If you want to vanquish the enemy, render him absurd.
The geeky triumph of Pepper Spray Cop
Posted: November 23, 2011 at 4:01 pm.
Nov 23
4:01 pm
Sep 7
12:45 pm
A timeline of global media scare stories, 2000-2009
(via Information is beautiful)
Posted: September 7, 2011 at 12:45 pm.
Aug 1
8:51 pm
Some people might try to defend these ads by saying they’re ‘making fun of sexism’ ironically… somehow. Advertisers must believe that the use of irony distances themselves from male chauvinism but that isn’t the case. While we think we are in on the joke, the reality is they aren’t making fun of or pointing out sexism, they’re doing it.
…Marketers love the uber ironic sexist style of advertising because they can use all the racist, sexist misogynist imagery they want and simultaneously distance themselves from it with a little wink and a nod.
—Retro Sexism and Uber Ironic Advertising (by feministfrequency)
Posted: August 1, 2011 at 8:51 pm.
Jul 22
12:14 pm
Under Fire, PMS-Related Milk Campaign Shut Down Early
Good riddance.
They made a lot of mistakes with this one, but the creatives who came up with this need to get their sense of humor adjusted, stat. Their solution for promoting milk as a PMS cure is to take the oh-so “edgy” angle of “PMS makes life difficult for men.” Seriously. That’s a “joke” that’s been around for centuries. Centuries.
They also broke the 1st rule of satire, which is that you need to direct your ire up, not down. We still live in a society where men have most of the power. Thus, photos of men on a poster criticizing women’s behavior = not satiric, not funny (except to misogynists and ad dudes with tunnel-vision) but, just, a fantastic way to piss people off.
Posted: July 22, 2011 at 12:14 pm.
Jul 20
11:49 am
The nytimes they are a-changin’
“Due to an errant cron task that ran twice an hour from September 2010 to July 2011, I accidentally collected about 12,000 screenshots of the front page of the nytimes.com (best viewed fullscreen at 720p).” (Read this post.)
(via Dan W)
Posted: July 20, 2011 at 11:49 am.
May 10
6:09 pm
The hell of war comes home. In July 2009 Colorado Springs Gazettea published a two-part series entitled “Casualties of War”. The articles focused on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, who since returning from duty in Iraq had been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. Returning soldiers were committing murder at a rate 20 times greater than other young American males. A seperate investiagtion into the high suicide rate among veterans published in the New York Times in October 2010 revealed that three times as many California veterans and active service members were dying soon after returning home than those being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. We hear little about the personal hell soldiers live through after returning home.
(via Dorothy | Casualties of War)
Posted: May 10, 2011 at 6:09 pm.
Mar 4
1:27 pm
The Disposable Woman - NYTimes.com
Even now — after Mr. Sheen began carpet-bombing his bosses in radio rants, prompting CBS to shut down production on the show — observers still seem more entertained than outraged, tuning in to see him appear on every talk show on the planet and coming up with creative Internet memes based on his most colorful statements. And while his self-abuses are endlessly discussed, his abuse of women is barely broached.
Posted: March 4, 2011 at 1:27 pm.
Feb 22
10:55 pm
via digbyCalls for”civility”are usually just a way to shut people up and sadly, I’m fairly sure that the only people who listen to Stewart are liberals who are getting the idea that it’s wrong to get in the streets or call out the other side in rough language. Conservatives just think he’s a useful idiot. I find this attitude very perplexing coming from a comedian, especially one who commonly does things which could be perceived as unfair, silly and undignified.
This is why Colbert’s satire is so much more effective and, frankly, much braver. His satire is firmly aimed at the right, so he cannot take both sides. That’s why it works —- it takes a position. By contrast, I’m increasingly not finding Jon’s church-lady finger wagging all that funny, much less cool, and I fast forward though his opening segments more often than not. If I wanted a nightly lecture on proper behavior I’d consult Miss Manners or go to church.
Posted: February 22, 2011 at 10:55 pm.
Jan 25
9:55 am
Film trailer cliches, I thought, had exactly two meanings to Americans: you are about to see a film trailer, or you’re about to see a joke. The earnestness that Pawlenty brings to this is baffling. It’s like he’s only speaking to people who never have read the Onion, never have seen a comedy made after 1960, think the word “camp” only refers to places you go for vacation, and only turn YouTube when someone sends them a video of a kitten licking a puppy. This video says, “Are you obtuse? Completely out of touch? Unable to understand even the most primitive of jokes? Completely devoid of any appreciation for irony? Then vote for Tim Pawlenty.”
via Pandagon
Posted: January 25, 2011 at 9:55 am.
Jan 14
4:39 pm
Just her breathing, taken from her speech about the attacks in Arizona.
Telling.
Posted: January 14, 2011 at 4:39 pm.
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©1977–2008, Jessie Rauch-Dickson. All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed.
