The ironic catch of the satire: “Great Country” knows how to annoy, but what’s next?

A Prime Minister fires the Minister of Defense, the police have fallen, the opposition is banging thrash against the wall, the war is racing along a dead end, and an unsettled man has been elected to the presidency of the United States and will be given responsibility to reorder the chaos. What perfect timing to launch a new season of “Great Country”.

It’s been months since there hasn’t been a good satire on his plight. “This is it!” It did return last week, but we needed “Eretz” to remember the importance of satire programs in turbulent times. The opening episode of the season was sharp and touched on all the hot potatoes: Israel Katz was presented as a useful idiot and a puppet of Netanyahu, who explained that he fired Gallant to divert attention from the evasion law and the security offenses in his office, Deri and Goldknopf shunned, and the families of the reservists received a mournful song to describe their situation.

Eretz knows how to annoy, but what’s next? To what extent is satire able to change reality? Can it also incite a protest and overthrow a government?

History shows that satire that tries to change minds about the public image of a powerful person (say, Bibi) always proves futile. The reason: positions of control and power are built in such a way that they allow the object of satire to manipulate and neutralize any critical attack on him, and even twist it in a way that will serve him.

After all, for more than 15 years “Great Land” has been kicking Bibi, while his supporters and mouthpieces use skits to show how they persecute the leader. “Eretz” enters it without calculation and Bibi is only getting stronger. At the same time, the program also became very strong since it intensified the criticism of Netanyahu. Want to say, satirists can make fun of the prime minister as much as they want, and both sides will only benefit.

In the test of the result, comic insults and critical satire will not change the worldview of the viewers. “Wonderful Country” may be successful as entertainment for the masses, but in practice – and probably unintentionally – it only further establishes the existing situation.

Satire is good and nice and important, but don’t count on it to overthrow the government and create a new world order for you.

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