Two moods sharing one roof. Punditry is the straight take — an actual argument, made in good faith, about the state of things. Parody is what happens when the straight take isn’t enough, when the news has already outpaced satire and the only honest response left is to exaggerate it further. Together they let a writer be serious and ridiculous in the same week, sometimes the same piece, without pretending those are contradictions. This is the section with the most risk in it — the one likeliest to make someone close the tab — and also, often, the most alive.