Political cartoons are normally funny and capture their audience. The humor behind he cartoons is hilarious, and most of the time it is actually true. This is why people love them so much because they make fun of politics. It is a good way to laugh about the situations we are in, some of them not being so good. We could be in the middle of a war (like right now) and they come up with a cartoon relating to the war. Of course they never make fun of the military, but maybe the other sides. Normally people get a kick out of these cartoons because it is like an escape from reality. It is a way to laugh off our reality. We don’t like the way our government is being ran so they come up with these cartoons. These cartoons in a way are making fun of our political system. We are supposed to be Americans and look out for one another, but instead we are making fun of each other. They put down a lot of things and a lot of people, which is why I do not like them.
Cartoons are supposed to be easy to comprehend, but sometimes the message is lost. The artist may have a meaning behind it, and someone else finds a different meaning. These cartoons can be a real disaster and can be taking wrong very easily. I remember there being a huge conflict behind someone putting Obama’s face on a gorilla. Some people took this really personally and thought of it being racist. That was not the meaning of the cartoon at all. These cartoons can so easily be misunderstood they aren’t even worth it. They are supposed to be funny and a way to easily comprehend what is going on with out politics. Those cartoons make even bigger issues out of our political system. They do not solve anything with these cartoons. It is never right to make fun of someone, so why are these different? I just simply do not like them because they make fun of our government, and it makes me feel like we aren’t any better.
Ashlie, I agree with you. I’ve never really been interested in those kinds of cartoons, either. To me, I think of cartoons and think of Calvin and Hobbes or Charlie Brown. These cartoons, like you said, have political agendas and they mislead the public. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the creator’s intent to offend, if you’re putting something like that out there, you’re going to offend someone; plain and simple. I really don’t understand why America puts these things out there if we’re trying to act like the bigger person, whatever that means at this point. I think that acting immature isn’t going to get us anywhere positive, that’s for sure. I’m really glad you brought that point up.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why people put political cartoons like that out there, like you said. It’s to make light of a difficult situation. But, are you willing to risk hurting someone to do it? It seems we are at this point, unfortunately. I think that making fun of who we’re fighting and sometimes, making fun of the people on our own side, isn’t going to help. It’s only going to make things worse.
I agree with you when you say that the message gets lost sometimes in a cartoon. There have been many times where I read one and did not get the message. I may not have known much about the issue they were talking about, or they just used words that the average person may not understand and do not want to sit there with a dictionary while reading a political cartoon. Putting Obama’s face on a gorilla seems a little racist to me as well. I do not think I would have understood the message that was intended by that cartoon. I would have looked at what stood out and that definitely stands out. Sometimes I think they should think what others would think at first glance when drawing or thinking of an idea for a cartoon. It may not have been intentionally offensive, but a lot of society will look at it the same as I did because that’s the first thing you see, though we shouldn’t automatically assume.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it isn’t right to make fun of someone. I do find some of these political cartoons humorous though sometimes I feel I shouldn’t. I believe though, that the cartoons are just an opinion of the artist. Everyone has their own opinions and I believe that everyone should be entitled to voice it, as long as it is not too harsh or offensive.