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Thursday, December 06, 2007

Toon: A Tale of Two Romneys—and Two Punchlines!

There's nothing harder than a punchline—or a final panel. Even the strongest setup can fall flat without a strong ending, and no cartoonist succeeds every time. And even when you THINK you've got a good punchline, you're often wrong. Here's my first stab at a cartoon about Mitt Romney's big turnaround on gay rights:

In case you're not aware, Mitt Romney may be the MOST virulently antigay candidate for President (with close competition from Mike Huckabee)... but back in the day (i.e. five years ago), he used to campaign in GAY BARS. He won the endorsement of the Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts in 2002 for promising to never oppose marriage equality. (He's also the most anti-abortion candidate in the race, even though he promised Massachusetts he was prochoice.)

Masheka and cartoon editor extraordinaire Ted (Rall) both thought the punchline fell flat in that first cartoon. So I cogitated a bit and realized that a cartoon referring to science fiction needed more action, more adventure—and more time-traveling Mitt Romneys spanking baby Mick Huckabees!

So, what's your take? Which cartoon is funnier?

Labels: 2008, cartoons, cwa, romney

posted by Mikhaela Reid at 9:47 PM

11 Comments:

Blogger Jeff Pollet said...

As much as I enjoy the image of MR spanking himself (did I just say that?), I like the first cartoon more--and it fits more with his self-loving personality. His 'now' self wouldn't ever try to keep himself out of politics, paradoxes (political or time-travelling-induced) be damned.

10:16 AM  
Blogger Ray said...

The first punchline is funnier, but the second one ends much better for America.

10:52 AM  
Blogger Mikhaela Reid said...

How interesting! I'm glad people still like my first punchline, too. Actually, he's spanking baby Mike Huckabee, not himself, but that would also be funny.

11:58 AM  
Blogger Julia RBD said...

I thought the first one was funnier, actually.

4:39 PM  
Blogger Jeff Pollet said...

Sheesh. I blew it on the Huckabee thing. So all I've shown is that, to people who can't pay attention, the second one isn't as funny. Heh.

6:46 PM  
Blogger the bewilderness said...

The first one is funny. The second one didn't quite make sense as a solution to the political paradox.

10:57 PM  
Blogger Mikhaela Reid said...

Well, maybe that'll teach me to try to improve my jokes! The idea of the second one was: he couldn't start being anti-gay to court conservative presidential voters until after he won in Massachusetts, or the fabric of the space-time continuum would tear open and whatnot. So instead he had to go back in time and scare all his opponents into never going into politics at all.

9:39 AM  
Blogger leesean hepnova said...

Spanking is always funny, and a bit of a random non sequitur (but in a good way). However, the first one has more of a logical progression.

10:08 AM  
Blogger nash said...

I'm afraid that I must disagree with the other commenters. I think that the second one is better -- definitely. Maybe I have a bias toward complexity, but I think that the added time-travel twist adds a nice extra layer to the cartoon and makes the whole thing funnier and more effective than the "first draft." It still gets the point about MITT!'s hypocritical self-reinventing history across, but it has a punchline that does more than just hammer that point home (or, to use a less charitable expression, hit you over the head with it). It was a good idea to start with, Mikhaela, but I honestly think that the revision made the good idea better. My two cents, since you were kind enough to ask your readers,

--nashtbrutusandshort
Categorical Aperitif

3:05 PM  
Blogger JKS said...

First, I think that your work is sooo clever and well-done. I'm from Massachusetts and was sorry that I couldn't make it to one of your book signings.

I definitely like the original version. Romney's deceptive expression in the second to last panel conveys his sneaky, underhanded nature. And I think that that's important to the strip. When it's changed in the second version, I don't get the sense of his crappiness as much.

My thought is that using the time-travel device again isn't as important as getting across the point of the strip (Romney's two-faced, sneaky personality). But if you wanted to use the second one then maybe you could clarify the last panel by having Romney call the baby by name: "Don't go into politics, Baby Huckabee!" or something like that.

Great job!

6:11 PM  
Blogger Ishmael said...

I like the second one better. Not so much for the pay-off in the last panel, but the rationalizing in the fourth panel. But if you want to go just on last panels, it's still the second one.

6:59 AM  

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