On 'Gag' Cartoons of the '40's

Dissecting Humour

In this post, I'd like to take a semiotic look at 'gag' cartoons from the late 40's, back when there was a time when it was conceivable that one could earn a living as a 'gag' cartoonist. To our sophisticated tastes in this time, we might find the following cartoons, well, not 'funny'. I'll comment on the drawings in question and walk you all through the 'humour' part of it...

1) See, it's funny 'cause she's about to be brutally raped and humiliated by her boss, and because she's a stupid woman, she has to look up what her training manual has to say about it. Probably something like, "It IS kind of romantic, in a way... Lie back and enjoy it, and maybe your superior will make you his mistress or something, dear!" Haw! Stupid whore... (to be fair, the actual drawing isn't too bad...)

2) This one's funny cause he's supposed to be having sexual intercourse with his wife since it's their wedding, but--get this--he wants to go to sleep! What's even funnier is that look of disappointment on his wife's face as she realizes she's married a sexless oaf and is now trapped in a loveless marriage. Tee-Hee!

3) The humour in this one stems from the fact that she's much younger and more attractive then her decrepit, senile husband, and will soon be engaging in carnal relations with 'Joe', the moving van owner. Possibly in front of her cuckolded husband, who's shame and humiliation will manifest themselves as hot tears streaming down his face onto his exposed, withered genitals...

4) While the casual viewer might be inclined to think the humour in this stems from callous child battery, the resemblance between the painter and the battered child leads one to conclude that the child is in fact, his precious 'fruit', and his failure as a father is reflected in his look of mild bewilderment...

5) This one's pretty straight-forward. His wife fucked a black guy! Next!

6) The cartoon in question juxtaposes the mythical 'mermaid' creation with a pathetic failure of a man who lives in a boarding house with other sub-indigents. We find humour in the nonsensical pairing of a genetic atrocity without any apparent genitalia with an unattractive bachelor who ordinarily would lead a solitary life of desperate masturbation, and the occasional sordid back-alley couplings with clapped-out prostitutes...

I am left to conclude that the era in which these 'gag' cartoons were created was a joyless, hate-filled, racist, misogynistic time better confined to the dustbins of history. Also, the term, 'gag', in referring to these cartoons, meant the involuntary reflex action taken by one's stomach when viewing these drawings. As well as the act of stuffing the 'artist's' own feces-filled entrails down their gaping maws in an attempt to 'gag' their breathing and prevent them from sullying the world further with their 'gag' cartoons...

Two for April...

Grindhouse (B-) Oh, you knew I was gonna love this one, I mean, COME ON! Seriously, what's not to like? Hot girls like Rose McGowan and Zoe Bell, cameos from Bruce Willis and Kurt Russell, zombies, head-explody, entrails, car-crashes, teen-age cheerleaders split-landing on a knife, (youch!) psycho-killers fornicating a turkey with Grandma's head on the other end, soul-music soundtrack, American muscle cars...Yep.

Movies like the ones 'Grindhouse' pays homage to are intended as disposable trash, b-level is where the best of 'em winds up, and as for how low they can go... Well, down in the depths with the whale shit would not be an unfair assessment. Thing is, what we have here is the pure, unadulterated stuff of movies, the cheap thrills and, though I hate to use this phrase, 'guilty pleasures' that stuff like this can give us. So let me look at these two movies-in-one, and yadder on about 'em...

In Robert Rodriguez's 'Planet Terror', it's a plot you've seen a million times since 'Night of the Living Dead'. A secret military base lets a zombie-creating chemical loose, and the denizens of a nearby Texas town are infected. It's up to a few plucky misfits to band together to save the day, and themselves! For what it's worth, it's pretty entertaining as it is, so much so that you won't find yourself wondering, "Hey, how DID Rose McGowan fire her Leg-gun, anyways?", for about an hour after you leave the theater... Bonus points for having Marley Shelton's character's kid shoot himself with her gun after she specifically warned him to be careful with it.

As for QT's contribution, 'Death-Proof', you'll be glad to use the first half hour of this to go for a smoke and/or bathroom break. The story: Kurt Russell plays a washed-up stuntman who gets his jollies by crashing his muscle cars into other cars full of cute hipster chicks. Trouble abounds when he picks the wrong set of girls to harass... While the car chase/crash scenes are exciting, the scenes with the girls talking (and talking...and talking...and talking...) go on more than they really need to. It's like Tarantino's trying to prove how much he 'understands women'. Well, maybe he genuinely enjoys listening to women, at least more than, say, Joe Esterhaus. It's just that women in the audience are less likely to nod their heads and go, "It's like he's eavesdropping on me and my girlfriends!", then go, "Get to the fuckin' car chase, already!" Bonus points: Russell's eating the nachos, Russell shooting US a look before he goes on his initial rampage, Stunt woman Zoe Bell's eventual fate-"I'MOK!!". One minor personal technical quibble: Why use a Challenger to play 'ship's mast' when you've already got a perfectly good Mustang Mach I? The Challengers are fuckin' boats...

Little Miss Sunshine (C+) Okay indie comedy depicting a family's trip to their daughter's entry into a little girl's beauty pageant. It's more concerned with showing us how 'indie' a movie it is than depicting genuine characters, though. (Spoiler:) Older dead relatives dying on a road trip is the most overused cliche in the road trip genre; once they lose Alan Arkin, the movie just plods from point to point. I couldn't get a handle on his character, either.

First, he's the grouchy bully who flips out over his daughter-in-law's takeout chicken, then he's giving his granddaughter Movie Pep Talk #1. Worth a few laughs, overall. Mainly for Greg Kinnear's over-ambitious, under-achieving dad, and Steve Catrell's depressed gay scholar.

"PEACE AND F**K YOU! BELIEVE!"

...And now, a bit from the British T.V. comedy show, "Nathan Barley", the tale of a horrid, smug little 'media node' called Nathan Barley, and his nemesis, a writer by the name of Dan Ashcroft. In this bit, Dan is looking for a job from the editor of an "Urban Youth Lifestyle" magazine, by the name of Jonathon Yeah?. Jon is just dealing with the press over his magazine's latest issue, where they court controversy by running photos of 'underage' girls being 'molested' by the magazine editors.

Jonathon: Oh, dear. Well, I hope we haven't upset ABSOLUTELY everyone?
(pause while the person on the other end of the phone is talking)

Jonathon: For the 'new-es'? I'll do an interview at six. (He hangs up.) Good party, Dan?

Dan: (humble, embarrassed. He nods. Paper is dropping out of his jacket.)

Jonathon:(referring to the bits of paper) You're leaking.

We see bits of paper, actually the racy inserts for Jon's magazine's latest 'controversial' issue, plopping out of Dan's jacket.

Dan: Erm...Can I...I need some money...

Jonathon: Probably.

Dan: Can I do a feature?...


Jonathon puts his finger to his cheek sarcastically, looks off, then says: But, Dan...Last time I had to write it for you because you went a bit...