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Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln's Duel

In the summer of 1842, young Abraham Lincoln’s razor-sharp wit almost got him into a whole heap of trouble.
by Harold Holzer via The Saturday Evening Post on February 12, 2025
The United States of America, or as it’s also known: New York’s “back yard”.

Satirical Cartography: A Century of American Humor in Twisted Maps

Satire and an inflated sense of self-importance collide in a series of maps that goes back more than 100 years in American history.
by Frank Jacobs via Big Think on April 19, 2022
Lawd, Mah Man's Leavin' by Archibald Motley Jr.

How Should We Understand the Shocking Use of Stereotypes in the Work of Black Artists?

It's about the satirical tradition of 'going there.'
by Richard J. Powell via Artnet News on February 16, 2021
An illustration of an accordion being played.

The "Good Old Rebel" at the Heart of the Radical Right

How a satirical song mocking uneducated Confederates came to be embraced as an anthem of white Southern pride.
by Joseph M. Thompson via Southern Cultures on January 21, 2021

An Oral History of The Onion’s 9/11 Issue

Immediately after 9/11, humorists struggled with what many called ‘the death of irony.’ Then ‘The Onion’ returned and showed everyone the way
by Maria Schneider, Brian VanHooker, Robert Siegel, Todd Hanson, Mike Loew, Chad Nackers, Carol Kolb, Chris Karwowski, Tim Harrod, Mike Sacks, Nat Towsen, Joe Garden, Jim Romenesko via MEL on June 29, 2020

The Artists and Writers Who Fought Racism With Satire in Jim Crow Mississippi

How William Faulkner and a small group of provocateurs challenged segregation in ways that resonate today.
by William Browning via Atlas Obscura on May 29, 2019
New York City sidewalk in the 1880s.

What I Assume the Eighteen-Eighties Were Like

Locomotives. Not trains. Locomotives.
by Seth Reiss via The New Yorker on September 12, 2018
The Dead Kennedys band.

America Needs a Definitive History of Dead Kennedys…And Here’s Why It Won’t Happen

"I pledge to laugh / At the Flag / Of the United States of America..."
by Will Greer via Tropics of Meta on July 30, 2018
Robert Crumb

He’s Lewd, Problematic, and Profoundly Influential

R. Crumb’s cartoons plumb the grotesque corners of the American unconscious.
by Jeremy Lybarger via The New Republic on May 20, 2025
Mark Twain sits in thought on stone steps surrounded by nature while holding papers

Twain Dreams

The enigma of Samuel Clemens.
by John Jeremiah Sullivan via Harper’s on April 29, 2025
Donald Trump and the presidential seal in an empty theater.

The Hoax that Spawned an Age of American Conspiracism

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are just the latest populists to weaponise fears of a sinister “deep state”.
by Phil Tinline via New Statesman on April 2, 2025
An FTA button with a drawing of a raised fist holding dogtags.
partner

Not Bob Hope’s Idea of Troop Entertainment

Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland provide an outlet for antiwar soldiers.
by Lindsay Goss via HNN on June 25, 2024
Charlie Chaplin in a still from “The Great Dictator.”

The War on Charlie Chaplin

He was one of the world’s most celebrated and beloved stars. Then his adopted country turned against him.
by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on November 13, 2023
"Spy vs. Spy" pointy-headed characters facing each other

Rethinking Spy vs. Spy: A Hand From One Page, A Bomb From Another

Like the spies themselves, the image we have of something is often what gets us in trouble.
by Gyasi Hall via Longreads on September 12, 2023
Henry David Thoreau with a propeller cap.

Henry David Thoreau Was Funnier Than You Think, Particularly on the Subject of Work

On the necessary “deep sincerity” of dark humor.
by John Kaag, Jonathan van Belle via Literary Hub on June 26, 2023
Politician depicted as vampire bat.

"The Comic Natural History of the Human Race" (1851)

These caricatures of well-known Philadelphians transpose human heads onto animal forms.
by Hunter Dukes via The Public Domain Review on June 1, 2023
Ronald Squire, Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.

Against Race Essentialism

Black identity is a reality, not an idea.
by Tomiwa Owolade via New Statesman on May 15, 2023
Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry speaks against the anti-drag bills in Tennessee.
partner

History Exposes the Real Reason Republicans are Trying to Ban Drag Shows

For decades, conservatives were fine with sexually charged cross-dressing entertainment — so long as it reinforced traditional power structures.
by Rachel Hope Cleves via Made By History on March 9, 2023
Cover of "Gravity's Rainbow," depicting a orange-red sky over a small city.

History Is Hard to Decode

On 50 years of Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow.”
by M. Keith Booker via Los Angeles Review of Books on February 28, 2023
Image of theater proscenium with '1776' on the stage.ng

The '1776' Project

The Broadway revival of the musical means less to reanimate the nation’s founding than to talk back to it.
by Jane Kamensky via The Atlantic on October 13, 2022
Drawing of a theater performer looking off to the side.

How Love Conquered a Convent: Catholicism and Gender Disorder on the 1830s Stage

'Pet of the Petticoats' extends the reach of Anglo-Atlantic anti-Catholicism to the stage, illustrating the ways its tropes and anxieties moved across genres.
by Sara Lampert via Commonplace on September 7, 2022
Political cartoon with Nixon and his inner circle tied up with wires, each pointing the finger at another.

8 Cartoons That Shaped Our View of Watergate — And Still Resonate Today

Herblock, Garry Trudeau, and others created memorable cartoons that skewered Nixon and Watergate, making the era a boom time for political satire.
by Michael Cavna via Washington Post on June 16, 2022
Poster for "Dr. Strangelove"

Hotline Suspense

The entire plot of Stanley Kubrick's Cold War satire turns around getting people on the phone.
by Devin Short via Contingent on March 19, 2022
Black and white photograph of Mark Twain

Mark Twain in Buffalo

Mark Twain would be hopelessly out of favor with both wings of the modern duopoly.
by Bill Kauffman via The Spectator on January 3, 2022
Comedian Charlie Hill on stage with a microphone.

‘Part of Why We Survived’

Is there something in particular about coming from a Native background that makes a person want to write and perform comedy?
by Ian Frazier via New York Review of Books on December 23, 2021
Cast of "All in the Family"

Justice for All: The Religious Legacy of “All in the Family”

The show never took a singular position on social issues. The point was to wrestle with the story itself in hopes of sparking self-awareness and contemplation.
by L. Benjamin Rolsky via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on December 7, 2021
Photo collage of Republican men, with Donald Trump at the center.

A Short History of Conservative Trolling

On the laughing emptiness at the center of the Republican Party.
by Rick Perlstein via Intelligencer on October 26, 2021

Mocking the Klan

Was cartoonist Billy Ireland’s pen really mightier than the burning crosses of the KKK?
by Eliya Smith via The Baffler on August 11, 2021
Woody Guthrie playing his guitar

This Anthem Was Made For You and Me?

A breakdown of how Woody Guthrie's hit song "This Land" has evolved over time.
by Abigail Shelton via Clio and the Contemporary on July 2, 2021
George Washington Carver painted in the role of George Washington crossing the Delaware, surrounded by racist caricaturess of African Americans

Robert Colescott Asks Us to Reimagine Icons of American History

Colescott satirizes an iconic painting of George Washington, and in doing so, challenges the viewer to reconsider their beliefs about American history.
by Sotheby's via YouTube on May 11, 2021
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