A calvalcade of comedy

I appeared to have fallen of the face of the Earth, so here’s a double does of cartoons for you.

 

Our first cartoon takes a look at the glory of Web comics, and to tell you the truth, that was the initial inspiration for this series. Originally I had sketched out a sequence of Jim and Jillian at a Web-cartoonists panel, with Jim getting into a violent brawl with a number of his fellow cartoonists. There were going to be many thinly-veiled references to other popular Web comics, but like many of my rejected ideas, it was way too inside and had almost nothing to do with politics.

 

Initially, I was somewhat apprehensive about doing “Internet jokes,” because the Internet  sort of makes fun of itself. I mean, we’ve all chuckled about all the crazy stuff that inhabits it, right? But I decided to go with it because it seemed to be the story’s natural progression.

 

The “Hillary as Rich Uncle Pennybags” is a reference to the news story that the Clintons had made $109 million since Bill left office (now you know why they were so reluctant to release their tax returns). The story has been sort of forgotten, but it always struck me as interesting.

 

“Mark Penn yelling at unions” was a reference to Hillary’s ex-campaign strategist, who despite the campaign’s strong union support, was openly talking to Colombia about creating a free trade agreement. Unions lobbied very hard to rid Penn from the campaign who eventually resigned, although he still consults. See, isn’t it funnier now that I’ve explained everything?

 

The two jokes Jillian mentions in the last panel were an attempt to parody a different type of political cartooning. Instead of attacking editorial page, stuffy, single panel cartoons, I went after hip, angry, cynical cartooning that you’d find on the Internet. Something like Penn screaming at unions wouldn’t appear on the editorial page because it’s too “in your face!”

 

Our second cartoon shows that even being “in your face,” isn’t enough to make you successful on the Internet.

 

The Mohammed reference is a nod to “Fitna,” a rather inflammatory short documentary about Islam and terrorism. The real controversy came from the fact that when it was released on the file sharing Web site Liveleak, it was promptly taken down due to threats to members of the Web site’s staff. 

 

Obviously this is a very serious subject worthy of intense discussion and thought, which is why it’s spectacularly unsuited for this blog.

 

For awhile I had kicked around the idea of Jim and Jillian doing a cartoon with Mohammed as a way of getting attention, but “South Park” did it better than I ever could.

 

Fun Fact #37: I was reading Franceso Marciuliano’s blog, and I found this. You have no idea how cool this is. If you’re reading this Francesco, thanks a lot.

 

Seriously, if you’re not reading his blog, you have to. It’s funnier than anything on The Daily Kos, that’s for sure.

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