TC asked in his latest email if I had seen the latest New Yorker cover. I have now.
In looking for the cover online, the first thing I came across was a post by Ryan Tate of Gawker, who quotes a few of the scolds out there who have already weighed in on this, chief among them Rachel "Didn't She Used To Be Funny?" Sklar. I'm sure there are others, although after a few clicks, the realization that I was doing nothing but searching for more outrage to be outraged by robbed me of the strength to link, let alone blockquote.
Barry Blitt, the artist behind the cover, which he titled "The Politics of Fear," answered a couple of emailed questions put to him by Nico Pitney on the HuffPo, basically saying what shouldn't need to be said, that it's satire, for Pete's sake.
I liked this part, though:
And in retrospect, given the outcry, is he glad he made the art?
"Retrospect? Outcry?" he wrote. "The magazine just came out ten minutes ago, at least give me a few days to decide whether to regret it or not..."
Will the usual gated community twits and GOP ratfuckers latch onto this? Of course they will. I expect that the "writers" for the Fox "News" programs are pounding away furiously as we speak -- even the LIEbrul New Yorker admits Obama is a turrurist!!!1! LOL! And as Andrew Sullivan notes, the WingNutDaily crowd is already happily registering that it "thinks it's true."
But so what? It's not like they haven't been saying this all along, anyway, nor is it like the dumb ones don't really believe it, nor is it like they're ever going to change their minds. Considering the potential political gains or losses only, I fail to see how this does anything except help emphasize to (sane) people the stupidity of the right's attacks.
Jeffrey Goldberg had a calmer take, to which he added some sensible thoughts on the recent unpleasantness involving Bernie Mac, although his post reminded me that I never did hear exactly what Mac had said -- only heard about the outrage -- which meant I had to look that up, which meant that I was led to erstwhile Captain Ed on Hot Air, whose title gave me the second laugh of the hour: "Today’s cover feature in Bus & Driver: Bernie Mac."
Look, peeps. If the rightwingers are beating us in the sense of humor department, we are already doomed.
6 comments:
See, THIS is why I like reading your blog, Brendan. You nailed it again. No surprise from this reader.
An Obama supporter friend was very upset about it. I told him, Obama needs to take this to his next speech, hold it up to the cameras and have so fun with it. It's an over-the-top parody of the stupid accusations that that have been made.
Roll with it. Bend with the breeze.
Without having witnessed any of the Sturm und Drang over this cartoon, my first exposure to it was on your blog. My immediate reaction was laughter; it's really quite funny. The framed picture of Osama is a perfect touch, IMHO.
Especially for the New Yorker, who are known for a less subtle sense of humour (a Family Guy segment comes to mind at this point).
But how could any Obama supporter be offended about this? It's quite clearly making fun of the ridiculous accusations about the man - and not the man himself.
Wow, whoever you are, you're really out of the closet with the Obama love.
I'm sure you fancy yourself amongst the sharper tools in the toolbox, but you should be more cynical.
I hope Obama does use this to his advantage but it was also a bit over the top but humor of all sorts is still allowed so as a presidential candidate, Obamam has to roll with the punches and make some sort of example out of this.
Thanks for the link Brendan. Stewart has it right again as usual. Spot on.
Thanks to all who signed their names. Anon: I can see why you didn't.
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