1. How to Decode a Political Cartoon
Original taken from

2. Definitions
"political": that which is concerned with public affairs or government
"cartoon": a sketch or drawing that interests or amuses by portraying persons, things, political events or situations etc. in an exaggerated way

3. Definitions
SATIRE - uses humor to lower something or someone in the reader’s or viewer’s estimation. It is not mean-spirited and its point is not to harm. It exposes human folly to make room for improvement.

4. What are Political Cartoons?
Political cartoons usually appear on the editorial page of your daily newspaper.
They generally deal with events or issues currently in the news and are, in essence, visual editorials.
Like the writer of an editorial, the cartoonist is trying to make a point.
They are a primary source of information.

5. What are Political Cartoons?
When you look at a political cartoon produced many years ago you are seeing it out of its original context.
In order to "get it" you will likely need some background information from classroom discussion, a textbook or your own research.
Once you have a general idea of the topic at hand you can start to decode the message the cartoonist is trying to convey.

7. Tools Used By Cartoonist
Exaggeration

8. CARICATURE
Made Obama’s ears large

9. CARICATURE
Taylor Swift

11. METAPHOR
Uses an object to note a similarity to something else.

12. John Bull (England) as an octopus of imperialism

13. IRONY
Expresses an idea through a contradiction between something’s literal meaning and the intended meaning. For example, picturing a U.S. president with a crown on his head.
SARCASM- is a form of irony. The element that turns irony into sarcasm is the appearance of mockery, or bitterness.

15. STEREOTYPES
Works by taking a real or imagined trait of an individual to be true of the group to which the individual belongs. They express bias and can be unfair and harmful.

16. Analogy & Allusions
Another very important technique is the use of analogy, in which one event is represented by another.
An allusion is understandable only to those with prior knowledge of the reference in question (which the writer assumes to be so).
A one-sentence or one-phrase (or image) reference to another event, character, etc. in the Bible, mythology, or current event

18. Three kings follow star to Barack Obama, savior of the Democrats.

21. Captions
Cartoonists sometimes use words (titles, captions, name tags, balloon comments or dialogue) to help the viewer.