# Why is Dogs Playing Poker considered bad art? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 11, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622 "2011-11-11T18:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/21 "2011-11-12T12:40:28Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Just because something is not good doesn’t mean it necessarily has to be bad. There’s a large continuum: mediocre, okay, passable, etc. > > The default assumption is that a piece of art is neither bad nor good, just like anything else. Thank you! I actually had a full set of “Dogs Playing Poker” (If we’re agreed that there are four prints in the meme) that I actually had framed . In our first apartment with my HS friend we had the hallway lined with poker dogs, and ended with her gigantor, gas station-bought Velvet Elvis. Man. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/22 "2011-11-12T12:59:49Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > [Cats Playing Poker](http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/351/d/d/the_cat __s_out_of_the_bag____ by_blackbirdrose-d351u82.jpg) is the true masterpiece. Note the contents of **the pot!** Doncha mean [the kitty](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kit2.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/23 "2011-11-12T13:25:49Z")
[They’re dogs! And they’re playing poker! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AHAHAHAHAHA!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_YvswCOB2U) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/24 "2011-11-12T15:17:52Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Great art makes you ask questions. Bad art spoon-feeds you answers. Disposable art has a punchline. Now I respect a lot of bad and trashy art, but I never confuse it with the good stuff. I’d rather look at dogs (or cats) playing poker (or pool) than anything by [this guy](https://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/release/list.do). Who is all pompously serious about his dreck… ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/25 "2011-11-12T15:34:50Z")
> [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](#): > > Not a fan of the impressionistic approach. Give me a more realistic Cats Playing Poker and I’ll trade the Mona Lisa for that any day. Shit, I saw a “Cats Playing Poker” in the style of the original dogs version at “Antiques on Second” in Milwaukee two days ago. It was [this painting](http://www.jackbergsales.com/misc/catsplayingpoker71x47.htm) , done in Coolidge’s style. Kinda wish I picked it up now. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/26 "2011-11-12T15:36:22Z")
[Here’s a better picture of the scene](http://www.google.com/imgres?start=30&num=10&um=1&hl=en&biw=1545&bih=1052&tbm=isch&tbnid=SKVeQejx8hwNCM:&imgrefurl=http://www.rubylane.com/item/398884-IRT-001492/Vintage-Cats-Playing-Poker-Tapestry&docid=z6klazBIanmx8M&imgurl=http://image0-rubylane.s3.amazonaws.com/shops/irememberthis/IRT-001492.1L.jpg&w=1024&h=768&ei=PpK-TqWAL4P30gG_zrHuBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=660&sig=108290374809330152293&sqi=2&page=2&tbnh=156&tbnw=208&ndsp=34&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:30&tx=112&ty=98). The painting I saw was exactly that scene, just done in perfect imitation of Coolidge. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/27 "2011-11-12T15:39:53Z")
OK, maybe it wasn’t “perfect imitation” of Coolidge, but [this is the painting](http://dilystreacle.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/cats.png?) I was thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/28 "2011-11-12T20:48:45Z")
[Quote=Kilgore Trout] “Why? Why? Why?” Old Bingo drank a glass of beer, belched, and spoke. “Why not?” [/Quote] Old Bingo knew his art. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/29 "2011-11-12T21:31:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > OK, maybe it wasn’t “perfect imitation” of Coolidge, but [this is the painting](http://dilystreacle.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/cats.png?) I was thinking of. Target acquired! That’s sweet! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/30 "2011-11-12T22:28:32Z")
No offense, but isn’t this one of those, “if you have to ask, you’ll never know” kind of questions? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/31 "2011-11-12T22:44:25Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > No offense, but isn’t this one of those, “if you have to ask, you’ll never know” kind of questions? Somehow my art history teachers never appreciated that answer. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/32 "2011-11-13T01:42:01Z")
“Why is Dogs Playing Poker considered bad art?” Because of pretentious doodyheads that wouldn’t know talent if it humped them in the leg. A Friend In Need is my all time favorite painting, I have a framed poster of it hanging in my room. Any haters can go lick themselves. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/33 "2011-11-13T03:19:12Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Ya know, dogs can’t keep a poker face. There will always be a tell about whether they have a good hand or not. Their ears perk up, their tails wag… they’re hopeless. Hence, it is not great art. > > [Cats Playing Poker](http://th09.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/351/d/d/the_cat __s_out_of_the_bag____ by_blackbirdrose-d351u82.jpg) is the true masterpiece. Note the contents of the pot! No, no. That doesn’t work. Cats should not be playing poker. Cats should be . . . strip tease dancing. I mean the real thing, da-da-da-daah, da-da-da-DAAH, off comes one long glove; not like nowadays where the dancer starts her act naked or all-but, [I can picture cats doing that too](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha_the_cat_dancer) but it ain’t, ya know, period. Yes, I know, guys playing poker is timeless, guys still do it, but, still, _DPP_ really belongs to the strip-tease age. Of, and, of course, the audience should be all drooling, howling dogs. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/34 "2011-11-13T03:23:21Z")
[Did not know this . . .](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogs_playing_poker) > [@](#): > > Dogs Playing Poker refers collectively to a series of sixteen oil paintings by C. M. Coolidge, commissioned in 1903 by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars.[1] All the paintings in the series feature anthropomorphized dogs, but the nine in which dogs are seated around a card table have become derisively well-known in the United States as examples of mainly working-class taste in home decoration. Critic Annette Ferrara describes Dogs Playing Poker as “indelibly burned into … the American collective-schlock subconscious … through incessant reproduction on all manner of pop ephemera.”[2] Advertising art. IOW, what we’re dealing with here is the graphic-art equivalent of the Armour Hot Dog song and the fact that everyone knows it. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/35 "2011-11-13T14:21:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Ya know, dogs can’t keep a poker face. There will always be a tell about whether they have a good hand or not. Their ears perk up, their tails wag… they’re hopeless. Hence, it is not great art. Ha ! That insight into it is great never thought of that before. I just might search out Dogs Playing Poker piece now. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/36 "2011-11-14T17:52:03Z")
“Don’t need no lava lamp Don’t need no soap-on-a-rope No pictures of Mexican kids with those really big eyes Or dogs playing poker” ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic, _Velvet Elvis_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/37 "2011-11-14T18:44:26Z")
Let’s see, 1903 – that puts _DPP_ on the cusp of the [Gay Nineties](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGayNineties) and the [Edwardian Era.](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheEdwardianEra) Amazing it’s held up so well. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/38 "2011-11-14T19:13:32Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I saw [this](http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2009/08/presidents-playing-poker.html) version in a gallery window in D.C. a few weeks ago. (There’s a version with Democratic Presidents as well, but I find this funnier.) I wish I was wealthy and had someone I could give this to. If your dumb enough to play poker with Nixon, you deserve to get swindled. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/39 "2011-11-14T21:56:25Z")
If you read Peter Straub’s new horror novel, [A Dark Matter](http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Peter-Straub/dp/038551638X) you’ll find the painting (and the dogs in it) playing a most unexpected and terrifying role. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622/40 "2011-11-15T00:53:09Z")
Those who like DPP need to stop by a Lost Dog Café whenever around DC. [Lost Dog South](http://piketowncenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/2010-12-19-12.28.13.jpg) (Columbia Pike & Walter Reed) [Lost Dog North](http://themightyrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IMG_0719.jpg) (Washington Blvd. & McKinley Road) There’s one in McLean (The Commons Shopping Center) as well but I can’t find any pictures of the interior. Presumably more of the same. For ailurophiles, they also have a [Stray Cat Café](http://thestraycatcafe.com/images/tour12_500.jpg) in the same strip as the North Arlington location, on the opposite end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-dogs-playing-poker-considered-bad-art/602622.md?page=3)