Mark Rolfe Mark Rolfe i(19547994 works by)
Gender: Male
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1 Is This a Dagg Which I See Before Me? John Clarke and the Politics in His Political Humour Mark Rolfe , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Comedy Studies , vol. 10 no. 1 2019; (p. 21-38)

'When John Clarke died in 2016, the Australian media rushed for the opinions of politicians on his passing. Among the many cliches about political satire, former prime ministers intoned that he spoke truth to powerand lampoonedthe absurdity of political life. Ironically, politicians were endorsing the most vehement anti-politics views of themselves and their vocation. Notwithstanding the name of his first comic creation, Clarke was no dagg, which is an Australian colloquial expression meaning a socially unacceptable or unsophisticated person. Actually, he had an astute understanding of politics that cannot be confined to the common and populist anti-politics strain of satire in which the ideal of democracy is simply let down by knavish politicians.While Clarke was keenly aware of the satirists watchdog role in democracy, his work shows that he was also alert to democracys complexities and to the common human frailties that can have all of us acting foolishly in certain circumstances.'

Source: Abstract.

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