Comments on: Oink

By: Soup Dragon

Soup Dragon — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:52:59 +0000

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

By: Pirk

Pirk — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:36:49 +0000

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

By: The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:09:51 +0000

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

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:46:04 +0000

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?

By: Tom T.

Tom T. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:59:11 +0000

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.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:30:49 +0000

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

By: mkilby

mkilby — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:27:24 +0000

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.

By: Frank the curmudgeon

Frank the curmudgeon — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:08:36 +0000

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.

By: David N

David N — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:17:33 +0000

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.

By: Skaloop

Skaloop — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:38:38 +0000

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.