EP55. Yellowface & Other Tales: Race, Representation & Satire

Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

Jo & Adam draw this year's "Smith & Waugh Big Satirical Summer Read" to a close with a deep dive into the novel everyone is reading, Rebecca F. Kuang's Yellowface. What is it actually a satire of? How is the satire working? And to what extent is satire an appropriate tool for interrogating questions about race and representation in contemporary culture? Adam & Jo also dissect some of the more extreme responses to the novel, especially on TikTok. Elsewhere in the episode they also pay tribute to Look Around You, the excellent Robert Popper satire currently available on iPlayer, and discuss some of the controversy surrounding this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Adam also shares a disturbing experience he had recently where a person he was dating turned out to be a Cheetah.