Cartoon: Keep Government Out of the Economy!

That conservatives frequently call for reducing government interference in the economy, while constantly supporting government interference in the economy, is nothing new.

But the particular story that galvanized this cartoon – Florida’s ban on “fake meat” back in May – is new. The story was striking in how nakedly Republicans are doing this to protect a favored industry from potential competition.

Florida state Rep. Tyler Sirois, another Republican who introduced a similar bill late last year, stated a different — and perhaps more honest — motivation for banning cell-cultivated meat: to protect the state’s farmers from competition. “Farming and cattle are incredibly important industries to Florida,” Sirois said in an interview with Politico in November.

I tried writing this strip focusing more on the fake meat issue, but I had trouble making that work, because it’s not on most people’s radar. So to do a strip on it, I’d have to spend two or three panels explaining what the issue even is, and then somehow crowbar a punchline of some sort into panel four, assuming the readers haven’t all dozed off by then.

So the strip evolved to being more about the general hypocrisy about interfering with the economy than the fake meat issue.

I had to play around a lot with the figure in panel four before finding a pose I liked. For once, it wasn’t a drawing problem; it’s just that I couldn’t decide on what emotion the character should be expressing.

(Eye-rolling is much easier to draw if you give the character enormous Disney princess style eyes.)

I finally decided on laughter because, like all of us, I’ve been feeling quite a bit of despair lately, and I wanted to give myself a little counter-programming.

(If you’re also in the mood for some political content that’s counter-despair, check out this Jon Stewart interview with AOC.)

Once I settled on the mood for panel four, drawing this one turned out to be a lot of fun. I’m really happy with the coloring job Frank Young (hi Frank!) did – he put in a lot of details I enjoy, like the mug handle’s shadow in panel two, the alternating cloud colors in panel three, and the subtle backlighting in panel four.

Oh, and the sidewalk! In panel four, you can see a distant sidewalk across the street in the background. If you look closely, there are no black lines – the sidewalk was added by Frank in the coloring stage. I was so delighted when I saw it, I went into colors and added a yellow line in the middle of the road.

TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON

This cartoon has four panels, each showing a different person listening to a pundit on Fox News.

PANEL 1

We are looking at a closeup of someone’s hand holding a smartphone. On the screen, we can see PUNDITHEAD, a white man in a suit, talking to the camera.

PUNDITHEAD: The most important thing to understand about government and the economy is, government should stay out of the economy! Government should also ban fake meat and subsidize farms, but that’s it!

PANEL 2

A red-haired woman is sitting at a table eating with a tablet on the table in front of her. Pundithead is on the screen.

PUNDITHEAD: Except for laws making it harder for workers to unionize. Those are cool.

PANEL 3

A man jogs through a park while wearing headphones. Pundithead’s voice comes from the headphones.

PUNDITHEAD: And subsidize pharma, too. And ethanol. And Elon. And, uh… what was I saying?

PANEL 4

A woman sits in a coffee shop, a laptop open in front of her. She’s laughing. Pundithead’s voice comes from the laptop.

PUNDITHEAD: Oh, right. Government should never, ever interfere with the economy!

CHICKEN FAT WATCH

“Chicken fat” is obsolete cartoonists’ terminology for unimportant details the cartoonist puts in for the fun of it.

PANEL 1 – The Fox News channel logo says “Pox News cough.” The chyron at the bottom of the screen says “Nobody but you has ever read this text. You’re the only one who really appreciates this cartoon.”

In the background is Linus from “Peanuts,” leaning on the iconic brick wall.

PANEL 2 – the Fox News channel logo now says “Cow Moos channel.” The chyron says “Study confirms: Cyanide deadly poison. 46 graduate students perish proving the very obvious.”

A book lying on the table is entitled “101 background gags” by “J. R. R. Toke.” The publisher’s symbol on the book cover spine is Charlie Brown’s head surrounded by laurels.

Her coffee mug says “T.M.” in big letters. In tiny letters next to that “TM,” is another “TM” in small letters. In an even tinier font next to the second “TM” is the little copyright symbol.

The food on her plate, a sort of lumpy mass (I was thinking of it as mashed potatoes) has two wide eyes and a mouth, and looks distressed.

A big dog has laid its head on the table and is looking pleadingly at the woman. A cat is lying on top of the dog’s head, also looking pleadingly at the woman. A bird sits atop the cat’s head.

The woman’s shirt has a pattern with lots of little “Lucy” (from “Peanuts”) heads.

PANEL 3 – The jogger’s shirt has a picture of a skull wearing a white founding father wig, with the caption “George Washington. Rested & Ready.”

An evil bunny, wearing an eyepatch and smoking a cigarette, is in the foreground.

PANEL 4 – A sign taped to the wall says “$500 charge if you read this sign. Cash only.”

It’s hard to make out, but the little branding symbol on the back of the laptop is an image of the evil bunny from panel 3.

On the woman’s cell phone screen is a stickfigure smiling and giving us the finger.

The tattoos on her left arm are a coffee mug with “I am 89% coffee” written on it; a happy worm in a fedora crawling out of an apple; and “My other arm is a Mercedes.” The tattoo on her right arm is a Mercedes symbol.

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