TERROR NULLIUS

SATIRE INVITES US TO BECOME conspirators in a joke made at someone else’s expense. As the usual targets are figures of power and authority it’s reasonable to assume the invitation will be accepted. The satirist adopts the Robin Hood position – defending the powerless against the few who seek to impose their will upon the many. Ridicule is a weapon that costs nothing and cannot be confiscated.

The satirist, as a subtitled Skippy says in , must speak truth to power – but in a manner so palpably absurd it doesn’t generate lawsuits. At its most effective a victim that complains only looks like