I normally enjoy your column, but its interesting how you seem to feel “satire” that compares the author(s) of the ill-advised stimulus package (Congress) to a chimp, but misinterpreted by close-minded reactionaries & finger-pointers as representing Obama, isn’t “funny” but a strip promoting homophobia is.

Oh, and since I forgot, you’ve got another recommendation for Simon Pegg for the Riddler. He’s got both the sad pathetic loser look to him, as well as the superior egotist look. Because while I couldn’t make it through MI:3 on my own, he showed his superior tech geek side there and I think he could bring a sublime and yet creepy substance to the Riddler.

And Bruce would’ve made a great Spirit 10 to 20 years ago… although if Brad Bird’s Spirit animated film could get resurrected (it only got stopped in the 90′s due to Eisner wanting a live-action flick), I’d kill to see Bruce voice the character.

Ah, yes, the “Framed For Something I Didn’t Do” storyline. Seriously, I’d love to pick Quesada’s brain as to how this and every other story was just too hard to do with Peter married…

And finally, someone else who recognizes the greatness of Bruce’s character in “Hudsucker Proxy”. I’m still surprised that Bruce hasn’t become a regular fixture in the Coen Brother’s films.

As for Brad Bird’s adaption, it was sometime in the mid-90′s (around when he was doing or after he did Iron Giant) and he was really pushing Eisner to let him do it. God bless Will, he just wanted to see it done in live-action, but I think if he had lived to see what Frank Miller ended up doing (or somehow had foreseen the future of what the Spirit film would end up being), he would’ve called Bird up and greenlit the sucker in an instant.

Column? Me? Nah… you’d probably get an infrequent, incoherent page of fanboy rambling rather than anything looking like reasoned thought, LOL

Blarny: “I normally enjoy your column, but its interesting how you seem to feel “satire” that compares the author(s) of the ill-advised stimulus package (Congress) to a chimp, but misinterpreted by close-minded reactionaries & finger-pointers as representing Obama, isn’t “funny” but a strip promoting homophobia is.”

Blarny, I wanna say off the bat that I’m glad you’re reading my column, and I hope you’ll keep reading. I’m also glad that if you saw that political cartoon and thought the chimp represented Congress, extra points to you. I’d like to take that to mean you’re not a racist, so you know what? I think I will!

However, it’s still not funny, and I’ll tell you why. But first, we’re going to eliminate some factors. Let’s leave aside the fact that it unnecessarily depicts graphic violence. We all know that there’s plenty of ways to draw a cartoon of something that’s just been shot without resorting to bullet holes and a pool of blood. decades of Bugs Bunny and Pink Panther cartoons make that point abundantly clear. X’s for eyes, soot and wafting smoke would have been enough.

Let’s leave aside the fact that most jokes, almost by design, have an offensive quality to them. Something or somebody’s going to get mocked, as in the case of the Street Fighter IV cartoon from CTRLALTDEL-ONLINE.com above. I notice you skipped over the stereotypes of femininity (Chun-Li’s big, veiny legs) and the dangers of the illicit sex industry. (“If we take more than ten minutes, my pimp gets rough with me.”)To say nothing of street fighting. If you were to suggest that I’m somehow okay with homophobia, I could easily suggest that you’re okay with sexism, illegal bloodsports or the beating of prostitutes. It’s best we just skip that.

But…if you want another reason why that New York Post cartoon isn’t funny, here’s one: because it’s a shittily constructed joke.

Most properly constructed jokes have three elements that make them funny:

1. A shared cultural experience for the audience to reference.
2. An unspoken element for the audience to insert themselves, that they may get the joke.
3. A sharp left turn in the delivery, to signal the audience to look for the unspoken element, that they may get the joke. The more exaggerrated, the better.

These three elements can be found in just about any joke you can think of, and the audience picks up on it at a very pure, unconscious level. That’s why they laugh when it’s funny, or don’t react if it’s not.

Now, the Street Fighter IV meets all the requirements for it’s video gamer audience. Shared cultural experience: The Street Fighter Univese – specifically, the Ryu/Ken mirror-image relationship. CHECK!

Unspoken element: What if Ken were a real person, aware of the fact that he fights exactly like Ryu? How would he feel about that? He doesn’t like it. It bothers him. CHECK!

Sharp left turn: Not only does it bother him, but he’s willing to go so far as to dress like a woman and live a life of prostitution, to set himself apart from Ryu. CHECK!

Now, the New York Post fails, because the unspoken element, if we give this newspaper the benefit of the doubt, is severely lacking. Shared cultural experience: the recent news of the stimulus bill and the chimp attack. Okay. Fine. The sharp left turn: the alternate reason for shooting the chimp is because he wrote the stimulus bill. Fine. So who’s the chimp? See the problem?

If the chimp is supposed to be Congress, then why didn’t the cartoonist write “Congress” on the chimp’s body? Political cartoonists do that all the time, and why do they do that? Because they want you to get the joke, right?

Why not make it bigger, so that it becomes a symbol of an entire legislative body. That would’ve steered the reader in the direction that the cartoonist wanted, and why would he have wanted to do that? Because he wants you to get the joke, right?

But he didn’t do that, did he? The chimp doesn’t have “Congress” written on it, and it’s the relative size of an actual chimp. What does the reader say to him/herself? It must represent an individual.

So who’s left that’s most closely associated to the passing of the stimulus bill? Who’s been going on TV, basically on tour to promote this bill? President Barack Obama. The first black president of our country.

Now…why would someone think that this cartoon were meant to portray Barack Obama? Because (A)he’s the individual whose face is attached to the stimulus bill, and (B) because it is a centuries-old notion, especially among racists, to associate black people with primates, let alone use it for the basis of a joke. If you don’t believe me, check this out – http://www.alternet.org/rights/127835/ny_post%27s_racist_ape_cartoon_is_no_small_matter/?page=entire

Now…if you know anything about the New York Post, you’d know it’s entirely possible that it’s just a shittily constructed joke and nothing more. It’s a shitty newspaper, cover to cover. I’ve once said onstage that finding journalistic gold in the New York Post is about as common as seeing a Hassid in a Speedo. Look at that! Racial joke! I’ve also said, once again in reference to the New York Post, that if you did in fact put a hundred monkeys in a room with a hundred typewriters, guess what? You won’t get Shakespeare. Boom! Monkey joke!

But seriously, folks…you can’t be surprised that people reacted the way they did. And it’s not their fault that they reacted that way, either. Either the cartoonist is a sub-standard humorist who doesn’t deserve to be in print, or he used a convention that is commmonly viewed as racist, and is trying to get away with it using the myth that racism in this country is dead.