dudes.

[fox]

am i just totally hallucinating about the wrongness of today's Carlson cartoon (syndicated by Universal, reproduced with no permission whatsoever here
)?  i'm not high, right?  the guy is still not dead, and thus the tackiness of the cartoon is a little bit EXTREME?

i do think today's Bok
is very nice, though.

Comments

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I don't see the point of cartoon #1. Pope dying, carries pilgrim's staff & peace dove. Not terribly offensive, but why draw this?

Cartoon #2, I assume, plays on his globetrotting while third world kids are still in the same shape. Not terribly funny either, not terribly apposite, but not madly shocking. Intesresting that you're more shocked than I am.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

carlson's tribute cartoons are rarely especially interesting. (his christopher reeve one was an exception -- empty wheelchair, with superman striding away. that was nice.) what i think is offensive is running a The Guy's Dead cartoon when he's not dead yet.

the bok one, i actually think is sweet. he's been all around the world, and here's the beam of light, and he's kissing the wee child on the forehead because his ride is here and he's off on another trip. i think it's charming. (plus, it doesn't give the impression that he's already left when he's still here.)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I missed the point of #2, and you are right - seen like this it's lovely. (I centered on the plump, well-to-do globetrotter look, thinking: "all this not so uncomfortable travel, and the kid is still where she's at". But obviously the beam of light is his next ride, and I like the idea.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

LOVE the idea of the Christopher Reeve one, though.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

[fafou.livejournal.com]

Yeah the first is tacky and the 2nd is wonderful.

The 2nd wonderfully acknowledges that he is near death but without it calling him dead.

Especially since it has him reaching out to a young colored child, (most likely not a Catholic). The RC Church hasn't been historically good at the outreach to the brown people but JPII made it a central part of his papacy to bring the RC Church to the brown people.

[zoethe.livejournal.com]

Re Carlson: We're back to Holy Grail jokes - "I'm not dead yet!"

The second one brought a tear to my eye.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i sent a note to the editors. by the time they get around to reading it, odds are he will be dead and the point will be moot, but still.

[sithdragn.livejournal.com]

Being at Connexions atm, I tuned in the TV this morning to check on his condition (I'm not Catholic by any means, but I know this will affect my mom), and for ten minutes of coverage I honestly couldn't tell if the pope had died or not. CNN did a montage of the pope's life, and I thought for certain he must have died. Then I flip to another channel to see POPE NEAR DEATH covering a third of the screen. Was he dead? Was one station ahead of another. It took some doing and channel surfing to even find out; the media has written the man off already. I suspect those running the top cartoon didn't expect the pope to make it through today (as apparently the rest of the media doen't) and they thought they'd be timely? Just a guess.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i'm sure that's it, but still. my feeling is you wait until you have rock-solid confirmation, and if that means your editorial cartoon doesn't run until a couple days after the guy dies, then you know, that's also okay. (also, i mean, i get that it's confusing, but you'd like the media to know which way is up, even if they don't present it so clearly maybe to the viewer. as isaac said on the "six southern gentlemen" episode of sports night: "but fundamentally, we are still a news-gathering organization, right?")

[orange852.livejournal.com]

Carlson's would have been equally touching if they'd just thought to leave the years off the top. Of course, it would be out of keeping with his other tribute cartoons, and we must prioritize continuity over good taste, right?

No, you're not high.