Isnt it odd how Sadam is seen as a comedy figure (Pop idol even had a sketch on Sat with him in it) yet Huntley is a not.

Yet Sadam was surley responsible for death and suffering as well?

The world has a strange way of distancing itself when distance is avalible in the form of geography/culture/etc

T

I think the difference is that the population can see in Huntley someone that is mentally sick and therefore they can accommodate this person into there reasoning. However with Sadam, to of killed and tortured the amount of people he has and to of not shown any remorse most theoretically mean that to all intents and purposes he is pure evil and is in the same league as Hitler. This is of course taken from the viewpoint of what we are told is to be the whole truth.
The reason for mocking him in satirical sketches is to try to categorise and un-demonise him, because of the scale of what he has done it is hard to categorise and to ultimately accept him. but if he is made a figure of fun or ridicule it takes the population back to childhood where if something was laughed at it was easier to accept and not so scary and so we found it easier to sleep at night without having nightmares and wetting the bed ;)

IMO Huntley is treated differently because his crime was committed here, in England, and people were caught up in the terrible sadness and anger from what he'd done, via the media, at the time.

Saddam's crimes were from afar, and very few people really could or can relate to them, like they can to the deaths of two poor young girls.

This is an interesting point. Sadam and his cronies have been reported as walking upto some unknown person and shooting them dead just to stamp down their authority, completely devoid of any emotion or compassion. They make no excuses for what they have done or what they are.

Huntley however, clearly does have emotions and that somehow makes it worse that he did what he did despite that, and then tried to cover it up whilst being faced directly with the misery he has caused.

More importantly we have all watched that misery unfold day by day in the Huntley case, whereas Sadam's attrocities have not had the same detailed coverage. That is the power the press have over our perceptions.

its the difference between politics and real life. No one has ever parodied Harold Shipman, Peter Sutcliffe, Huntley or many other 'civilian' murderers...

However - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Ghadaffi, Arafat, Galtieri & Saddam all regularly got sent up at the appropriate time...

it strikes me that people just care less about other countries (maybe thats obvious)