An 2004 Wizard of Id made its way around the Internet this year with an altered punch-line aimed to insinuate that unintelligent people vote Democratic. The joke is set up by Rodney, the cowardly knight, asking if voters shouldn’t be required to take an intelligence test to vote. Here is the altered comic:
After receiving a letter from an Ohio reader, Johnny Hart Studios has posted the original cartoon that correctly shows that the original joke meant that if there are more stupid people voting than the best liar wins the election.
Does this strike anyone else as a manufactured story for the only purpose of showing this amateurishly altered strip at Democrats’ expense? I mean, it’s only being “reported on” by Johnny Hart Studios, and even then there appears to be no real controversy involved. This reader simply wanted verification of the original punchline. That’s it. So what? Is this really “news”? Or even “interesting”? I mean, the altered strip isn’t very clever (not that that sets it apart from any other Wizard of Id strip), and it’s not like it’s tenure on the internet took on a life of its own – surely this would have at least been relevant before the elections?
It just seems like there’s no real reason to bring this up except for a (very) cheap jab at Democrats. Lame.
Not entirely manufactured. I did a google search to see if this created a buzz in the political blogosphere. Not a big buzz, but a few sites talked about it – which confirms to me that an email circulation of the cartoon is entirely plausible.
I received it from a reader in my e-mail a few days ago.
Hey this gives me a great idea for a comic strip. ID Minus ID! Maybe I can digitally alter existing ID comic strips and have it syndicated on Gocomics.
LOL Garey – good plan!
Reporting on an e-mailing of an altered cartoon hardly seemed newsworthy until I read about it on this blog for cartoonists … 😉
Okay, so a few sites talked about it. It still doesn’t really make for an interesting story.
I guess a large part of it for me is the altered joke itself. It’s just so lame. It’s not funny, controversial, insightful or anything else. In fact, the original strip is a far more interesting, and that’s still not even a good joke.
Considering the fact that the Democratic voting pool is far more educated than the Republican base, the joke doesn’t even really make sense. But if it were altered to read “The Republican wins” it would be pretty mean spirited. So either way it’s just lame, it generated no real buzz or interest or controversy so I still think it’s a pretty pointless mention.
How is this a story? The altered strip isn’t even clever. Your site could spend more time promoting some of the better made web comics out there than to waste your time on this.
LOL
the best liar DID win!
I still voted for him – he’s the liar who’s best suited to be Prez.
hi this very nice world
Actually the voting demographics are with the altered strip. If you look at the democrat base they attract more younger people as people tend to get older they tend to change to the conservative side. Also the level of education is also interesting it is more likely for someone with less than a 2 year degree to vote for democrat liberal ideas while more like for them to vote for conservative / republican when they have greater than a 2 year education. Just looking at people and growth age and education the fact they move to the conservative side is a large sign. People get wiser with age not less intelligent they learn from mistakes they made in the past. Which it self would say the smart vote is with conservatives. You could also look at the minority and poor who have lower education in general tend to also vote for the democrat side which happens to be the majority of the liberal base voters. Again saying the altered cartoon is dead on.
I hope Mr. “Sam Arpen” is not the example of that better-educated Democrat…that is such a condescending, elitist remark, it makes me sick.
Actually, the House Republicans have the altered comic (among other partisan comics) pinned up on a bulletin board in their cloak room. The democrats have no comics posted in their cloak room. I would imagine when the parties switch majority in the house, they just pass the comics back and forth, because there is no real difference between them…they just like to think so.
I for one simply wish that overerly sensitive members of the parties would simply get a little thicker skin, and like athletes in competition, accept “smack talk” for what it is… that is a way, method, attempt, and/or proven strategy for screwing with the other guy or teams head.
It only works if you on the receiving end let it, and as such, who really cares whether bringing this up again helps, hurts, or is a strategy with an underlying cause/motive, etc?
That this altered cartoon is still making the rounds in August of 2011 shows that it has legs, and that someone from the side that it provides cheer for, still has the desire to “talk some smack…” so just deal with it and move on without the paranoia and get some game on! Cheers.