My query is related to the use of Japanese Sumo imagery to represent a summit between a obnoxious Western leader and a North Korean dictator. Wrong national imagery since Korea isn't Japan. Does that make the cartoon racist?
No. It is likening the posturing of the two lumpy leaders with that of two contestants in the sport (even ahead of darts) known for having obese participants. And it is finding similarity between them, with one being (in terms of power) a miniature version of the other. Race has nowt to do with it.
I've been aware of Bell since the mid 1980s but have never found him funny.
Tangled Metal wrote:Isn't it a bit like saying they're all the same down there? Mixing cultural references of Japan and Korea which AIUI are culturally different.
Would it be the same as showing Cameron or Farage wrapped in tartan with a blue face shaking a sword at Junker? We're all the same right?
You'd have to be in that "looking to find offence" frame of mind to look at it that way. And there is a form of wrestling that exists in Korea and looks a bit like Sumo. I can see why someone might look at two fat blokes posturing in an adversarial way (which they both do) and think Sumo.
pwa wrote:I've been aware of Bell since the mid 1980s but have never found him funny.
He also never seems to have grown out of being a teenage boy who finds underpants, condoms and toilet humour funny.
The plum pudding in danger (with Trump sitting on the plum pudding and farting(?)) alludes to Gillray's cartoon which is so much better drawn and apposite.
I was about to say, "read the small print" - but B@F has forestalled me: the cartoon is indeed captioned "after Gillray" - the artist who defined the words "cartoon" and "caricature" as we understand them today.
If we say Steve Bell is racist, we also have to make similar accusations against Gillray (see how he depicts the diminutive Napoleon - who actually wasn't all that small!).
My take is, Bell has been controversial ever since he started cartooning. I've had 'issues' with many of his offerings (sometimes making my views known in the Comments columns). But on the whole, I find him very funny. Let him be. It's his job to offend.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity. Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments... --- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
How can a cartoon be racist?The practitioner ca be racist,as can the message or the implications of the cartoon. Being humorous is hazardous as it often risks causing offence
