Political Cartooning is a form of satire. Satire is the use of humor, irony,exaggeration, ridicule and other methods to expose and criticize peoples’ stupidity or behavior, in relation to political or social issues. The purpose of political cartoons is to portray the issue in a humorous way. In this essay, the political cartoon that will be analyzed refers to the cartoonists viewpoint on the recent situation between Tony Abbott and Vladimir Putin, where Tony Abbott stated during a media conference that he was going to shirt-front Vladimir Putin when he arrived in Australia for the G20 due to recent the loss of lives in the MH17 Malaysian airlines tragedy. The cartoonist has used many satirical techniques including symbolism, caricature and tone. By doing so, the cartoonist positions the audience to apprehend his perception of the situation.
Symbolism is used meritoriously throughout the cartoon to convey the cartoonists viewpoint. Initially, you can see they’re in a saloon called the G20 where Tony declared he would shirt-front Vladimir, therefor symbolizing a typical bar fight. This clearly displays the cartoonists viewpoint on the topic for the viewer.
Furthermore, the uses of caricature play a large role in the effectiveness of this cartoon. Tony Abbott is caricatured as having large face features like ; mouth, nose and ears, making him look funny and ugly, and his possession of his red budgie smugglers makes the cartoon not only hilarious, but it also makes fun of his hobbies and appearance. In addition, Vladimir Putin in this cartoon is also caricatured. He is wearing his green cargo pants, boots and no shirt, this relates to his
