Satire as a public political weapon became widespread in Malta when censorship by the powerful started appearing less threatening. In carnival times, political dissidents stepped up their resistance to perceived tyranny or disliked adversaries by parading outspoken floats. The essence of satire is the ability not to take others or oneself too seriously. You will find no trace in these political floats of any yearning to laugh at oneself. My collections house a considerable number of photos of pre-war political carnival karrijiet, the earliest dating to 1900. A carnival float, probably 1932, featuring Gerald Strickland and Augustus Bartolo stirring the pot. Photo: Salvatore Lorenzo Cassar Horses still draw one of the tableaux. The grim ideological divide between the anti-colonial Nationalists and the pro-imperial Constitutionals provided the right backdrop to the yearly carnival tussle. On the patriotic side, the constant butts of bitter humour were Gerald Strickland and, to a slightly lesser degree, the corpulent Augustus Bartolo. The floats mostly targeted current political scandals or misdemeanours, essentially transient events, in a way that the passage of time has...
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