CSotD: Do What You Do Do Well, Boy
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Let's start with an exceptional cartoon from Don Asmussen, and, when I say "exceptional," I mean it's an exception to yesterday's weary, categorical denunciation of all cartoons riffing on Trump as the Cincinnati gorilla.
Any idea, no matter how lame, can be done well, but the format of Bad Reporter requires that a joke be done three times, which makes it particularly daunting. Asmussen wisely finesses this by backing off the gorilla motif for his third gag, but maintaining focus on Trump, which works for me.
Another factor here is that Asmussen's approach — not just commenting on the news but riffing on the reporting of the news — is bolstered by his actually paying attention to both the news and its reporting, rather than simply playing off talk-radio and social media third-hand takes on the news.
This, in the words of New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick, comes under the revolutionary concept, "Do your job."
Which sounds ridiculously self-evident, but has gotten the Patriots to more than one Super Bowl when other teams have fallen short. And, if you read as many cartoons as I do, you'll see that it's not a rule applied often enough in that discipline, either.
If you're going to comment on the news, read the news. Know the news. Do your job.
Or, to quote Belichick further, "Maybe the one word that isn't in that, that's implied, is 'Do your job well.' It can be enough to make the difference."
Indeed it can.
David Horsey not only reads the news, but he apparently reads Lewis Carroll, too, which doesn't simply yield the catchy epithet "Humpty Trumpty" but more than justifies it.
I enjoy the columns that come with his cartoons, but there is always the danger of the essay providing more insights than the cartoon can carry on its own, which is fine for an illustrator working with a columnist but is a pitfall when the cartoon is your primary job.
In this case, the essay explains and expands upon the cartoon but the cartoon itself can stand alone.
I feel guilty featuring Horsey so often, but it's his own damn fault. He keeps doing his job well.
Juxtaposition of the Day
I refuse to fall for the overly-defensive, if not outright paranoid, idea that there is a body of "Bernie Bros" out there that is any more significant than the obnoxious, offensive true believers in the Clinton camp.
Whether or not the supposed dominance of obnoxious Sanders boosters is an idea that has been deliberately planted, I've certainly been told by Clinton fans more than once that my penis is surely very small and that I only favor him because I hate women.
Which makes me wonder how I managed to support people like Pat Schroeder, Geraldine Ferraro, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who seemed to be women and whom I liked very much.
I don't dislike Clinton because she's a woman. I dislike her because she doesn't come across as authentic. Of course, when Pat Schroeder teared up at the end of her presidential bid, she was mocked for it, so I guess inauthenticity has its plus side.
I've seen some defenses of her that start with "I've met Hillary Clinton, and …"
Well, I've met a lot of famous, powerful people and they don't become famous or powerful if they don't possess a modicum of personal magnetism. Some of the charismatic famous, powerful people I've met would push their grandmothers through a wood chipper if it got them closer to their goals.
You meet a lot of people in my line of work. Whether or not you like them is not only irrelevant but can cloud your professional judgment.
I've said several times that Hillary Clinton (whom I have not met) reminds me of a snotty honors student, the one who reminds the teacher to hand out homework assignments, but I not only voted for her in her first Senate campaign but was reluctantly involved in a commercial that may have turned the tide in her favor.
And, assuming nothing of historical significance happens in the upcoming primaries to change the inevitable, I'll once more hold my nose and pull the lever next to her name.
As I said yesterday, I'm not sure mocking Trump has any effect on his supporters, who appear totally deaf and blind to things he does, the least of which would have ended anyone else's campaign on the spot, but Jack Ohman does his job well in laying out the difference between Clinton and Trump.
The cautionary note being that, a generation ago, we used to mock the French for making a comic hero of Jerry Lewis. It was an era in which playing the fool was not a popular mode, and the up-and-coming comics were people like George Carlin, who followed the lead of Lenny Bruce with comedy based on logic and penetrating criticism.
Do not comfort yourself with the idea that the American electorate is going to choose the National Honor Society President over Bluto Blutarsky.
Or, if you do, please justify your answer by citing at least two examples of times that they have.
Now here's your moment of Belichick zen:
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