It’s good to see that the crack art department at Vanity Fair is brilliant enough to come up with its own original ideas! See this from a week ago.
….and isn’t the protrusion on the left side of McCain’s face? If you’re gonna do satire, shouldn’t it at least be funny (and not “last week”)? And what’s with the fist bump? Wasn’t it America’s Terror Couple, Barack Hussein and Michelle Obama, who did that? Shouldn’t satire at least reference things that have some sort of basis?
Oh, and don’t steal others’ ideas. Yeah, that too. Lazy.
Update: Armbiner notes another cartoon that is similar and also ran last week.
Update II: Off topic – Another graphic from South Carolina Senator Kevin Bryant. It ain’t satire. It ain’t funny. In fact, it’s actually quite childish, if you ask me.
phobos
In related news, Morning Joe is throwing a WATB fit over Obama’s coverage.
I’m actually starting to miss Don Imus.
Michael57
The Daily News cartoon is the funniest of the bunch. It’s the editorial board frame for the anti-McCain cartoon that makes its intent unmistakeable.
Mike
The New Yorker cover was passable as satire because it loaded up on right wing memes about Obama. The VF one only illustrates 3 or 4 talking points, and it was the 2000 Bush campaign pushed ‘Cindy McCain is an oxycontin junkie’.
DougL
I’m not saying anything one way or the other about the classiness or appropriateness of the VF cover, but it’s not “stealing ideas” any more than any of the countless American Gothic parodies are.
croatoan
It needs a Vietcong flag, and Cindy McCain should be carrying a giant Queen of Diamonds card.
Tsulagi
The VF cover needs a caption to provide context.
NewUnansweredQuestions
Calling junk “satire” doesn’t make it satire.
And calling something funny when it is not funny doesn’t make it funny.
The Other Steve
I actually thought this was kind of funny.
Xenos
I am at a loss to come with an image that provides comparable satire. The craziest left-wing claims about the Republicans have been pretty much proven true. Is there anything that ‘the left’ claims about McCain or Bush that can be satirized by depicting it in this way?
At this point the GOP is beneath satire, and the Democrats are above it, beyond its reach.
Alex
Hey Michael,
AmCon notes why the satire just doesn’t work here. I tend to agree: this is an exaggerated caricature, not a depictions of lies.
Brachiator
Yep! And my favorite riff on the New Yorker cover, is one by Tab which skewers Dubya, along with a few others, which may still be here.