The Obama Joker poster
The Obama Joker poster that has started appearing in LA will no doubt cause some to keel over with an attack of the vapors.
What. you mean, Barack Obama? Portrayed as The Joker? With the word socialism underneath? Have these people no shame? Insulting our President so?
The same people having these panic attacks over the Obama Joker poster are likely to be those who were perfectly happy that the last President (a certain George Bush for those with short memories) was habitually portrayed as a chimpanzee if not simply an out and out moron.
The answer is of course, whether it's over that portrayal of Obama as The Joker to the right, George W as an inarticulate idiot earlier or Lyndon B Johnson as an elephant eared buffoon a few decades ago, is that America, quite rightly, has a very rough and tumble political scene. If you have the ego, the effrontery even, to claim that you know how to lead a country of free people then you've also got to have the ego to withstand the brickbats, rhetorical though they may be, that those free people are going to throw at you.
This is, at least to this reporter, as it should be: yes, the President is indeed the representative of the nation at times but most of it he's simply a politican: your and my servant, not our master.
Cartoonists, satirists and caricaturists have actually had something of a problem with Obama as a subject: sure, he has prominent ears and some have made use of that. But the most obvious point about him is that he is of a rather darker hue than most Americans, he's an African American. Yet, quite rightly, this is not considered a subject that should be a subject of satire or caricature: race, thankfully, is not a polite subject for humor any more, we've gone beyond that (clearly, we haven't everywhere, but it is out of public discourse, out of where it should not be).
My colleague reports that these posters are now spreading along the off ramps and underpasses in the Hollywood area and that there is some thought that this might be part of a nationally coordinated campaign. The American Thinker has some photos of Obama Joker posters in situ.
This might not be the most successful attack, if attack it is, upon Obama, might not take off as a nationally known caricature, but what it does show is that, finally, someone is thinking. Perhaps they're not thinking as you would like, perhaps you think this is disrespectful, but we do indeed have free speech here. And no politician has really made it until someone has devised a cartoon, a caricature, that really works, that sticks.
Maybe Obama as The Joker will be it, maybe it'll be the next or a later one that comes along but arrive it will: they always do, in the end.
Comments
Great article, Tim!
Everyone needs to email this image to everyone they know. Print out copies and tape them up tonight on overpasses! Do it!
Oh come on... Los Angeles is just filled with a bunch of right-wing nutcases. Oh wait... nevermind. haha. Good article.
"...the last President (a certain George Bush for those with short memories) was habitually portrayed as a chimpanzee if not simply an out and out moron."
I'm sorry, your point is?
This picture fails. The joker was an anarchist not a socialist. p.s. our country has been socialist for over 60 years. Get over it already.
That's funny.
It will fuel his detractors into amusement beyond that...meh.
I truly love our right to free speech! I sure hope Obama and his "blog czar" do not take away our Freedom of Speech.
This type of mockery is very healthy for our nation.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
Tim Worstall writes, "...he's an African American."
I view this as a challenge to both writers and artists. Weaving political correctness into opinion or art work requires quite a bit of talent. I fiercely oppose political correctness but this is a must when dealing with ethnicity issues.
If anything, having a black president will raise talents of writers and artists another notch higher.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
Accurate depiction. A eugenics madman suitable for framing at your local medicare disposal unit. Perfect for Halloween.
Pair the image with this famous chart:
blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/
Al Queda couldn't do this much damage in their wildest dreams. I don't know what others have gotten out of his first 6 months, but to me he sure comes across as a madman bent on destroying America.
I think the poster is amazing commentary, especially after the financial/social debacles of government takeover of the auto industry, the porkulus bill, and soon healthcare.
I love the fact that it's going viral and driving the left nuts - tshirts and stickers everywhere. Hooray capitalism!
www.cafepress.com/PalsyClown
@ shaon94
actually, it is valid... anarchy and socialism both crush the individual by ignoring a persons right to personal freedom and private property. In addition, obama wears a mask. he is not what one might initially think. he is not what he outwardly portrays.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
You are all a bunch of idiots. There is free speech and then there is just mean-spirited stupidity. You are guilty of the latter and our Constitution gives you the right to protest and to be stupid and mean about it. But hate-mongering is not a right. Yet you all get away with it by calling it free speech. Aren't you all lucky! Go back to your public school and learn something about American History. Oh, wait, the government gives us public education. Go to your library and check out a few books. Oh, nevermind...Libraries are government funded. And you don't want that interfering government coming into your homes, do you? You are all too dumb to know how good we have it here. You don't deserve such a great president. BUt that's okay. The rest of us who voted for him will make sure your rights are protected too.
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
Dream Warriors - And Now the Legacy Begins
It has nothing to do with Race, it has to do with DECEIT in CONSPIRED EUGENIC GENOCIDE AND FINANCIAL LIQUIDATION of the HOUSE OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA's "CORPORATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and it's affiliated Vatican-Jesuit New World Roder Total World & Time-Space DOmination Agenda.
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
Dream Warriors - And Now the Legacy Begins
The Fake "Boy Wonder", NWO False Messiah Obama, is being exposed for the "Two-Face Joker" he really is.
He is not only deceiving and selling his own race into slavery and genocide, but the whole of America and the whole of the world.
As John Pilger spoke, Obama is a Corporate Media Public Relations Creation.
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
"Who's more the fool? Who's more the fool? The Fool or the Fool who follows the Fool?"
Dream Warriors - And Now the Legacy Begins
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