Install
Hollywood and Media Culture blog
A Modest Proposal to Put a Warning Label on Every Novel Before It Hurts Someone A labelled satire follows the logic of content warnings until every classic carries cautions longer than the book, then steps out to defend adult readers. Movies That Love America Still Sell Tickets, and Hollywood Keeps Forgetting Films that honour service, faith and country keep drawing huge crowds while the industry calls each hit a fluke. An audience waits for anyone who will serve it. Satire From Aristophanes to Swift Has Always Been the Weapon of the Underdog Satire is how the governed answer the governing, every age that tried to suppress it lost, and today it comes more and more from the right. Late Night Comedy Stopped Punching at Power and Started Lecturing Late night once mocked whoever held office. One-sided commentary made it less funny, and comedy aimed at everyone is the healthier tradition. Hustler v. Falwell Protected Parody, and Conservatives Benefit From It Now A unanimous 1988 ruling began with a vile ad aimed at a minister, and it now shields every satirist who mocks the powerful, including us. The Hollywood Blacklist Was Wrong, and Conservatives Should Say So Plainly The 1947 blacklist punished people for their beliefs, and conservatives argue against cancel culture with more credibility when they say so.