Political Memes, Comics, and other Shenanigans, Part 37

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

"Don't Look Up"

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Did you miss me? I took a couple days off through Christmas. Do you remember the last time a day went by, less enough two when you didn’t get a new cartoon from me? I can’t. Instead of drawing cartoons, I hung out by myself during Christmas weekend eating Chinese food and watching movies.

I can’t remember everything I watched but what stood out for me was Klaus, a Boy Called Christmas, Hawkeye (the Marvel series), Encanto, Love Hard, and Don’t Look Up.

Don’t Look Up has been the subject of a lot of conversations since it premiered on Netflix. It’s trending on Twitter. There’s a lot of debate, not just over the message in it, but whether it’s a good movie or not. It seems that most critics hate it. But what do critics know?

If you haven’t seen it or heard about it, Don’t Look Up is a comedy on Netflix that is a parody of a lot of the shit we’ve lived through over the past few years.

I’m going to try not to give any spoilers, but if you haven’t seen the movie and want to be totally surprised and entertained, don’t read the rest of the blog:

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as an astronomer and he and his grad student, played by Jennifer Lawrence, discover a planet-killing comet headed directly to Earth and giving our planet six months before its doomsday. The world reacts with indifference.

Meryl Streep is president and after being informed of this planet-killing comet, she wants to “sit tight and assess.” She talks about her poll numbers during a briefing (who does that remind you of?). Her chief-of-staff is her son (who does that remind you of?), played by John Hill. They ignore the impending disaster (what does that remind you of?), they politicize the comet (what does that remind you of?), when the administration does want to focus on the comet, it’s only to distract from a political scandal (what does that remind you of?), they try to make money off the comet (would we do that?), and one of the scientists is villainized by the press and administration for alerting the public of the coming disaster (who does that remind you of?).

Eventually, two sides emerge. Those who believe the comet is coming and those who think it’s a hoax. “Don’t look up” becomes a right-wing slogan.

The film has an amazing cast. I think the best performances came from Jonah Hill, Rob Morgan, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep. I felt Leo was out of his element in a comedy and failed to really deliver a great performance, which is unlike him. I guess as great of an actor as he is, he’s no Tom Hanks, or even a Will Ferrell, who can bounce back and forth from comedies to dramas. In fact, Will Ferrell’s movie-making partner, Adam McKay, wrote, directed, and produced this movie. Do NOT let that scare you off as he’s made other tongue-in-cheek dramedies like Vice. I hope Adam McKay keeps making political movies.

Despite this great cast of heavyweights, I didn’t think the movie was that good. At first, I felt that maybe just because it’s making an important point about climate change, the pandemic, Trumpers, capitalism, an unequal economic system, and just how vile the last administration was, that liberals are supposed to like it, never mind if it sucks. It’s a great concept. I made a post about it on Facebook and invited my friends to give their own reviews. They were mixed.

One friend asked me what it was that I didn’t like about it. That made me think. In fact, the entire thread made me think and I realized that even though it’s not a great movie, there were aspects I did like. Maybe this is another Big Lebowski where nobody likes it until years later.

Another friend on Twitter compared it to Dr. Strangelove, which many others have compared it to as well, except my pal called it a “TikTok Strangelove.” I think that’s pretty accurate. But, I think I found the real problem with this movie.

When Donald Trump began his presidential campaign in 2015, I struggled to caricature the guy. Then I realized I was trying to draw a cartoon of someone who was already a cartoon. I was trying to lampoon a human being who was more a collection of vile personality traits than he was a human being. So, I went crazier with the caricature. A lot of Republicans have pointed out that my Trump caricature doesn’t physically look like Trump, but they all know it’s Trump.

Often with Trump and his goons, I found it hard to draw satire on what was already insane. I would sometimes draw a cartoon of exactly what happened, without adding any spin. What I learned was that it’s hard to satirize satire. How do you parody insanity? So, I learned how to draw cartoons making fun of what was already a satire. It was a problem other cartoonists and Saturday Night Live had to figure out as well. What do you do when newspaper headlines look like they came from The Onion?

The problem with Don’t Look Up is that it doesn’t ever fully figure out how to satirize satire. People refusing to look up and see what’s coming straight at them isn’t that far removed from people voting for Donald Trump even after hundreds of thousands die from his ineptitude. This paradoy of denial isn’t that far removed from Republicans saying vaccines don’t work while the virus is literally killing the unvaccinated, most of whom are Republicans. The denial in the movie isn’t that far removed from people denying they lost an election.

It’s hard to use Don’t Look Up as satire when here in reality, people are refusing to look up. People in this nation refuse to see what’s right in front of them. Documentaries of the Trump administration are funnier, in a scary way, than the movie Don’t Look Up.

Don’t Look Up uses the tagline, “Based on truly possible events.” But here in the real world, the Trump administration was an actual event. The storming of the Capitol by white nationalists to overturn the election and install Trump as a fascist dictator was an actual event.

The film Don’t Look Up probably hopes to make people look up instead of just entertaining those who have been looking up for the past six years. This film will not change minds. I know this from experience as I don’t think I’ve changed one mind with my cartoons over the past six years. Don’t Look Up will remain a film for the choir it preaches to. It’s not like Trumpers would understand this movie or see themselves in it anyway.

But, this much analysis means this movie deserves another chance. I’m going to watch it again. If you haven’t seen it, I encourage you to watch it. Don’t just settle for my impression of it. Watch it, then let me know in the comments what you think.

Look up.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[47of74]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Well, "truinternatialdepressure" still makes more sense than "cofeve" though...

[Black Aliss]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

"Good Riddance, 2021"

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I hate the last week of the year, personally and professionally. Of course, personal and professional has a blurry line for me because work is pretty much all I do. When I’m done writing this blog, I gotta draw another cartoon.

What I hate on a personal level about the end of the year is that every media outlet conducts those end-of-year segments where they look back on all the shit that happened. They bore me because I had just lived through it all. I don’t need to go back down that road. It’s like after riding on one of those wooden rollercoasters that knock your teeth out while someone was playing Nickelback the entire time and someone says, “Hey, wanna ride again?” No fucking thank you. I’m gonna go ride the Scooby-Doo tilt-a-whirl after spending $40 for a sandwich at Bubba Gumps (I’m thinking of Kings Dominion for this analogy. They may not even have that shit anymore).

Instead of watching real news people on TV gloss over the past year, I’d rather watch the show Netflix has now where’s a comedic take on looking back over the year (I could look it up and tell you the name, but I’m lazy). I used to enjoy reading Dave Barry’s end-of-year review, but I couldn’t stomach more than three paragraphs of it this year.

Professionally, I hate the last week of the year because it typically doesn’t give me any new news. It doesn’t give me much to draw cartoons about. A lot of people make half-jokes that we’re not supposed to do any work during the last week of the year, which I think is a good idea. Let’s all just plant ourselves on our couches and stay there until someone’s ball drops.

But, because I am who I am, I do find stuff during the last week of the year to draw cartoons on. I’ll be OK. I haven’t had an issue with finding subjects since the day Donald Trump came down that escalator in 2015 and started ranting about Mexicans.

So how was 2021? Well, it was better than 2020 but that’s like the Jacksonville Jaguars saying, “Hey, at least we’re better than the New York Jets.” That’s like Nickelback saying, “Hey, at least we’re better than Imagine Dragons.” That’s like Indiana saying, “Hey, at least we’re better than Missouri.” That’s like Sting saying, “Hey, at least my crappy love songs aren’t as crappy as Brian Adams’ love songs.” “Every Breath You Take” is amazing, but it’s not a love song. It’s a stalker song.

There were more deaths from covid in 2021 than 2020, but covid only had ten months for its rampage in 2020. We got a new president in 2021, one who’s not a racist grifting reality game show host. We got the vaccines. We also got an insurrection attempt. The Nazis haven’t gone away. The anti-covid gaslighters from 2020 turned into anti-vaxxers in 2021. There are way too many people in this nation taking medical advice from a moron who calls UFC fights instead of listening to actual doctors and scientists. People went from taking aquarium cleaner to fight covid in 2020 to taking horse medicine in 2021. There were too many people in 2021 spreading conspiracy theories and believing an election they lost was stolen by Italian satellites and Chinese bamboo. And Donald Trump is still ranting about Mexicans.

And just like in 2020, I never had a day struggling to find something to draw a cartoon about.

I expect 2022 to be better than 2021, but then again, I’ll direct you back to my Jacksonville/Jets comment. But, just as your hopes were being raised by the optimistic outlook of a new year, leave it to me to burst your balloon of sunny anticipation…

…there are midterm elections in 2022.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

[WiseGirl]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[ADoyle90815]

[GreyhoundFan]

 

"Boebert's Cards For Killers"

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You may think it was bad timing for Representative fucknut Lauren Boebert to issue a gun-themed Christmas card right before there was a mass shooting in her state of Colorado. You would be right except there have been several mass shootings in Colorado. Boebert knows better but she doesn’t care.

Boebert believes she’s some hero of a fictional resistance to a fictional deep state, one that’s coming for everyone’s guns and to control the population. You do know that after the deep state takes your guns, that’s when they start abducting and conducting gay-conversion experiments on you, especially if you’re a white Christian. And after they take your guns, “Merry Christmas” will be forbidden and your children will be assigned pronouns.

Of course the best way to stick a finger in the eye of the deep state and prevent them from taking your guns is to buy more guns and make sure everyone in the family has one. This includes the children so be sure every child in your family has an assault weapon. The assaultier the better.

Did I mention Colorado has had a lot of mass shootings? There was the Columbine shooting in 1999 that killed 15. There was the mass shooting in 2007 at two church organizations in Colorado Springs that killed five. There was the shooting in 2012 in Aurura that killed 12 in a movie theater showing The Dark Knight. There were two in Colorado Springs in 2015 that killed seven combined, one being at a Planned Parenthood clinic. There was a shooting in Boulder this year at a supermarket that killed ten. There was another this year in Colorado Springs that killed seven. And yesterday, there was another in Denver/Lakewood that killed five.

This entire nation is plagued by gun violence and Colorado may be getting the worst of it. So, maybe a representative from that state should have more sensitivity and understanding to be flaunting and celebrating the weapons used in these incidents.

You can be in favor of the Second Amendment without posing for a picture with a bazooka sticking out of your pants zipper.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[47of74]

Most Branch Trumpvidians would last all of about five minutes though in those type of jobs.

[GreyhoundFan]

[smittykins]

10 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Most Branch Trumpvidians would last all of about five minutes though in those type of jobs.

I worked in fast food for almost ten years, and I’ve always wanted those who claim that it’s a “minimum wage/minimum skills, anyone can do it” job, and post mistakes on social media and say “And they want $15 an hour” to try it and see how long they last.

[47of74]

42 minutes ago, smittykins said:

I worked in fast food for almost ten years, and I’ve always wanted those who claim that it’s a “minimum wage/minimum skills, anyone can do it” job, and post mistakes on social media and say “And they want $15 an hour” to try it and see how long they last.

I worked in restaurants for over 4.5 years and in a big box retail place for about 2 years.  Had enough of both to last a life time.  Not to say I wouldn't if I absolutely had to but yeah I'd rather not again.  In addition to the physical demands such jobs often require sacrifices when it comes to family time, holidays, and so on.  People who work in retail and food service deserve a lot more than $15 an hour. 

[GreyhoundFan]

[Alisamer]

43 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

I worked in restaurants for over 4.5 years and in a big box retail place for about 2 years.  Had enough of both to last a life time.  Not to say I wouldn't if I absolutely had to but yeah I'd rather not again.  In addition to the physical demands such jobs often require sacrifices when it comes to family time, holidays, and so on.  People who work in retail and food service deserve a lot more than $15 an hour. 

I only did a few months of retail (plus one summer at an amusement park), but that was enough. I'd like everyone to have to work a few months in some sort of customer facing position somewhere as a general requirement of becoming an adult. It'd open a lot of eyes.

Just because young people are doing it, doesn't mean it's an easy job. I try my best in all situations to be patient, kind, and offer a smile or a compliment and always say "thank you" - I don't want to be that customer! Like yeah if the drive thru takes 30 minutes I'm not thrilled about it, but the person handing the stuff out the window probably isn't the one causing the problem. They're just trying to pay for college, put food on the table, save up for a car, whatever.