Get it?
Obama says:
"I have no response to that."The campaign adds:
The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive.
And we agree.
The artist is Barry Blitt, and I have to say that I think the cover is a hilarious spoof of the fears and lies about Obama. Michelle and Barack are in the Oval Office, doing a celebratory fist bump. There's an Osama Bin Laden portrait on the wall and a burning flag in the fireplace. He's a Muslim and she's a revolutionary. Of course, Obama has to push it aside and can scarcely laugh about it.
Or, maybe, I don't know... maybe it would work to laugh. He's been awfully uptight about things lately. And laughing conveys the instant recognition that it's absurd. Why be surly about it? McCain's supposed to be the cranky guy...
IN THE COMMENTS: ricpic says:
Fears and lies my foot!It's that last line that's making me frontpage this.
The dead on truth about these two America haters.
Congrats Blitt.
And congrats to the Hillary camp inside The New Yorker.
ADDED: Taylor Marsh asks whether The New Yorker would treat John McCain the same way:
Picture a drawing showing a very old man in a wheelchair, his hospital gown adorned with medals... babe of a wife pushing him, as his first wife wipes drool off of McCain's mouth... while Cindy McCain stops to open packages from Chanel. No, I didn't think so either.
Wait. Who's the "babe of a wife" if not Cindy? I don't get the specifics, but I see the point. I think it would be out of bounds because it would be so unappealing. The New Yorker doesn't put drooling disabled persons on the cover. And the Michelle and Barack image has a transgressive, radical chic edge to it, that I suspect excites the magazine's audience.
IN THE COMMENTS: Christopher Althouse Cohen said (about Obama):
He's always been dead serious about everything. Has he ever said anything funny?Perhaps not. Did you notice how unamused he looked in that interview in which his daughters were so lighthearted? Remember when he got pissy about Maureen Dowd saying that his ears stick out? ("I just want to put you on notice... I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.") His supporters may picture him bringing a youthful spirit into the White House, but look at him. He's actually quite stodgy and censorious. Turn off that television.
Now, this will constitute the "turning the page" that people seem to want so badly, since George Bush likes to joke around. The George Bush page was pushing the envelope. (Is that a mixed metaphor?) I still can't get my mind around the picture of him saying "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and then "punch[ing] the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock."
Victoria writes:
[Obama] doesn't poke fun at himself, doesn't use a light touch in his speeches, doesn't seem relaxed at the podium EVER.Blake said:
It's gotten so that I wonder how he will acquit himself at the annual Smith Dinner....
I can't imagine, simply cannot for a second imagine Obama making fun of his background, his race, or mention his pastor and his rants during the Al Smith dinner.
What a dour, touchy time we will have, if he's elected.
Nah. He'll be the Margaret Dumont to our Marx Brothers.Good point! He'll be great fun for the comedians. He's a perfect straight man.
He'll have a terrible time, tho'.
Paco Wové said:
When I saw it, I rolled my eyes and thought, Oh, God, it's the New Yorker trying to be all transgressive again....
Oh, yeah, remember all the mileage they got out of this:
From an interview with Spiegelman:
Q: [O]nyour controversial 1993 Valentine's Day New Yorker cover in which, during the conflict between Hasidim and African Americans in Brooklyn, you portray a Hasidic man and a black woman embracing. Values and worlds colliding, meeting.
AS: It didn't come as a shock to me that this got people to sit up and take notice. I'm interested in visual signs...
Q: How does that apply to the New Yorker cover?
AS: The signs are highly recognizable. The sign for Hasid is clear and unavoidable, without the usual anti-Semitic physiognomy that goes with it. The sign for African-American woman is equally unavoidable, without entering into Aunt Jemima stereotypes or anything of the kind. Then there's this other sign that has to do with the Valentine's Card-the kiss, the field of red with the lacy decoration around it, all of it weaving together separate meanings. The irony is you have these two groups that are at each other's throats at each other's lips instead. That's supposed to conjure up carnality and yet Valentine's Day, the image of Valentine's Day, isn't about carnality but a kind of benign romantic love. All those things course through this image and the impossibility of it is what's so entertaining for me. What got people most upset that week was not other magazines with the usual S&M imagery-chains and whips, leather and hurt-but something quite benign on the surface, playing with signs. Reverend Dougherty, a representative of the black community in Crown Heights, was very upset I used a black woman: one more time, he said, a white man was oppressing a black woman. Why didn't I have a black man and a Hasidic woman, he asked on the radio. Maybe he's a good reverend, I don't know, but he's a rotten art director. A Hasidic man is a lot easier to recognize than a woman with a handkerchief on her head. In terms of visual signs you've got one thing that works and one thing that doesn't. Even more important, I answered him, if I had used a black man and Hasidic woman, you'd be complaining I was once again showing the black man as a rapist and defiler of white woman. This shows me the problem has nothing to do with the signs being shown but the reverberation of those signs in people's heads. The same thing happened in op-ed articles. There was an op-ed in the New York Times in which a woman who was very upset about the New Yorker cover writes about the Jew's lascivious lips. Another person, equally upset in the Washington Post, described the Jew's prim lips. Now you know I can't draw lips that are simultaneously lascivious and prim; I'm limited.
Q: Sure you can.
AS: I did. I just drew lips.
Speaking of reading the signs, and back to the comments, George says:
He's wearing a dress.
She's in pants.
And if you hold the cover up to a mirror, it reads 'Rekroy Wen' which means "Kill Whitey" in Tshivenda, the language of Barack's homeland.
The cover date "July 21" is the anniversary of the founding the KIPRP, the Kenyan Islamic People's Revolutionary Party.
He's also crushing the throat of a bald eagle.
Wake up, America!!
Posts
122 comments:
Why be surly about it?
Because voters are by and large uninformed and many are downright stupid. If the notion catches on with just 1 or 2 percent of the voters it could swing an election. That's why he's surly.
Do blacks ever read The New Yorker ?
I like this:
The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us
Bad news when you have to admit that someone had to explain a joke to you. Bring on the lameness tag.
Can you say backfire? I swear, liberals and leftists try to be to clever for their own good.
Yeah, but being upset about it doesn't undo that thinking. The question isn't whether he should be glad that cover was published, but what is his best reaction to it. I'm saying laughing might be better than surliness.
(my comment was a response to richard)
But it's the New Yorker, Richard. Not known as a RW nuthouse journal. Considering the source, it seems more like a SNL skit, or a National Lampoon bit.
Isn't laughing along a much better tactic?
Sorry, Ann. I was posting while you were writing.
"Victim" is the highest possible status one can attain within the Democratic Party, it would seem.
So, rather than laughing this off like a human being, The Obama must play "victim" like a good Democratic candidate for high office.
(Did he beat Hillary and Edwards in the primaries because he "out-victimed" both of them?)
Yeah, it is like a great SNL skit... That one snapshot conveys a whole scene that would be really funny.
"If the notion catches on with just 1 or 2 percent of the voters it could swing an election."
This is the New Yorker. Who do you think is reading this magazine or paying attention to the covers?
The uninformed or downright stupid?
Come on. Responding like that is downright surly.
I'm a subscriber and I know not to pick it up if I'm feeling uninformed and/or stupid at the moment. Well, maybe pick it up at those moments to scan the cartoons.
At first glance, I thought it was Angela Davis.
And I still think that if we pull the money together to buy a set of Firestone PS860s for Jim Webb, he might reconsider and stick a toe in the water.
Hm...maybe I'm the stiff here, but my first reaction was confusion. I get the Obama as Muslim, flag burning, go Osama picture, but Michelle as a revolutionary with a gun? I've just never seen her as big on the 2nd Amendment...
Small portfolio of Blitt's work.
It's possible he may be Canadian. Hmm.
I fail to see the humor. I find it to be blasphemous. I'm declaring a fatwa on The New Yorker.
Fears and lies my foot!
The dead on truth about these two America haters.
Congrats Blitt.
And congrats to the Hillary camp inside The New Yorker.
Oh c'mon, the picture is totally unrealistic. If it were reflecting real life, the picture would not be bin Laden, but one of Lenin or Trotsky or Alinksy.
Leaden humor is the mark of the left.
Looks like Blitt owes much to Robert Crumb.
BHO better laugh or he will lose some of his intellectual elite.
For generations, those folks have read the NYorker and they have liked its biting humor since it was first published. It would be nothing without its covers and cartoons.
It is impossible for me to imagine John F. Kennedy not having a ready quip for this kind of thing even in his early presidential campaign.
That BHO does not shows a serious chink in his armor.
Barack's wearing high waters, too.
as one of their staff explained to us
For the record, this doesn't mean they didn't get the joke. They just wanted to let the New Yorker explain their incendiary choice of editorial cartoon.
On the other hand...
Are you serious? Why not make a quip about it instead?? Obama and his crew would've looked MUCH cooler if they had shot back:
"You should've seen the cover they had planned for Hillary and Bill in the Oval Office. It involved desks."
But no...victim victim victim.
Cheers,
Victoria
Meade said:
"I fail to see the humor. I find it to be blasphemous. I'm declaring a fatwa on The New Yorker."
How come Meade is funnier 10 times or 20 times a day than a professional cartoonist for the New Yorker?
And Ann - you have been misoverestimating Obama's skills, talent, judgment and brains for some time now.
One thing that nobody brings up much about Obama is that he says he's got slave-owning blood and he seems to quite proud of this.
Note to Obama:
Don't be invested as an elder in the Luo tribe, complete with turban, and then expect not to be made fun of.
I'd laugh if McCain wore a kilt and a tam o'shanter, and I'm British.
Cheers,
Victoria
vnjagvet said...
But it's the New Yorker, Richard. Not known as a RW nuthouse journal.
It is known as a LW nut house journal. RW, LW, a nut house journal is a nut house journal.
It's a chintzy cover because it's just a one-dimensional, smug joke that fails to take into account legitimate concerns about BHO's commitment to the U.S. There's some evidence of a "certain" extremism in Michelle's comments, there are still questions about BHO's background, and his various statements and actions show him to be more of a free agent than someone who supports our fundamental principles. Of course, if he gets this operational then maybe I'll see some of you at the reeducation center.
The reason it's leaden humor is that the right isn't portraying Obama as anything but extremely stupid.
Remember that the guy's rhetoric simply doesn't work on about half the population.
I hear next week's will have Obama peeing on a 14-year-old girl like R. Kelly. How edgy and satirical!
The best thing about satire, is that it overemphasises characteristics which most polite people cringe at.
In the case of black people, just seeing huge lips and flaring noses makes most people queasy.
And notice how the NYer cartoonist went out of his way to give Michelle a big ass Fro.
Cheers,
Victoria
Anyone else struck by how literally white they both are in the picture?
how literally white
A nod to being Whole Food shoppers.
This goes way beyond buyer's remorse, it's pure, unadulterated vengeance.
Well, if you lie down with dogs...
I'm wondering how the New Yorker got a copy of the planned Christmas card from the Obama White House.
And if the ever respectful John McCain weren't so utterly brain-dead, voters might have an alternative.
I figured the biggest shock is that the Obama character is wearing socks with his sandals.
Fashion Forward!
"Look what they've done to my song, Ma"
"Remember that the guy's rhetoric simply doesn't work on about half the population."
I think that a lot of folks are voting for a change in policy, rather than CHANGE. As we get closer to November The impact of eight years of Bush (now McCain) policies won't look good when compared with the impact of the Clinton (now BHO) policies. McCain may have trouble convincing folks that his adopted Bush policies are good for America. The problem isn't Mark* or Phil, the problem is the policies.
*I had CNN on (in the background) when this happened live. I walked out midway through his babbling. To me this was no big deal, I'm well aware of McCain's pivot (from 2000) toward Bush.
This exchange did show why Wolf has been my choice for MTP. He is tough on both sides of the isle, and his questions can be enlightening and relevant. I wonder if he was trying to do some MTP auditioning as he was (probably) closing the door on an auditioning VP.
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
Ferris: If anybody needs a day off, it's Cameron. He has alot of things to sort out before he graduates. He can't be wound this tight and go to college. His roommate'll kill him. I've come close myself. But I like him. He's a little easier to take when you know why he's like he is. The boy cannot relax. Pardon the French but Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks you'd have a diamond.
the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create
Um, you mean like Hillary Clinton?
"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree. (With what the Noble Masses will properly, and correctly be instructed to think if they fail to think that way pre-Obama, before he changes their hearts and makes their lives different.)
Pretty darn elitist snark on a magazine that is pretty elitist themselves.
How haughty and arrogant - the New Yorker, with (170? years) of making a specialty and a hallmark of satirical cartoons, may think it is such a caricature - but Obamessiah and Team Axelrod know better.
They know that like good Obamatons, most readers will find it tasteless and offensive....for it blasphemes the Great Man, the coming moral redeemer of America, himself
And the magazine apparantly erred in poking ridicule at Michelle, when Barack himself commanded media lay off his wife - who is listed as a key senior strategist and campaign advisor.
"alot"? What does that mean?
Chink in is armor? What kind of racist comment is that?
And, as Stan Freberg wrote, "Surly to bed, surly to rise."
Good one, fcai. I should have caught that.
If I had, there is not a chinaman's chance I would have used it.
Miss Felicity Hodder said...
Do blacks ever read The New Yorker ?
No and neither do White people.
George said...
Small portfolio of Blitt's work.
It's possible he may be Canadian. Hmm.
Forget the Clinton moles on this one. I blame Canada .
Lindsey said...Anyone else struck by how literally white they both are in the picture?
I think that's the key to the image. The traditional anti-black cartoon goes in the other direction playing up darkness and simian qualities.
This one almost makes them seem like a White couple playing Radical "Sheik" at a Halloween party.
I like it. It's pretty funny...I laughed a little.
But there is no way Obama should laugh (at least publicly), and he is right to condemn it.
Why?
That's a picture of f**king Osama bin Laden on the wall. Last time I checked, he was wanted for murdering thousands of Americans. Apparently I didn't get the memo that it was ok for 9/11 to be funny amongst politicians, especially ones who want to be president.
Sure, we can laugh. But can you imagine if Bush was caught laughing at a caricature of some sort with him and bin Laden in July of 2004? Hello, president Kerry.
Obama is right to recognize that some parodies should be left for others to enjoy, and he can just move right along.
I love how those on the right (including many of you here) have exploited 9/11 for political gain and wars with all that contrived bull...9/11 changed everything, but now, in this instance with the New Yorker, everybody is able to lighten up (Osama bin Laden is funny!), and use this as yet another senseless, inane attack on Obama, because he's too "uptight" or playing the "victim."
The hypocrisy knows no bounds.
This cover is offensive.
Good satire should be so over the top that it's understood to be satire, right?
So far, the only angry revolution talk has come from Mrs. Obama and Rev. Wright, and Barry O acts like Mr. World rather than Mr. America, so I guess I'm saying without the story this cover is confusing because it's so close to how they represent themselves.
A great cover would be one that gets people buzzing and interested in the article.
This cover gets people buzzing and makes it less likely that anyone will consider the article.
Do blacks ever read The New Yorker ?
No one except pretentious, wanna-be New Yorkers read the New Yorker.
I moved out 30 years ago, never looked back and haven't read the New Yorker since. However, if I had a subscription, I'd cancel it.
My first reaction was: transgressive and hilarious. (No, I don't routinely find transgressive things funny.)
It's the sort of thing that will be interpreted by New Yorker readers as a parody of right-wing paranoia about the Obamas, and will be interpreted by literal-minded right-wing paranoids as the truth. I can imagine it circulating online with a "See? I told you so" caption.
I think Ann's second thought is right: the best way Obama could have reacted -- first -- is to laugh heartily. He might only then have expressed concern that some people would take it literally. (But those people are lost to him anyway.)
How will this be interpreted in Afghanistan?
Iraq?
Iran?
What will OBL think?
It sort of seems like we ought to be thinking about how this will play outside Peoria.
Suggestion for a future New Yorker cover: In the foreground we see Cheney & McCain slapping high fives over a newspaper headline announcing the latest casualty figures in Iraq. In the background Cindy and Bush share a line of cocaine under a potrait of John D Rockefeller smiling benignly down upon them. Pretty witty, huh?
William, they could do that, but Newsweek would sue them for plagiarism.
If this is what passes for humor over there on the elitist left that the New Yorker serves then I guess my suspicion that lefties have no sense of humor. The cover isn't offensive, it isn't funny and it isn't very well drawn. It's an attempt to garner attention.
In the end it's boring.
Just because no one here seems to have mentioned it - this cover is pretty specific response to a comment made on (as far as I can tell)Fox News about a the couple sharing a 'Terrorist Fist Jab.'
Here is a small summary (I can't get the hyper link to work - sorry)
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/deconstructing-the-bump/
This is what happens when I leave the house for coffee! Hilarity erupts and there is mild laughter; the cognoscenti grouse and become grumpy!
Why is everyone so surly, their names might have been spelled correctly?
Perhaps the New Yorker can make amends to Black Messiah worshippers with a new cover during convention week.
We all know that unlike other Presidents and nominees and Party bigwigs, Obamessiah is too big, too important to the masses to constrain him to a mere giant Convention Center - when a Stadium beckons the true "rock star" to be merciful and allow many more people that have such a deep craving in their souls to personally, physically see him, breath the very air he breathes.
I watched some of the true "rock star" videos of arenas filled to see all the big rock stars that I was too young to see as a MTV kid. Stones. Eagles. My guilty favorite was the ELO show, for the sheer excess and ego, as well as the great music of Jeff Lynne.
A pre-show climaxed by this half a million dollar spaceship prop slowly landing and the band spilling out surrounded in smoke, lasers, pyrotechnics.
Perhaps Obama can harness his limitless self-esteem into a great show at Mile High.(the old name Denverites still use).
My fantasy show? 3 hours of MLK, celebrities, Obama the Man, Himself..
First hour the tribute to Saint Martin and the 45th anniversary of his plagarized "I have a Dream" Speech. Followed by a pantheon of Hollywood celebrities intro'd and each given a few seconds to soundbite why Obama has changed their lives. Then a special poem written just for the Great Man is read by Maya Angelou. Then a spaceship can come down that looks like a flying saucer version if the Great Seal of Obama. The ramp goes down, and a litter carrying Obama is born by Jesse Jackson, The Clintons, Al Sharpton, and the King Children (separated based on current King Family lawsuits against one another by the "reverends".)
They circle the stage as Barack blows kisses to the Denver masses and to the hundreds of millions watching - perhaps even on pay-per-view - ready for the sick to begin being cured, world peace to finally come, the ocean's rise stopped, and the beginning of the healing of the Planet through Obama, started.
Who better to introduce him that that famous Colorado Native American and fellow Planet-Healer, Ward Churchill?
After touching some members of the audience with a grave illness or impairmment, another puff of smoke, lasers and a slightly impaired Teddy Kennedy (tumor or scotch?) will greet Obama.
Finally a flyover by 8 UN Peacekeeping Helicopters in formation and an ACLU rapid lawyer dispatch jet.
He will then read from the teleprompter what Team Axelrod has prepared for their vessel to dispense, dripping his black preacher mannerismed honey. To adulation, particularly at the Convention Hall, where Democrats , except a large number of stoney-faced bulldykes, weep and huge one another that they cannot be with HIM.
Where the night ends as the electricity in the Hall ignites as realization BOTH Obamas and their children will be born on his litter into the Convention Hall - litter carriers beefed up by Hollywood celebrities paying 20K for the honor.
Nothin' but "Obama! Obama! Obama in the Highest!" praise 'Till the lights go out.
Incomplete.
Where are the three blonds?
Two steering the behemoth towards the one doing the Lewinsky.
I loved the commenter at Politico who wondered if it was a painting or did they just take a picture of the two at home.
Once you finally make it past the cover, it's pretty interesting reading.
Transgressive? Playing to their highly educated left-leaning demo better than Heifetz could play a Strad doesn't seem all that 'transgressive.' Hell, White Castle is more transgressive.
“There are no jokes in Islam.” - Ayatollah Khomeini
It's the sort of thing that will be interpreted by New Yorker readers as a parody of right-wing paranoia about the Obamas, and will be interpreted by literal-minded right-wing paranoids as the truth. I can imagine it circulating online with a "See? I told you so" caption.
You know, I very much doubt that.
Most right-wingers will just be tickled pink that the 'attacks' (presumed or real) have come from Obama's camp, or from a fellow Democrat like Hillary Clinton.
McCain hasn't laid a finger on the guy, nor have the Republicans.
In what has to be the oddest political version of rope-a-dope I've EVER seen, it's all his buddies doing the punching.
It's like watching a continuous loop of Howard Dean's imploding YEAGHHHHHHH! over and over again.
I'm so enjoying this it's not funny.
Cheers,
Victoria
Hell, White Castle is more transgressive.
Ron, you're exactly right. This was too self-conscious to be truly transgressive. It's also very weak satire.
The cover in a way reminds me of Borat.
Though a Jew himself, his film portrayed Jews as loathesome cockroaches, if only to poke fun at anti-semites.
The problem is not the general audience not getting it. It's the literalists using it for their own ends.
The French have a saying, if you don't want to see evil, do not paint the devil on the wall.
The New Yorker just painted the devil on the wall.
Cheers,
Victoria
Chink in is armor? What kind of racist comment is that?
Heh. If I hadn't been on a badly-delayed flight tonight, I might have been the first one to write a comment like the above. Coming from an area where, just this past week, a county commissioner decried the use of the term "black hole" as racist, it's as if you can't say anything anymore without offending someone.
It's a good thing, then, that our Constitution does not guarantee a right to not have one's feelings hurt. (This is as it should be.)
Should be a picture of Che, not bin Laden.
Should be a dinner invitation on the table addressed to Ahmadinejad.
And a newspaper headline reading "Obama saves troops by pulling out of Iraq" with a smaller subhed "Genocide ensues".
What? Too close?
He's always been dead serious about everything. Has he ever said anything funny?
He's always been dead serious about everything. Has he ever said anything funny?
I've commented on this trait of his a few times at my blog.
He doesn't poke fun at himself, doesn't use a light touch in his speeches, doesn't seem relaxed at the podium EVER.
It's gotten so that I wonder how he will acquit himself at the annual Smith Dinner.
Gore joked that he and Lieberman (an Orthodox Jew) would work for America "24/6", and "I never exaggerate. You can ask Tipper or any of my 11 daughters."
Bush laid into himself too.
Nodding to the white-tie and tails crowd, he quipped:
"Some people call you the elite, I call you my base"
(Without a hint it was a joke, Michael Moore used that against him in Fahrenheit 9/11)
I can't imagine, simply cannot for a second imagine Obama making fun of his background, his race, or mention his pastor and his rants during the Al Smith dinner.
What a dour, touchy time we will have, if he's elected.
Cheers,
Victoria
What a dour, touchy time we will have, if he's elected.
Nah. He'll be the Margaret Dumont to our Marx Brothers.
He'll have a terrible time, tho'.
"White Castle"? Why must race be injected into every story? What is wrong with you people? Sheesh!
When I saw it, I rolled my eyes and thought, Oh, God, it's the New Yorker trying to be all transgressive again....
E. Core wrote:
This cover gets people buzzing and makes it less likely that anyone will consider the article.
Maybe that was the point. From what I've seen, the actual article paints Obama as just another opportunistic, power-hungry pol.
Q: How many Obama supporters does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's not funny.
I agree with ZPS that Obama cannot laugh about this, lest he spawn an attack ad Barack Obama thinks Osama Bin Laden is funny! Is that what we want in a President??
MMan: Why are you equating BHO to the NFL? Whatsamatteryou, won't the Green Bay Smackers be sufficient for you Cheeseheads?
I'm not thinking about football until the Brett Favre imbroglio is over.
He's wearing a dress.
She's in pants.
And if you hold the cover up to a mirror, it reads 'Rekroy Wen' which means "Kill Whitey" in Tshivenda, the language of Barack's homeland.
The cover date "July 21" is the anniversary of the founding the KIPRP, the Kenyan Islamic People's Revolutionary Party.
He's also crushing the throat of a bald eagle.
Wake up, America!!
Very nice! Hillary's camp strikes back.
Almost the first thing I heard on my local news station was that many find the New Yorker Cover tasteless and offensive "and so do we"!
Their circulation is slighly under 1,100mm. Will they get a bump?
I'm sure the magazine will do a series of Obama redemptive pieces for those confused New Yorkers who won't know how to vote.
The Michelle O. caricature reminded me of Angela Davis.
Some other New Yorker covers:
To help balance out the Obama outrage and sooth those sensitive nerves, some good old fashion Bush Bashing-
2006 Best Cover News Winner
February 27, 2007
2006 Best Cover Winner
The New Yorker (September 19, 2005) - Flood in the Oval Office
Not a cover but a caricature accompanying a S Hersch article.
Jan 22, 2007
Some other covers -
Good 'un July 2006
Here they seem to turn on their own Nov 29, 2004
A kinda fav Mar 29, 1976. Of New Yorkers, by New Yorkers, for New Yorkers.
I'm pretty sure that is Angela Davis.
I'm pretty sure that is Angela Davis.
Does that make it more or less transgressive?
Nice cammies by the way. Angela always could fillout a pair of cammies.
Agree wholeheartedly with those who said the correct response is to laugh at it. A sense of humor goes a long way in politics and Obama is too damn serious for me to take him seriously.
Mr. Blitt's cartoon is somewhat disrespectful.
He should have given Michelle a nicer set of jugs.
Taylor Marsh?
Barry Blitt, get going!
And congrats to the Hillary camp...
I'm thinking, Rove.
Much risk, little reward.
Oh, jeez, I thought the woman with the 'fro was Angela Davis.
Also, you can't see Barack's right hand in the illustration.
He's probably holding a fat reefer.
Or pleasuring himself.
Maybe both.
Wake up, America!
Looks like they've outgrown the furniture.
"it's as if you can't say anything anymore without offending someone."
I'm offended by that observation.
Thanks bearbee for posting some other covers from the New Yorker to give us some perspective. There have been many offensive and crude representations of Bush in the past 8 years which seem to have not bothered very many on the left. However, let the chosen one be lampooned all hell breaks loose.
Satire always contains an element of truth, otherwise it wouldn't be satire.
If Obama gets elected, I predict 4 years of humorlessness, crushing of free speech. No more references to angel food cake, black holes, devils food cake or being in the black financially or anything else (which includes practically everything) that could possibly be construed as racist.
No more laughing for you!!!
In the New Yorker and its reader's view anyone who doesn't support Obama does so only because they are knuckel dragging right wing parnoids convinced she is a black panter and he a muslim terrorist mole. This cover is just one part of the left's plan to make all criticism of the chosen one racist and beyond the pale of polite discussion. It is really quite brilliant and fascist when you think about it. Since Obama can't speak at the Brandenburg Gate while in Germany, I am sure the old parade grounds at Nuremburg are open. It would be very appropriate.
It was unintentional on the part of the liberals at The New Yorker who wanted to exploit what they think are 'unfounded' fears, but what they succeeded in doing was an actual portrayal; an accurate reflection of Obama's character. He's accumulated FARC, William Ayers, Hamas, Louis Farrakhan, and Kim Jong Il among his friends, admirers, and supporters.
The picture isn't that far off.
"It was unintentional on the part of the liberals at The New Yorker who wanted to exploit what they think are 'unfounded' fears, but what they succeeded in doing was an actual portrayal; an accurate reflection of Obama's character"
Insults only work if there is a grain of truth to them. For example, a cartoon of McCain dressed in terrorist garb would not work as an insult because it is so obviously untrue. But, when you do one of Obama, with his ties to Ayers and company, his desire to talk to all enemies of the US and so forth, the insult, while a gross exageration, works because there is some truth to it.
I suspect the people at the New Yorker are so out of touch with the rest of the country, they would never dream there is any truth to the cartoon and see the cartoon as a slam on conservatives. The reality is that with the rest of the country it may stick more than they thought.
Perhaps George is onto something.
Cannabis on the mantle?
Ann says...
I still can't get my mind around the picture of him saying "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter" and then "punch[ing] the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock."
Because he's not a complete fucking retard? A guy with a 25% approval rating back home still addressing world leaders in street slang, this time wiping his finger below his nose and says "Yo Harper". That's right, you think that's awesome. Nevermind.
There have been many offensive and crude representations of Bush in the past 8 years which seem to have not bothered very many on the left.
Don't confuse not bothered with ignorance. Blame Prof. A for not posting pictures of them for discussion!
The only one of the covers posted that made me actually think was the Chinese sewing the American Flag. The others were eye-rolls, much like the Obama one.
"You're likable enough, Hillary."
That, Christopher Althouse Cohen, is Obama humor.
Ha, ha.
Rove is chortling, no doubt. He knows you guys too well.
Also that Crumb cover with the snotty porno punk as the New Yorker dandy Eustace Tilly...And the gay sailors kissing in Times Square, ala Eisenstadt's famous photo
"Studiously avoiding the tough-hombre style of earlier charismatic figures, he phrases his vision in the tranquilizing accents of Oprah-land. His charisma is grounded in empathy rather than authority, confessional candor rather than muscular strength, metrosexual mildness rather than masculine testosterone. His power of sympathetic insight is said to be uncanny: “Everybody who’s dealt with him,” columnist David Brooks says, “has a story about a time when they felt Obama profoundly listened to them and understood them.”
From a City Journal article about Sen. Obama as a hubris-ridden charismatic leader.
The humorlessness is an interesting insight. It's important to be able to laugh at yourself.
I am waiting for the explosion New Yorker mag T-shirts to hit the marketplace, with or without added verbiage.
Is unauthorized use a copyright infringement?
Yawn.
The same people on the right who have been screaming Barack HUSSEIN Obama The MUSLIM will DESTROY America totally get the New Yorker humor and love it! They're peeved that Obama can't take a joke, because, you know, the idea that Obama is anywhere close to that caricature, now that it's convenient to level a different kind of label for him (Grumpy McSourpuss), couldn't be farther from the truth!
Grasping for so many straws and spinning wildly in hypocrisy must be so exhausting.
New Yorker Mag padding the bottom line. Step up and get them. Hot off the press.
Cover Print
because the new yorker is a liberal rag, its humor is leaden and unfunny
but, at the same time, obama is a humorless prig for not finding it funny.
so confusing!
Obama is not the only one without a sense of humor. It's an epidemic in these parts.
Somehow, I just got this funny feeling that this is all about the Jews.
Actually, I think y'all of the "So you're saying it's not funny but criticizing Obama for not laughing at it" have missed the boat.
What Obama's being criticized for in this thread is not laughing at himself. The idea, as MadisonMan suggests that Obama shouldn't or couldn't laugh about it because that would be fuel for a negative campaign ad sort of underscores that.
I'm reminded of a famous incident some of you may recall:
My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes...
Oh, the hysteria.
Because, of course, Reagan was on the verge of starting World War III at any second, in the minds of media/liberals.
What might have Obama said in response to this? "Oh, they'll love this back in the madrassa."
He should embrace those who would paint him as a Muslim terrorist, because most people are not only going to dismiss that out of hand, they're probably going to call into question other criticism that they've heard of him.
This illustration will force Obama to make yet more contrived demonstrations of flag-loving patriotism. It will strike a false note with many viewers.
Here's an official White House photo of Hillary in her Hijab. I haven't been able to find a foolish McCain photo yet:
http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/photo-ClintonWH3.html
Obama is a serious guy, not a jokester. Most humor is at someone's expense, and I don't see Obama as either sadistic or masochistic. I never worked under an executive who ever cracked a joke. Has W. produced any yuks over the past eight years?
I never worked under an executive who ever cracked a joke.
How awful. Best execs I've ever worked for had great senses of humor.
I think he and the campaign surveyed their options in advance. He could do as he did and be accused of humorlessness. The other option, acting amused, would leave him open to accusation of elitism as defined by (a) 'getting' New Yorker humor, and/or (b) appreciating irony.
In short, I think he just saved the Pennsylvania vote.
Obama is clearly quoting Zorak.
(Space Ghost: I'll spin your head off so fast it'll travel back in time!
To a period when bugs wore suits and opened doors while saying "Thank you" and "Yes, please."
Zorak: Uh... I have no response to that.)
As an added bonus, it echoes Zorak's rejection of an attempt by the white male boss-man Space Ghost to subjugate him into menial servitude.
It all makes sense now, doesn't it?
It is really nice to see someone out here who " gets it. " And you really don't have to be a law professor to " get it " but the yuppies around here in the Obama for President office are too busy furiously fondling their i-phones to come up for air.
Even after his outrageous vote for FISA I am still gonna vote for him.
Any New Yorker subscriber would have turned to the tag line " The Politics of Fear " and understood. But these kids would have told Jonathan Swift that his recipe for cooking and eating children was insulting because it didn't use ethnic sauces.
I never worked under an executive who ever cracked a joke.
I've worked under several. A certain amount of cynicism and self-deprecation can really help a working relationship.
Has W. produced any yuks over the past eight years?
"Farewell from the world's #1 polluter" made me laugh.
My favorite Bush humorous moment, though, came from a meeting between Bush and some Iraqi charity workers, in which one of the latter felt compelled to confess to having been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in college. Bush replied "that's ok, my college days weren't my best either".
Maybe he'll take the idea of governing more seriously as well.
I find odd that no one has taken seriously the New Yorker's claims that they wanted to destroy racism through satire so that Obama could win.
Has W. produced any yuks over the past eight years?
Did you somehow miss every single Correspondent's Dinner these past 8 years?
They were HILARIOUS, and it was all about Dubya poking fun at himself.
"Ah, those were the good ole days"
P.S.: Laura's schtick was the best.
Cheers,
Victoria
Ah, those were the good ole days"
GWB has shown that he can take the heat. While I dislike many of his policies, I don't dislike the man.
It's a pity people don't/can't distinguish.
"Laura's schtick was the best."
Yeah, I'll never forget the joke about masturbating a horse. How she got away with that, I'll never now.
Yep, Howard Kurtz took offense at the NYer's use of "art," "...a ticking time bomb!"
I'm certain that was in line with his objection to "Piss Christ" when that furor bubbled up to the surface.
Probably it turns out that we object when only our Oxen have been al-Gored.
Yesbut. . .
Laughing about patriotism. It just isn't allowed. All the more reason to do it? Yesbut. . .
If O wants to be all cool and sophisticated, fine. I thought he wanted to be PRESIDENT.
Didn't you?
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