Al Sharpton Goes Ape Over NY Post Cartoon

[quarky]

So,

Are we saying that Al Sharpton IS bigfoot?

Because I find that offensive.

 

[NorfolkAtheist]

But if Al Sharpton hadn't seen fit to through a fit over this cartoon, Sean Delonas wouldn't be getting the exposure of Gary Larson.

I bet Delonas is loving the attention, too. He's lampooned Sharpton before in a cartoon, and I'd wager we'll see Sharpton in another Delonas cartoon pretty soon.

 

[BPSCG]

Does anyone else see this as an attempt by Sharpton to remain relevant after the last presidential election?

 

[Region Rat]

Travis the chimpanzee actually had talent, whereas Pelosi/Reed & Company are just baboons.

Hey now, just because Pelosi has a big red butt, you can't go comparing her to a baboon. Making fun of her enflamed post-menopausal genetalia, well, that's just not right. I'll not stand for that. And Reed can't help it if he has old man hemroids. He's been straining a bit too much lately, and things like that just happen.


Oops, I think I've said too much.

 

[NobbyNobbs]

I'm not so sure the average person would have associated Obama with the chimp. I think it's pretty well known that it is not the President who generally writes bills, but rather members of Congress. Sure, the President has influence, but so do lobbyists, businesses, constituents, etc.

I thought it was pretty obvious that either a) Congress is a bunch of monkeys, or b) a monkey could do as well as a Congressman.

I don't see any reference to the President whatsoever.

ETA: or c) all of the above.

 

[hgc]

Does anyone else see this as an attempt by Sharpton to remain relevant after the last presidential election?

I saw him on the tube last night being interviewed. He said something to the effect of, "I'm and activist. I head a civil rights organization. That's what I do."

 

[dudalb]

I would take the accusation of Racism seriously if it came a from a much better source then Sharpton, who has a LOOONNNGGG history of creating charges of "racism" when there is little evidence for it.
You have to consider the reliablity of the source when evaulating how seriously to take evidence. If that is "attacking the messenger, not the message", then so be it.

 

[Cicero]

Travis the chimp is actually a perfect metaphor for the U.S. Congress. His high spirited antics were charming when he was young, but as he got older, his tantrums became increasingly more destructive. Travis eventually attacked and horribly disfigured an innocent bystander, who was powerless to defend herself. Even a cursory examination of the stimulus bill revealed outrageous inclusions of pork and earmarks that politicians were compelled to smuggle into the bill. By the time the Capital Police got their Beretta Px4's out, the rampaging Congress had already mutilated any effort to stimulate the economy while defecating on the deficit.

 

[BPSCG]

Travis the chimp is actually a perfect metaphor for the U.S. Congress. His high spirited antics were charming when he was young, but as he got older, his tantrums became increasingly more destructive. Travis eventually attacked and horribly disfigured an innocent bystander, who was powerless to defend herself. Even a cursory examination of the stimulus bill revealed outrageous inclusions of pork and earmarks that politicians were compelled to smuggle into the bill. By the time the Capital Police got their Beretta Px4's out, the rampaging Congress had already mutilated any effort to stimulate the economy while defecating on the deficit.

 

[J. Wellington Wimpy]

Travis the chimp is actually a perfect metaphor for the U.S. Congress. His high spirited antics were charming when he was young, but as he got older, his tantrums became increasingly more destructive. Travis eventually attacked and horribly disfigured an innocent bystander, who was powerless to defend herself. Even a cursory examination of the stimulus bill revealed outrageous inclusions of pork and earmarks that politicians were compelled to smuggle into the bill. By the time the Capital Police got their Beretta Px4's out, the rampaging Congress had already mutilated any effort to stimulate the economy while defecating on the deficit.

+1

 

[Brown]

I don't get it. Seriously. What's the joke?

This was my reaction, too. The cartoon offended me in the extreme because it was not funny.

Cripes, off the top of my head I could think of several captions that would have been funnier:

"Did you have to shoot him? I wanted to test my new taser!!"

"Well, you DID tell him to 'Freeze!'"

"There goes his chance at rehabilitation."

"Charlton Heston would be proud; we used a firearm to subdue a damn dirty ape!"

"It was self defense. He was about to THROW that poop!"

 

[tomwaits]

That cartoon was about as funny as Sinbad.

Not the comedian, he's hilarious. The sailor.

Then again, he was never meant to be funny.

 

[gumboot]

[OT] Where did that 1K figure come from? Isn't the theorem about any single monkey typing at random for an infinite amount of time? Otherwise the way your students wrote it, the theorem doesn't work. [/OT]

It's supposed to be an infinite number of Monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters.

The entire point is to illustrate the nature of infinity.

 

[gumboot]

Getting on to the topic at hand... I was actually going to create a thread on this myself when I saw a bunch of idiots actually had a protest about this.

I'd like to make a prediction; if Obama's devout worshipers are going to pull out the race card every single time they perceive something as a criticism of him, I predict the USA will never elect another black president. He has only been in a month and it is already getting tired.

Yes. Obama's black. The world noticed. Get over it.

(By the way I'm something of a fan of the man myself)

Personally I think the message the cartoon is giving is pretty damn obvious, and I think it has nothing whatsoever to do with racism and everything to do with a prediction about what this stimulus package will do.

The cartoonist is making a comparison between the creators of the stimulus package and a psychotic rampaging ape because the cartoonist obviously feels there's a relevant comparison there.

To spell it out, for the mentally challenged; the cartoonist is not saying the writers of the package are inept, or that they are stupid, or that they are deficient. Or that they are mumbling buffoons (as the uncountable direct comparisons between Bush and an ape were) Nothing so commonplace as that. The cartoonist is saying that these people are "ripping the face off" the economy. The psychotic violence of the chimpanzee is not an incidental detail that the cartoonist is belittling, the psychotic violence of the chimpanzee is the entire point.

It's a prediction that the stimulus package is going to generate a horrendous disaster for the USA; that by putting this package into place the creators are committing a senseless and barbaric attack on the USA.

That's certainly how I read it, and I struggle to see how you could read it any other way unless you were being intentionally obtuse.

 

[332nd]

[OT] Where did that 1K figure come from? Isn't the theorem about any single monkey typing at random for an infinite amount of time? Otherwise the way your students wrote it, the theorem doesn't work. [/OT]

What Gumboot said. I've just heard it so many times as "1,000" that I tend to blurt that out. Mea Culpa.

Also Gumboot is right about it not being racist. I can see someone thinking that it would be if they didn't know about the Chimp story and if they thought Obama wrote the entire package himself. (Both are possible but with only if the most minimal of research is done. As beeps said, I think this is Al trying to get some glory back.

 

[Upchurch]

I'd like to make a prediction; if Obama's devout worshipers are going to pull out the race card every single time they perceive something as a criticism of him

So, if a pro-Obama person doesn't pull out the race card to something they perceive as a criticism, does that prove your prediction wrong or does that just mean they aren't a devote worshiper?

 

[NobbyNobbs]

It's supposed to be an infinite number of Monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters.

The entire point is to illustrate the nature of infinity.

Actually, there's nothing wrong with this. You give one monkey one typewriter and an infinite amount of time, you'll still get the complete works of Shakespeare. It may just take a little longer.

 

[Upchurch]

Actually, there's nothing wrong with this. You give one monkey one typewriter and an infinite amount of time, you'll still get the complete works of Shakespeare. It may just take a little longer.

which, given the amount of time allowed, is still nearly instantaneously.

 

[gumboot]

So, if a pro-Obama person doesn't pull out the race card to something they perceive as a criticism, does that prove your prediction wrong or does that just mean they aren't a devote worshiper?

There may possibly have been a little hyperbole there. But no, they're probably not a devout worshiper.

 

[Thunder]

The NY Post, and the drawer of the cartoon, wants us to believe that they had no idea any racial overtones would be seen in this cartoon.

So, either they are a bunch of pathetic racist liars....or they are the stupidest people in the news business.