On another note, I’m in town (Westchester) I’m hoping we can meet up and maybe do a post(s) on/from OWS.

Mike Judge did try to go more political with Idiocracy–have you seen it? From what I understand, however, the movie got too satirical about corporate sponsors, and much of the funding was (ahem) dropped halfway through filming. You can pretty much see a nosedive at about that point in the movie. I still show clips from the first half in classes, as the satire about current and future dangers of anti-intellectualism speaks loudly.

Let me know if you have any thoughts about ONN, the “tethered” dimension you’re describing seems to be key to the form they created. Even if they’re tethering their humor in simulacra, somehow what emerges ends up being more authentic and morally real (at a minimum, in presenting alternative “facts”) than the hyperreal landscape they’re surveying. It’s hyperlinked, indirect advocacy with a point.

Do you have a typology or dimensions that go along with ironic iconicity? Love that term, BTW. I recently blogged about the return of Beavis & Butthead, musing how it would be great if Mike Judge went more political. I’m not holding my breath, but the intertextuality/intermediality of the 1990s segments involving commenting on the music videos always struck me as a key source of humor. Colbert does the same, where a character’s lens channels the funny in a context of hyperreal intertextuality/intermediality. I feel communications are ever evolving to the point where we’re in a decentralized Inception-like “apparatus” of floating signifiers, but I still believe there are things that tether texts to prevent an all out anarchy of the sign. Or, am I deluded?

At any rate, I’m looking forward to reading your article.