Oink

Cidu Bill on Nov 2nd 2009

oink.gif

Okay, H1N1, swine flu, a pig… all the ingredients are in place, but what’s the actual, you know, point here?

Filed in Bill Bickel, H1N1, humor, political cartoons, swine flu | 23 responses so far

23 Responses to “Oink”

  1. Pirk Nov 2nd 2009 at 12:21 pm 1

    are the actions we’re taking in response to swine flu somehow hurting pigs or the pork industry or something?

  2. Kurt Nov 2nd 2009 at 12:59 pm 2

    I believe this is a refernce to pork, which can bog down many bills…

  3. Elyrest Nov 2nd 2009 at 01:06 pm 3

    What, I think, the cartoon is saying is that what we are doing is a BIG over-reaction to the problem. Big truck vs little pig. This has been my thinking all this past year, but I may be wrong (it’s happened). I’m hoping I’m right.

  4. Pirk Nov 2nd 2009 at 01:19 pm 4

    I think it’s interesting how all three of our guesses seem like they could be valid interpretations.
    but I think Kurt is probably right

  5. Frank the curmudgeon Nov 2nd 2009 at 01:24 pm 5

    It should be a chicken that’s too lazy to lay enough eggs to manufacture the . Kurt is right though.

  6. AMC Nov 2nd 2009 at 02:03 pm 6

    The pig is in the middle of the road, when he should be bacon off.

  7. jeff Nov 2nd 2009 at 02:50 pm 7

    yeah, pork in the bill is getting in the way of health care reform changes.

  8. Christian Nov 2nd 2009 at 05:12 pm 8

    Kurt isn’t right. There are no bills in Congress right now addressing specifically the Swine Flu epidemic therefore the pig can’t be representing budgetary pork holding up efforts to address H1N1. The health care reform debate isn’t holding up H1N1 efforts. The fact that people keep calling it “Swine flu” instead of “H1N1″ may be annoying (to some), but it isn’t preventing any efforts to address the epidemic.

    Frank’s chicken idea would make more sense.

    If the pig were drawn as crazy and/or labeled as conspiracy ideas about vaccines-as-nano-technology-mind-control or something like that would make sense. (I’m not saying anti-vaccine sentiment is crazy, I’m just sayin’ that at least then the comic would make sense).

    I think the original posting is correct: All the elements are there, but not in a way that creates a coherent message.

  9. src666 Nov 2nd 2009 at 05:52 pm 9

    Christian, the pig in the road doesn’t signify the Swine Flu or H1N1. It represents the pork-barrel politics that keep getting tacked onto the health care reform bills floating around congress.

    The use of pigs representing congressional “pork” in political cartoons LONG predates the swine flu.

  10. Christian Nov 2nd 2009 at 06:35 pm 10

    SRC, Yes, pigs representing pork is the obvious symbology. But there are no bills or pork currently holding up efforts to address H1N1 as the pig in the cartoon is doing. The health care debate isn’t affecting H1N1. They are separate issues. If the pig is representing pork, the cartoon makes no sense, or at least isn’t a parody or comment on any current actual situation. If the pig isn’t representing pork, what is it representing? Swine flu? But the ambulance is already labeled H1N1, though that may simply mean the efforts to fight it, not the illness itself. So swine flu is blocking swine flu? Swine flu is blocking anti-H1N1 efforts? Maybe?

    There’s no sense in this cartoon and there’s no reason to try to defend it. The artist didn’t bring his A-game. There’s no reason to try to understand it. Unless the artist personally provides the interpretation this one goes into the “makes no sense, never will” file.

  11. Rammy M Nov 2nd 2009 at 07:12 pm 11

    Pirk is right (I think I heard it on NPR), the “OMG SWINE FLU !!1!!1!!” mania is hurting the pig farming industry (rightly or wrongly)
    Here is a link, one of the first results from Google:
    http://cbs11tv.com/health/texas.pig.farmers.2.997678.html

  12. Frank the curmudgeon Nov 2nd 2009 at 09:33 pm 12

    US Health care is done . Stick a spork in it.

  13. dudes Nov 2nd 2009 at 09:45 pm 13

    The ambulance is labeled H1N1. It’s not about health care.

  14. Skaloop Nov 2nd 2009 at 10:38 pm 14

    The vehicle is in motion. It is about to run over the pig. The hysteria over H1N1, due to the association with the “swine” flu nickname, has shattered the reputation of the noble piggy.

  15. David N Nov 2nd 2009 at 11:17 pm 15

    My take is that you can call it whatever you want (”H1N1″), drive in an enormously tall Mac truck with “National Emergency” on the front, lights flashing - but in the end, it’s still swine flu. The pig is not all that impressed.

    The other idea might just be the silly irony that the swine flu response truck is being held up by no less than a pig. No metaphor needed or anything.

  16. Frank the curmudgeon Nov 3rd 2009 at 01:08 am 16

    YES IT IS! Everything is about Health Care.

    dudes Nov 2nd 2009 at 09:45 pm 13
    The ambulance is labeled H1N1. It’s not about health care.

  17. mkilby Nov 3rd 2009 at 02:27 am 17

    I think everyone is trying to read too much into the pig symbolism. This is much simpler than all of the tortured descriptions above. Look at the facial expression on that pig. This is a simple comparison between the rabid crisis mentality in the media and the health care bureaucracy, compared to the absolute disinterest and lethargy among the general population.

    Of course, if we assume that the threat is real, then it is clear who is going to get flattened.

  18. Fred Nov 3rd 2009 at 04:30 am 18

    This comic reminds me of an artice that appeared in The Onion recently, entitled: Obama’s Declaration Of Swine Flu Emergency Prompts Pro-Swine-Flu Republican Response

    Hilarious.

    http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/obamas_declaration_of_swine

  19. Tom T. Nov 3rd 2009 at 07:59 am 19

    This is just lazy political cartooning. Throw together a few vaguely on-topic images, carefully labeled — it doesn’t matter if they actually mean anything as a whole.

  20. Mark Nov 3rd 2009 at 08:46 am 20

    I’m still not convinced by any of these explanations. If the pig is supposed to represent pork-barrel spending, it makes no sense for reasons Christian outlined above. My own first reaction was that of Elyrest (#3) — that the country is making a huge fuss over what turns out to be a small problem. But there are two flaws with that: 1) H1N1 isn’t turning out to be a small problem, at least not where I live. 2) The ambulance drivers aren’t acting as if they’ve ARRIVED at the problem, but are considering the pig an impediment to getting to it and honking for it to get out of the way. Maybe they’re looking so hard for a huge crisis that they don’t even recognize that they’ve reached their destination? Still lame, but maybe?

  21. The Bad Seed Nov 3rd 2009 at 03:09 pm 21

    Yes, I think this cartoon is a misinformed jab that the H1N1 hysteria is much ado about nothing, which is, indeed, proving incorrect.

  22. Pirk Nov 3rd 2009 at 08:36 pm 22

    maybe the pig represents the vaccine, which is taking a long time to produce

  23. Soup Dragon Nov 4th 2009 at 08:52 am 23

    But why did the pig cross the road in the first place?

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