Back in 1940, Charlie Chaplin made a movie called The Great Dictator , a comedy about fascism. In it, he plays a Hitler-like character named Adenoid Hynkel, the authoritarian leader of an imaginary country called Tomainia. As parodies go, this one was relatively direct: There was a Goebbels character, a Göring character, and even a Mussolini figure named Benzino Napaloni, the “Diggaditchie of Bacteria.” The movie was nominated for five Oscars and, in 1997, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry because of its cultural and historic significance.

Satire has always been a potent weapon against tyranny. It’s a way of speaking truth to power that engages because it entertains. And democracies have a rich tradition of encouraging this kind of speech because it serves t

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