A DARK, SATIRIC AGE.

• Position: REEL WORLD

Given the current political setting, one might describe today's comedic and satiric setting by recycling the opening of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...." That is, there is an amazing amount of material out there begging to be skewered, but the volume and its often unimaginable nature is pushing the best of satirists into the provocative world of dark humor.

There is a difference: satire has a point, while the point of black humor is there is no point. In Jonathan Swift's satiric A Modest Proposal (1729), Swift suggests that the British should treat their tenant farmers' children like a food source since the English seemed much more caring towards the livestock raised in Ireland.

The iconic broadcasting journalist Edward R. Murrow even applied a variation of Swift's perspective to his celebrated TV documentary, "Harvest of Shame" (1960), which was an installment of his CBS series "See It Now." The film documented how American migrant workers were housed and transported in a manner completely at odds with the care given the products which they picked. Moreover, while there were interstate commerce standards for the transportation of livestock, no such laws existed for the migrant workers.

Satire showcases cruelty. Dark comedy shouts species incompetence, often featured in an institutionalized package. For example, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) is a catch-all for nearly every type of absurdity (including the chance occurrence of a person in power, like Sterling Hayden's General Jack D. Ripper, going crazy and playing God). Yet, the overall point is that man is incapable of controlling what he has created.

The irony is heightened by the fact that the scientific know-how initially needed to construct the bomb was immense; it is just that, with humans in control, there can be no real fail-safe system. Leadership never has matched the technical strides made in science. Plus, beyond the incompetence of major players indefinitely trying to juggle the bomb, there is an army of flawed Homo sapiens down the chain of command who could...