Thursday, May 17, 2018

cartoons that don't age well, part 2

more from my batch of cartoons that wouldn't be printed today by anyone.

For some reason, spanking was a common motif in one-panel cartoons, I don't know if it was a fetish or supposed to be a wish fulfillment fantasy or what. This one's doubly wrong because of the Arab stereotype.

Bill Wenzel
Fun House, February 1979
John Groth
Esquire, June 1934
Definitely of its time. You can tell how old a person is by how they view this. The joke as meant is that two people have hooked up and once they “get down to business” realize they are not man and woman. It's fairly self-explanatory. It is homophobic and transphobic viewed today. But forty years ago, the idea of any sexual coupling other than hetero-normative did not occur to most. In context, particularly for the demographic of the magazine, and knowing the other work of the cartoonist, no commentary on their sexuality is intended, it is merely a ridiculous situation.

B. Kliban
Playboy, August 1978
For Laughing Out Loud, February 1960
Al Ross
For Laughing Out Loud, February 1960
Again with the spanking.

Fun House, February 1980
Gent, June 1963
Walt Lardner
Good Humor, October 1964
Good Humor, October 1964
Charles Rodrigues
Playboy, December 1967
Louis Priscilla
Hello Buddies, Winter 1950
High, November 1958
High, November 1958

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