madam and eve

Madam and Eve is a wonderful syndicated cartoon, that deals with political satire. In the bad old repressive days when freedom of speech was not encouraged, they still managed to get away with some outrageous digging at the Nat. Government, and earned my respect for their courage and wicked humour.

After independence, they transitioned smoothly into making fun of the new Government, well anyone in the country, really, who is in power and does something stupid.... no holy cows with these guys! They frequently covered the often hilarious shifts in race relations, as South Africans of all colours adjusted to the new setup in the country.

The regulars in the comic strip are Madam, a typical white suburban housewife, Eve, her black domestic worker (maid) and Granny, her gin swilling TV addicted mother. Eve's daughter often features too. It frequently ends with Eve stretched out on her ironing board, relaxing under a newspaper as she reflects on the quirkiness of our society.

They are incredibly topical too, whenever there is breaking news, you can be sure to see it within a day or so.... So here is their take on the ESCOM electricity supply crisis which I was ranting about yesterday....

Another political satirist whose work I enjoy is Mark Wiggett. The day after my rant about Jacob Zuma giving the keynote address at a function in honour of Mike Tyson, this appeared in the paper..... clearly he and I are on the same page in our reactions to this news!

Hehe, what can you do but see the funny side of all this? There is no point in getting all freaked out and irritated, because we just have to get used to it, and anyway a lot of good stuff also happens to balance it. So I will just keep on enjoying my favourite comics... and I'm sure there will continue to be lots of hilarious material to keep them busy!