Obama the Joker

[Nobunaga]

... I was half expecting to come here and see that pic as Captain Crazy's new avatar.

...

[Frigidus]

The thing I don't get is, why would the artist portray Obama as the Joker (an anarchist), yet label it "Socialism"?

Like I said, I don't get it.

I mean I agree that Obama is a socialist and I also agree that he is a joke but I don't get the pairing of the image with the word..

It's intended for the more knee-jerky types. Joker: BAD! Socailism: BAD! It's almost insulting to the anti-Obama crowd honestly, I'd be just as annoyed by the leftist version of this (Bush with a Hitler mustache or something). It cheapens the idea of genuine evil and labels it as people who disagree with you.

[herndawg]

Here is President Bush as the joker in Vanity Fair magazine. ]

I don't like either and think it is disrespectful to change someones face like that. I don't like much about President Obama but it is wrong to deface him. get it........deface

Perhaps it is that the artist thinks Obama isn't about the money but about the end game and the control that everything he is doing will bring. With control follows power. With power you can change things, oops, I mean "transform" a nation.

He is coming to my town tomorrow. Wakarusa, IN. I am a mile and a half from where his chopper will land (my kids school). Perhaps I will ask him what he thinks of it

[AAFitz]

I will agree that with part of the commentary, "it is meanspirited and dangerous"

Its obviously mean spirited on some level.

However, I think its more dangerous to suggest mocking the president...as we always have in the past...is dangerous.

Further, the same writer suggested that the person comes forward, so his motivations can be discussed in an open forum. Now that would be dangerous.

The whiteface does have an unfortunate racial element to it, and its impossible to imagine the person who made it, did not realize that...but that does not mean that the viewer will attribute any racial quality to it, or further view obama in any other light. If racism was the only motivation, than the person it a racist, and you can judge him/her accordingly.

In the end, its one pictoral editorial on someones view of the president. Its an offensive view to many, but in the end, any political commentary is offensive to someone at some point, and since this one at least, might only be racist, by accident...and since bush had the same damn thing done to his picture...I think people who take this as anything more as a political statement are either throwing gas on the fire for fun, or actually do not realize what Obama himself stands for, because Im almost certain he stands on a platform of more civil rights, including free speech...and not less.

[SultanOfSurreal]

can i just say for the record that both the obama and bush joker mockups look pretty sweet, accusations of racism or tastelessness aside

cause they do

[bedub1]

So I got emailed the picture, and responded "I don't get it". Now I get it. It's not the poster that's funny, the poster is nothing...just a fake picture. What's funny is everybody's jackass response to the poster...."Oh it's racist"..."oh it's mean"...."I wish the author would reveal him/herself"...."Don't make fun of my president"...etc...

[john9blue]

Obama gets more respect than Jesus... I suppose if people knew that Jesus was "black" they wouldn't parody him as much.

God our society is fucked up.

[Neoteny]

Well, you got the last part right...