Cartoon: Echo Echo Echo, Fox Fox Fox

There’s a timelapse video of the making of this cartoon – which shows how I began by drawing an entirely different cartoon (which I was really struggling with) before switching to this one, which even though it featured pretty much the same elements (people on TV, people watching TV) somehow was much less of a struggle to draw.

The only thing about drawing this cartoon that I’d really describe as a struggle is drawing the cat. I drew it, admitted to myself that what I’d drawn sucked, and tried again, admitted again, and then finally did what I should have done in the first place – looked at a photo of a cat.

But I’m really pleased with the how the completed cat looks, and with the way that the cat’s presence makes it clear (I hope) that panels one and four show the same scene.

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As a political cartoonist, not only am I not required to be fair, in a way the job demands that I be unfair.

If I were fair, I’d have to admit that you could pretty easily rewrite this cartoon to be criticizing liberals and lefties instead of conservatives. Liberals, like conservatives, tend to agree with each other about a whole bunch of issues. (In fact, any political group is defined by what they agree on.)

But in the current political moment, conservatives are complaining a lot about liberal “echo chambers,” which makes this the right moment to make fun of their hypocrisy.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels.

PANEL 1

We’re looking at an open laptop. On the laptop screen we can see a Fox News show, where two hosts are speaking with a guest.

HOST: Thanks for joining us on Fox! Now, you’ve written a book about woke liberal echo chambers?

GUEST: I have! You see, woke liberals spend all their time in places where only liberal opinions are heard.

PANEL 2

The Fox show is showing an image of a book. The title is “Inside the Woke Bubble Wrap Safe Space Echo Chamber Bubble.”

GUEST: They have their own websites, their own cable networks. They’re aware that other opinions exist, but they don’t trust any news source outside their own bubble.

PANEL 3

The guest author shrugs.

HOST: Is there no way of changing liberals’ minds?

GUEST: Not while they stay safe within their echo chamber.

PANEL 4

We see a woman watching the laptop; she has an amused expression.

HOST: So sad! Good thing conservatives aren’t like that.

GUEST: Yes, exactly!

HOST 2: I agree too!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is an antediluvian cartoonists’ term for little details that are unimportant to the cartoon but which are amusing, at least to ourselves.

PANEL 1 – There’s a cat asleep behind the laptop. On the front of the laptop, the branding just says “LOGO.” The Fox News logo says “Faux News channel.” The chyron (the line of text at the bottom of news shows) says “Study: Your ears look kinda funny.”

PANEL 2 – The Fox logo now says “Lox News on bagels.” The chyron says “Global Warming: myth, plot or scam?”

PANEL 3 – The Fox logo now says “Over Look these words.” The chyron says “Oprah uses time machine, kills Christ.”

PANEL 4 – The back of the laptop has the planet sticking its tongue out, from the front cover of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, on it. The cat is now wearing glasses and smoking a cigarette. The woman’s coffee mug has an illustration on it of a handgun firing; below the drawing are the words “Get it? It’s a mug shot.”

Echo Echo Echo Fox Fox Fox | Patreon