Death Cab for Sarah Palin
Editorial cartoonist Ted Rall and animator David Essman have released a hilarious, vicious parody of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to celebrate Election Day 2008.
Distributed for free on YouTube and at tedrall.com, "Death Cab for Palin" is an animated political cartoon that lampoons Sarah Palin’s presidential ambitions. Noting that vice presidents frequently become presidents, "Death Cab" depicts a rabid Vice President Palin trying to poison and bomb President McCain in the manner of the classic "Road Runner" cartoon series.
Rall, a syndicated cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate, is no stranger to controversy. His "Terror Widows" and "FDNY 2011" cartoons after 9/11 were some of the most controversial cartoons in U.S. history. Will "Death Cab for Sarah" join their ranks? "I don’t know," says Rall, "but it was such a fun idea I just couldn’t resist going with it."
Rall’s editorial cartoons and columns are syndicated to more than 100 newspapers around the U.S. Twice the winner of the RFK Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Finalist, he is President of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.
Essman is an animator currently at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His animated films have been screened across the country, including Animation Block Party, The Chicago Underground Film Festival, and the St. Louis International Film Festival.
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I won't be looking at it – i despise Rall (he's *way* further left than i and i find his art style distasteful and his delivery of his opinions offensive) – did they use the original Bonzo Dog Band song (which the Bonzos sang as a strip-club band in "Magical Mystery Tour", BTW) or did he just know the band name and cue off that?
The opening music was "Don't Fear the Reaper" (just a few seconds, uncredited)The closing music was 'The Final Taxi' by Wreckless Eric. (again, just a taste, uncredited)No Bonzo Dog Band, No Death Cab for Cutie.So, I watched the cartoon. It looked like a cheap knock-off on Matt Groening. Like low rent Simpsons from the Tracey Ulman Show days, only more amateurishly animated.The problem wasn't the crude animation or the tastelessness of the "joke". The problem was a not so funny idea about a moot concept. Palin won't ever be Vice President, so what is this satirizing? I just didn't get it.
Well, that just about sums up my opinion of Rall in general.It just hit me that, just as "The Boondocks" is pretty much a far-left equivalent of "Mallard Fillmore", Rall comes across as a far-left Coulter clone.
I thought it was a what if. What we avoided.how is it crude animation?