Monday, July 14, 2008

Cartoon Controversy!

Lotta talk today about the cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker. Like many cartoonists whom the New Yorker does not know exist and/or would never publish in a million years, I basically did that same cartoon a few weeks ago (linked below). Anyway, I haven't read anyone else's comments on the subject yet so this may have already been said, but here's my opinion on the "controversy"...

Of course, satire must be done carefully, and the New Yorker illustration may suffer from missing context. However, the Obama campaign's failure to show that they get the point of the joke is yet another missed opportunity to demonstrate a level of intellectual sophistication commensurate with that of his base. The fact that he continues to try to appeal to morons who don't get when they're being made fun of just alienates him further from the people he is supposed to be representing.


2 comments:

Matt Bors said...

Of all the people making hay I really think Obama deserves the criticism on this. Here he is denouncing something he knows very well is defending him. Instead of making some humorous comment about how right-wingers see him, they basically attacked the art of satire. Saying topics are off-limits to humor is always a losing argument.

Abell Smith said...

agreed all the way around...