Parody Politics

By Carolina A. Miranda

If there's one thing that voters in red and blue states could agree on this election year, it's that satire was king. From David Letterman's monologues and a rejuvenated Saturday Night Live to the proliferation of spoofy websites, even the most minor campaign flubs were endlessly lampooned. Jon Stewart and his gang popped up at both conventions as well as the debates, and The Daily Show became the most trusted name in fake news. The South Park crew turned everyone from Kim Jong Il to Michael Moore into puppets for its movie Team America. On the Web, office bandwidth was tested by jokey videos and gags on sites like billionairesforbush.com and wolfpacksfortruth.org (an aggrieved wolf pack claims it was tricked into filming the G.O.P.'s anti-Kerry ad). At the end of a campaign that roused fierce passions, Notebook looks back at the people who helped us get through it. --By Carolina A. Miranda

MARIONETTE MADNESS Michael Moore was just one target of the equal-opportunity offenders in the movie Team America

HIT MUSICAL This Land Is Your Land inspired JibJab.com's hot political video

TOP 10 David Letterman made a star of a kid who couldn't stay awake at a Bush speech in a bit dubbed Invigorating America's Youth

VOTING SNAFU In a joke video on boomchicago.nl, a Florida electronic voting machine allows no votes for Kerry

PARTY POOPER Insult dog Triumph took a bite out of Karl Rove and more

IT'S HARD WORK On Saturday Night Live, Will Forte, left, captured Bush's whine and Seth Meyers nailed Kerry's drone

FAKE NEWS The Onion's formula hasn't tired. Among hit headlines of the year: CHENEY VOWS TO ATTACK U.S. IF KERRY ELECTED

MORE FAKE NEWS Jon Stewart became must viewing, with bits on the election (Fiasco Preview) and Iraq (Mess O'Potamia)

SELF-HATE Kerryhatersforkerry.com lampooned Kerry's tepid charisma. Sample bumper sticker: HE'LL FLIP-FLOP FOR YOU!