED SUBORNER OF PERJURY ROBERT MUELLER KEPT INNOCENT PEOPLE IN BOSTON IN PRISON FOR YEARS DURING THE WHITEY BULGER SCANDAL. MUELLER ALSO HAS THE FACE OF A CARTOON CHARACTER COMBINED WITH THE HEART AND SOUL OF A NAZI. HE’S ALSO A BOUGHT AND PAID FOR WHORE. I HAVE NO FURTHER STATEMENT TO MAKE AND I WILL ANSWER NO QUESTIONS.  Continue reading

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PUCK: BOSS PLATT, FATHER KNICKERBOCKER AND EUGEN SANDOW

puck father knickerbockerBalladeer’s Blog takes another look at a political cartoon from Puck magazine (1871-1918), the famous humor magazine. For more Puck click HERE 

This time around it’s the cover illustration from June 9th, 1897. The cartoon depicts a furious Father Knickerbocker breaking chains labeled “Raines Law” and “Hayseed Legislation” while the caption reads “Let Boss Platt beware: Father Knickerbocker is in training for this Sandow Act.”

Father Knickerbocker, then as now, was the symbol of New York. The figure was based on Washington Irving’s Diedrich Knickerbocker, the pseudonym under which he wrote his History of New York in 1809. That history was told from the alleged perspective of the old-line Dutch families who had settled New York before it was taken by the British.

There had actually been a Knickerbocker family in New York since the 1600s and the name appealed to Irving as being quintessentially Dutch-American. 

Boss Platt was Thomas C Platt, successor to the corrupt Roscoe Conkling as the head of New York’s Republican Party Machine. (Tammany Hall, synonymous with political corruption, was still the name used for the state’s Democrat Party Machine)

Joseph Keppler at Puck magazine disdained Platt and the New York machine as much as he disdained Tammany Hall. The Raines Law chain being broken by Father Knickerbocker symbolized the Blue Law banning the sale of alcohol in New York on Sundays. Keppler held Boss Platt responsible for Raines Law and other parochial legislation known as Hayseed Legislation, the other chain being broken by Father Knickerbocker. Continue reading

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POLITICAL CARTOONS: JANUARY 19th

Here are some recent examples. The first one ridicules accused rapist and accused suborner of perjury Robert Mueller.  

mueller cartoon

illegal immigration security

pelosi and schumer love illegal immigrants
Continue reading

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ASK BALLADEER: FAVORITE ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIAN OUTSIDE OF ARISTOPHANES

Mascot new lookASK BALLADEER: Who is your favorite Attic Old Comedian outside of Aristophanes?

ANSWER: Enough people have asked this now that I’ll post this in the spirit of an FAQ. Outside of Aristophanes, of course, we have only fragments to go by, but I would go with Eupolis. His comedies like Demoi, Marikas, Baptae, Autolycus and Taxiarchoi have been covered here at Balladeer’s Blog. Continue reading

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ANNUAL SEPTEMBER 11th POST

 Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog, the Open City of America, takes a look at a parallel Earth today. As usual this is the only site on the ‘net that is truly non-partisan in its criticism of left-wing and right-wing zealots.

Several years ago a big deal was made over whether or not the 9-11 attacks could have been prevented by greater coordination between elements of the forever corrupt intelligence community. Amid the predictable partisan bickering and childish finger- pointing that characterized the 9-11 Commission and its findings an important consideration was overlooked.

That consideration was how events would have unfolded if the attacks had actually been thwarted. Let’s take a quick look at both the Liberal idiocy and the Conservative idiocy that would have followed. 

THE LIBERAL IDIOCY – 

*** The insecure American Left always feels that the only officially “intellectual” thing to do is to take sides against one’s own country no matter what the situation is. I agree there are plenty of times when reasonable people WILL take sides against their own country, but with American Liberals the rest of us have learned to just yawn and listen with amusement while they twist logic as severely as they have to in order to stick to their apparent loyalty to “everyone who hates America, right or wrong.”

*** The sheer unlikelihood of the 9-11 attacks would have served as the springboard for the Liberals’ attack on the opposition party’s intelligence services foiling those attacks. 

*** Liberals would have scoffed at the notion that the attacks could have ever succeeded. They would have ridiculed that possibility and made remarks like: “So the Bush administration would have us believe that this perfectly charming Mr Mohamed Atta and his friends would have succeeded in multiple plane hijackings and then, with the minimal pilot training they had, manage to fly those planes with pinpoint accuracy into the World Trade Center towers! Where- EVER does that cowboy in the White House get such notions?” 

*** The default argument of all Liberals is that the only people in the world that are irredeemably evil are Americans and they feel it is bigotry to ever suspect anyone else of any ugly intentions. They would have insisted the intelligence services nabbed Atta and his accomplices based solely on “racist” or “Islamophobic” assumptions. They’d have insisted it was “A Sacco and Vanzetti story for the 21st Century.” 

( By the way, if you’re not sure if you’re an American Liberal or not here’s a quick guide: If you’re condescendingly assuming that other people won’t understand the Sacco and Vanzetti reference then you just might be an American Liberal!)

*** Liberals would have also launched a whole “Free Mohamed Atta” movement and, given the general ineptitude of the Bush administration, probably would have gotten Atta and his fellow conspirators  acquitted. 

*** Atta would then have gotten a job as a radio host on Air America, ensuring that absolutely nobody would ever hear from him again.

*** Inevitably the same organizations that Atta and his playmates belonged to would have put together a deadly attack that DID succeed like the 9-11 attacks did in real life. Liberals would then have insisted that it was America’s “bigoted” treatment of Mohamed Atta and company that was the SOLE motive behind the attacks and that Americans “brought it all on themselves.” Just like they’ve been doing in real life ever since the actual 9-11 attacks.

THE CONSERVATIVE IDIOCY – Continue reading

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SABO: GUERILLA ART AT ITS FINEST

sabo on zuckerberg and schumerStreet Artist Sabo has earned genuine folk hero status with his guerilla art projects that he sets up in public, often under the cover of darkness, in various cities. Daylight unveils his masterpieces of dissent. Sabo takes on the subjects that too many faux iconoclasts are afraid to handle, most recently the corporate fascist Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg.

The guerilla artist simultaneously broached the way that Zuckerberg’s ties to just one political party are a clear conflict of interest (Chuck Schumer’s daughter works there as just one example of dozens) and should call for regulation of Facebook as a public utility. The baby-faced Techno-Tyrant Zuck has a well-deserved name for politically motivated,  one-way enforcement of Facebook/ Fakebook’s supposed “Community Standards.”

Sabo on HillarySince ANY Facebook user can block anybody or anything they want, such heavy-handed interference with the free exchange of ideas is as unnecessary as it is ugly. (Personally I left Facebook years ago since it’s like being trapped in the suburban barbecue from hell.)

Scandals about Facebook’s violation of users’ privacy have provided even more reason to be suspicious of the organization. Go to Gab.ai or Steemit.com or any of the other sites out there. They aren’t yet the obnoxious corporate cesspool that Facebook has long been. Continue reading

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MY HERO MAGADEMIA: NOW ON SALE!

From the same creative team behind Thump comes this hilarious parody! Trump-hating buffoons are frothing at the mouth with their usual indignant, blustering outrage.

My Hero Magademia can be bought HERE

Magademia 1 Continue reading

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DEMOI (C 417 B.C.) – ANCIENT GREEK COMEDY

FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION IF YOU MISSED MY FIRST POST ON ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES CLICK HERE: https://glitternight.com/2011/09/22/at-long-last-my-ancient-greek-comedy-posts-begin/

map of greeceAs promised this time around I’ll depart from the works of Aristophanes to examine the fragmentary remains of a work by another genius of Ancient Greek Comedy, in this case Eupolis. 

Eupolis was part of the Big Three of Ancient Greek Comedy (henceforth AGC) along with Aristophanes and Cratinus. Some people confuse Eupolis with the later Greek comedian Eubulus but manage to lead fairly normal lives just the same. (rimshot)

THE PREMISE

Demoi is considered to be Eupolis’ greatest political satire. The premise is simplicity itself. An Athenian named Pyronides, like many of his fellow citizens, is disgusted with the pettiness, corruption and incompetence of the current crop of political and military leaders in the great city-state. Thus motivated, Pyronides retrieves four of the greatest figures of Athens’ storied past from the Netherworld and brings them back with him so they may set things right.

THE PLAY

In my introductory post about AGC (see above) I illustrated the similar problems faced by the Athenians’ ancient experiment in popular rule and our own often teetering enterprise. Corruption, partisanship and a tendency to subordinate the general good in the name of personal gain  were as rampant then as now.

As all societies are prone to do, the Athenians romanticised the leaders of the past, believing them to be of a heroic stature lacking in the current crop of Athenian politicians and generals. Continue reading

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