I think the spoof cartoons in the Onion are hilarious, but I find it hard to believe that there really are right wing cartoonists in US papers that are so simplistically partisan. I might be naive but I think even the Daily Mail in the UK wouldn’t publish stuff like that. Are there any real life examples online? Is there a particular inspiration for the ones in the onion?
Uh, Mallard Filmore?
After a quick Googling, my eyes have been opened.
I love those cartoons.
Tom Toles may have inspired the cartoonist at his drawing desk in the corner, but not the actual content.
I looked up Mallard Fillmore, it’s like Opus (of Bloom County fame) in bizarro-world. I want to cry.
The Onion’s mock editorial cartoons were discussed in a previous thread (which, due to technical difficulties, I cannot search for and link to right now). Except for a a few cartoons where the “cartoonist’s” perspective on an issue is obviously clueless, I’ve seen quite a few cartoons that, had they not been clearly identified as coming from the Onion, could’ve ran on the editorial page of various newspapers of a conservative bent without anyone noticing. The quality of editorial cartooning has steeply declined in the last 15 or so years.
I just looked up Mallard Fillmore as well. Until now, I’ve been picturing Opus whenever someone mentions Mallard Fillmore. In fact, I think I’ve been skipping over Opus comics in the Sunday funnies because of this confusion.
The Onion cartoons are a spoof? Their viewpoint is typical of many neo-con writings, if not cartoons. This is yet another case of the real world matching what was once satire.