Political humor

This cartoon reminds me of something from the Team America movie that someone told me about (I didn’t see it myself), a satiric pro-American song that I can’t even repeat the title of here. (The cartoon below also has an objectionable word in it.)

Or, at least, that’s how many Americans would view the rest of the world, if they had even that much geographical awareness.

In reality, I think many Americans see the world through the same sort of lens (though not of course from the same perspective) as Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover map of the world cartoon:

Oh, and JibJab is at it again!

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23 thoughts on “Political humor”

  3. ” …you live where? I’m sure if your country had anything of value you’d be the 51’st state by now…”

  4. I had to laugh – the map is almost certainly not made by an American. The ‘objectionable word’ means what Americans mean by something like ‘sissy’ and I doubt the creator even knows what it would mean to Americans.
    On the other hand, there is at least one American term (used in America to refer to a person’s bottom) that you really really wouldn’t want to use in New Zealand 🙂

  5. “The ‘objectionable word’ means what Americans mean by something like ‘sissy’ and I doubt the creator even knows what it would mean to Americans.”
    Indeed. Permit me to quote from Merriam-Webster(3rd noun def.):
    slang : a weak or cowardly man or boy : wimp, sissy

  6. There are hidden secrets in the names of the states, you know. I mean, look at the coincidences:
    Every state starting with the letter A is followed by either an L or an R.
    All four-letter states start with a vowel, the 9th letter, the 15th letter, and the 21st letter – exactly 6 letters, apart.
    Every state that has a double letter is west of Indiana; those having more than one pair of double letters are south of Indiana.
    Every state ends in either an A, S, T, O, E, I, D, N, Y, K, H, G, which, of course may be rearranged to form the words, ” Oh, Steady King”
    Coincidences? I think not! What more proof do we need that America is great?
    The Chicken

  8. I had to laugh – the map is almost certainly not made by an American. The ‘objectionable word’ means what Americans mean by something like ‘sissy’ and I doubt the creator even knows what it would mean to Americans.

    Um. Americans use the word in the “sissy” sense too, and really the two meanings are interrelated…

  9. I have to disagree about the objectionable word. Near every American I know (and, living in America, I know quite a few 😉 ) would take that word to mean “sissies” or “wimps” in addition to the more vulgar meaning which is suggested by John Thayer Jensen. In fact, Team America uses the word in both senses simultaneously in a “rousing” speech near the end. It’s just universally taken to mean a sissy here in America.

  11. “On the other hand, there is at least one American term (used in America to refer to a person’s bottom) that you really really wouldn’t want to use in New Zealand”
    And also in places beginning with ‘Eng’ and ending in ‘and’ that the Kiwis are more English than. In such places, at least, it is known as a ‘bum bag’ (or vel sim.).
    And here‘s a page full of interesting maps, just for January.

  13. It occurs to me that the cartoon maker missed a trick by labeling Antarctica “cold!” The correct label would have been “penguins!” Or possibly even “penguins march here!”
    And maybe instead of “zoo animals,” Africa could have been “jungle.”

  14. I hope this is joke, because otherwise Americans aren´t much of an educated persons.

  16. Hey, they left Greenland off of the map. If memory serves, Greenland has one of the most genetically pure culture on the planet and is used as a reference in genetic medical testing. They are attempting to create a DNA history of everyone on the island.
    The Chicken

  17. I’m also a bit confused by the “more evil doers” part. They appear to be referring to Thailand. Or perhaps Vietnam. Or something else, I don’t know. In any case, they seem to either have no idea what they’re talking about, or they think Korea is supposed to go there. In either case, obviously not the brightest creation.

  18. I took the “other evil doers” to be Indonesia, but I agree that the map makers could have a wandering North Korea on their hands.
    The best political t-shirt I have seen recently was promoting a 2012 Presidential Ticket:
    “Blagoevich/Spitzer: the power & the passion”

  19. “In either case, obviously not the brightest creation.”
    Maybe that’s the point.

  20. TMC: “Hey, they left Greenland off of the map.”
    I know somebody who lives on Baffin Island (BI) across Baffin Bay from Greenland (see here), and I was trying to explain to someone where BI is. The fact that it was across from Greenland wasn’t helpful.
    I’m afraid, bklyn catholic, that subsequent events have demonstrated that it didn’t take much power on Bl’ovich’s to make a shambles of our state government.

  22. Evil doers, looks like it refers to both Islam and Rome. I bet that is no accident.

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