ABSTRACT
Undeceived by Reagan’s bogus reverence for “family values” and the “sanctity of life,” and infuriated by his inhumane economics, military buildup, and cowboy image, hardcore punk rockers of the 1980s, in the tradition of the audacious satire of Jonathan Swift and William S. Burroughs, employed a scathing gallows humor that, though shocking and often grotesque, provided a rallying point for a resistance. By revealing unpleasant truths and providing a release for pent-up frustrations, the gallows humor of hardcore punk laid the groundwork for potential political change.
