Friday Funnies

The Audacity of Hope, revised edition

Henry Payne | March 20, 2009

Comments

|3.20.09 @ 7:23AM|#

It's true, but where's the "funny" part? Maybe we should all read a copy of Henry Payne's The Audacity of Failed Satire.

ed|3.20.09 @ 7:25AM|#

How about: it's moderately funny because it's moderately true?

Untermensch|3.20.09 @ 7:30AM|#

This one may fail the Marmaduke test, in which case censorship might be the appropriate response, for the sake of the children, of course.

Untermensch|3.20.09 @ 7:31AM|#

Of course, it's not quite Cathy bad. That would require action using some serious firepower to prevent it from falling into the hands of our enemies.

Suki|3.20.09 @ 7:34AM|#

ed,

I am not as generous as you, leaning toward the Episiarch assessment.

Michelle|3.20.09 @ 7:36AM|#

Why'd he draw Barack like a monkey.

|3.20.09 @ 7:43AM|#

C- not really funny, more depressing.

|3.20.09 @ 7:43AM|#

On the plus side, I'm 15/16 in my NCAA pool. Damn BYU...

|3.20.09 @ 7:48AM|#

Of course, it's not quite Cathy bad.

That's like saying something "isn't quite Michael Bay bad". It has no meaning.

AACK!!!

Other Matt|3.20.09 @ 8:19AM|#

Ep assessment +1

anarch|3.20.09 @ 8:24AM|#

Guys, guys.

A cartoon doesn't have to be funny.

It can also just be beautiful.

|3.20.09 @ 8:30AM|#

My thought shows up in the first post. Good job Ep.

Untermensch|3.20.09 @ 8:32AM|#

That's like saying something "isn't quite Michael Bay bad". It has no meaning.

Actually it does mean something. It means you are still beyond the event horizon of suckiness so bad it drains all hope and ruins your day. Marmaduke isn't quite that bad, and this cartoon doesn't manage that either. Were it to enter the real of Cathy bad the Reason server would implode and destroy the server farm where it resides as well. I'd link to a Cathy comic to prove it, but then the Reason guys would have to forget their libertarian cred and practice a little old-school European anarchist violence against me in retribution. I'd rather keep my house than link to Cathy. Even the mere mention is skirting the edge.

Untermensch|3.20.09 @ 8:32AM|#

err, real = realm

Dumbo the Elephant|3.20.09 @ 8:33AM|#

That's not funny.

|3.20.09 @ 8:37AM|#

The real scandal has to do with the fact that it's just an old Bush caricature that Payne colored in with a brown marker.

If we could get rid of brown markers there wouldn't be anymore racism.

|3.20.09 @ 8:38AM|#

Oh, I see what he did there...

Xeones|3.20.09 @ 8:57AM|#

I also agree with Epi, with the caveat that it's barely satire either.

The sum total of funny in the world decreases yet again.

|3.20.09 @ 9:05AM|#

The guy's last name
Should be spelled 'Pain'
Too bad, it's too late
To use http://xkcd.com/558

hire the better guy
to make markets work better
you sons of bitches

|3.20.09 @ 9:08AM|#

Rhyming an UNL? Bravo!

Ben|3.20.09 @ 9:11AM|#

Guys, its funny because its true. Its also racist--they drew Obama as looking like a black man.

dhex|3.20.09 @ 9:13AM|#

actually, hiring the xkcd guy would make a lot of sense. he's big with the nerds, and there's a huge nerd crossover with this particular population. also, he's occasionally funny, as would befit "friday funnies".

|3.20.09 @ 9:18AM|#

dhex,

Another upside would be little to no noticeable drop in art quality.

|3.20.09 @ 9:21AM|#

Draw a picture of Mr. Creosote with Obama's head and the exaggerated ears. He can be eating something political. Caption it with the words, "The Voracity of Hope."

TofuSushi|3.20.09 @ 9:22AM|#

There is a funnier cartoon on Day by Day today. Fascists are always funny.

|3.20.09 @ 9:31AM|#

James Ard @ 8:30am, my thoughts exactly.

|3.20.09 @ 9:36AM|#

That cartoon makes my head hurt.

|3.20.09 @ 9:41AM|#

From Jay Nordlinger today in the National Review

A friend of mine e-mailed to me a letter-to-the-editor he wrote:

In the episode "Woody Gets an Election," from the eleventh season of Cheers, simpleton Woody Boyd receives some advice from Frasier Crane. Frasier suggests that even an awful candidate can receive a meaningful percentage of an election's votes simply by mouthing empty platitudes, such as "change." "Say the word 'change' a lot," says Frasier. Embracing this advice, Woody goes on to win the election."

We are now living in a real life sitcom.

TofuSushi|3.20.09 @ 9:45AM|#

John,

You are really reaching now. Just admit it. Obama is saving the world and you are jelous of him.

robc|3.20.09 @ 9:52AM|#

A cartoon doesn't have to be funny.

True, but one called "Friday Funnies" should be.

Two-Minute Hate|3.20.09 @ 10:11AM|#

"You are really reaching now. Just admit it. Obama is saving the world and you are jelous of him."

@anyone:
So is there some button or setting here that I can use to block this usless pube?

Warty|3.20.09 @ 10:27AM|#

What are you assholes complaining about? This is the best Friday Funnies in months.

|3.20.09 @ 10:30AM|#

I don't see why this would have to be a cartoon. Renaming the book could be used in any regular writing. Shouldn't a cartoon include some sort of visual comedy as well as written? At least a comment from the passerby or have them throw a rock at the store?

robc|3.20.09 @ 10:31AM|#

2-min hate,

google incif

asdf|3.20.09 @ 10:35AM|#

Not funny, but at least its bitter!

dhex|3.20.09 @ 10:35AM|#

"Another upside would be little to no noticeable drop in art quality."

and a serious uptick in style!

having to deal with emo math nerd seems like a lovely dream after years of the purposeful eye-sadism of the friday funnies. perhaps this is reason's foray into situationist propaganda, forcing us to confront the ugly stupidity of trying to laugh at the horrors of this world.

Two-Minute Hate|3.20.09 @ 10:35AM|#

"google incif"

Thanks. I can't employ it here at work, but will try it at home. Again, thanks.

|3.20.09 @ 10:39AM|#

Political cartoons aren't very funny to begin with, so limiting oneself to publishing cartoons showing some variation of the administration sodomizing the taxpayer with a retractable baton, captioned "Who's your daddy?" is obviously counter-productive.

Lio (by Mark Tatulli) on the other hand is funny and sends a quirky, pro-DIY-genetic-engineering, pro-being-different, pro-anti-bully, and generally pro-anti-authoritarian (did I just write 'pro-anti'? Twice??) message.

Lio occasionally even spoofs Cathy and similar abominations - another reason why this will be an immediate hit.

Lio is the obvious choice.

@dhex,

xkcd.com is a success, so a hostile takeover of reason.com + firing the ones responsible for committing these crimes against humority would be more logical.

TofuSushi|3.20.09 @ 11:00AM|#

Was that MNG or someone else in the archives who had the brilliant observation of how filtering is self imposed ignorance?

alan|3.20.09 @ 11:40AM|#

Was that MNG or someone else in the archives who had the brilliant observation of how filtering is self imposed ignorance?

By that 'logic', choosing the political sites you visit by anything other than a random means of selection would be a self imposed act of ignorance.

Joel|3.20.09 @ 11:45AM|#

Ah, let the Friday Funnies Hateathon commence.

Wouldn't have made it funnier, but it would have been more thoroughly true if the sign dropped the word "Democrat."

Not a dime's worth of difference between them. I really wish more people (and editorial cartoonists) would get that.

|3.20.09 @ 12:16PM|#

Was that MNG or someone else in the archives who had the brilliant observation of how filtering is self imposed ignorance?

Is TofuSushi a troll, or just a clueless liberal?

So if someone is really, really annoying and routinely makes ignorant comments based on false premises, filtering out their comments and spending your time instead listening to intelligent people making insightful comments is "self imposed ignorance"?

If you're at a party full of brilliant, witty people, do you spend equal time listening to the guy with Down's Syndrome talking at length about how he REALLY REALLY likes cake, because otherwise you're not being fair and taking all viewpoints into consideration?

Right Wing Realist|3.20.09 @ 12:25PM|#

1872 called and they want their adjective back. Seriously, who uses "cockamamie" nowadays?

|3.20.09 @ 12:30PM|#

The literate.

Rimfax|3.20.09 @ 2:02PM|#

Selective ignorance of useless troll shit is far wiser than stopping to smell every doot that drops.

Rimfax|3.20.09 @ 2:05PM|#

Epi and SugarFree nail it. I'm having difficulty identifying the "cockamamie" schemes put forward by the Democrats that weren't put forward by the Republicans over the past eight years.

wingnutx|3.20.09 @ 3:08PM|#

Of course, it's not quite Cathy bad.

It's more of a 'Ziggy' panel.