[luke warm]

http://www.msnbc.msn...3781/?GT1=43001

[jdonn]

A little racist, extremely insensitive, and (even if one ignores those two factors) not funny at all. Most political cartoons will at least make me snicker.

[Lobowolf]

The death of the chimp sorta takes a lot of the funny out of it, but come on... even if you take the racial AND the insensitive out of it, not funny AT ALL? Something so stupid or so easy that it could (must?!) have been done by a trained monkey, then a trained monkey gets killed, and... Really? Not even a little bit?

[hotShot]

Not even a little bit funny.

[jdonn]

Lobowolf, on Feb 18 2009, 06:07 PM, said:

The death of the chimp sorta takes a lot of the funny out of it, but come on... even if you take the racial AND the insensitive out of it, not funny AT ALL? Something so stupid or so easy that it could (must?!) have been done by a trained monkey, then a trained monkey gets killed, and... Really? Not even a little bit?

Not at all. The death of the monkey took some funny out, but I think most was removed by the comment about the stimulus. Not that I care if they mock the stimulus, but it had nothing to do with the monkey story.

[mikeh]

I don't see it as rascist... my first reaction was.. how can this be racist? That reaction was, on reflection, because I have not viewed the stimulus as written by Obama. I saw it as a joint semi-collaborative effort between people in Congress, and people in the administration. I would be shocked if the President even had the opportunity let alone the desire to actually write any of it.

I can see how some might tie the monkey to the president, since the media is selling the package as 'Obama's' stimulus package, and he certainly has been pushing it.

I didn't think that the cartoon was the least bit funny.

[mtvesuvius]

Not at all funny, a little racist (Like Mike, I view the stimulus package as a product of more than just Obama), and extremely insensitive IMO.

[PassedOut]

I think the cartoon pushes back against the comparisons beween Bush and chimps over the last eight years: George Bush Looks Like a Chimp. Anyway, that was my first thought when I saw it earlier today.

[Lobowolf]

Let me preface by saying that I don't think it's a funny cartoon. Not because of any racist or insensitive connotations; just because it isn't. But I see where it was kind of trying to go...it just didn't really work. It's akin to the "Jim Cramer vs. a trained monkey" blog, where a "trained monkey" (actually a random computer) outpicked Cramer's stock choices. Same idea...his picks are so bad, a trained monkey could have done it. Similarly, the stimulus package is so bad...

If there weren't a stimulus package, or something as huge on the national news front, then a New York paper probably would have used the dead chimp to make commentary on the personnel decisions of the Yankees, or something. Conversely, if McCain would have been elected and proposed a stimulus package, the same cartoon could have been run as is, and nobody would have looked twice, because unfunny cartoons aren't newsworthy, barring potentially-racial angles.

It wasn't inherently unfunny, i.e. non-comedy, in the way that reading physics is unfunny. It had the comedy formula; just bad, open mic night comedy.

[Al_U_Card]

Hmmnnnn...

Neither draconian nor Machiavellian.

I see it referring to the joke about chimps writing Shakespeare if given enough time ( ie sens and reps being monkey-like)

The allusion to the cops is that they took action to take down serious "criminal" behavior.

Not sure I see the problem with this one ( not with the cartoon at least...)

[neilkaz]

jdonn, on Feb 18 2009, 05:00 PM, said:

A little racist, extremely insensitive, and (even if one ignores those two factors) not funny at all. Most political cartoons will at least make me snicker.

Three things to say here.

1) You guys know that I didn't vote for Obama and if it had to be a Dem, I'd have preferred Hillary (although not by much)

2) His "stimulus package" is full of more pork than all the pigs that ever lived on this planet have on their bones.

3) This cartoon is so sickenly insensitive and racist that my "both" vote was a WTP.

.. neilkaz ..

[matmat]

funny in the way that i can't believe some moron would actually draw this, and another moron would agree to publish it.

[kenberg]

Maybe his next cartoon will feature a child killed in a car accident. Maybe a homeless person freezing to death. The guy must be a real hit at parties. I completely agree with Matmat. It's just moronic. Beyond comprehension, really.

[onoway]

Ken said it better than I could

[barmar]

The real problem with this cartoon is that it takes too much analysis to get the point they were trying to make. A joke doesn't really work if they have to explain it.

[Winstonm]

New York Post = Rupert Murdoch
Nuff said.

[Lobowolf]

That doesn't really seem to say 'nuff, to me. Assuming he's related to Rupert Murdoch, is the implication that he's a racist, because, well, all Republicans are, or for some other reason, or is the implication that it's not a racist cartoon at all, because he's been outspokenly critical of the stimulus plan, and probably sees it as something a trained chimp could have written?

[PassedOut]

The Post has certainly gotten a lot of free publicity out of the cartoon.

[helene_t]

I would have found it funny if it where about Bush or the Pope rather than Obama, which proves my bias.

Since Bush was frequently called "the chimp" I don't take it as racist. I can understand why some would see it otherwise.

I voted "insensitive" since the death of the chimp is sad, but what the heck, most newspaper cartoons are making fun of news and most news are sad so it's no big deal. I would say it's roughly at the same level as the infamous Danish cartoons from a few years back, although it is of course apples vs oranges.

[Winstonm]

Lobowolf, on Feb 19 2009, 12:18 PM, said:

That doesn't really seem to say 'nuff, to me. Assuming he's related to Rupert Murdoch, is the implication that he's a racist, because, well, all Republicans are, or for some other reason, or is the implication that it's not a racist cartoon at all, because he's been outspokenly critical of the stimulus plan, and probably sees it as something a trained chimp could have written?

Yes, Rupert. Thanks.

I don't know where you get the Republican slant - Rupert Murdoch's New York Post is quite well known for sensationalism and controversy.