Do you remember Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire? How about Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire, Again? Or even Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire, Three? Well, it's now lapped it for a fourth time and, as an amateur political cartoonist, I freakin' surrender.
First came Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire. That one was inspired by this picture:
I wrote:
How could you cartoon the religious right's confidence that this is a Christian country, and that anybody else is here at their sufferance? Let's diagram the issue, and see what comes from it. First, what is the greatest symbol in America of welcome? What is the most obvious national monument to open arms, the availability of the American dream to one and all? You got it- the Statue of Liberty. There is really no second choice. Okay, good. Now, how to use the Statue of Liberty to caricature the religious nuts? Well, maybe we could replace the torch, the beacon lighting the way for one and all, into an exclusive symbol, marking the way for only Christians. Got it? Right, replace the lamp with a cross. But wait, we need a little more. What to do with her other hand? She's holding a tablet, remember? It has July 4, 1776, on it, the day we declared our independence. But hey, it's a tablet. You know what to do. Replace that silly date with some commandments. But there's one more problem- that pesky poem welcoming non-Christians. That has to go. Let's replace it with the commandments again. After all, "shalt nots" are a lot more fitting with the whole theme that language of welcome. Okay, we're ready to draw a cartoon, one that will really skewer the right, really cut to the heart of their hatred, their bigotry, their hypcrisy. But before we do, let's do a quick check of the internet, just to make sure we're not doing something that's already been done. What do we find?
This is real. A church in Tennessee spent a quarter of a million dollars on this thing. Jesus says feed the poor, the Commandments they worry so about say something pretty clearly about "graven images," and they build this?! Seriously, their reality has truly lapped our satire. When a church spends a quarter of a million dollars building the very thing, and being serious about it, that you would draw as a cartoon, then pen is simply dry. There is nothing left to do but crawl into a corner and whimper.
Their reality has lapped our satire.
Then came Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire, Again. That one was about "Christians" turning the Bible into a marketing tool, with products like:
and
The third, Their Reality Has Lapped Our Satire, Three, might hit a bit closer to home for some. Do you remember this New Yorker cartoon?
Well, a quick trip through wingnut-land made it pretty obvious that the New Yorker's satire looked pretty much exactly like their "reality," which is probably why it fell so darned flat on its face.
Okay, those are all pretty bad, so why am I surrendering now? And remember, folks, we're talking about satire and caricature here. Let me renew those definitions from the first diary:
sat·ire ( P ) Pronunciation Key (str)
n.
- A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. The branch of literature constituting such works. See Synonyms at caricature.
- Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.
car·i·ca·ture ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kr-k-chr, -chr)
n.
- A representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect. The art of creating such representations.
- A grotesque imitation or misrepresentation: The trial was a caricature of justice.
One of the more bizarre trends in right-wing "Christianity" today is the "Jesus wants me to be rich" one, the square-peg-into-a-round-hole blending of Jesus and unlimited wealth. How, if you had to, would caricature that? Oh heck, don't even try. Let's just skip straight to it. First, the set-up. It can be found at CBN, in Prayers needed for global economy:
In January of this year, Cindy Jacobs was in a worship service when the Lord spoke to her, "Cindy, the strongman over America doesn’t live in Washington, DC – the strongman lives in New York City! Call My people to pray for the economy."
...
For these and other reasons Cindy is calling for a Day of Prayer for the World’s Economies on Wednesday, October 29, 2008. They are calling for prayer for the stock markets, banks, and financial institutions of the world on the date the stock market crashed in 1929. They are meeting at the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve Bank, and its 12 principal branches around the US that day.
"We are going to intercede at the site of the statue of the bull on Wall Street to ask God to begin a shift from the bull and bear markets to what we feel will be the 'Lion’s Market,' or God’s control over the economic systems," she said. "While we do not have the full revelation of all this will entail, we do know that without intercession, economies will crumble."
Now for the puncline, courtesy of the always amazing Wonkette:
"Christians," praying at a golden calf, for economic wealth.
Seriously, people, how the f*#k do you satirize that?