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Friday, September 12, 2008
Amy Novak
Election season is our favorite here at min, and not necessarily because campaigns finally start to show their teeth, political media tornados collect a wide variety of opinions as they rage across the country, or because we love the anticipation brought on by election day itself. No, election season is the best because it reminds us of all the magazine covers which have featured presidents and vice presidents (and candidates) in a comical light. Yes, we love a good political satire (nod to you, New Yorker). For this week's top 5, we present covers from the past couple of years that were great satires, or just plain funny. Enjoy!
1. Texas Monthly
Texas Monthly's famed January 2007 cover is our all-time favorite. The issue presented Dick Cheney with the “Bum Steer of the Year" award, an honor that goes to the Texan whose actions of the past year were the most bizarre, funny, idiotic and endearing. TM had fun with the unfortunate incident in which our Vice President accidentally shot a 78-year-old attorney in the face while quail hunting last year. The cover line, “If You Don’t Buy this Magazine, Dick Cheney Will Shoot You in the Face," was a concept that originally belonged to National Lampoon's who featured the cover line, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog!"
2. New York
The cover story in the October 2007 issue of New York magazine called, "The First: Female President, Male First Lady, Former President in the White House" explored serious topics such as what would happen if Hillary Clinton was to become President, how a "first man" would adapt in a historically female role and what life would be like for a former US President to be in the White House once again under such different circumstances. However, we loved the hilarity in showing Bill Clinton's face on a female body on the cover. Wonder if Bill had a sense of humor about it as well...
3. Rolling Stone
The cover story in the Sept. 4 issue of Rolling Stone opted not to think forward to what the Presidential future holds, but instead to look back at the damages suffered by the Republican party at the hands of President Bush. Under Joseph Hutchinson's art direction, the bold cover image of Bush sitting on top of a dead elephant wearing a cowboy get-up and a dopey smile makes us laugh...and cry.
 4. Time
Though the content of Time's second annual National Service issue is not meant to be comical in nature, the cover image featuring McCain and Obama dressed as sort of bobble-headed handymen gives us a chuckle. The issue (which comes out next week) tackles the enormous topic of "21 Ways to Fix Up America" and offers solutions from both parties on how this can be done. Thinking about a "broken" America that needs fixing does not brighten our day, but any time a political figure's head is photoshopped onto someone else's body, we have to laugh.
5. Radar
Though highly controversial and not entirely well-received, Radar's Vanity Fair cover spoof was one move so bold that we here at min just had to include it. The November 2007 politics issue, which featured Hillary Clinton, Giuliani and Obama photoshopped to look pretty...casual, also featured a cover line that read, "Who Would Jesus Vote For?" Gotta love the First Amendment.
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Features Archives
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1. Texas Monthly <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->
Texas Monthly's famed January 2007 cover is our all-time favorite. The issue presented Dick Cheney with the “Bum Steer of the Year" award, an honor that goes to the Texan whose actions of the past year were the most bizarre, funny, idiotic and endearing. TM had fun with the unfortunate incident in which our Vice President (VP should not be capitalized in this usage) accidentally shot a 78-year-old attorney in the face while quail hunting last year (the incident occurred in 2006, not last year). The cover line, “If You Don’t Buy this Magazine, Dick Cheney Will Shoot You in the Face," was a concept that originally belonged to National Lampoon's (delete apostrophe and s on NL and add comma after Lampoon) who (which) featured the cover line, "If you don't buy this magazine, we'll kill this dog!"