DarylCagle.comPopular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, known as the “Arab Spring,” have already knocked out dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt, triggered a civil war in Libya and prompted widespread and deadly demonstrations in Syria and Yemen. How this sudden change will play out, and what effect it will have on Israel, remains to be seen.
Come see how cartoonists have responded to these events with our new Arab Spring cartoon co0llection.
My only exposure to French culture as a child was Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the lecherous skunk, Pepé Le Pew. When I grew up, my views of France changed, and I thought of the French as romantic, a view that seems to contrast with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid is remarkably similar to Pepé Le Pew’s antics. Maybe Warner Brothers got it right.
I recently visited France where I learned that the French were also raised with Looney Tunes characters from an early age, and they are all familiar with Pepé Le Pew. In France, the cartoons are dubbed into French and Le Pew loses his French accent; it isn’t widely known that he is supposed to be French. One French lady I spoke with told me:
“We never knew Pepé Le Pew was French — I didn’t learn that until I grew up — and I was shocked. We thought he was just a jerk.”
As a flood of news of past liaisons pours in, everyone now agrees that Strauss-Kahn is a jerk. This is the season for political-Le Pews, with Euro-Le Pews Schwarzenegger and Berlusconi joining our own chorus of American-Le Pew oldies: Clinton, Gingrich, Spitzer, Sanford, Vitter, Ensign, Edwards and more. It is a parade of schadenfreude delights for editorial cartoonists.
The French are remarkably tolerant of their leaders’ sexual indiscretions, and I was interested to see the America-bashing that accompanied the Strauss-Kahn news, as the French press was eager to bash the American legal system for publishing images of Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs. The American press wouldn’t publish the name of Strauss-Kahn’s victim — not so in France, where the victim’s name was broadcast widely.
I wondered what the French thought of sexy maids, and I just did a Google search — oh là là! It seems that every aspect of the Strauss-Kahn story reinforces our stereotyped images of the French. I suspect the same is true on the other side of the Atlantic as the French roll their eyes at puritanical Americans with their backward legal system.
I once got a job from a French magazine whose editors asked me to draw the archetypal American; they gave me a list of American attributes to incorporate into the image; they wanted an overweight man with: cowboy hat, hamburger, soda, jeans, sneakers and iPod. Hamburgers are an international cartoon symbol for America, understood worldwide, except in America.
Superman is another international cartoon symbol of America, a fact that may have recently led Warner Brothers to have Superman renounce his American citizenship. I hate to think that Warner Brothers might do the same with Pepé Le Pew. Without his French citizenship, Le Pew would be as pointless for us as he is in France.
Daryl Cagle is a political cartoonist and blogger for MSNBC.com; he is a past president of the National Cartoonists Society. Daryl’s cartoons are syndicated to more than 850 newspapers, including the paper you are reading now. Read Daryl’s blog at www.cagle.com/daryl.
My only exposure to French culture as a child was Looney Tunes cartoons featuring the lecherous skunk, Pepé Le Pew. When I grew up, my views of France changed, and I thought of the French as romantic, a view that seems to contrast with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose alleged sexual assault on a hotel maid is remarkably similar to Pepé Le Pew’s antics. Maybe Warner Brothers got it right.
I recently visited France where I learned that the French were also raised with Looney Tunes characters from an early age, and they are all familiar with Pepé Le Pew. In France, the cartoons are dubbed into French and Le Pew loses his French accent; it isn’t widely known that he is supposed to be French. One French lady I spoke with told me,
“We never knew Pepé Le Pew was French – I didn’t learn that until I grew up – and I was shocked. We thought he was just a jerk.”
As a flood of news of past liaisons pour in, everyone now agrees that Strauss-Kahn is a jerk. This is the season for political-Le Pews, with Euro-Le Pews Schwarzenegger and Burlusconi joining our own chorus of American-Le Pew oldies: Clinton, Gingrich, Spitzer, Sanford, Vitter, Ensign, Edwards and more. It is a parade of schadenfreude delights for editorial cartoonists.
The French are remarkably tolerant of their leaders’ sexual indiscretions, and I was interested to see the America-bashing that accompanied the Strauss-Kahn news, as the French press was eager to bash the American legal system for allowing images of Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs to be published. The American press wouldn’t publish the name of Strauss-Kahn’s victim – not so in France where the victim’s name was broadcast widely.
I wondered what the French thought of sexy maids, and I just did a Google search – ou la la! It seems that every aspect of the Strauss-Kahn story reinforces our stereotyped images of the French. I suspect the same is true on the other side of the Atlantic as the French roll their eyes at puritanical Americans with their backward legal system.
I once got a job from a French magazine whose editors asked me to draw the archetypal American; they gave me a list of American attributes to incorporate into the image; they wanted an overweight man with a: cowboy hat, hamburger, soda, jeans, sneakers and iPod. Hamburgers are an international cartoon symbol for America, understood worldwide, except in America.
Superman is another international cartoon symbol of America, a fact that may have recently led Warner Brothers to have Superman renounce his American citizenship. I hate to think that Warner Brothers might do the same with Pepé Le Pew. Without his French citizenship, Le Pew would be as pointless for us as he is in France.
Well, May 21st has come and gone, and it looks like we’re all still here. According to Alan Boyle at the Cosmic Log, at least one good thing may come out of today’s non-Rapture: More folks are likely to realize that there’s nothing to numerological mumbo-jumbo.
The other good thing were all the great cartoons drawn about today’s non-event. Check them out in our new Doomsday cartoon collection.
Editorial cartoonists have a tradition of drawing politicians in their underwear. President Clinton is often drawn with his pants around his ankles and boxer shorts with a pattern of little hearts. The same treatment is due for serial adulterer politicians like Newt Gingrich, Arnold Schwarzenegger and too many members of congress to list. Even Batman and Superman wear their underwear on top of their tights. As an editorial cartoonist, I cherish my right to draw anyone I want in their underwear.
Mitt Romney is a little different. He doesn’t seem to be an adulterer, and is certainly no superhero. As a devout Mormon, Romney is supposed to wear religious “garments” as his underwear, and I assume he does although he refuses to answer questions about his underwear. If Romney would talk about his underwear, I would be less motivated to draw him in his underwear; Romney’s “garment” silence interests me. Here are a couple of sample of cartoons with Romney wearing his Mormon “garments.” I have gotten a bit of flack from readers about drawing the mysterious underwear on Romney, but not as much as I expected, and I’ll keep drawing him this way at least until he talks about his underwear. Poor Bill Clinton will continue to be drawn in his underwear whether he talks about it or not.
The story of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his “love child” dominated a busy news week. Check out our big Week in Political Cartoons slideshow to get caught up the country’s best political cartoonists think about everything from Newt Gingrich’s implosion to Donald Trump’s decision not to run for President.
Arnold Schwarzenegger may be bearing the brunt of our 24-7 news cycle with the revelation that he fathered a “love child” with a former household staffer 10 years ago, but he’s hardly the first politician to admit to such a scandal. From Jesse Jackson to John Edwards, numerous politicians have fallen victim to their own selfish urges.
And some have even survived politically.
During the 1884 presidential election, then New York governor Grover Cleveland admitted that he had fathered a child with a store clerk while unmarried. Frank Beard, a widely known cartoonist at the time, drew this infamous cartoon of a baby crying, “I want my Pa!” on the cover of The Judge magazine. Quickly, Cleveland’s opponents took up the cry and started bringing children to Cleveland’s rallies to chant: “Ma, ma, where’s my pa?”
However, Cleveland went on to win the Presidency, and following the electoral victory, the “Ma, Ma …” attack phrase was countered with the slogan, “Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!”
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I was interested to read that my former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child more than 10 years ago outside of his marriage to Maria Shriver. It is fascinating that someone who attracts as much media attention as Schwarzenegger was able to hide something like this. Here is my new Arnold Love Child cartoon …
Looking back at our cartoon archives, we have a lot of terrific cartoons about Arnold. In fact, Cam Cardow of the Ottawa Citizen drew a cartoon back in 2003 showcasing Arnold’s “love child.”
The Los Angeles Times supported Gray Davis and came out with the story of Arnold groping women just before election day. Here was my take then:
And this was a cartoon I drew about the groping story at the time …
Arizona cartoonist Brian Fairrington touched on the groping issue in this cartoon about Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial victory:
He also drew a funny cartoon about Arnold’s famous gap:
Regardless of the rumors, our former first lady, Maria Shriver defended Arnold during the campaign against allegations of groping and sexual abuse. Here’s Austrian cartoonist Petar Pismestrovic’s take on Austria’s favorite child …
Pismestrovic draws a terrific Arnold for Arnold-crazy Austrians. Here are a couple more of his caricatures:
I think Ottawa Citzen cartoonist Cam Cardow sums it all up with Arnold’s bumper sticker:
