Once upon a time, there was a land with an unlikely ruler who came to power, and the jesters rejoiced for he carried with him fodder for their voracious wit. Even the comics of mediocre humor showed talent in shining light on the follies of the misguided leader. When the ruler spoke, people leaned in close to hear, for in a time of turmoil he easily filled the void with laughter.
And then a gallant knight arrived. He was full of promise in both word and stature, and while his speech lacked the humor of the previous ruler, he told tales of a better land. And the jesters cried, for they thought their days were numbered—that is, until the new leader took the throne.
For centuries, people have relied on laughter as an escape from the harsh realities of hard times. And it’s always been the privilege and role of the fool to provide the means for such mirth.
“It goes back to clowns, really,” said Gale McNeeley, a satirist in the land of Santa Maria. “Traditionally, only clowns, court jesters, and fools could get away with satirizing serious topics that could poke at the king in front of the subjects. And if the king laughed, then it was safe for everyone to laugh.”
McNeeley said this dynamic still exists today. He said Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart fulfill that role in the media more strongly than anyone else he could think of. And McNeeley is a fan.
“They go into areas other people don’t,” he said. “What makes me laugh is when they take the clothes off the emperor and reveal what may be going on. Not what is going on, but what may be going on.”
McNeeley’s life work has been poking fun in the areas of politics and religion, the two areas, he said, where people don’t have a sense of humor.
When George W. Bush was in office, McNeeley produced POPE: the Musical, exploring what it would be like if Bush tried to become the supreme pontiff. McNeeley also puts on a performance called Sister Dominique-niqee-nique about a nun who wants to be a priest. In an innocent way, the show addresses the idea of women in the traditionally male role. The fictional sister ponders why the priesthood has to be a “penis position.” And the other sisters tell her that they looked it up and nowhere in the Bible does it say a priest must have a male member.
McNeeley, who grew up in a Catholic household, said sometimes people are offended—but more often they laugh about it. And, he added, he doesn’t make fun of God or Jesus.
“When I do [satire], it seems to be based upon something serious,” he explained. “It does have a message. Usually the message is: ‘A lot of times we look at it that way, but have you thought about it this way?’”
The very idea of making such a suggestion is offensive to some, because it challenges the popular way of thinking.
In that way, McNeeley said satire is a liberal event in that you have to be free in order to enjoy it: “It may be revolutionary in a sense that it suggests a change in thinking, it suggests a change in the way you act.”
The next evolution in McNeeley’s repertoire is buffoonery, which, he explained, is sort of the opposite of clowning. Whereas audiences laugh at clowns, buffoons laugh at the audience. He said he hopes to study the style of performance in Europe this summer.
“Buffoons can really hold a mirror up to what’s happening, showing the bigger picture, when we could only see the small picture,” McNeeley said.
Ross Mayfield, political cartoonist for the Sun, said the role of satire is to wake people up to issues and decisions that are wrong.
“It should make people aware of things that are going on that are humorous decisions by the government,” he explained.
Mayfield, for instance, referred to a cartoon he’s particularly proud of, featuring Sen. Abel Maldonado at a podium saying government listened to the people and saved parks and beaches from closing—but there will now be teacher layoffs.
Mayfield got his start in political cartoons when he began hearing about the exploits of a controversial county supervisor at the time, Gail Marshall, who incited an effort to have her recalled when she refused to allow a flag salute at a county meeting. Mayfield drew a cartoon of Marshall sitting in a chair and shooting her own foot, the bottom of which featured an American flag.
But being charged with the duty of pointing out such situations isn’t easy. It takes work to reveal inadequacies in the system. Mayfield starts his day by reading up on the latest news.
“In the morning, I go through the papers to see if there’s something someone’s doing that’s ridiculous,” he said.
Even then, Mayfield sometimes hopes for some sort of last-minute divine inspiration. Many times the hardest thing to do is to stare at a blank sheet of paper and try to turn it into a bit of social commentary.
“Half of the ones I turn in I think, ‘Oh maybe this will pass,’” he said. “And I get so many comments on those … ‘That was great!’”
Then again, sometimes divine inspiration actually strikes: Someone makes headlines at just the right time, and the perfect perspective hits out of the blue.
“There are things you don’t even think about,” Mayfield said. “Just all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘OK, here you go.’ It’s like your subconscious is digesting all this stuff and then—boing!—there it is.”
But it’s not always government that provides the laugh. Cartoonist Leigh Rubin, creator of the Rubes comic, uses animals to make social commentary.
“They can’t threaten me with really violent e-mails that some people do,” Rubin said. “Really. I’ve gotten some. It’s like, this is just a cartoon—no animals were hurt.”
In Rubin’s world, animals face common human problems, such as arguing with a know-it-all teen over piercings. Creatures also find themselves dealing with human situations from an animal perspective, such as a steer holding a newspaper and trying to get into a bathroom stall—only to find he doesn’t fit because of his antlers.
Sometimes the cartoons poke fun at deeper concepts, and sometimes they’re just a funny twist on the ordinary, such as his “steamed vegetables” cartoon depicting a group of angry veggies.
“I love using animals,” he said. “You can get away with a lot. Like pierced udders. You can’t show a bare-breasted woman, but you can show udders.”
Rubin started his syndicated cartoon in 1984 and it now appears in more than 400 newspapers across the country. He’s released several books—including a 25th anniversary of Rubes due any day now—and he tours the country with his presentation: “A Twisted Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste,” scheduled for the Santa Maria Public Library on April Fool’s Day.
Even though—or maybe because—his humor is so widely distributed, he’s been accused (most often by his wife, he said) of having nothing serious to say and of not taking anything seriously. But Rubin said he doesn’t necessarily want to.
“I try to see the humor in life, no matter how horrendous it is,” he said. “Otherwise, what’s the other option? Being depressed? I’d rather use natural laughter-inducing methods.”
Like Mayfield, Rubin also sometimes faces the dreaded blank drawing board. He said the most frustrating thing is getting from Point A to Point B. But it’s a process that keeps him motivated since he’s always in search of his best work.
“My favorite is the one I haven’t done yet, whatever that may be,” he said.
As for the rest, he’s always pleasantly surprised at the outcome.
“Ninety percent of it is, ‘How did I do that? I did that? It’s so much fun, where did that come from?’”
And just because he uses animals in his brand of humor doesn’t mean he’s satire lite. In fact, Rubin said he enjoys satire and wit.
“Satire, and especially making fun of things you normally wouldn’t, that would be considered politically incorrect,” he said. “It’s like, lighten up people—don’t take yourselves so seriously.”
So what makes the jesters laugh? Rubin cites movies like The Big Lebowski, the original Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein—“anything that is unexpectedly funny, which is what I kind of try to achieve.”
He’s also fond of satiric writing from the likes of Christopher Buckley (of Thank You for Smoking fame) and Terry Pratchett. And comics. The one that makes him laugh that day is his favorite.
He also counts his dogs as funny, and his own work, naturally, makes him laugh.
“I kind of do this job for me, as a way of amusing myself and the segment of the population that finds it amusing as well,” Rubin said.
Mayfield finds shows like Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, and Two and a Half Men funny, and he watches comedians like Brian Regan.
For McNeeley, it’s laughing at the human condition.
“Lately, it’s when I do stupid things that I laugh,” he said. “I even point it out.
“And surprises. From the time you are a baby, you like surprises. Surprise is peek-a-boo for adults.”
Ask these local fools if they have a keener wit or a heightened sense of humor or a more observant perspective of the world than the rest of us, and the answer is instantly “no.”
“I’d say the potential is there for everyone,” McNeeley said. “Maybe I feel more free to laugh at that. I think, in a sense, if you believe too seriously in anything, it puts you in a box.”
More than anything, it’s about being open-minded—and open to laughing.
“If you don’t laugh, what a crappy life you have,” Rubin said. “How can you not laugh? It’s like drinking, breathing, and eating!”
What’s the name of Arts Editor Shelly Cone’s other leg? Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 1-8, 2010.