Dogs of C Kennel offers a thought in the midst of all the #MeToo controversy, and it's one that I suspect a lot of cartoonists are pondering.
At least male gag cartoonists who seek a laff and can't claim to be using sexism "ironically," which can be either a technique or a dodge for editorial cartoonists, depending on their skill and intent.
Which is to say, it hasn't taken long for a valid concern to degenerate into partisan sniping in some hands. That's a commentary on what we've become.
There have also been a couple of Neanderthals making jokes about sexual assault on turkeys. That's a commentary on what we've always been.
Here's my take: There will always be a rich vein of humor to be mined in relationships and courtship and the "battle of the sexes."
But this is a good time for a lot of cartoonists to shut up and listen, because something is happening here, but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?
And, as always, the guys who most need to listen are the ones least likely to, and that's not "sexism" but simple insensitivity.
They assume that they're playing to a room full of other guys.
They're the same ones who make jokes on the assumption that they're playing to a room full of other white folks, but they've at least learned that they'll get in trouble for that, if they haven't figured out why.
In the words of Christopher Titus:
If you're telling a joke and the group of people that you're telling that joke to are all the exact same color as you, you just let that joke fly, no matter what it is, right? But if one person in that group happens to be a photo-negative of the rest of you, you gotta run that joke through some filters, don't you?
Well, pal, you better learn to run your jokes through some gender-based filters, because I think the days of polite lady-like laughter have about come to a close.
Doesn't mean we'll never again be able to tell jokes about sex, and about each other, but it's time to recalibrate.
We're not changing the definition of humor, just the definition of "each other."
On a related topic
One of the more depressing, embarrassing things I've seen this week is international cartoons, like this one by Spanish cartoonist Pedripol, revealing that Black Friday is not just an American event.
I like his take on it, by the way. I just hate the fact that it's apparently spread around the globe, and, no, it's not just Spain. Black Friday is all over the place, like a social disease.
I could understand if we'd successfully exported shopping on Easter Monday or Boxing Day or something, but The Day after American Thanksgiving is not a likely demi-holiday anywhere but right here.
I suppose it's a testimony to the idea that the US is the only place where the middle-class are chained to their oars. Anywhere else, those who can afford the wretched excess of Black Friday can slip away from the workplace without getting written up.
It's always instructive to see what the rest of the world knows about us. They also know about the Kardashians.
It's like finding out there's a webcam in your bedroom ceiling.
Yeah, you wish that would reveal something to brag about.
On the other hand
As Americans, we only know about the Kardashians, which means we've missed the goings-on in Zimbabwe, which also contain greed and ambition, but are twice as sordid because they involve a whole nation, and a whole region, such that you don't have to be a nitwit to care about them: They really do matter.
Because we watch "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" rather than anything going on in any other country, we're not entitled to comment on "Keeping Up With The Mugabes," but it's a lively discussion in more well-informed places, particularly in Africa, which is not only regionally involved but which has one of the liveliest cartooning movements in the world.
Africartoons has presented a very mixed response, with Yalo's triumphalist cartoon being a large part of the immediate reaction: Mugabe is gone, his greedy wife's ambitions are thwarted and Zimbabwe rejoices.
But Gado notes that it's not like Bishop Tutu has taken over the government.
For all the huzzahs and celebrations, the new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is known as "the Crocodile" for a reason, and, if it's a good thing that the military restored the proper rule of accession, we ought not to forget that Mnangagwa was vice-president because he got along with Mugabe. Things may not change that much.
And, as Dr. Jack and Curtis note, any tears are simply, well, you know.
It's not like he didn't want the gig.
While Zapiro simply observes that Zimbabwe is right next door to South Africa, and when one of them sneezes, the other is apt to catch cold.
One facet of all this that we shouldn't overlook is that the US -- for all its fascination with Black Friday shopping sprees and the lives of the Kardashians -- can no longer look down on other countries as banana republics in the hands of ridiculous, egocentric, tin-pot dictators.
Our own official reality show is the rival of any nation anywhere in the world and we haven't half the excuses.
In fact, while "Is it a triumph to be rid of Mugabe if the result is Mnangagwa?" may not be a question we're talking about, it's not all that far off from a question Tom Toles addressed last October, when the concept of "President Trump" was still theoretical.
And the thing is, even if we suddenly discovered that Pence had been taking kickbacks as governor, I don't know where you'd find a Jerry Ford to slip into that chair in his place.
That's a commentary on what we've become.
It's a small world after all
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