Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Political Cartoons: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Doug:
Recently, I shared a political cartoon on social media, but not everyone appreciated the humor:


One reason that I find it funny is that it builds on sentiments that are real, a grain of truth. Political cartoons have a long history in the US. Benjamin Franklin's "Join, or Die" is generally considered to be the first in America:



David:
As you just illustrated (figuratively and literally...) political cartoons have been around from the  beginning of print media. Old cartoons were usually very busy and complicated drawings, and it wasn't until WWII that the drawings became simpler, but still carried a powerful message.

























Many people don't realize Dr. Seuss started as a political cartoonist.






















A picture is truly worth a thousand words. A well-crafted cartoon can give life and vision to an idea. Of course, cartoons are only funny when they convey a bit of truth. The first comic you show illustrates that Americans voluntarily give vast amounts of data to big corporations, and will accept aggravation from these same corporations, but don't tolerate the same from the government. That juxtaposition in the final scene is funny. There is an element of truth in that. Of course, with corporations, we voluntarily do business with them, and can change companies if we are unhappy with their service. The government takes your money by force, and leaves you with no options when it fails (and it fails often).



This cartoon covers a plethora of topics with very few words: Bernie Sander's popularity  and enthusiastic support (as opposed to Hillary's own),  and the multiple scandals that plague her campaign. A lot is left unsaid, but the joke works well.

Doug:
Thank you, Dr. Good Humor, for the brotherplaining. Perhaps jokes work better if they are not explained? Perhaps readers can judge for themselves if the "joke works well"? Personally, I enjoy a comic more if it is subtle, and makes you think about your own biases, rather than just poking fun at those who see the world differently than you do.

David:
Sorry. I thought your goal was to eliminate dissenting opinions. Don't you and your colleagues in higher education call that "hate speech"?

Doug:
No. Disagree is all that academics do. Do you even know any academics?

David:
I know you. I guess you don't consider yourself an academic?

I met Gary Varvel when I ran for office a few years ago. He's the cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star, and his comics usually show up on the national scene. In general, cartoonists are editorialists, but they come up with imagery to make the case, instead of writing an opinion column. It's a different skill set, for sure, and one that many of us lack. I enjoy Varvel's style, which is very cleanly drawn and uncomplicated. A well-done political cartoon says a lot, sometimes without using any words at all.





Doug:
Here is one that appeared in your Facebook feed this past week:


This comic is so bad in so many ways that I can't stop looking at it. Let's explore this. First, what kind of public restroom is this? Don't women's restrooms in North Carolina have stalls? No wonder they are in trouble! Or perhaps these people are outside the bathroom... or is the sign on the wrong side of the door? I'm not sure, but I think that bald person with the mustache is actually a man! As you said, political cartooning is hard and not for everyone. Although this started as comments on your Facebook page, it was re-posted (in part) to reddit. Normally, I would say "don't read the comments" in any social media post, but this thread in a subreddit is full of very insightful comments. One of the comments pointed out that the man is just peeing. Horror!

David:
Of course, the partial FB post is out of context. Makes it look as though the discussion is about transgenders. The cartoon above illustrates that there is often a clear difference between professional cartoonists and FB memes. 

Doug:
I'm not sure what else the conversation could really be about, but this part of the conversation was about transgendered people. And what context would make this conversation any better? 

David:
The discussion was about rapists and other male preditors being able to hang out in women's restrooms and locker rooms, calling themselves "transgender", and no one being able to do anything about that.  Last week you didn't want to talk about transgender issues at all, yet now you're re-introducing it into this week's blog.  But you're loosing focus. We're talking political cartoons this week. So, in regards to the "cartoon" above, drawing skills for most folks stopped at about the third-grade level. It seems photoshopping is helping some people. At least the cartoon above is diverse: it mixes an anime-ish lady with a character from The Legend of Zelda, with a person who may be visiting from an Adult Swim show on The Cartoon Network.  Which genre is suffering from "cartoon-privilege", and who needs a "safe-space"?

Doug:
We're talking about political cartoons addressing transgendered people and issues. Here is another exploring the same issue from a different perspective:



David:
Ah, now you're back in the conversation. This cartoon is simple, clean, and amusing. Not a deep message, here, but still well-drawn and enough to make you think.

Doug:
I think it is deep, but subtle. It is a real question, because there really are "sporks" in the world. And laws. What is that poor spork to do?

David:



These all are fairly typical tea party cartoons from the left. To the media, tea party people are racists, morons, and Hitler nazis. Pure, unadulterated propaganda. The following explains why they feel this way:




When your stated goal is to decrease the size of government, and reign in wasteful spending, liberals see that as a direct attack on them. So, you attack the messenger.

Doug:
I find the "AAAAAAAAAHH!!! TERRORIST TEA PARTIER!!!!!" cartoon to be a fairly lazy attempt at humor. Of course one can always imagine your own people as being reasonable (meek little fellow carrying a small, reasonable slogan) and the "others" as yelling crazy things. But "GOVT IS TOO BIG" doesn't apply to many of our problems, such as lack of affordable healthcare, rotting infrastructures, too-low hourly wages, and poorly funded schools. The Hitler cartoon is also too lazy for my liking. Good humor takes talent, and a subtle brush.

David:
Agreed.

Doug:
But how do you decide if something is "propaganda" versus "a well-done political cartoon"? I guess we don't need to figure that out---you can just tell us. But I presume you believe that there is a grain of truth to all of these.

David:
Don't jump to conclusions, Mr. Sanctimonious.

Doug:
Please! That's Dr. Sanctimonious, to you.

David:
Here are some examples of propaganda from the other side:



Doug:
I like how you imagine that there are just two sides, and that comics either come from one side, or the "other side". That makes it easy to categorize, and easy to think about. No complications. And it makes easy to dismiss "the other side" because they are not us. And their argument is not valid because it is just an "attack of the messenger."

David:
Perhaps you can share that sentiment with the close-minded students and administrators who try to shut down free speech on campus. You do realize you are making the same argument I've made in prior blogs? Maybe I'm rubbing off on you.

Doug:
Please! That's Dr. Satire, to you.

David:
"Satire" implies you don't believe anything you just said.  Er....I mean, wrote.

Doug:
By George, I think you are onto something.

David:
Carrying on:





It's sometimes easy to demonize the other side. These cartoons (from both sides of the political spectrum) are often based on a few individual outliers, but the mainstream cartoons are powerful in that they contribute to a general concept of these groups, right or wrong. As to the Occupy  Movement, this comic is more accurate:



Doug:
Accurate? How do you measure that? I thought that these were just poking fun at grains of truths, not some attempt to capture reality.

David:
Some comics barely graze the truth, like some bloggers, but others capture the essence of large realities. Apparently you don't think Obama is riding a wave of corporate cash just like everyone else in Washington? Here's another comic that may appeal to a broad audience.



















Doug:
The problem with that cartoon is that it puts the teacher in on the evil conspiracy. Most teachers I know hate the implementation of "no child left behind." They want to teach and inspire. teaching to the test is not the goal. But maybe that cartoon is really about the Rapture, and then I'm with the little girl: leave me behind!

Cartoons don't have to be well-drawn though. One of my favorite cartoons is xkcd. Here is a nice example:



The cartoonist, Randall Munroe, is smart, funny, and so creative. He is also an author ("What if?", highly recommended), and a teacher. I just heard him this past Sunday (4/17/2016) on NPR's TED Radio Hour talking about teaching math. But his comics are typically minimalist. He often combines data and analysis with his comics, like he did in the above "Electoral Precedent" from 2012. The next election could up with the first woman president, the first Jewish president, or the first president to govern from the Whitehouse Towers (TM).

David:
I see. The Democratic candidates are ground-breaking pioneers, but the Republicans are more of the same? You apparently are letting your ideology fog your vision again. Cruz would be the first Hispanic president, and Trump would be the first president who's never held elected or appointed office or served as a military general.   Quite the accomplishment.

Doug:
You mean that Cruz would be our first Canadian president, and Trump would be our first president that had no idea what he was doing.

David:
Sure. And Hillary may be the first president to go directly to jail after the election, and Bernie would be the first president to drive us into bankruptcy within a single term. (Although the Democrats seem determined not to let Bernie even make it to the convention.)




So, you prefer your cartoons to be an editorial column, broken up into little boxes, with stick figures? To me, that doesn't really appear to be a political cartoon. 

Doug:
Maybe you didn't read the words? They aren't all panels. I think the point of this one is that in every election, the winner will always be the first of something. Some of Randall's cartoons are intricately drawn, but others are stick people. Sometimes, the message is enough.

David:
Well, I shouldn't be surprised that you prefer your message at a stick-figure level. After all, stick figures have only the barest resemblance to real life, just like the Democratic agenda. Maybe if it were drawn with crayons....

Perhaps this cartoon is one we can agree on, to wrap up this edition of Blank Versus Blank...


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