Political or satirical sketches have a bone to pick. They can pick that bone in an obvious way, with overt references to its target, or they can take a more subtle route.

Let’s take an example of something overt from Spitting Image, the British puppet show notorious for its skewering satirical style. The two sketches bookending this video take aim at Mark Zuckerberg, in particular Facebook’s 2021 rebranding of itself as Meta, as well as Zuckerberg’s lack of cooperation with the US Congress. Their approach is simple and features the Facebook CEO explaining things to camera. Viewers familiar with the issues at the time could probably have guessed why the company rebranding took place, but the sketch makes sure they understand by having puppet Mark make jokes that spell things out, jokes like:

• ‘Facebook has got a lot of attention lately, and I’m here to explain away some of the really bad stuff you might have heard.’
• ‘We’re so excited about this new name and so eager to make you forget the old one…’
• ‘I’m also renaming myself so I don’t have to accept congressional subpoenas or search warrants.’

Like I say, not subtle.

Let’s cross the Atlantic for another example. Saturday Night Live has a long tradition of skewering American politics. In 2018, the show took aim at another eye-opening performance at the US Congress: the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. Not only did Kavanaugh himself get a drubbing, but so too did some of his rather sympathetic ‘interrogators’ in Congress.

As with the Spitting Image sketches, some of the jokes essentially explain funny things that happened:

• The character of Kavanaugh (the actual Kavanaugh being infamous for his, let’s say, agitated demeanour) opens by declaring: ‘I’m going to start at eleven and take to fifteen real quick!’
• We learn that one senator is extremely partisan because he overtly declares himself to be: ‘We heard some interesting testimony from Dr. Ford. I keep an open mind and that’s why I voted “Yes” for Kavanaugh before she’d even said a word.’
• We also learn that another senator is a craven hypocrite because, again, he explains that to us: ‘Democrats are cowards. Now excuse me while I hide behind a female prosecutor we use as a human shield.’

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with being unsubtle and spelling things out like this. This sort of lampshading in a topical sketch can be funny. Still, there’s something to be said for taking the subtle approach. Maybe it’s a matter of taste, but I have a preference for a joke that doesn’t simply narrate the issue to me by rolling a both a gag and an explanation into one.

Make no mistake, it’s the harder approach to take. You can’t fully divorce a satirical sketch from its context, but being subtle requires writing jokes that are both relevant to the issue yet distanced enough that the audience can both laugh at the joke on its own terms but also do a little work to appreciate a deeper meaning. That’s tough to achieve, and topical shows like Spitting Image or SNL – shows that satirise events happening as each programme is being made – necessarily operate on a short turnaround. Sometimes there just isn’t the time.

I’d argue that a big help to achieving subtlety is by letting the characters simply be true to themselves. While it might be funny hearing Mark Zuckerberg brazenly announce he’s covering up Facebook’s deplorable behaviour, or a Senator admit his cowardice by shielding himself with a subordinate, there’s also something a little unsatisfying about it. Why? Because the real-life target wouldn’t publicly say things like this. Of course, the sketch character should be a comedic, exaggerated version of the actual person, but the character should still be somewhat true to the target. Exaggeration should amplify what the target says, rather than make them say things they wouldn’t.

An example of SNL being slightly subtler is this parody of the Democratic Party campaign videos prior to the 2018 mid-term elections. The party faithful at the time were clearly nervous of their first test against incumbent Trump, but political campaigns must always project an image of confidence. SNL chose to satirise that with characters making bold predictions of victory, all the while unable to stop their hands from shaking or their armpits pouring sweat. I find this more satisfying because the characters, while distorted versions of the target, are still true to themselves. They’re doing and saying what their real-life counterparts would, but the characters’ uncontrollable anxiety is dialled up to comical extremes.

An overt and obvious approach to this sketch would’ve featured a character saying something like, ‘I’m outwardly claiming confidence, but inside I’m shitting bricks.’ That might have been funny too, but I know which I prefer.

I mention all this because, in the next article, I’ll focus on one SNL sketch in particular that’s both sharply political yet delightfully subtle.

See you there.