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America's last laugh: Talking shop with the founders of Flip City Magazine
Hannah Arendt famously said that the most effective method to subvert authority is to laugh. Political cartoonists have weaponized wit for centuries. As the influence of print media declined, meme-makers took up the challenge, waging ideological war far more swiftly and efficiently than any politician's speech.The downside is that the elite frequently lack a sense of humor. 'It's the world that's vulgar. It's a dark, yucky world that has to be made fun of. But that's not our fault.'During medieval and Tudor England, only the court jester was allowed to mock and insult the king; everyone else was imprisoned, branded, and mutilated, or worse, hung, drawn, and quartered. People in power have eliminated those who make fun of them for millennia, driven by narcissism and non-tolerance of criticism. Since the days of Aristotle and Aristophanes, attempts have been made to silence artists by arrest, torture, and death.In our own time, the hangman, oubliette, and rack have given way to the digital horrors of deplatforming and cancellation. As effective as these have proven, there's a growing sense that "wokeness" is on the verge of extinction. The linguistic straightjacket of political correctness is beginning to loosen, and artists are emerging from the shadows, taking a well-deserved breath of fresh air, and finally pushing back against what has become one of the most censorious periods in modern history. After being held down for so long, there’s a lot of work to be done. It’s time to Make America Laugh Again.™️Flip City Magazine has been reporting for duty since its 2020 founding. And while memes may still reign supreme, the Southern California-based crew aims to skewer pretensions the old-fashioned way — with an honest-to-God paper-and-ink periodical "delivered begrudgingly to your door by your woke mailman." Align recently corresponded via email with Flip City co-founders and editors Scott and Christy McKenzie, who submitted their replies jointly.ALIGN: Could you tell us a little about yourself with everyone? Who you are, where you’re located, and what you do? How many people do you have working for you?Scott and Christy McKenzie: We are Scott and Christy McKenzie, editors of Flip City Magazine, an independent quarterly comics and satire print magazine (described by comics luminary Mike Baron as "funnier than MAD or Cracked"), which we have published out of our remote home office in the Southern California mountains since 2020. Every issue is packed with TV and movie parodies, comics, stories, interviews that don't insult your intelligence. We've hosted and published over 40 writers and illustrators to date. While we bill ourselves as "America's Last Laugh," we have contributors from Sydney to Scotland to SAF. Flip City MagazineA: What inspired the creation of the magazine? S&C: We were coming off a D-list movie project that went sideways. I needed a project into which I could dump every nugget of gold (or, alternately, flaming turd) idea that passed through my head, and this was the best format.Smart satire magazines had phased out by the early '90s in favor of men's lifestyle mags, leaving a void that nobody thought was worth filling. I don't think anybody has known what to do, with no reason to revive a passé format just to compete for crumbs with the remnants of MAD, publishing more lifeless corporate comedy and Trump hate.But to resurrect it as a tool of counterculture, that has value. A free America has to have a satire magazine that's independent and essentially populist.And it's only going to happen here from the looks of things. We are now, as Cracked editor Mort Todd put it, "the world's only satire magazine," for all "in tents and porpoises."A: What were your influences?S&C: Early on, Saturday morning cartoons and color Sunday funnies. Which if you missed out on those days, that was some good times, with your bowl of cereal. Later, Cracked Magazine and MAD, "The Dr. Demento Show" for the funniest songs, and in the 1990s, alternative comics publishers like Fantagraphics. "The Book of the Subgenius" might have radicalized me.A: Can you explain a little bit about the ideas process? How long does it take to go from pen to page?S&C: It might take a couple of days to write the better part of a feature or a parody once I've got an angle. "Joker 2" (Vol. 23) was a musical parody with five songs, and I took my time to get it right. Readers who expect to hate musicals said they were pleasantly surprised. A musical parody is a delicate thing that can go wrong in so many ways, much like "Joker 2." I'll pass it on to one of our tremendous illustrator talents like Ben Sullivan or Dangerous Dave MacDowell, and they'll reliably send back something that kills.A: It’s pretty safe to say a more progressive element of the left has had something resembling ideological dominance over the entertainment industry for the last 10 years or so. Did you find it hard to find an audience?S&C: We were fortunate enough to have a couple of YouTube advocates early on to get us going.We initially offered Vol. 1 in digital format or in a short print run, and subscribers overwhelmingly chose print. So there is still plenty of demand for physical media.However, there are plenty of platforms and influencers on the right who wouldn't touch us. And the reason is that they can't control our message, and many don't want to take any chances at upsetting their viewers or advertisers. Flip City MagazineMost notably at the beginning was the Babylon Bee, who dubbed us "too edgy and vulgar" to advertise with them, which is entirely their prerogative. Although at the time, we were fairly clean. It's the world that's vulgar. It's a dark, yucky world that has to be made fun of. But that's not our fault.People love to complain about the lack of alternative culture but Flip City is actually a solution. It heaps ridicule on people who deserve it, without being preachy. It's the kind of cultural thing that people are literally asking for all the time. And it can be a huge thing and sway hearts and minds if people get behind it, support it, and subscribe. It's just a good old-fashioned, all-American, funny mag, y'all.A: As a Brit, I envy your First Amendment. My home country is awash with laws and regulations regarding the online regulation of speech. A recent investigation revealed that an average of 12,000 people are arrested each year for sending "grossly offensive" messages on the internet. Have you run into any problems or faced backlash over any controversial issues? Does the threat of cancel culture worry you guys? S&C: Only subscription cancellations. They seem to peak when we poke the wrong sacred cow. I think our heritage subscribers have been conditioned by now to expect anything and trust us.New readers aren't sure what they're going to get. They see a slick magazine and assume it must lean left because they've never seen anything else. And I think many are hesitant to believe it could be genuinely funny, despite praise from luminaries like Quite Frankly and James Corbett, because of the right's track record on comedy. So you can't blame them.A: Do you consider yourself to be an equal-opportunity offender? Are there any targets on the right that you would think would be perfect to send up?S&C: We've done bits about Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk, and recently a Conservative Blowhard mini-magazine with columns by Tim Poolboy and Jack Poachposobiec. It's clearly a goof on establishment gatekeepers and "Conservative, Incorporated," as many call it. But it probably cost us some readers. Sometimes, people don't get the joke and think you're the enemy. Everybody's looking for a tell that you don't agree with them about everything. We don't mind shedding readers, to a point. We want the best and the brightest readers.RELATED: Welcome to the new American Frontier George Caleb Bingham: The Jolly Flatboatmen (1846) | National Gallery of ArtA: I’ve read a bunch of your spoof pieces, and I have to say, your parodies special edition had me laughing so much — it was hilarious! With all the endless political pandering and progressive messages crowbarred into mainstream culture, would you say Hollywood has become a parody of itself? S&C: Thanks! Ben Sullivan is a parody illustrator on par with the greats and really deserves to be recognized. Hopefully, our upcoming print edition of the Parodies will get him more attention.The industry may be a self-parody, but that doesn't make it beyond parody. As long as it sucks, there will be a way to goof on it. A satire-proof utopia is unlikely in our lifetimes.A: It's been 10 years since the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in France, when Islamic terrorists shot and killed 12 people for publishing a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammed. Is there any subject matter off limits?S&C: We're not looking for that kind of action, though we do make fun of Antifa quite a bit, so we shouldn't let our guard down. Nobody wants to hear this, but the limits are determined by what people are willing to pay to read. There is no monolithic block of free-speech absolutists. People will weaponize their dollars against you if your hot takes start to annoy them, and they'll go spend that money on Sydney Sweeney jeans just to show you. You could even make the argument that Flip City is being held hostage by the very readers we sought to entertain! For which the only remedy is more subscribers, to loosen the chokehold of these elitists over our content. And now you see how a print subscription is basically a win for democracy.A: Comedy is a powerful medium with which to challenge elite power. The ruling class doesn't like to be mocked. It is claimed that Stalin sent 200,000 people in the USSR to the Gulag for making jokes about him and the communist regime. In a recent episode, "South Park" turned its attention to Republican Kristi Noem. How do you think leading politicians should react? S&C: I think a zero-tolerance policy would yield the best results. We're talking FBI raids, enhanced interrogation methods. Find out who they are really working for. Possible ballistic missile strikes on their Culver City studio. Matt and Trey go to CECOT.Also Stephen Colbert, he should be crushed under our regime's iron fist and his bones ground into powder to fertilize our crops.A: What can we expect to see for the rest of 2025?S&C: Our Best of the Parodies 80-page special edition goes on pre-sale starting September 1 on our website, featuring the brilliant work of Ben Sullivan and our send-ups of "The Walking Dead," "Stranger Things," "Star Trek: Picard," "The Mandalorian," "Guardians of the Galaxy," and more! We're also working on new animated cartoons based on our parodies for 2026.
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