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Comic Strips Editorial cartooning

Satire on Standby

Published: April 25, 2026 1 minute 5 comments

Doonesbury by G. B. Trudeau – March 30, 1974

Garry B. Trudeau biographer Joshua Kendall for The Boston Globe (or here) compares the attitudes of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton with the current resident of The Oval Office.

[In 1974 Nixon] wrote Trudeau to request a signed copy of the “ill health resignation” comic strip. And it hung in his office ever since.

In June of 2000, President Clinton introduced the cartoonist at a White House event as someone who made fun of him for a living. “I felt so proud to be an American,” Trudeau said..

Today, political satire is on life support. Last July, after Stephen Colbert … announced that his show was being canceled. In response, the president gleefully noted on Truth Social, “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings.”

Though Kendall does at one point step into a fantasy world of wishful thinking:

On Saturday night, for the first time as president, Trump is scheduled to attend the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association, which traditionally brings the media, politicians, and the president together. If the evening passes without grievance or retaliation by Trump [emphasis added], it could mark a small step back toward a healthier political culture.

Trudeau & Doonesbury by Joshua Kendall

feature image by G. B. Trudeau – August 9, 2020

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Comments 5

  1. Colbert flushed his remaining credibility down the toilet with that atrocious “Vaccine!” routine.

  2. Kendall’s comment at the end is frustrating. Every single day for the past ten years, the gatekeepers keep hoping the leopard will change its spots and will bring about a better world, with clovers and bunnies and unicorns romping in the backyard.
    There’s a difference between never losing hope and being unrealistic. The latter is especially detrimental because one becomes the Coyote, and nothing is solved.

    1. “If the evening passes without grievance or retaliation by Trump, it could mark a small step back toward a healthier political culture.”

      As we are all now aware, the evening will be remembered for quite a different reason.

  3. When satire becomes everyday reality, how do the cartoonists out-weird the weird and out-crazy the crazy? A mind-boggling conundrum that I hope the usual idiots will challenge with their own brand of insanity.

    1. Sorry, meant “usual gang of idiots”.

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