CSotD: Exceptional takes on common riffs
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I'll admit there are some cartoonists on each edge of the two lunatic fringes that I don't even bother to follow, but it is a small and clearly crackpot group. I still see plenty of off-target takes. So when an issue draws a raft of 7-out-of-10-star commentary, that in itself is a good thing.
Plus, it makes the eights and nines look even better, in a game where nobody gets a 10.
This particular moment features several examples.
For instance, with the Hobby Lobby case before the Supreme Court, Ben Sargent is not, by far, the only cartoonist who riffed on the "What if they all did it?" concept. Some echoed Sotomayer's question about religions that don't believe in blood transfusions, others took the reductio ad absurdum approach, but Sargent made me laugh.
Pointless ridicule, or ridicule based on purposefully misreading the facts is, well, pointless, and should be beneath the dignity of a professional.
Ridicule that makes a point, however, is one of the chief tools in the toolbox. And, if you're going to ridicule, be ridiculous: Political cartoons don't have to be funny, but it's a plus when they can be without blunting their point.
Sargent pulls it off.
Meanwhile, Nick Anderson goes a different direction. Hobby Lobby's chief argument in favor of the company being a religion-based operation is that they close on Sunday.
Presumably, that's when they whitewash the sepulchre, because their "Christian values" don't extend to fair trade dealing with suppliers.
Mind you, I've always kind of thought the parable of the vineyard — where the workers who put in a full day got the same pay as the ones who only showed up for the last hour — was a bit of a misfire.
When the faithful brother of the Prodigal Son questions the re-division of property, the response is valid: We're a family, we're all in this together, rejoice that your brother is home and quit counting up the financial cost.
The answer to the vineyard workers seems to be, "My vineyard — My rules."
(God, I hope Justice Kennedy doesn't read this blog.)
Anyway, Anderson is right, and he's toned it down from a meme going around that talks about the hypocrisy of "Christian" Hobby Lobby's trade with a nation noted for its prevalence of abortions.
A Christianity-based company should not support sweatshops. See "sepulchre" wisecrack above.
Meanwhile, Jim Morin takes a more general swipe at the whole right-wing Culture of Corporate Entitlement that is sweeping the country. Not all my tears over this one were from laughter.
On the other hand:
There have been a good number of cartoons about the NRA's power to derail the nomination of the Surgeon General over what was a relatively non-confrontational comment on something that is relatively tangential to the mission of his office to begin with.
And, again, I like pointed, funny, ridicule. John Cole sure provides that, lampooning the frothing frenzy into which our more *ahem* passionate fellow-citizens fall — or can be driven — with such little provocation.
Of course, I was a member of the NRA back when it promoted responsible gun ownership and training, so I'm still working off some "Who stole my gun club?" anger.
However, much as I enjoyed and still applaud Cole's approach, I have to admit that ridiculing vocal screwballs only makes them more vocal, it doesn't make them less screwy. And I say that as someone who can't resist tweaking the nose of a troll despite knowing how little it accomplishes.
By contrast, Bob Englehart uses a relatively straightforward gag, and the efficiency makes for a compact cartoon that goes right to the point.
It's not "Who stole my gun club?"
It's "Who bought my legislature?"
Kwik Laff:
You scan quickly, you see that Ted's not there, you think it's safe to venture into Sally Forth-land, and this happens.
I think if we'd all known, 40 years ago, what Ces was going to do to this strip, we would not have overused the word "phantasmagoria."
Looking out for details
And here's a good exchange over at Stone Soup. My first response was to chuckle, my second was to note a marvelously minor bit of continuity: The rainy darkness outside the window.
It's not "continuity" in the sense that, the last time we saw the outside, it was raining. It wasn't, and, in fact, Sunday's cartoon specifically saluted the start of spring and good weather. Saturday's showed them outside at the fence in sunshine.
No, it's conceptual continuity.
This is part of a story arc where the grandmother, Evie, has gone off on another adventure with the younger man she met while on an overseas Habitat for Humanity trip, only this time, she's not even bothering with the "social activism" fig leaf: She's simply in South Africa digging the life.
South Africans have had summer while those of us in the north have been undergoing an absolutely beastly winter, but this is simply an added mood-enhancer that you likely wouldn't have noticed had I not pointed it out. And I don't know why I noticed it.
But Jan stuck it in there, in the corner.
Hey, this ain't the freakin' Flintstones, you know. Backgrounds matter.
An only tangentially connected Friday earworm:
(well, it's melancholy, if perhaps moreso than is called for)
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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