I came across this cartoon more or less by chance, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what (if anything) it is saying. It has got The Beatles, Islamic extremists, British police (looking a bit ineffectual, a smartphone, a Volkswagen (but that is probably irrelevant)… I am not getting what the connection or analogy is supposed to be between any of these things, or what witty, or supposedly insightful - or even mildly amusing, or trite - point is being made. Can anyone figure it out?
If you do not know, it may (or may not) be relevant that The Telegraph is a conservative leaning, fairly upscale, British newspaper. I am fairly sure, however, that the paper and its reader base is not so conservative as to think, in 2014, that The Beatles ever represented an evil on a par with armed Islamic militant jihadists.*
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*Spellcheck does not like this word, and suggests “sadists” instead.
Militant Islamic factions have taken/are taking over England. England used to be the land of the Beatles, now it’s the land of militant Islamic immigrants. The police (representing civilized society) are ineffectual in stopping them. That’s my take, anyway.
One former hostage, who was held for a year in Raqqa, told the Guardian the British executioner is intelligent, educated and a devout believer in radical Islamic teachings. The three UK-born militants were referred to as “the Beatles” by fellow hostages because of their nationality, the former captive added.
Those of us who live in England don’t really tend to think of it as the land of the Beatles; we like to think we have a few other things too. The Telegraph is conservative-leaning, but “now it’s the land of militant Islamic immigrants” would be a unlikely.
Really, I know England isn’t the “Land of the Beatles”. My point was that the paper could use an iconic picture that is closely associated with something English and replace it with something repsresenting militant Islam to easily represent a perceived cultural shift. Obviously I see now that it represents a specific incident and not a general commentary.
People, I think that what Shmendrik said is what the cartoon is about. A former hostage nicknamed his captors as “The Beatles”, and it seems that they are the same who were involved in keeping Foley a prisoner.
Yeah, the scuttlebut is that the 3 brit sounding captors were nicknamed John, Paul and Ringo by the hostages. I wonder whether Harrison would have felt offended or relieved.