Obama Joker artist revealed

I think that's unfair Sam. I mean if he thinks Obama has no substance that's one thing, but the Joker was filled with substance. I mean he was the best arch criminal Batman ever had!

I protest on the Joker's behalf:p
 
I think that's unfair Sam. I mean if he thinks Obama has no substance that's one thing, but the Joker was filled with substance. I mean he was the best arch criminal Batman ever had!

I protest on the Joker's behalf:p

"Sometimes I remember it one way, sometimes another... if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! Ha ha ha!";)
 
Joker's Words of wisdom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8PxG5zvgOM

"They need you right now but when they don't they'll cast you out like a leper. You see their morals, their code is a bad joke. You'll be dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be, I'll show you, when the chips are down these civilized people will eat each other. You see I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.":D

I think Obama can relate to that. The more I think about it there is a kind of sublime genius in this guy casting Obama as the Joker.
 
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Oh, you have to put some clown makeup on - but the bedraggled appearance is the original Joker, and the key to Jokerdom. That poster of Obama was not bedraggled - it was a clean, simple whiteface. Not smudgy. And the (unkempt) green hair w/ purple jacket turns out to be unnecessary, for the artist's satisfaction.

Well, yeah, but the smeary face-paint makes the connection all on its own. The jacket isn't really necessary - Obama usually wears black - and he did have the green hair actually.

I admit to being out of the loop about any widespread ecstatic veneration of Obama - I put most of that exaggeration down to the usual suspects, the ones who inform us that Reagan was wildly popular and "everyone except a few kooks" supported the invasion of Iraq. So I may have missed out on a large population of people who would be shocked, surprised, or thrilled, by seeing Obama presented as the Joker by the 27%.

I'm even further out. What the hell is the 27%? Republicans?

It looked like same old same old, to me - been getting a steady diet of this lame-ass point-missing semiotic-illiterate noise since the 80s. What is even unexpected, let alone thrilling, about seeing cartoons of any national Democratic politician as a sociopath?

Well, I think a lot of people were shocked by it, especially considering his huge support. I've met a fair few people who were positively giddy about the upcoming election. I think given Obama's approval, and the fervour with which that approval is expressed, plus the shockingly amoral portrayal of the Joker by Ledger - the best yet including the old dog Nicholson, and Ledger is dead, damn all, dead dead dead, damnit! - results in a stark, jolting image. So...it is kinda new. I don't know that there have been any really noticeable lampoons of him per se, so I think it's different, which is reason enough. But what did you mean about the "ME connection" re: the artist?

The racial implications of putting Obama in whiteface can hardly be avoided by calling the Joker a Socialist - which, as you notice, is off-kilter.

Well, I think it's enough that it's meant to be scary. Ledger, as the Joker in that makeup, is actually, surprisingly, scary. That Joker didn't strike me as a joke, as all the rest have been in one form or another (RIP Cesar). And the right wing is big on "Obama = Socialist", which no one can have missed, and thus that "Obama = Socialist = Scary". I think the Dems are doing themselves a disservice with that nonsense about "finding the guilty party". Good god. What country is this?

A black guy in whiteface as a Socialist, on the other hand, is more on kilter among the wingnut crowd, not so?

Poooossibly. But wingnuts go for a lot of things that regular conservatives go for; it's just that they believe also in inequality and shooting lots of people. While the Repubs are outspoken or even vitriolic, I just don't find that it's a racist portrayal. Maybe we'll have to agree to disagree.

Best,

Geoff
 
Joker's Words of wisdom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8PxG5zvgOM

"They need you right now but when they don't they'll cast you out like a leper. You see their morals, their code is a bad joke. You'll be dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be, I'll show you, when the chips are down these civilized people will eat each other. You see I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.":D

I think Obama can relate to that. The more I think about it there is a kind of sublime genius in this guy casting Obama as the Joker.

Hmm. I suppose that could be a political attack sort of connection.
 
Joker's Words of wisdom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8PxG5zvgOM

"They need you right now but when they don't they'll cast you out like a leper. You see their morals, their code is a bad joke. You'll be dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be, I'll show you, when the chips are down these civilized people will eat each other. You see I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.":D

I think Obama can relate to that. The more I think about it there is a kind of sublime genius in this guy casting Obama as the Joker.

He is a history major. I'm sure he's learning a lot ;)
 
He is a history major. I'm sure he's learning a lot ;)

God Damn Palestinian Geniuses. Keep em coming is what I say!

Cause it takes someone who understands the subtleties of satire. It requires an understanding of how to pass on an oblique message that not any ole poser or hack can accomplish.
 
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If the great majority of the people who see it,

That's an appeal to the masses; it's a fallacy.

including the guy who ripped it off and used it for a poster and the thousands who spread the image around with racial commentary, take it as racist, it is.

I don't think the guy in the OP said it was racist. I think he has said something almost opposite.
 
count said:
I don't think the guy in the OP said it was racist. I think he has said something almost opposite.
I think he visibly dodged the question, with the help of the interviewer. There's a gap there, where the question of "what were you thinking re whiteface?" was carefully not asked or answered.

Who do you think he's talking about, who's "very, very liberal" in inner city Chicago? The people who installed Da Mare ? The political base of Richard Daley, father and son?

geoff said:
I'm even further out. What the hell is the 27%?
Lefty code. Palin's crowd, W's core support, the people who think Limbaugh is an intellectual, the people who voted in the Kansas school board and kept Tammy Faye Baker in eye shadow. Named after the unshakable bottom poll percentage who thought W was doing a good job as President right to the end.
geoff said:
Well, I think a lot of people were shocked by it, especially considering his huge support.
I really doubt that. We've been the audience of Atwater's Legacy in action for years now, all over the radio and TV - we're buffered. Jokes on national radio about Chelsea Clinton looking like a dog, when she was 14 - that might have shocked people, back then. After eight years of the hatefest directed at the Clintons, reprised with Gore, reprised with Kerry, it's going to take a lot more than a picture like that to shock very many people.

Most of the people in my demographic voted for McCain/Palin. Think they're shocked by this picture?
 
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I think he visibly dodged the question, with the help of the interviewer. There's a gap there, where the question of "what were you thinking re whiteface?" was carefully not asked or answered.

I agree.

I think the interviewer should have pressed him more about his motives. But the article does present a context in which the image was created. Essentially, he had done this before, and thought Obama should be taken less seriously, as he is not so substantive. This, I took, it, led to the idea of a "joker."

Who do you think he's talking about, who's "very, very liberal" in inner city Chicago? The people who installed Da Mare ? The political base of Richard Daley, father and son?

Maybe he's talking about people like Obama's racist pastor?

You tell me. . .

And Ice, here's a clue: To just about anyone other than fringe Leftists like you, Chicago is "liberal."
 
I think he visibly dodged the question, with the help of the interviewer. There's a gap there, where the question of "what were you thinking re whiteface?" was carefully not asked or answered.

Is he born in the US? If I was asked, I would have said, what is whiteface?
Who do you think he's talking about, who's "very, very liberal" in inner city Chicago? The people who installed Da Mare ? The political base of Richard Daley, father and son?

I thought Chicago was very liberal too.
 
count said:
Who do you think he's talking about, who's "very, very liberal" in inner city Chicago? The people who installed Da Mare ? The political base of Richard Daley, father and son?

Maybe he's talking about people like Obama's racist pastor?
That's kinda what I thought. People "like that".
SAM said:
Is he born in the US? If I was asked, I would have said, what is whiteface?
And that would have answered the question. Simple enough. Do you suppose the interviewer didn't think of the matter? Edited out the exchange?
count said:
And Ice, here's a clue: To just about anyone other than fringe Leftists like you, Chicago is "liberal."
No problem. I just get a kick out of the image of people from out of town believing in the liberal Richard Daley and his liberal police force and all the liberals who voted for Rod Blagojevich and so forth. Better cartoon base than the whiplash flexibility necessary to take a stealth Muslim as the Joker.
 
I don't think liberal is defined by politicians. Mumbai has its Shiv Sena, New York had its Giuliani and Chicago has its Daleys. America has its George Bush and Obama is no "liberal"
 
Lefty code. Palin's crowd, W's core support, the people who think Limbaugh is an intellectual, the people who voted in the Kansas school board and kept Tammy Faye Baker in eye shadow. Named after the unshakable bottom poll percentage who thought W was doing a good job as President right to the end.

Ahh.

Most of the people in my demographic voted for McCain/Palin. Think they're shocked by this picture?

Maybe and maybe not: but are the committed 27% the target? This is directed at the young, who voted largely for Obama. I did think it was disgusting the way criticism has been fired at the Clinton kids and the Bush kids. If I were a real cynic, I'd speculate that no one would dare the same with Obama's kids. Fortunately, I'm not so cynical.
 
geoff said:
Maybe and maybe not: but are the committed 27% the target? This is directed at the young, who voted largely for Obama.
Plenty of young voted for Palin as well - more than 27%.

So guessing at the age of the poster maker and the viral spreaders is not so empty an exercise after all?
geoff said:
I did think it was disgusting the way criticism has been fired at the Clinton kids and the Bush kids. If I were a real cynic, I'd speculate that no one would dare the same with Obama's kids.
The Bush kids got a pass, compared with Chelsea - even as "adults", compared with a 14 year old.

I doubt Obama's kids would get comparative courtesy the W twins did, given the same behavior and age. Compare the critiques of the wives, relative to their actual deportment.
 
Plenty of young voted for Palin as well - more than 27%.

So guessing at the age of the poster maker and the viral spreaders is not so empty an exercise after all?

Not at all. I think it was designed to shock, and that's how it's clearly worked.

The Bush kids got a pass, compared with Chelsea - even as "adults", compared with a 14 year old.

I doubt Obama's kids would get comparative courtesy the W twins did, given the same behavior and age. Compare the critiques of the wives, relative to their actual deportment.

They kept calling the twins slutty drunks, as I recall. What did they say about Chelsea Clinton? Can't remember.
 
Its meant to hide the scars that formed the smile on the character's face. Remember the joker is supposed to be deformed underneath the make-up.


I always had the impression that the white face was part of the deformity, not a cover-up for it. He fell into a vat of chemicals that bleached his skin, turned his lips red and gave him the smile (not scars, but an actual permanent wide faced grin). The scars, so far as I know, only appeared in Heath Ledger's incarnation.

I am very surprised but is the general impression that Heath Ledger has now become "the" iconic Joker? Not the one from the comics, various cartoons or the awesomeness that was the Adam West version of Batman? I admit that Ledger was better than Nicholson, but I didn't think the movie was quite that good.
 
Obamanoiacs turning to thuggery?

A report from Seattle suggests a woman was assaulted after removing an Obama-Joker poster from a telephone pole:

The woman told police she was walking on 130th and Linden when she noticed an Obama Joker poster—which also had the word "fascism" written on it—on a telephone pole, a police report says.

As the woman began to remove the flier, a man pushing a stroller approached and confronted her. The man "was very agitated and kept screaming about his rights," the report says, and "began flailing his hands, striking the woman."

The man, described as a white male between 30 and 49 years old, then left the area.


(Spangenthal-Lee)

Insurgent commentary is one thing. But Obamanoia seems to be moving more and more toward violence. This is not a good thing.

Nor is it a good example to be setting for the alleged assailant's alleged young daughter.

Oh, right. It's Obama. So all the rules have changed.
____________________

Notes:

Spangenthal-Lee, Jonah. "Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed!". Slog. August 21, 2009. Slog.TheStranger.com. August 21, 2009. http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2009/08/21/help-help-im-being-oppressed
 
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