The pond loves an insidious insider in-joke with the best of them, but really the sub at the lizard Oz who, by cheeky, insouciant juxtaposition, dared to suggest that prattling Polonius was a reactionary who sullied conservatism, is indulging in a slur too far...
It makes hapless prattling Polonius the latest victim of the lizard Oz's outrageous assault on people of gentility everywhere ...yes, he's a dullard, and society needs to be protected from the damage he does, and we are all victims of his tedious prattling, but does he deserve to be stabbed through the arras?
It makes hapless prattling Polonius the latest victim of the lizard Oz's outrageous assault on people of gentility everywhere ...yes, he's a dullard, and society needs to be protected from the damage he does, and we are all victims of his tedious prattling, but does he deserve to be stabbed through the arras?
As for the actual substance of the piece ... well, it's not a patch on the fine news about the criminal enterprise known as News Corp - Why did the criminals at News UK go on employing Mazher Mahmood? - but it fills in a lazy Saturday with the tediously familiar ...
Groan, sob, sigh, rent clothing, scatter ashes ... it's just prattling Polonius, never the quickest draw while hidden behind the arras, catching up with the rest of the tedious reptiles worrying about Leakian crimes, and getting into the business defending the indefensible ... and to prove the point, putting the indefensible at the top of the page ...
This is perhaps the best distraction of all.
Perhaps Polonius might advise what legal action might have been taken, given what he describes as "latent" anti-Semitism, and presuming he means by the word "of a quality or state existing, but not yet developed, or manifest; hidden or concealed, lying dormant or hidden until circumstances are suitable for development or manifestation."
Perhaps Polonius might advise what legal action might have been taken, given what he describes as "latent" anti-Semitism, and presuming he means by the word "of a quality or state existing, but not yet developed, or manifest; hidden or concealed, lying dormant or hidden until circumstances are suitable for development or manifestation."
As for censorship, the marketplace attended to that. The only way you can get hold of the book is by heading off to second hand sites - where the pond notes that one giveaway price was US$3.65, and possibly a tad rich at that.
But everybody has been down the road Ernest Lalor "Ern" Malley road before, and while the pond appreciates the distraction and the reminder, what on earth does it have to do with a man given to scribbling notably racist and deplorable images, and worse, as the pond routinely notes, without the slightest hint of wit or comic timing, but rather, more in the style of the Donald speaking at a charity dinner ...
But the reptiles have their pets and stick with them through thick and thin ...
But the reptiles have their pets and stick with them through thick and thin ...
There might have been some point raising the Demidekno matter if Leak had hidden his identity while manifesting his overt hostility to Aborigines ...
But the pond actually suspects prattling Polonius raised the matter so he could show a grandiose capacity for a Whitmanesque cosmic embrace of those who mock him. Look, look upon him, mere mortals and marvel at his generosity and his fond indulgence ...
He's not sure that Leak would draw the same cartoon today? We shall see ...
Now it's admirable that Polonius should be so generous as to accept that a substantial breach of Godwin's Law ... and anyone who wants to read Robert Manne on the whole fuss can find the text online easily enough ...
Now it's admirable that Polonius should be so generous as to accept that a substantial breach of Godwin's Law ... and anyone who wants to read Robert Manne on the whole fuss can find the text online easily enough ...
But all this yammering, and further interminable talk of the Bolter - and the quick despatch to the boundary of the Bolter's errors as minor matters - is just further distraction ...
Leak long ago jumped the shark when it comes to celebrating bigotry and racism, and in fact one of the few places you can still find a prime example of this is in the archive of the pond ...
It was a retaliatory strike by Leak, but it turned out to be so embarrassing that the reptiles "disappeared" it, in the way that air fresheners are used to tone up soiled rental cars ...
Back in the day, of course, a popular meme about Leak was this one ...
There was a proper retort to that meme ...
Well yes, indeed. And when he gets in the mood, long after his head injury ...
Well there's a pretty clear through line in the history of Australian cartooning ...
Never mind, it's the business of the pond to lend an ear to the pitiful cries of the prattler, as once more the notorious troller and narcissist attention-seeker admirably succeeds in drawing attention to himself ...
And in the process, the pond can now cash in its bet that the UQ will score a mention, because that's the art of distraction.
If Polonius hadn't gone there - though it has nothing to do with the Leak draining his battery - it would have been like a Catholic mass without the kyrie eleison ...
At the time, all sorts of excuses were made, about the real meaning, which needed to be detected beneath the surface. Something about his sympathetic concern for poverty-stricken Indians ...
But the meaning was on the surface, and clear enough ... aren't those mango chutney curry eaters funny, primitive, sledge-hammer wielding people, and even dumber than your average UN solar panel ...
But the meaning was on the surface, and clear enough ... aren't those mango chutney curry eaters funny, primitive, sledge-hammer wielding people, and even dumber than your average UN solar panel ...
Compare and contrast a couple of other cartoons about climate change and India which also managed to upset assorted Indians when negotiations were proceeding...
Now in both cases, national stereotypes - elephants and sacred cows - are wheeled in, but neither are anywhere near as overtly offensive as Leak's effort.
They're more conventional, and the crudity is of a different kind to Leak's drawings ...
As for prattling Polonius thinking that Leak might never resort to crass, psychotic Nazi imagery and breaching of Godwin's Law again ...
They're more conventional, and the crudity is of a different kind to Leak's drawings ...
As for prattling Polonius thinking that Leak might never resort to crass, psychotic Nazi imagery and breaching of Godwin's Law again ...
Leak's just offensive for the sake of being offensive, with neither subtlety nor wit - nor, it has to be said, art - to help him plead his case.
The idea that he's some wild larrikin artist up there with caricaturists like Cruikshank, Daumier, Scarfe, Steadman or closer to home David Low, is a grotesque defamation of their work ... as the reptiles cluster around Leak to reassure him and sooth his hurt feelings, and extended analyses are offered as to what the cartoonist actually meant, and how sad that people mistook the bleeding obvious surface message while failing to understand the tremendous depth and nuance lurking beneath ...
The idea that he's some wild larrikin artist up there with caricaturists like Cruikshank, Daumier, Scarfe, Steadman or closer to home David Low, is a grotesque defamation of their work ... as the reptiles cluster around Leak to reassure him and sooth his hurt feelings, and extended analyses are offered as to what the cartoonist actually meant, and how sad that people mistook the bleeding obvious surface message while failing to understand the tremendous depth and nuance lurking beneath ...
Well there's a pretty clear through line in the history of Australian cartooning ...
Never mind, it's the business of the pond to lend an ear to the pitiful cries of the prattler, as once more the notorious troller and narcissist attention-seeker admirably succeeds in drawing attention to himself ...
And in the process, the pond can now cash in its bet that the UQ will score a mention, because that's the art of distraction.
If Polonius hadn't gone there - though it has nothing to do with the Leak draining his battery - it would have been like a Catholic mass without the kyrie eleison ...
Yes, they've been screeching about the silencing of the Bolter and the silencing of Leak for decades now, and the silencing of the reptile hordes, and the pond hasn't seen or heard any sign of the silencing kicking in ...
Instead the litanies and the rituals in the reptile rags are routinely cranked up to 11 ...
The pond suspects that they're following the xkcd business plan ...
Never mind, it's time for a couple of cartoons by an actual cartoonist ...
The pond could sleep soundly never thinking of Bill Leak again, nor catching, by accident or mistake, another of his trolling cartoons, but each day it hopes that the Fairfaxians stay afloat and so keep the two Davids in business ... and more this David can be found here ...
The pond could sleep soundly never thinking of Bill Leak again, nor catching, by accident or mistake, another of his trolling cartoons, but each day it hopes that the Fairfaxians stay afloat and so keep the two Davids in business ... and more this David can be found here ...
Thanks for settling the Bill Leak 'head damage' excuse for his failure to be funny. The difference in his style is due I think to the later ones being drawn on a graphic tablet rather than old fashioned pen and wash. I agree he's an average artist and his colour sense is quite off.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but not so bad really for one who is emotionally blind, deaf and rabidly ingracious.
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