Feb 18 2009
Chimp humor
This is what passes for humor in the New York Post…
The reference, of course, is to President Obama, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that was signed into law yesterday, and this story.
Right wingers appear to believe this cartoon is absolutely hilarious. They fail to understand why anyone would be offended by the bigotry, vitriol and racism implied (not even implied — blatantly presented) in it.
How can you not be offended by something like this?
UPDATE: An “apology” from The Post… “…to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.” The apology continues… “Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.” Wow. That’s some apology. Consider the source.
UPDATE #2: “NAACP calls for firing of N.Y. Post cartoonist.”
24 Responses to “Chimp humor”
Racism like that is not ignorable.
unless you are ignorant..
in the truest since of the word.
So they haven’t apologized yet ?
@RE Ausetkmt :
No, and it’s doubtful they will. So far they are standing by the “cartoonist.” They actually claim to see nothing wrong with this atrocity.
It just never stops doesn’t. And the republicans wonder why we think they are racist?
Please don’t assume that all republicans are racists. I am a republican and I found this cartoon to be offensive.
Sometimes I think that the UK goes too far in terms of political correctness, but I have to tell you that if such a cartoon was published in Britain both the cartoonist and the publisher would be quite rightly prosecuted.
I’m all for free speech …
But this displays how embarrassingly low, some people will sink!
It’s just plain ridiculous – not funny!
unbelievable! But really what’s going on in their mind!?!
The NY Post has always been nothing more than a fish wrapper
This is simply incredible. This is why the Attorney General said that Americans need to talk about race. And the implications of the institutional authorities versus the animalistic outsiders is startling. This is a reinforcement of the police abuses based in part on racial prejudices. Stunning and sad that this would appear unapologetically in the NY Post.
At the risk of drawing fire let me present this alternative take:
First the cartoon is not particularly funny, but your reaction to it is a great illustration of seeing what you want to see…
At first glance I did not see it as a condemnation of Obama but of Congress, that the bill is so flawed and irresponsible, that it must have been written by an ape.
If you are predisposed to find fault and insult in every cartoon/story/comment critical of your point of view – you will succeed. My understanding of the process is that Congress writes the bills. The President can only influence, and then sign or not sign. This cartoon specifically targets the writer of the bill.
@Dan Brantley : You’ll draw no fire from me. You are as entitled to your view as I am to mine. Plus, I realize that this is the spin the right is trying to put on this insult to the senses. However, if you think about, you will realize that the vast majority of Americans view the stimulus bill as “Obama’s bill.” He started pushing for it before he even took office. To try to excuse this bigot who drew this cartoon by saying that the chimp was meant to represent congress and not the president is just silliness. Besides, are you saying that it is alright to advocate violence against members of congress, specifically the Democratic members of congress since it was they who supposedly wrote this bill? (That wasn’t fire, was it?)
I can’t even start to express how offensive I found this cartoon – and how much more offensive I find the Post’s reaction to the outrage about it. I was always taught that when you’ve offended someone, even inadvertently, you apologize for the offense instead of making excuses for it. It’s amazing to me that no one in the chain of production looked at that and said “Whoa. That’s totally NOT okay.” It shouldn’t take an Al Sharpton to see the blatant racism in it.
Again, you libs are proving your ignorance. Obama DID NOT WRITE THE BILL! This (very funny) cartoon is referring to the ‘so stupid a monkey had to write it’ Nancy “The Queen” Pelosi’s socialistic ‘stimulus’ bill.
Get off your high horses and get a life.
It was just poor taste….good humor does not have to be explained.
@James : Sorry, pal, but we’ve already been over this ground. Sometimes it’s a good idea to read the earlier comments before you start pounding the keyboard.
So you actually think that turning the chimpanzee in this cartoon into Nancy Pelosi makes it all right? You are strange little man, James.
I know…Comparing this poor, dead monkey to Pelosi is incredibly insulting to the chimp. My apologies to his family. May he rest in peace.
And let’s not forget, boys and girls, that the New York Post is owned by the same Keith Rupert Murdoch who owns the Fox network, Fox Prolefeed (and its capitalism-as-Great-White-Father cousin, Fox Prolefeed II), the Times of London, The Wall Street Journal–and, for good measure, Britain’s top-selling “red top” tabloids, The Sun and its Sunday cousin, the rather ironically-named News of the World.
It is funny, no, let me correct that. It is sad how people can find racism even when it isn’t there. Sorry Len (and others), but the cartoon is based off of the old saying that a monkey, given enough time, would write a complex text. This is known as the “Infinite Monkey Theorem.” As the artist himself states in the cartoon, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.” “Write” is the key word here. Obama did not write the bill, but rather “signed” the bill. So, unless Pelosi and Reid are not both black, this cartoon is not racist.
Maybe Eric Holder is right. This nation is full of cowards when it comes to race. Cowards, because people are too quick to claim something as racist just so they aren’t viewed to be racists themselves. Or maybe they do it because they are intimidated by people like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, people who make a living off of making sure racism exists in order to maintain their own personal power. For whatever their reason is, it does more to perpetuate actual racism in this country than end it, and that isn’t funny at all.
With all that said, there is no denying the fact that this cartoon is in poor taste. Not because of the monkey, but because of the overt imagery of violence towards politicians. While the artist is free to use multiple, unrelated current events and merge them together in visual form, the idea of shooting the writer of legislation is not acceptable … even if it was a monkey.
@Len: Regarding “Obama’s Bill”…
You and I both know that our nation is dominated by people who are ignorant of politics and the politicians they vote for. It is their failure to understand who creates legislation and who signs it. If they look at this cartoon and believe that the monkey represents Obama since he wrote “Obama’s Bill,” then the person(s) needing to appologize is the reader.
Oh, and just for humor’s sake, I feel sorry for the “Monkey With A Typewriter” graphics design studio in Florida. Surely they must have known that naming their company after an old saying would eventually make them synonymous with racism.
@U.S. Common Sense : Nice spin! I gotta admit, that’s even better than the Pelosi spin.
You honestly believe that most of America do not think of the stimulus bill as “Obama’s bill?” Really? Remember, this is America we’re talking about here. Most people in this country cannot even name the vice president, let alone the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A lot of them have trouble finding the United States on a world map. And you expect them to know how laws are written and enacted? Come on.
Sorry for the multiple comments, Len. You have my permission to merge these all into a single comment if you like.
I was sitting here thinking back on this whole monkey business, and I remembered back in April of last year when the Obama campaign had a little dust up when one of his supporters (Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, Illinois delegate). Her neighbor accused her of being a racist when Linda said, “the tree is not there for them to be climbing in there like monkeys.” (Note: the kids were black.) The Obama campaign, after tripping over themselves first saying Linda was leaving the campaign and then changed it to saying she was staying on-board), said the whole incident was a misunderstanding. I believe they would say the same thing here as well (in regards to the cartoon being racist, not that it is in poor taste).
@ Len,
“You honestly believe that most of America do not think of the stimulus bill as “Obama’s bill?”” <– not what I said or implied.
As I said, this country is dominated by people who are ignorant of politics and politicians. If they are wrong to believe that Obama wrote the bill, then their outrage over a cartoon based upon their false belief is also wrong. Just as I don’t give politicians any slack when they mess up, I don’t give the public any slack either. That is why you, myself, and all the other bloggers out there do what we do, in the hopes to inform the uninformed.
I heard about this today from another website and I have to admit at first I thought they were talking about Obama. Once I realized they were just referring to the stimulus bill being so stupid it could have been written by a monkey, “ie monkeys writing Shakespeare” I ironically thought I might have been the one that was racist!
It’s a shame that we are so used to hearing racial things like this that we associate them all together. Funny cartoon nonetheless!
for everyone who felt the need to explain why the cartoon was “funny” – first rule of humor: if you have to explain the joke, it isn’t funny. If you have to make excuses for it, it’s in poor taste.