Turnabout is … uh, What Were We Supposed to Angry About, Again?
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
Is it just me, or have John McCain's legs been turned into the torso of some Asian dude?
And he became 35 again.
Sam I Am, McCain wasn't 70 when he was shot down. If anything he had more hair than that when he landed in North Vietnam.
RC - the artist tried to hide that obvious mistake with the fellating girl. Not a bad strategy, but he didn't quite pull it off.
Holy shit that's great. If only The New Yorker had the balls to do this for realz. The blowjob would be too crude for them, though.
My wife was trying to convince me that the Obama cover was HI-larious. I didn't bite.
Her: How could you NOT think it was funny?
Me: I just didn't.
Her (rolling her eyes): You weren't offended by it, were you?
Me: No, I just thought it was dumb.
So congrats, New Yorker, you're two for two. Please stop existing so that I can stop hearing about you. Thanks.
The New Yorker would never run a cover like that.
It would never occur to them. If somebody came up with an idea like that for a cover, he'd get bawled out by his boss.
Anther cover here.
I don't get the New Yorker hate. You don't have to be a martini-swilling, monocle-and-top-hat wearing, Andover-and-Brown attending hyper-WASP named Chip, Biff, or Muffy to enjoy the absurdity of the magazine that such people read.
Way to not follow the link, Legate.
For the clue-impaired it's not a real New Yorker cover.
Someone was just having fun with Gimp or a Gimp clone.
I think it's high-larious.
Wait a second. There are people who thought that was real? Jesus fucking Christ.
The New Yorker would never run a cover like that.
Because it's not satirical. Just third-rate crude. There's a difference that many cannot comprehend, thus the continuing debate long after normal America has forgotten this 1-day story.
Or as Nero liked the call it, "The Capital Redevelopment Project".
Did a wormhole just enter this comment section? One of these posts is not like the others.
That Seattle Observer one is ten times better than this one or the original. It's actually funny.
Oh, I see. Never mind.q
Because it's not satirical. Actually, it's exactly as satirical as the original, in that it depicts the most over-the-top stereotypes and smears bring hurled at the candidate.
I love this "If you didn't laugh, it's because you didn't get the joke" attitude. It's what an unfunny comedian says when no one laughs, because there can't be any other reason no one finds the joke funny.
My bad.
The New Yorker would never run a cover like that.
It would never occur to them. If somebody came up with an idea like that for a cover, he'd get bawled out by his boss.
I didn't laugh, but I did get it. Is that what you're talking about?
I don't follow. Buried antecedent.
Now that is funny. Well done.
It's what an unfunny comedian says when no one laughs
But when some people laugh and some don't, then it's likely that the comment is true.
And this cartoon sucks. To be like the Obama cartoon, and incorporate every criticism of McCain made by crazy people on the internet, the cartoon would have to include MY criticisms, in pictorial form.
That means that McCain needs to be:
1. Giving his first wife the finger while sticking his other hand in Cindy's wallet.
2. Giving George Bush head.
3. Signing an order to torture a prisoner, while saying words to the effect of, "All that stuff those GOOKS GOOKS GOOKS did to me, do to this prisoner. Don't worry, I'll make sure no one ever charges you with a crime."
4. That's already more hands and mouths than McCain has, but we somehow have to have him jamming a German WWI helmet up the ass of someone in private enterprise and telling them that the pursuit of private gain is degrading and that only service to the volk is noble.
5. Calling Cindy a cunt.
6. Dialing the phone to call some political hack to have them try to gin up criminal charges against anyone who blew the whistle on Cindy when she stole drugs from a charity.
7. He should also be tying a gag around the mouth of a statue of Thomas Jefferson.
There's really too much stuff for one cartoon. Maybe someone talented can come up with a way to represent all this in one image, but I doubt it. Especially since they'd need to include the criticisms of McCain which I don't make because they're lies, but which other crazy people on the internet DO make, like the accusation that he got special treatment from the NVA in exchange for giving them information.
The girl with her face in McCain's lap is Jane Fonda. Now do you get it?
Do I have to spoon feed this stuff to you people?
Laugh! goddammit! That's funny shit.
obama will need a thicker skin if he wants to be president. it was a cartoon. it was funny. get over it.
plus, the obama cartoon could have been far worse. it could have portrayed him as an abortionist wearing flip-flops.
Oh, yeah, Obama sure is doomed.
If only he'd adopted the John Kerry non-response strategy. Really, that's how you win an election when there are smears flying around about you.
stop picking on me guys... it's not fair.
Would you like us to email you some R-E-S-P-E-C-T?
Funny how you never see anyone who actually wants Obama to win claiming that his response to this was poorly handled.
I'll take Concern Trolls for 500, Alex.
respond? yes. stomp feet and whine about how you're portrayed in a cartoon? no.
it's like when piazza held a press conference to say that he wasn't gay. no one really took the rumors about him seriously until he took such great pains to deny them.
not wise.
"how he was portrayed in a cartoon"
Cute.
So, did they make is nose bigger or something?
You don't get it - this is a great sympathy moment for Obama. He loves this story. It gives him campaign something to push back with when the Repbublicans argue the press is going easy on him; it gives him a chance to hit back against the "scary radical whitey-hating Mooslim" stuff without having to be the one who raised the subject; and it encourages the press to give those attacks, or anything like them, an even wider berth.
Shoot, two days ago, there were people writing on the thredz that this must have been a set-up by the New Yorker to help Obama.
You want to gainsay the effectiveness of the Obama campaign's media strategy? You go right ahead.
Funny how you never see anyone who actually wants Obama to win claiming that his response to this was poorly handled.
You must not watch any of the major news networks, joe.
Funny how you never see anyone who actually wants Obama to win claiming that his response to this was poorly handled.
I thought the response was well-handled, I just also thought it was fundamentally dishonest.
Faux outrage can be a winning strategy. That's why people do it. It still diminishes the person who does it.
You must not watch any of the major news networks, joe.
Yeah, that's me.
---it gives him a chance to hit back against the "scary radical whitey-hating Mooslim" stuff---
the vaunted obama media machine kept alive a story wherein the following words were repeated over and over:
"muslim," "extremist," "ak-47," "obama," and "radical."
most of the country only half listens to these types of spats and what they will take away from the story come november is "hey, wasn't there something about obama being a muslim extremist." well done, guys.
btw, is this mccain cartoon supposed to be an insult because it makes him look pretty awesome. how dare you portray mccain as a swashbuckling soldier who resisted torture and is found irresistible by women!
That's outrageous- cancel my subscription, immediately. And send the refund to Code Pink.
The girl with her face in McCain's lap is Jane Fonda.
Hey, if I had vintage 1972 Jane Fonda blowing me, I'd be giving a big thumbs up, too. Holy crap, was she hot in her day.
scratch,
"muslim," "extremist," "ak-47," "obama," and "radical."
I hear you, and there's a lot of sense to what you're saying, but I think the horse has left the barn on that one.
That was the thinking behind Shrum's advice to Kerry not to hit back against the Swift Boat guys.
I don't get the connection to the Obama cover. Barack Obama really isn't Muslim nor is his wife a black panther.
it's so boring to argue with reasonable people. agreed that there is a danger in not responding to rumors, but this is far different from the swift boaters. this is an isolated political cartoon on the cover of a magazine that no swing voters read, not a well-funded, well-coordinated 50-state tv and radio campaign to impugn military service.
also, shrum has terrible instincts, so it's wise to just do the opposite of what he does.
Michelle Obama owns an AK-47? Makes her even hotter in my book.
it's so boring to argue with reasonable people.
You know who else thought it was boring to argue with reasonable people?
Hitler! 😉
this is an isolated political cartoon on the cover of a magazine that no swing voters read, not a well-funded, well-coordinated 50-state tv and radio campaign to impugn military service. This cartoon is, but the content portrayed is absolutely a part of a well-funded, well-coordinated 50 state campaign to smear Obama.
also, shrum has terrible instincts, so it's wise to just do the opposite of what he does. Srsly. Maybe he's good at strategy and message, but he has no tactical sense whatsoever. He would have told Barack Obama to just ignore the Jeremiah Wright stuff. "It'll blow over, don't even dignify with a response. A speech? That's a terrible idea!"
Guy,
Ask her to sign a pack of welding rods, then take a picture with your cell phone.
It makes her even hotter that she's always giving him that "You're not going to get any sleep tonight" look on stage.
We haven't had any hawt in the White House in 45 years.
If that were a real cover I'd think it was funny as hell. But then I thought the Obama one was funny too.
This cartoon is, but the content portrayed is absolutely a part of a well-funded, well-coordinated 50 state campaign to smear Obama.
Look, joe, can we finally stop talking about the Clintons? They lost the nomination.
Yes, Mr. Thacker, you can stop bringing up the Clintons in conversations about the racist rumor-mongering on LGF, FreeRepublic and NRO any time you want.
The idea that they were running that trash at the behest of the Clintons was always implausible, but to continue to push it as this late date is just pathetic.
R C Dean | July 18, 2008, 12:48pm | #
Hey, if I had vintage 1972 Jane Fonda blowing me, I'd be giving a big thumbs up, too.
If you had ANYONE blowing you...
We haven't had any hawt in the White House in 45 years.
And we're not gonna get it this time around, either.
Barack Obama | July 18, 2008, 12:01pm | #
stop picking on me guys... it's not fair.
Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man and give some back.