Tuesday, January 31, 2012

How To Make A Political Cartoon Bearable


Turn it into a Kelly. 

What's a Kelly? It's a parody cartoon by The Onion's talented in-house cartoonist, Kelly. Staples of these cartoons include the crying Statue of Liberty, the grim reaper, excessive labeling on people's clothing, and a little representation of Kelly saying something clever in the bottom right-hand corner. Here's a good example of one:


The cartoon below is reprehensible:

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled fetuses...

It's cheesy, heavy-handed, the viewpoint is disgusting, and there's an unexplained speech bubble in the lower right hand corner. Who's talking? Somebody on the Staten Island Ferry?

But turn it into a satirical Kelly cartoon and now it's hilarious!


Haha! Another brilliant cartoon by Kelly. It's so horrible and over-the-top that there's no way a real cartoonist could have made it. Relax, folks, it's just The Onion. You didn't actually fall for it, did you?

Here's another cartoon, by J.R. Rose! The exclamation point is actually part of his signature. J.R. Rose is a cartoonist who's so cheesy and inept that you can't dislike him. Even though he's a moderate conservative, he doesn't have a malicious bone in his body; he's just adorable.


Pretty cheesy cartoon. Here it is after I Kellified it:


It's amazing how your opinion of a cartoon can completely depend on what cartoonist you think drew it. The real editorial cartoons out there really are as bad as Kelly's seemingly exaggerated parodies.