Spoof Propaganda

Propaganda can come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the most effective propaganda today is distributed through comedic political cartoons. Other forms of propaganda are put into videogames or movies as the opinion of the protagonist or through the demonizing of the antagonists point of view. Following are several examples of propaganda that has been created and circulated online by individuals who want their voice to be heard. Some of the images are direct satires of actual propaganda, others are simply made as scathing commentary. The use of intertextuality is paramount in reading these texts. Rose defines intertextuality as "the way that the meanings of any one discursive image or text depend not only on that one text or image, but also on the meanings carried by other images and texts. (Rose 142)

WWII political cartoon

Propaganda Poster from the videogame "Fallout"

Satire of Army propaganda

Scathing commentary on the War in Afghanistan

These images work with other texts (i.e. historical documents, the images they satirize, etc.) to create an interpretive repertoire, that is, a "a systematically related set of terms that is used with stylistic coherence organized around a central metaphor. They develop historically and make up an important part of the"common sense" of a culture." as defined by Potter in Gillian Rose's book. The interpretive repertoire created and used by these images work intertextually, so that even if someone has not seen the original documents that inspired the satirical creations that are spoof images, it is still easily deciphered that they are satirical due to the ideological "common sense" of the culture that they are within, namely the United States as an institutional apparatus. (Rose 164)
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