Controversy Erupts over New Yorker Cover Because it shows Obama as a Cartoon Character

Monday, July 14, 2008 in Humor, News, News & Commentary, News In Brief, Quick Takes
Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama New Yorker, Barack Obama New Yorker cover, cartoon, david remnick, e.d. hill, fox news, Michelle Obama, New Yorker, obama, Obama New Yorker controversy, satire, terrorist fist jab, wile e. coyote, yogi bear

Barack Obama’s campaign is condemning as “tasteless and offensive” a New Yorker magazine cover because it depicts Obama and wife Michelle as two-dimensional cartoon drawings, instead of as the three-dimensional humans they’ve always claimed to be.

“The cover is tasteless and offensive,” commented Obama spokesman Bill Burton. “The New Yorker says it’s satire, but the cover will only serve to reinforce untrue rumors that Barack and Michelle are actually cartoon characters.”

Despite the criticism from the Obama campaign, many see the cover as photographic evidence that proves for the first time ever that the Obamas are, in fact, cartoons.

“The proof is right there,” said former Fox News host E.D. Hill. “I was saying all along that Michelle and Barack’s fist bump was really a cartoon fist jab, and there they are on the cover, as cartoons, fist-jabbing in a very cartoon-like manner.”

While the constitution does not state whether or not cartoon characters can be elected president, Hill says voters should think twice before voting for an animated being.

“Cartoon characters are all either thieving, dumb, foolish, or all of the above,” said Hill. “They’re usually found doing things like swiping pic-a-nic baskets, or falling off of cliffs in order to catch tasty birds that run very fast, or they’ll see an attractive woman and their eyes will pop out of their head while their tongue actually drops to the floor. Is that the kind of man we want in the White House?”

Despite the controversy, Obama does not believe the cover will cost him the election. “Some people think I may drop in the polls,” said Obama, “but I know that I will not drop as long as I keep my head up. Because if I look down I will see I have walked off of a cliff, and it is only when I observe this reality that I will feel the effects of gravity.”

For his part, New Yorker editor David Remnick doesn’t see what all the controversy is about. “It’s clearly satire,” said Remnick. “Anyone who would actually look at that cover and take any single aspect of it seriously would have to be a huge, gigantic fucktard.”

– Matt Manser