Animating Political Messages in 2008
The Rise of New Forms of Political Animation A show that on occasion is more outspoken and controversial is Saturday Night Live (SNL). Since 1996, their animated "Saturday TV Funhouse" segments have been poking fun at politicians. They are written by Robert Smigel and the series was created by Smigel and J.J. Sedelmaier. Some episodes are as outrageous as the original acts or statements that provided the inspiration for the skit. One my favorites is a "Fun with Real Audio" segment that uses Bill Clinton's actual apology to the nation about his questionable sexual conduct while he was in office (September, 1998). What we see is a series of fictional animated outtakes. Each time he starts to say he didn't have sex with Monica, something funny happens that suggests he did. Sedelmaier and Dave Wachtenheim directed this wickedly funny episode.
The very first "Saturday TV Funhouse" that Sedelmaier did in 1996 was on Ross Perot. The episode was designed by Barry Blitt, who also created the controversial July 2008 New Yorker cover that showed Barak Obama and his wife dressed as Muslim terrorists. Many who saw that cover misunderstood the intent of the image. J.J. told me that one of the issues he has to deal with is avoiding humor that inadvertently runs the risk of supporting the opposition party by its intent not being perfectly clear.
Other episodes of "Funhouse" have taken on Saddam, Osama bin Laden, John McCain, George W. Bush, Bob Dole, Richard Nixon, Ken Starr, Al Gore and other famous people in the news. A recent episode, "The Obama Files" (not animated by Sedelmaier), has Barack Obama trying to distance himself from Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton by sending them on wild goose chases around the world.
Other network shows have used limited amounts of political animation. Sedelmaier's "Midterm Elections" for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart uses the style of Schoolhouse Rock to explain the futility of this particular election process.
The Internet Don Asmussen created the series Like News for Mondo Media. The episodes of "political and celebrity news that's like, totally irreverent" are anchored by Skeeter Dubois, a spaced-out teen slacker. Three of the shows -- "Hillary Clinton," "Election 2000 Debate" and "Israel World" -- are specifically political. The last features a Jew and an Arab who disagree on everything. The show's humor, somewhat crude and outrageous, can still be seen on Mondo's website MondoMiniShows.com.
Mondo also hired Aubrey Ankrum to create 10 interactive episodes of The God and the Devil Show, in which God and a lady devil interview celebrities and the viewer gets to decide whether to send the guest to heaven or hell. The political guests were the Clintons and George W. Bush. The humor is quite irreverent.
Today Happy Tree Friends is Mondo's main product. They still syndicate their old shows, and outrageous works that once appeared on other sites. Aubrey Ankrum went from The God and the Devil Show to become involved with Happy Tree Friends. Don Asmussen has gone back to drawing cartoons that have appeared in Time, the New Yorker and other publications. He currently does The Bad Reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. The unconventional strip tells "the lies behind the truth, and the truth behind those lies that are behind that truth."
Masters of Political Internet Animation His work has earned high praise. The Wall Street Journal calls him "the undisputed guru of the form." He has received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and other honors. His work is syndicated weekly to numerous websites run by newspapers and other organizations, and it is seen regularly by millions of people.
Fiore's cartoons are extremely well-produced, with excellent voice work, music and animation. More importantly, he is free to say what he wants. He says he gets his ideas from the daily media, and whatever upsets him the most often becomes the subject of his cartoons. He dares to make fun of the conservative giants in Washington, the presidential hopefuls, the oil industry ("Lord Petro," 6/11/08 and "President Petro," 3/15/08), Blackwater ("The Blackwater Business School," 5/14/08), and any other topic that interests him (Bush, torture, Bush, Hillary, Bush, "Insta-Scandal!," Bush...)
One brilliant Fiore cartoon, "What If..." (6/25/08), suggests what might happen if a third candidate were to enter the present presidential race. The piece is a negative hit piece attacking the candidate's ethics, patriotism, and much more: "He has never once been seen wearing a flag pin and he has spent years studying at a religious school in the Middle East. Some call him a hero for the injuries he sustained under torture, yet he would sit down and talk with those who would harm us. His tax plan amounts to making the rich poor..." At the end of the piece we find out the candidate's name -- "Jesus Christ, not the change we want."
Another of Mark's impressive shorts is "Buy America!" (1/22/08). It isn't suggesting that you buy American products; it is an even bigger sale -- the country. "How much would you pay for an economy like this? It comes with the world's largest collection of consumer credit cards... and one of the cutest small bank interest rates you'll ever see..." You can see all of his work at markfiore.com.
In the 1990s several animated shows appeared on TV that included mild forms of propaganda. These are not viewed as subversive or heavy-handed propaganda shows by most people, although some specific groups in our society have been critical of individual episodes. Wondering what shows I'm talking about? The Simpsons and South Park, to name two.
Before the great Internet crash of 2000, all kinds of strange animation was appearing online, including work by a few political cartoonists. These shows went further than TV could in depicting negative images of our society. They tried to be humorous and sometimes succeeded. Although the artistic, propaganda and entertainment values of many of the early Web cartoons were questionable, the better ones made the viewer think about the subject matter at hand.
The political cartoonist/animator who rose above all others on the Web is Mark Fiore. In 2000, Fiore taught himself Flash, found two customers and started to turn out Flash cartoons. Then the "dream job" he had always wanted was offered to him. The San Jose Mercury News hired him as their political cartoonist. Being on their staff was great until he discovered that his editor was under tremendous pressure to keep circulation and ad revenues up. Mark says, "It was awful." He lasted six months with the paper due to their restrictive editorial policy. Since leaving the paper in 2001, he has been syndicating his weekly animated cartoons online.
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