CARTOONS AND CARICATURES (Reinhard)

The Oregonian ^ | July 17, 2008 | David Reinhard

[windsorknot]

It would be nice if the liberal New Yorker would have an epiphany, stung by the absurdity of liberalism and PC; but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[jazusamo]

That would be nice but like you I don’t see it happening.

[x]

Barry Blitt's cartoon, we're told, "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign." According to Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton, the magazine's staff told his campaign that "their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Sen. Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create."

I suspect they laughed first and figured out the rationale later. Laughter's instinctual and goes a lot deeper than ideological positions that you can put into words.

Some of their Bush covers made very pointed anti-Bush statements: Bush doing Cheney's housework. Bush as Nero. Bush as the kid who breaks everything in the store and has to pay for it. Bush as a rider whose horse has very large blinders. Bush's cabinet meeting under water.

By contrast the Hillary-Obama cover of them in bed together when the 3AM phone rings was less satirical and more silly. This one fit somewhere in between. Of course the object of the satire wasn't the Obamas themselves. But I wonder if they just wanted the laugh more than anything else.

[weegee]

Forgot about this one...

[vpintheak]

The New Yorker has the most stupid unfuny cartoons I have ever read. That goes for any and all issues.