Inscribed on a tee shirt: “I don’t approve of political jokes. I’ve seen too many of them get elected.” (The Lighter Side Co.)

In a dysfunctional election year, Americans use humor as a survival weapon.

David Horsey, cartoonist for The Los Angeles Times, said, that this year’s race between “the real estate mogul Republican nominee and the first female nominee has made for a presidential campaign year like no other.”

To celebrate the role of political cartoons in news coverage, Duke University and the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists recently hosted a three-day festival which included live cartooning.

“Satire . . . punctures hypocrisy,” said Frederick Mayer, one of the event’s officials.“It may be our best hope of really seeing clearly what is at stake in this election.”

One of Horsey’s cartoons shows a family huddled in a bombed-out building in Aleppo, Syria. The mother asks: “Has anyone mentioned us in the U.S. presidential campaign?” The father answers, “No, they’re debating Trump’s tweets about a fat beauty queen.” (Sentinel & Enterprise)