३० ऑक्टोबर, २०१८

The New Yorker presents a gloomy look ahead to the midterm elections.

It's a 9-panel comic by Ali Fitzgerald, "America!: A Pre-Midterm-Election Guide to Hibernation."

६१ टिप्पण्या:

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

If you can't see it because you don't have a subscription, please just move on. It's well drawn, funny, and apt, and if you miss it, you miss it. Please don't comment just to say that.

Arashi म्हणाले...

So if there is no blue tsunami, all proper thinking folks should hibernate for 7 months? Yeah - that will help. So when they come out of their caves, and Donald Trump is still POTUS - what do they do next, commit seppuku in Times Square?

It is another election - not the end of the freaking world. Get some perspective for chrissakes.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Hopefully, the New Yorker will be so gloomy after the mid-terms they will commit suicide - but they won't.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Funny and apt.

Now, there's a combination you rarely see.

Fernandinande म्हणाले...

I can see it and don't have a prescription.

Features Eric the Fruitbat!

Temujin म्हणाले...

I thought it was pretty funny, and well illustrated. And, yes, totally New York. I have family there who are still in fetal positions from Nov. 2016.

Arashi म्हणाले...

It is funny - but only because so many people actually think the midterms are going to end life as we know it in the US of A.

Michael K म्हणाले...

The suspicion is starting to creep in and displace the jubilation at the Blue Wave.

Karen of Texas म्हणाले...

Dear God, pleeease let them hibernate. Go for that cocoon look - it'll not only isolate you from us but also us from you.

Just imagine - no more tantrums, marches, freakouts... Is there a song in there?

Tommy Duncan म्हणाले...

I guess you had to be there.

Arashi म्हणाले...

Now that is even funnier.

So if no blue take over, and the left then cannot approach any sort of civil discourse, how much more are they going to act out in public? Will there be mass suicides at Whole Foods? Will the Seattle city government emigrate to North Korea? Will Portland burn itself to the ground in protest. Will the entire state of California just give up and ask Mexico if they can become the nortern most state of Mexico?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Pittsburgh Synagogue Rabbi: Donald Trump 'Certainly Welcome' Following Tree of Life Shooting

Haters tell a different story.

Dave in Tucson म्हणाले...

> funny, and apt,

I would've said self-indulgent narcissism, but potayto, potahto, I guess.

MayBee म्हणाले...

Really. Things are so good in this country right now. Ignore the people who want to make it sound awful. They are trying to raise money via politics or advertising.

JackWayne म्हणाले...

Who really thinks the terminally insane will hibernate after the midterms?

Birkel म्हणाले...

Is the New Yorker paid by Big Tech and Democrat donors to create these cartoons or stories?
Or is that just the Weakly Standard?

I just don't see the humor.
Seems basic.

Arashi म्हणाले...

I think they will just get more vocal and violent, aided and abbetted by the MSM and the Democrats - and it will be DJT and the Russians fault.

Arashi म्हणाले...

Oh , I forgot the /sarc tag..

SGT Ted म्हणाले...

It's actually kind of boring.

Michael K म्हणाले...

OMG! Beto's wife is a billionaire heiress.

Whoda thunk ?

Sam L. म्हणाले...

I found it...weak. Weren't New Yorker cartoons supposed to be pretty good? Not this one.

Curious George म्हणाले...

I can see it. Meh.

Mister Brickhouse म्हणाले...

Makes me glad I'm not a gpod hu-white. I know because only good whites have bat-mitzvahs.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM म्हणाले...

Or How To Waive The Blues

bgates म्हणाले...

It's a 9-panel comic

not very long, by modern graphic novel standards, though it feels interminable.

Bad Lieutenant म्हणाले...

Lame, feeble, worthless. And that's with pleasing subject matter! Althouse, all your taste is in in your mouth.

Howard म्हणाले...

Waddaya expect from New Yonkers, eh Lieutenant

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

Ann, I'm glad you like it, because I found it mildly amusing, but not very funny.

I'm honest and not trying to be condescending about this. Every time I encounter something from The New Yorker that's supposed to be funny, I can't see the joke.

I had picked up "Rejected Cartoons from The New Yorker," and laughed out loud several times. Some of them were vulgar, some were cringe-inducing, but most of them were far funnier than what I read in the magazine.

Then, I picked up a book that's nominated for the Thurber humor prize: Jenny Allen's “Would Everybody Please Stop? Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas.” It even has a blurb from Andy Borowitz.

Nothing. A late middle age woman complaining about her life. The funniest, if you put a gun to my head, might be the one in which she's flirting with a younger man at some dinner. It had a nice pathetic ring to it that reminded me of Dorothy Parker's short stories. (The other nominees was John Hodgman for his memoir of a sad childhood and another memoir about a woman's childhood with a R.C. priest for a father.)

Now this comic. Nicely drawn. The "bat mitzvah" line was a nice pun. But nothing about it was relatable. Abandoned screenplays? Worrying about your sexuality (maybe in the '70s about your geyness, but now?) Why would a snake be a distraction (compared with the tweet, which I understand).

Is this how well-off New Yorkers think nowadays? That must be it. All that wealth and comfort, and the niggling thought that nobody apart from themselves take them seriously.

Which, considering the election, is true.

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

I should have finished: So Ann, if you have any insights on who this is funny to, I'd be interested in hearing it.

Howard म्हणाले...

The shouts and murmurs page is NEVER funny. Humor is the hardest art.

Howard म्हणाले...

+In answer to Bills question: a mental patient.

Molly म्हणाले...

(eaglebeak)

Glad I cancelled my sub when I did. But I can still see it....

Suggest buying The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker (Book & CD) instead.

DanTheMan म्हणाले...

I know it's parody, but I suspect there are many on the left who deal with grief in exactly this way: surround themselves with scented candles, drag a friend over, and debate their sexuality.
Whatever works, I guess....

tcrosse म्हणाले...

I thought it was hilarious, in the New Yorker cartoon sense of the term. But who said that any New Yorker cartoon could be captioned "I'm thinking of killing myself"?

Qwinn म्हणाले...

Replace every caption with "I think I'll kill myself."

Yep. Makes it funnier (not that it's difficul5). Still works.

Qwinn म्हणाले...

Damnit, tcrosse beat me to it.

buwaya म्हणाले...

Neurotic humor.
Or making fun of neurotics?

This is one of those caste-markers for anxiety. The liberals become loudly depressed and neurotic, the rightists quietly prepare for war, buying munitions and planting caches. Or they just as quietly self-medicate with opioids and commit suicide. Not all of both tribes, but enough to create stereotypes.

Under stress the left screams and talks and publishes pieces in the New Yorker, the right quietly does something, even if it is self-destructive.

FIDO म्हणाले...

I have had oysters, Vodka, hockey and time w my sweetie. Let them rage and rail. Let them be miserable.

I am content

dwick म्हणाले...

Just another reason why I give thanks every day that my ancestors moved out of New York some 200 years ago...

Ty म्हणाले...

So apart from the Jewish bat, which is a bit difficult to interpret charitably, this cartoon mostly reminds me of Silence of the Lambs. This bear might be a serial killer.

Or maybe I just didn't understand it.

Michael K म्हणाले...

Under stress the left screams and talks and publishes pieces in the New Yorker, the right quietly does something, even if it is self-destructive.

In Ambrose's book, "Citizen Soldiers" he says new replacements would show up with almost no training, They would come up to the line, talk, light cigarettes and make noise. The combat veterans would tell them to shut up and be quiet.

In 3 days lots of them would be dead.

These kids might be their grandkids, if they had had any kids.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Weeeeeeee this is fun.

you gotta take what you can get.

Churchy LaFemme: म्हणाले...

Now, Peter Arno could draw a New Yorker cartoon.

Wince म्हणाले...

Amusing. Off-beat. Politics didn’t weigh on my impression of the comic’s worth as art.

Must’ve missed something, I’m proud to say.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil म्हणाले...

It is another election - not the end of the freaking world. Get some perspective for chrissakes.

10/30/18, 6:11 PM

Every election in recent memory has been treated - by both sides - as The Most Important Election Ever. (I think 2016 actually was.)

If the government were smaller and less intrusive, fewer people would feel like it will the end of the freaking world if their side loses.

PM म्हणाले...

1 Not even the NYT has tds as badly as The NYer and that's saying something.

2 That demographic really believed the midterms would bring about impeachment.

Douglas B. Levene म्हणाले...

I found the comic very funny and encouraging. Next Tuesday is probably not going to be the disaster we feared a few months ago. Praise be.

Biff म्हणाले...

Bill Peschel said..."Ann, I'm glad you like it, because I found it mildly amusing, but not very funny. I'm honest and not trying to be condescending about this. Every time I encounter something from The New Yorker that's supposed to be funny, I can't see the joke."

It's not unusual for me to find New Yorker cartoons to be amusing, but that usually comes with a feeling that they're not nearly as funny as they are "supposed" to be. I lived in Manhattan for a few years, and I find that I get more out of the cartoons by picturing acquaintances of mine from those days as the characters in the cartoons. The cartoons definitely capture a zeitgeist that is pretty common in NYC, especially uptown.

I suppose that I can appreciate the cartoons as being strong examples of a particular genre, while not being a particular fan of the genre, in the same way that I can appreciate the technical skills of certain musicians or artists without caring much for their actual works.

Biff म्हणाले...

PS. tcrosse and Qwinn mentioned the "I'm going to kill myself" / "I think I'm going to kill myself" caption gag. I think that really does capture an unspoken, snarky world-weariness that underlies a fair amount of New Yorker humor.

I'm not sure if there are earlier appearances of the caption gag, but David Burge of Iowahawk fame has referred to it as "Burge's Law" a few times over the years. https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/447763019628425217

See also http://ace.mu.nu/archives/337972.php

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

That's hysterical!

Robert Cook म्हणाले...

"Now, Peter Arno could draw a New Yorker cartoon."

Apparently, that cartoon is where that phrase originated, to become a catch-phrase!

rehajm म्हणाले...

It's revealing that there's an easy politics to sexuality equivalence with these people.

I miss Obama the Boyfriend. Or Bill Clinton the Boyfriend. Or a cute Kennedy.

अनामित म्हणाले...

Lame. Very lame.

Bill Peschel: Then, I picked up a book that's nominated for the Thurber humor prize: Jenny Allen's “Would Everybody Please Stop? Reflections on Life and Other Bad Ideas. It even has a blurb from Andy Borowitz.

Nothing. A late middle age woman complaining about her life.


The titles are always a give-away. "Would Everybody Please Stop"? Lol. Always sound like Onion parodies. They're written by and for people who are parodies of themselves. And/or people who never got over the "Young Adult" stage of reading and writing.

(I'm always getting Audible and Kindle ads in my email for crap with like this. Why? I have never in my life bought anything remotely resembling this genre of writing.)

अनामित म्हणाले...

Molly: Suggest buying The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker (Book & CD) instead.

Yes. I didn't find the linked panels lame because "New Yorker cartoons" aren't my cup of tea. The classics are, well, classics. (But I haven't looked at the New Yorker in years. I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.)

The Crack Emcee म्हणाले...

The New Yorker presents a gloomy look ahead to the midterm elections.

I can hardly blame them.

FIDO म्हणाले...

Funny. I am not gloomy at all at all.

The WORST that happens is the Dems take the house and shut down investigations into the FBI.

Does anyone not a partisan Democrat think that is a good look for Democrats?

Does anyone think impotent Imprachment talk is a good look for Democrats?

It is a beautiful day out.

M Jordan म्हणाले...

I don’t lie New Yorker humor. It’s innerlectual. And I’m merely a pseudo-innerlect.

Unknown म्हणाले...


Ali's

"Donald Trump and I" contains even greater quantities of Schadenfreude...

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/donald-trump-and-i-have-the-same-favorite-song


Read while playing some Beck
I'm a loser

Thank you Ann for this delicious taste of what he hope all New Yorkers are feeling every minute.. you bastards

<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/ali-fitzgerald>https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/ali-fitzgerald - her collection of belly button lint</a>

Bill Peschel म्हणाले...

Thanks, people, especially Biff, for confirming that New Yorker cartoons are reflective of a very inbred parochial environment.

Seriously, the contrast between what I find funny and what the New Yorker finds funny is pretty extreme. I wrote a review of the rejected cartoons book. Ignore the words, I posted three examples from the book.

Unknown म्हणाले...

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/post-election-nihilist-horoscope

Ali's Post election nihilist horoscope is a bit over the top to make it through...

hstad म्हणाले...

I really don't understand the hype about this election. Most President's loose the House after Presidential elections. Hell, the next election is only 2 years away. The House can't accomplish anything in that time period. Moreover, if the Repubs., hold the Senate the the Dems., carved out a 'hallow victory'. Finally, you still have President Trump and he does have a very powerful 'veto'. Also, Obama said - “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” so does President Trump. Therefore, don't understand the hysteria other then ratings bonanza.