CSotD: Royal Flush
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The above pun sets a five-cartoon limit on our largest Juxtaposition ever:
(Matt)
I have very little to add to any of these, except maybe to note on behalf of Matt Pritchett and David Rowe that I’m glad we could give them a properly British take beyond sparring over Brexit.
It isn’t often that so many political cartoonists turn to humor and I could have gone on longer but, as I’ve said before, there’s a limit to how many cartoons I feel comfortable sharing, particularly when they mostly inspire laughter rather than touching off an extended rant.
It is nice that we could inspire such jolly fun in Britain, and it would be even nicer if Dear Leader were not likely sheltered from most of the protests and insults being thrown his way, some of which are quite clever but all of which are a good sign of what he’s done to our standing in the world.
I suppose it’s one of those comedic things that would be ruined if he didn’t continue to bumble along in his own little cloud.
Except, y’know, for the fact that he’s got a grip on the economy and nuclear arms and stuff like that.
Oh well, what the hell: If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.
Which reminds me …
Meanwhile, back in the real world
Matt Wuerker provides a public service in pointing out some specific hardships that Dear Leader’s nonsensical tariffs will bring to Americans.
Not sure “Wall Tax” is as good a descriptor as Kamala Harris’s “Trump Trade Tax,” but it fits better on a price tag.
Thing is, I may be reluctant to continue to praise cartoons about the same topic here, but repeatedly, continuously hammering home the practical impact of Trump’s utterly ignorant forays into international trade is a valuable public service.
As noted in discussing Clay Jones’ avocado gag yesterday, it’s necessary to remove this stuff from the airy, theoretical complexity of balance of trade issues and simply tell people how it’s going to impact them.
Avocados and margaritas may not be the most basic purchases that are going to ratchet up in cost, but they’re attention getters and, right now, attention is what is needed.
And it’s easy to be too smart for the room when you’re in this room: Apparently, Rushbo the Clown repeated his theory the other day that evolution can’t be real because there are still apes, and, if evolution were a fact, they’d have all turned into people.
Which mostly proves that he is either a deliberate liar or has a limo service, because, if he were truly that dumb, he wouldn’t be able to find his way to the radio station each day.
Still, it makes the point that you need to address the audience in terms they can understand, and there is no point is nattering on about Gross Domestic Product or analyzing comparative growth between the Obama and Trump years with the crowd that needs to be turned around.
Bearing in mind that, if somebody discovered a foolproof way to cure cancer and it raised the price of a margarita, it would meet howls of resistance.
But that’s the people you need to reach.
Although …
While clarity is a good thing, I think Brevity proposes a scenario with way too much of it.
Kind of an updating for millennials of the classic scene from “Annie Hall.”
I suspect most creative people are ADD, and one of the advantages of that is that, while you daydream on a level that would make Ralph Phillips tell you to get a grip, you’ve really got no sense of the future.
Not even enough to plan for the next marking period, never mind to project some blueprint for your adult future. You end up living one day at a time, or perhaps an hour at a time, but, whatever happens and wherever you end up, it can’t be much of a disappointment because you didn’t have any concrete expectations in the first place.
It leaves you open to all sorts of spontaneous experiences that someone who had a better sense of planning would likely forego, such as …
What I particularly like about Wallace the Brave is that, while Spud is afraid of everything, Wallace continuously gives him all sorts of reinforcement for his caution.
At the risk of stealing someone else’s story, this particular strip makes me think of my son at a sidewalk cafe in Thailand, and the notion that, when you, the only Yank in the place, are offered a treat and all the locals stop talking to watch what happens, it might be time for a little thoughtful discretion.
But, then again, Spud would never be the only Yank at a sidewalk cafe in Thailand.
Better to torch your mouth than to live the life of Spud.
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