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  Previous Threads: 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2007-2008 Welcome to the Political Cartoons Thread! This is where we post, discuss, and mock political cartoons and the cartoonists that make them. It's Year Three    This is the stuff that can get you probated or banned, so listen up.
 THESE ARE NOT HARD RULES This is just a list of recommendations to make the thread go more smoothly. Don't yell at people or report them for violating poo poo here unless it actually violates a forum rule!
 Q: This guy got paid for this? A: Maybe! Political Cartoonists are generally paid in two ways--as a staff position or on a per-cartoon basis by a syndicate. If a cartoonist is a staff cartoonist, they'll list their employer by their name. These cartoonists are paid a living wage and just about all of their cartoons are actually approved by an editor, printed, and seen by human beings. If a cartoonist is a member of a syndicate, they'll list their syndicate by their name, usually Cagle or U-Click. These syndicates act as a market for editors. We have no idea whether a particular cartoon posted by a syndicate is actually sold. Reportedly, they are sold for around $10 a cartoon, which is then split by the cartoonist and the syndicate. As you can imagine, this means a cartoonist can make very little or very much in syndication. There's also the rare exception of cartoonists who are paid by donation, but this is becoming more common through sites such as Patreon and Kickstarter. Q: How obscure is this guy? Is anyone ever actually going to see this? A: For most, there's no way to tell. Unless they're a staff cartoonist, the cartoon may never be printed or seen by anyone. Most of the cartoonists here are published to a fairly large audience but, as the internet offers easier ways to get your work out there, this thread has seen an increasing amount of obscure or fringe cartoonists. Just assume they're read by a non-trivial amount of people unless there's proof otherwise. Q: Is everyone posted here an evil, stupid, conservative rear end in a top hat? A: No, we post all kinds. Sometimes a cartoon will present an evil idea sarcastically, sometimes they're just evil. If you can't tell just by looking at it, just look them up in the index for a very general idea. Q: Did this cartoonist get a Pulitzer for one cartoon or what? A: Apparently Pulitzers many decades ago were given out for a particular cartoon or two, but as time goes on it seems to have shifted to the artist's work for the year. So while we make mock someone like Ramirez for obvious "Pulitzer Bait", technically all of his cartoons are judged for the award. Yeah...we don't hold the Pulitzer in high regard. Q: Is this just for American/Canadian cartoonists, or...? A: We allow cartoons of all stripes, and we adore stuff from foreign cartoonists as a break from the usual suspects. There is a thread for UK cartoons, but we've felt that there haven't been enough UK cartoons posted in this thread and would encourage people to start posting them in here again. However it would be nice, if you have the time, to explain some of the stuff that harder to decipher. Q: What about funny page cartoons? Webcomics? A: A cartoon with regular political content, such as Doonesbury or Prickly City, can be posted here no problem. Your Garfield and Family Circus stuff should go to the Comic Strip Megathread in BSS, although feel free to share the rare individual strips that are political in nature. Webcomics follow the same procedure: it's fair game if there's overt contemporary political themes, otherwise take it elsewhere. Remember that Day by Day, a political webcomic, is banned from this thread. Take it to the Bad Webcomic Thread or whatever place allows such garbage. Q: Can I share this crazy email from my mom? How about this image macro I saw on Facebook? A: This thread is strictly for political cartoons. Check out this thread for sharing political emails from your family, and this thread for political pictures. If you wish to further go down the rabbit hole, check out the Right Wing Media and Freep threads. Q: Can I see more from X? A: We'd really like to see more people consistently posting the same cartoonist(s) so they don't get missed. If you want to step up to the plate for a particular person, then by all means. You can post them as they come, or do weekly dumps if that's easier on you. Q: What happened to the cartoonist index? A: The index was an artifact from when old poster XyloJW made the thread, and I kept it updated for the sake of new people. However, the list took a decent chunk of time to update each year, and very few people used it so it didn't solve the problem of people asking the same questions about cartoonists. Xander77 made a few profiles about the more infamous cartoonists posted here, in case you need a primer: Payne: http://imgur.com/gallery/C2ysj Garrison: http://imgur.com/gallery/ZdFwM Tinsley: http://imgur.com/gallery/hFGWV Gorrell: http://imgur.com/gallery/rnrPT Ramirez: http://imgur.com/gallery/QrEjj Rall: http://imgur.com/gallery/xDjKV Q: This cartoon is transphobic but doesn't seem related to any actual current event, what's going on? A: The cartoonist is probably Pat Cross, who haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaates trans people (and the LGBTQ+ community in general, but especially trans and gender non-conforming people).  The thread has developed a few inside jokes and terms: AGC: Shorthand for "A Good Cartoon." Basically, you intentionally interpret a comic with a fairly obvious bad message as having a good message. The original point of this was to poke fun at some of the really poor metaphors that some cartoonists were crafting, but the concept of AGC has been run into the ground. If you want to see some quality ones, Saint Sputnik has a blog dedicated to these. Benghazi: While I think everyone is familiar with the Benghazi attacks, newer users might be unaware that one of the victims was Sean "vilerat" Smith, who was a long-time member and moderator of D&D. Seeing cartoonists use the death of a sincerely missed member of the community as a desperate attempt to smear Obama has made Benghazi a rather sore issue for everyone in this thread. Can't Handle: The thread is known for getting into spats over ridiculous subjects. However, this phrase was used waaaaay too much, and you're not being witty by yelling "Can't Handle!" when people arguing over actual political stuff as opposed to goofy poo poo like weathervanes. Yes, we have actually argued over weathervanes. DASGC: Stands for "Dumb and so Goddamn Crazy." A cartoon that portrays the opposing side as screaming, ignorant children, and their own side as patient, knowledgeable adults. Based on a Shmorky cartoon. Don't Be Willfully Dense: A line from cartoonist Eric Allie when someone pointed out how stupid his cartoon was. Has become a thread motto of sorts to not be an idiot when interpreting the message of any given cartoon. Gerald: A name given to a stock character used in many conservative cartoons. Typically a standard middle-aged white guy with glasses and little hair. Exists only to wryly point out how bad and dumb the strawman of the day is. It's a Powerful Symbol: Phrase made popular during the short-lived Kelly commentaries. When describing the crying Statue of Liberty, Kelly said "it's a powerful symbol...you don't want to overuse it" when of course the joke is that Liberty is in nearly every Kelly cartoon. Used sarcastically for overused symbolism, especially Liberty but can be anything such as bald eagles or uncle sam. Nonsense...This Is An Election Year: This phrase comes from a cartoon that was the subject of an Onion article mocking nonsensical political cartoons. Sometimes a person may post this phrase in response to a political cartoon, and that's basically a way of saying "this makes no loving sense." Pants Donkey: The nickname for a donkey from an old Mike Luckovich cartoon, and is essentially the mascot of the thread at this point. We have no idea why. PBF: The Perry Bible Fellowship was a webcomic that people frequently over-analyzed, so much to the point that to "PBF" something is to dig way deeper than you were supposed to for a cartoon's meaning. Skull Donkey: Several cartoonists, including Lisa Benson and Jerry Holbert, draw donkeys in such a way that it's easy to edit their snouts into cartoonish skulls. The golden age of skull edits is long over, but it's still a fun game. An example:  becomes  Wormbama: It was common for Michael Ramirez to draw former President Obama with a weird squished face that resembled a worm. The thread game up with this nickname for the phenomenon. You Gotta Give Me the Fangs: Another joke from the brief Kelly video series, it references Kelly begging his editor to keep fangs on a Chinese person. Used to describe when a cartoonist is being especially racist with their caricature. Zionism: Okay, not really unique to this thread, but enough people have asked about it to merit being in here. Zionism, in a very simple definition, is just far-right nationalism for Israel. However, if you are hearing Zionism used in the same context as the Rothschilds or the Illuminati or basically any Dees cartoon, then you're just dealing with antisemitic conspiracy stuff.  Some edits, parodies, and cartoons become quite memorable and frequently requested. Please check out the Politoon Archive first before asking for stuff in the thread. I'll try to remember to use the OP to collect memorable stuff from this year, and then archive it at the end of the year.  Sometimes stuff that starts here gets collected on its own site. Note that several of these sites have stopped updating, but the archives are always fun for a spin. A Good Cartoon: Saint Sputnik collects the best AGCs here. Ye Fowl Herald: You know that old medieval tapestry maker thing that was popular on the internet several years ago? Well, Saint Sputnik is using it to recreate Mallard Fillmore strips. Iran Will Have Nukes Any Day Now: I have collected cartoons that predict the imminent threat of a nuclear Iran. Some of these cartoons are over a decade old. If Global Warming Is Real, Then Why Is It Cold: A depressing collection of cartoons that display people's complete lack of climate education. Political PBF: Some unknown genius took old PBF strips and turning them into political cartoons. It's a lot better than it sounds.  The Gay Abortions are our annual awards for the worst cartoons of the year (and the best edits or parodies), named after a hilarious parody cartoon. If you see a cartoon you want to nominate, quote it and include "Gaybies nomination:" and the category you want to nominate it for, so the organizers of the contest have an easy way to track nominations. The current categories are:
(Some of those appear to be 2018-specific, but you know political cartoonists; they'll be predicting a red wave in 2018 at least until 2020.) SneezeOfTheDecade fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Aug 15, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 20:36
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warning next to it.
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All credit to Pants Donkey for the OP and this list of headliners!   The cartoonist index! It's a few years old, but still has valuable information. Written by XyloJW, improved by Pants Donkey. Here's a short list of thread headliners. These people put out content at a regular rate and drive most of the thread's conversations.  Ramirez is, depressingly, the face of American political cartooning. Part of this is because his career has effectively been astroturfed by Fox News and other right wing outlets, who invite him on to tell him how genius his scrawlings are. The other part is how hilariously bad he is at his job: he cannot draw to the point where even people he likes look like flesh monsters. His god-awful caricatures turn people both friend and foe into grotesque horrors better suited for some cheap Lovecraft knockoff comic. His Obama was so bad it was given the nickname "Wormbama" since he turned Obama's head in a weird tube. He also is terrible at visual metaphor, using crosshatching excessively as a crutch. He has a fondness for DEBT cartoons, and largely parrots the establishment Republican talking points. Somehow he has won the Pulitzer Prize twice, rendering the award meaningless for all winners both past, present, and future.  This thread originally spawned from an old mock thread dedicated to solely making fun of Mallard Fillmore. It is technically a comic strip, as it occupies the funny pages daily as opposed to being randomly chosen to end up on the editorial page. While originally having a full cast with stories, Tinsley decided he didn’t need to put in effort and, for about a decade, the strip has consisted of a duck on a white background giving either conservative talking points or ranting about something laughably trivial in Tinsley’s life (he seriously spent a week whining that he got scented candles for Christmas). Ironically, Tinsley may only have a regular career because papers want to appear “balanced” so they can run Doonesbury without getting letters from angry old people.   A bigoted rear end in a top hat if there ever was one, Mike Lester will be your tea party host for this thread. He's never found a racist cause he can't jump on, and is always quick to side with the police when a black person dies. He's also profoundly homophobic, as evidenced by this photo of him smugly eating Chick-fil-A when the company was against gay marriage. His art isn't terrible, but it does come off as extremely meanspirited and stupid whenever he's on the attack. If that weren't enough, Lester was also visited by the police some years ago for beating his wife. As a result, he tends to be a tad sensitive when people accuse men of misconduct against women...unless they're democrats, of course.  A celebrated cartoonist, both here and in his career, Bennett is a veteran of the craft and it shows. His artstyle is simple, and he uses it to great effect to draft up excellent visual metaphors that get the point across. Recently, however, Bennett has been in something of a slump. Instead of coming up with funny cartoons that make you go "drat!", he has opted for lower-hanging fruit, tending to sit back and call Republicans crazy and stupid. Basically, his opinions are correct, but they don't really discuss the issues, and they are just different ways of saying "conservatism bad." Which is fine once in a while, but it'd be nice to see something with a bit more substance and relevance to current news as opposed to cartoons you can put out literally any time of the year. Nonetheless, Bennett is a considerable cut above the rest, and every so often you do see that spark that made him a thread favorite.  One of the more loathed persons here, Rall is what happens when you give a person with no talent a platform. I don’t think anyone in this thread is more egotistical than Rall, who sees himself as the champion of far-left causes. His art is horrendous (he defends it with the tired “style” argument), his arguments tend to be contrarian, and he cannot help but make everything about him. Even movements such as Black Lives Matters, where he went on a personal crusade against the LAPD when he got a ticket. He lost, but to this day still rails about it. Rall will typically attack both sides and us, the people, for not rising up against them…until we do, in which case he criticizes the protests (see OWS, various Trump protests). Rall just genuinely sucks and is on the shortlist for being banned from the thread.  Matt Bors is a protege of Rall, and therefore the only good thing I can think off that Rall has produced. A younger cartoonist, Bors tends to come at humor from more of our angle: he goes for meta humor over visual metaphors, multiple panels over single images, and dipping his toes into memes every so often. Unlike a lot of cartoonists, Bors also knows that art is kinda important to the humor, and thus a lot of laughs come from both the facial expressions and the jokes he sets up with them. Bors is also trying to get political cartooning as an actual career you can do without being a legacy cartoonist from 30 years ago. He founded the Nib, which hosts up-and-coming political works, runs books on Kickstarter, and works on collabs with others. Bors is good people.  The cartoonist for the Onion, Kelly is without a doubt the most beloved and cherished cartoonist in the thread. Defying the political spectrum, Kelly operates solely within the boundaries of the original political party: common sense. Once a week, you can rest a bit easier knowing that Kelly knows your pain, be it nagging wives or confusing gizmos. A winner of the Thurston Bronze Quill Award, Kelly is a veteran artist in the industry, employing a more classical style of art that employs old-fashioned materials and know-how. There have been rumors that Kelly is actually just a satire of political cartoons from known has-been and hack, Ward Sutton, but it's safe to assume these are nothing more than jealous lies spread by Sutton and his tasteless followers. So put that out of your mind, pour yourself a whiskey sour (or three), and enjoy the finest political cartoonist of a generation.   John Rose (better known as JRRose!) is probably better known outside this thread as the writer and artist for the venerable newspaper strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith and of the Kids' Home Newspaper. As you might guess from that, Rose's cartoons tend to have padded corners and soft edges; they're rarely incisive, and mostly fall into the "A Thing Happened" category. Rose is conservative, but seems to be the rare "gosh golly all this progress I tell you what" centrist-conservative who really just wants everybody to get along and doesn't understand why everybody's so angry all the time. SneezeOfTheDecade fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 20:37
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Jan 1, 2019 20:40
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So it doesn't get lost at the end of last year's thread:
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Jan 1, 2019 20:53
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The Political Cartoon Thread is dead. Long live the Political Cartoon thread!
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Jan 1, 2019 20:58
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Looks like those 
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Jan 1, 2019 21:06
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Welcome to the other side... It still sucks but at least the clock reset  Let’s get through this mess together, ya lovely goons.
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Jan 1, 2019 21:17
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At least it's not another Pocahontas joke I guess?
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Jan 1, 2019 21:20
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A cartoon from a better time, in hopes of a better year
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Jan 1, 2019 21:27
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It's not new, but hello new thread. May we all not die this year.
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Jan 1, 2019 21:27
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im vegan
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Jan 1, 2019 21:41
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It's that time of year where we have to add a new thread to bookmark and watch for a year. Also cartoons I guess.
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Jan 1, 2019 21:42
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Happy to get in the ground floor of posting in this thread this time around. When's the Gaybies going up?
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Jan 1, 2019 21:55
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welcome to the worst place
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Jan 1, 2019 22:08
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In the precious thread, we resumed posting Delonas. Some people expressed surprise, dismay, or confusion when confronted with Delonas cartoons, so please refer to this simple Delonas primer: Delonas hates everything. Delonas cannot be stopped. Delonas cannot be killed. Delonas will not stop cartooning until you are dead.
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Jan 1, 2019 22:11
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DalaranJ posted:In the precious thread, we resumed posting Delonas. Delonas should never be praised, even a little bit, or it will backfire on you immediately.
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Jan 1, 2019 22:12
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I've been reading this poo poo for a decade.
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Jan 1, 2019 22:27
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The old politoons thread may be dead, but we're not through with the worst of the worst of 2018 just yet! Be sure to submit for the 2018 Gaybies (Nominations close tomorrow, so get in fast) We especially need more Red Wave cartoons, Natural Disaster cartoons, Utterly Incomprehensible cartoons, Islamophobic cartoons, and Rape apologia cartoons. Yes, we all know whats going to win that last category, and yes, its already been submitted, several times, but we still need to flesh out the competitors. Fulchrum fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jan 1, 2019 |
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Jan 1, 2019 22:38
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Fulchrum posted:The old politoons thread may be dead, but we're not through with the worst of the worst of 2018 just yet! Be sure to submit for the 2018 Gaybies (Nominations close soon, so get in fast) For people who have fulchrum on ignore im quoting this
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Jan 1, 2019 22:39
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Phuzzy posted:Happy to get in the ground floor of posting in this thread this time around. When's the Gaybies going up?
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Jan 1, 2019 22:43
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 Release Meng! Chinese authorities detain a former Canadian diplomat just days after police in Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, CFO of China’s Huawei Technologies. Meng was arrested at Washington’s request.
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Jan 1, 2019 22:55
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Unleash Chang
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Jan 1, 2019 22:56
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Will these cartoonists create even worse content in 2019? Yes, probably.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:04
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Grimdude posted:Will these cartoonists create even worse content in 2019? I know we say this every year, and every year they do, but I really do doubt that there will be a worse cartoon made in 2019 than the 2018 Worst Cartoon.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:06
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Welcome 2019. Most of the regular Aussie cartoonists posted in the previous thread are still on break but should be back soon. The big upcoming events for 2019 in Aussie politics are the New South Wales state election in March followed by a federal election probably in May, possibly sooner because the minority government is in shambles and the party in-fighting will not stop.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:30
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Besesoth posted:stuff I think we need to switch avatars.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:33
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Trapezium Dave posted:Welcome 2019. Most of the regular Aussie cartoonists posted in the previous thread are still on break but should be back soon. I like how, since there is really no point in developing a recognisable caricature for the man, the artist just resorted to putting his name on a hat.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:35
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AnoHito posted:Delonas should never be praised, even a little bit, or it will backfire on you immediately. You just don't appreciate them. Delonas cartoons are like a sharp, acidic wash of bile in the mouth, cleansing the palate between courses of rich bullshit.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:44
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This one deserves to be on the first page.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:44
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Just call it Political Cartoons 2019: The Noob.
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Jan 1, 2019 23:45
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welcome to the politoons thread, I love you
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Jan 2, 2019 00:35
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Great message, but idk, it just feels a bit heavy handed. Am I wrong here? edit: Heavy handed isn't the term, but I can't quite describe the idea I am feeling. AngrySpork fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 00:46
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AngrySpork posted:Great message, but idk, it just feels a bit heavy handed. Am I wrong here? Yes?
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Jan 2, 2019 00:49
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AngrySpork posted:Great message, but idk, it just feels a bit heavy handed. Am I wrong here? I don't know, heavy handed delivery of a message isn't really in keeping with the tradition of political cartoons.
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Jan 2, 2019 00:51
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Some small edit proposals/corrections to the OPs: 1. this is Year Three of trump. Please don't make us relive the past year. 2. Ramirez's profile appears to discuss his tendency to turn everyone into flesh monsters twice in separate parts, as if there was a drafting error. 3. I request that Skull Donkey be added to the in-joke list, as well as "A good/bad X" 4. I suggest providing a link to the old profile posts from past years, even if they're not updated they're a great information repository. I have an idea for a new thread rule/practice to increase our civic participation, which I'll draft shortly. Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 01:11 on Jan 2, 2019 |
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Jan 2, 2019 01:03
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Maybe 2019 will be the year when the rickety old industry of political cartooning finally dies.
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Jan 2, 2019 01:04
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Discendo Vox posted:Small correction to OP: this is Year Three Thousand of trump. Please don't make us relive the past
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Jan 2, 2019 01:05
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Why am I doing this to myself again?
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Jan 2, 2019 01:09
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AngrySpork posted:Great message, but idk, it just feels a bit heavy handed. Am I wrong here? It's like... it appears to be sincere, but it reads like a parody.
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Jan 2, 2019 01:10
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Jan 2, 2019 01:15
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