Mark Knight: It’s hard to be funny in a world of outrage

A Melbourne comedian recently lamented how hard it was to crack a joke today given the rise in woke sensibilities. He might be right.

Award-winning Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight.

A Melbourne comedian said to me “Geez it’s hard to crack a joke these days”, referring to the rise of woke sensibilities.

He might be right.

On May 21, I drew a cartoon for the Herald Sun about the massive increase in immigration into Australia.

The political debate at the time was whether our major cities, Sydney and Melbourne, could sustain a rise of 73 per cent, from 427,000 to 737,000 in 2022-23.

Melbourne was like an MCG tram after a Collingwood game, bursting at the seams and under intense pressure to house, and provide medical care, transport and services for an ever-expanding population.

The Albanese government said it would “review” the numbers coming in (shuffle some paperwork) and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, sensing a moment to go whack and land a punch, said he would substantially reduce ­immigration numbers.

I thought it would be a good topic to draw about for the next day’s paper as everybody was talking about it around the water coolers.

The Mark Knight cartoon for May 21, 2024

With politics being adversarial, my thoughts were to illustrate the differences on the issue between the two leaders.

I imagined Australia’s front door as a large drawbridge that is lowered to let people in and then raised when we needed to stem the flow.

Caricature and exaggeration are just some of tools of the cartoonist, so I drew the Prime Minister comically making slow work of raising the drawbridge, sweating over a huge chain winch.

A large immigration intake was keeping Australia just out of recession, so Albo didn’t want to close that front door too quickly! Mr Dutton, on the other hand, was trying to paint himself as the tough, strong leader and so he is caricatured shirtless with a Burt Reynolds-style hairy chest.

Dutton bellows “Stand aside, Albo” in deep baritone, completing the send-up of the Opposition Leader.

At this point I thought I had painted their respective political positions pretty well, so I thought all I had to do then was add in a few arrivals coming in via the drawbridge.

But this is where I went wrong, according to an unknown reader, who took great offence to my depiction of the immigrants in the cartoon and filed a complaint with the Australian Press Council.

Australia is a colourful, multicultural land, so I drew a mix of folk entering Australia wearing their various ethnic dresses in some cases, some in Western attire, carrying suitcases, and all looking happy to be here.

It is not a stampede like the opening of the front doors at Myer on Boxing Day, which might insinuate that we are being overrun. They do not look angry or threatening.

The woman at the front is beaming and an Indian chap is punching the air in exultation.

The people entering were not the focus of the toon anyhow; it was our two political leaders and their respective positions.

The cartoon went to press and the next day with no outrage or blowback it entered the world of fish and chip wrapping.

However, a month later the Herald Sun received an email from the Australian Press Council saying that there had been a complaint and the cartoon had breached General Principle 6 – that I had not taken reasonable care to avoid causing substantial distress, prejudice and risk to public health and safety.

It accused me of portraying the ethnic mix of immigrants to Australia with racial stereotypes such as big lips, hijabs, scarves, kufi, etc.

It said I had drawn Peter Dutton as a “superhero” and as a result gave the impression that he was protecting Australia from the danger posed by Muslim migrants.

And, finally, it said I had not drawn enough Chinese, Indian and Filipino people coming in.

The Herald Sun and I stood behind the cartoon, so it went to an APC adjudication panel where I would stand before my unknown accuser and answer to a star chamber five-member panel over a phone hook-up.

A nice man named Mohammed was chairing the cross-examination and I can only say that it was like something from an episode of Utopia.

I was asked about the size of noses and lips; we went over each nose forensically and I tried to show how we all have our own ethnic facial characteristics.

I was asked why I didn’t just draw blank balloon heads to avoid any racial stereotypes or offence. I tried to explain the art of political satire, caricature and the political term “hairy chested”.

Then there was freedom of speech.

I also mentioned social media sites such as X (formerly Twitter), where you can openly see racial commentary that will make your nose bleed, but that is too difficult for the APC to patrol.

We, here in the accountable journalism world, are low-hanging fruit for those prone to outrage.

The outcome handed down this week was that the APC found I had contravened General Principle 6.

My punishment? Put in stocks in Federation Square and have rotting vegetables thrown at me? The severing of the offending hand that drew said cartoon?

No, we must publish the council’s findings, which we have done today.

And me? I have taken in the findings, but will simply continue to cartoon this crazy world and do the job I’m paid to do.

And give the perpetually outraged something to be outraged about!