Cartoonists With Attitude » Uncategorized

Manchurian Teleprompter

Kevin Moore — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:06:15 +0000

The teleprompter controversy among conservative bloggers and various pundits is so stupid, I didn't even want to blog about it. But Michael Gerson hits on just why it bothers me so:

But it is a mistake to argue that the uncrafted is somehow more authentic. Those writers and commentators who prefer the unscripted, who use "rhetoric" as an epithet, who see the teleprompter as a linguistic push-up bra, do not understand the nature of presidential leadership or the importance of writing to the process of thought.

Governing is a craft, not merely a talent. It involves the careful sorting of ideas and priorities. And the discipline of writing -- expressing ideas clearly and putting them in proper order -- is essential to governing. For this reason, the greatest leaders have taken great pains with rhetoric. Lincoln continually edited and revised his speeches. Churchill practiced to the point of memorization. Such leaders would not have been improved by being "unplugged." When it comes to rhetoric, winging it is often shoddy and self-indulgent -- practiced by politicians who hear Mozart in their own voices while others perceive random cymbals and kazoos. Leaders who prefer to speak from the top of their heads are not more authentic, they are often more shallow -- not more "real," but more undisciplined.

Word.

Originally published at mooreroom.

Mocking PETA

Kevin Moore — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:54:02 +0000

Cartoonist Matt Bors, a vegetarian of conscience (my description, not his; he ain't that pretentious) has taken on PETA for their self-defeating tactics. Love it!

Originally published at mooreroom.

Not if You Paid Me!

Kevin Moore — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:56:32 +0000

Found as an ad in my RSS reader.

Originally published at mooreroom.

Is There Another Option?

Kevin Moore — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 14:35:17 +0000

Yay, we never left high school! And doesn't it remind you of every election you have ever voted in?

Christmas Saved! (Again and again and again….)

Kevin Moore — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:20:53 +0000

My kids are watching “A Miser Brother’s Christmas”, a sequel to the classic “A Year Without a Santa Claus” that made Heat Miser and Cold Miser, and their funky personal theme songs, indelible parts of postmodern childhood.

Guess the plot. Go ahead. Yep – save Christmas. Once again, Santa is sick – and thanks to Mickey Rooney’s ancient return to the role, he sounds terminal – and somebody has gotta save a holiday that, truth be told, has nothing to do with St. Nick at all. In fact, I am pretty sure the 2,000-year-old Baby Jesus will sleep cozy in his bed of hay, surrounded by a stable of creepy talking animals, without intervention from the pagan consumer god in the red suit.

Honestly I stopped paying attention a quarter-way through the production. But I felt an urge to throw together a list of random titles – culled via googling and “amazoning” – that have “Save Christmas” in them. Just to see how bad it gets.

Baby Bratz – First of all, I did not know that the notoriously trampy Bratz line had spawned a “baby” branch. But it raises the question: Are these babies the Bratz when they were younger; or the children the Bratz have brought into the world without any idea who the father is? Maybe the Baby Bratz think Santa Claus is their daddy and hope he will save them? “Set me up nice, big daddy.”

Bikini Bandits – I feel that it is important to point out aesthetic similarities between children’s entertainment and soft porn adult entertainment whenever possible. It fills my heart with warm, boozey eggnog to see the “save christmas” conceit used here.

The Glo-Friends – Um…vomit? But why is it listed on the NY Times website? Does the “paper of record” (or “website of record”) need to log this? I am feeling an inkling of resentment harshing my brandy buzz, so…

Ernest – I never saw this or any other Ernest movie. And that is surprising, because I am pretty sure that my young teenage mind thought that would be a good idea. Perhaps fate intervened and saved me from a life of utter mediocrity and failure. As opposed to whatever I am supposed to call what I do now. Er – anyhoo, moving on!

Elmo – Of course. In fact, I have to confess – I like Elmo so much, I am willing to forgive him anything. I’d even go around the world and demagnetize every VHS and scratch every DVD of every other “save xmas” movie just so Elmo could dominate the genre. Wow. I just learned something about myself right there. God, I’m lame.

Diego – my son watched this on Nickelodeon this morning. The Wonder Pets followed with a plot to save The Nutcracker (or was it a baby reindeer?), but I can’t bring myself to link to it.

Mickey – Wouldn’t you be disappointed if he wasn’t on the list? In what universe does Disney not sign up their corporate logo for the most clichd xmas movie plot ever? Is it a happy place? Can we move there?

Felix the Cat – According to Amazon.com: “When the professor [sic] and rock bottom [sic] plot to create the worlds [sic] biggest blizzard in order to ruin christmas [sic] felix the cat [sic] and poindexter [sic] must travel to the north pole to help santa claus [sic] and save christmas. [sic]” Despite the grammar and capitalization errors, this plot summary is an excellent stand-in for nearly every Christmas movie ever made.

Okay. That’s enuff. Merry Christmas. Save yourselves.

Originally published at mooreroom.

In Contempt (11/20/2008): The Beast Cometh

Kevin Moore — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:12:22 +0000

Go ahead. Click the image. What’s the worst that could happen?

Tags: barackobama, antichrist

Posted in cartoons, in contempt

Within Glamorous Extremes

Kevin Moore — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:01:32 +0000

Last Tuesday I posted “No Excuses“, a cartoon juxtaposing the post-election meme about African-American possibilities with the realities of systemic racism. Documentarian Byron Hurt recently released “Barack and Curtis: Manhood, Power and Respect”, a ten-minute film making a similar juxtaposition between the success of Barack Obama and the life of another popular black figure, 50 Cent, who has led a more difficult life plagued by crime, drugs and violence. As quoted by Reuters, Hurt recognizes both the difficulties confronting young black men and the hope that Obama’s example inspires among them:

“The only way that he (Obama) can make a substantial change is if he addresses things like poverty and joblessness and those deep pervasive factors that affect black boys and men,” said film maker Byron Hurt.

…

Even though Obama’s election was not a panacea for black men, the importance of the example he sets could not be underestimated, Hurt said in an interview.

“The boost that he has given black men is more symbolic than anything else,” said Hurt. “But I don’t want to undervalue symbolism and image. When I see images of Barack Obama in a baseball hat taking his daughters to school … that is a powerful image.”

In his film, Hurt shows a wide range of analytic voices commenting on the racist culture that has shaped black male identity, and how everyday black men, poor and middle class, straight and gay, educated and robbed of education, create their identities in response to it. There are more nuances presented here than at first suggested by the dramatic contrast between Obama and 50 Cent, and if you haven’t viewed the film, do so.

Tags: barackobama, 50 cent, Byron Hurt, racism, black image

Posted in racism

Fat So Funny

Kevin Moore — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:21:56 +0000

Election’s over, so what’s a political cartoonist to do? It’s not like there are any really important issues to consider. Could do something about the Congo or Rwanda. But, really, this is America: those places might as well be Oz, for all we care.

I know! There’s a new study about obesity! Several studies! Oh boy! Now political cartoonists can do what comes naturally: mock fat people, draw a newspaper with a headline and let a bad pun do the work.

Yes, apparently there is some study about teens getting fatter or something. Causes? Remedies? Flaws in the study? How studies like these fit in a larger culture neurotic about physical appearance, hyper-consumption, and fast food? Who cares? Let’s mock fat people — and teens, too!

Ha ha! Get it! Teens only want to get drunk!

But you know what’s missing? A tie-in with popular culture. It doesn’t have to be relevant, or insightful, or even current. It just has to stimulate some region of the brain that stores random images osmotically absorbed from the general culture environment. Hey, Bat-man!

Good thing the wind is blowing that newspaper high above the skyscrapers in such a way that we can read it. Otherwise I would have no idea what the hell this cartoon has to do with real life.

You know, you don’t have to be a hack cartoonist to squeeze out turds like these. You can be a well-respected, intelligent, and talented lion of the field like the great Clay Bennett, whose work I generally love:

Apparently Americans like to shovel their food served on plates decorated with the Presidential seal. Or something. It’s kinda abstract, really — so let’s go back to mocking fat youth!

Wow, okay, that’s enough. I could probably dig up more. If you feel masochistic, cruise through Slate.com’s health section of political cartoons and you will find 476 (as of today) that deal with general health issues, the majority of them focused on obesity. All of them will exploit some stereotype of fatness, teenagers or youth culture, consumption and gluttony for the sake of a cheap punchline and at the expense of insight, compassion, intelligence, context, and originality. As my friend and political cartoonist Barry Deutsch has pointed out many times, fat people are easy targets, perhaps the last “safe” target (along with the mentally ill and poor Southern whites) for comedians and other humorists to treat as an “other”, that slightly less-than-human category of people who deviate from The Norm and thus deserve mockery and marginalization. Of course, if these studies are true, then more Americans are getting fatter, so these cartoons act as a way of policing our behavior, inducing guilt and shame for being all-consuming gluttons. And there the conversation ends. But I’ll let Barry have the last word, because he puts it so well:

The reason fat activists have formed a movement is that it’s unjust to be denied good medical care because we’re fat; we think it’s unjust that we can get fired for being fat; we think it’s unjust that we face job and wage discrimination because we’re fat; we think it’s unjust that we can be charged more for basic services (like insurance) because we’re fat; it’s unjust that people glance at us and assume that we’re lazy and care nothing for ourselves; and yes, although you’ll sneer at this as “the right to feel good,�? it’s unjust that fat people are taught from childhood to think of themselves as deficient, wrong, and disgusting.

Anit-fat bigotry isn’t wrong because it’s the same as facing lynch mobs. It’s wrong because it’s unjust. It’s unjust because we’re human and don’t deserve to be treated as second-class people because of the shape of our bodies.

Tags: politicalcartoons, obesity, fat activism

Posted in activism, cartooning

Premature Re-appellation

Kevin Moore — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:50:52 +0000

A majority of students at my daughter’s K-8 school want to rename the school after President-elect Barack Obama, an improvement over the admittedly awkward “Clark K-8 @ Binnsmead”. Katie thinks this is a great idea. I am not too sure.

Yes, I voted for the guy. And I hope he’ll live up to his promise, though I have several reservations even if he does, mostly grounded in worries about his hawkish attitude towards Afghanistan.

But that’s not relevant here. I demur because usually we name schools after Presidents have left office, not, say, before they are even sworn in. We also honor non-presidents, too, such as historic activists like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez. Perhaps Obama’s ground-breaking win as an African-American candidate qualifies, he has already inspired millions of people, bringing many first-time voters into the process and running on a mostly positive message of transforming politics.

However, history isn’t over yet. Being the eternal ray of sunshine that I am, I asked my daughter, “What if in two years Obama’s presidency is bogged down in Afghanistan? Or there’s a big sex scandal?”

“A what scandal?!” she exclaimed.

Jenn walked away from the dinner table, saying, “Go ahead, Daddy. Explain that one.”

Fortunately Katie didn’t want an answer. She and her fellow students have already voiced their support of Obama through their choice of chocolate cupcakes over McCain’s vanilla, so they are convinced that changing the name of the school in favor of Obama would be a good move. “It will get lots of news stories!” Katie argued, thrilled that two local news stations have reported this possibility.

Jenn thinks a lot of deserving local talent will get short-shrift: Linus Pauling, Ken Kesey, John Reed, Raymond Carver…. Mostly white and male. But they are dead, which is actually a stipulation of the re-naming rules. Ursula K. LeGuin and Avel Gordly (Oregon’s first black female legislator) will have to wait for the Reaper to take his due before becoming eligible for such an honor.

I suggested Kwame Toure. Any takers?

Tags: BarackObama, school

Posted in about me

In Contempt (11/11/2008): No Excuses

Kevin Moore — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:03:49 +0000

Click image to embiggen it.

Tags: incontempt, racism, Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey

Posted in cartoons, in contempt