okay, I really need some sleep

[serene]

But first, the Rall comic. I know that people I respect think he is an asshole. Tell me why, because every time I see one of his comics or columns, I really dig him. What am I missing?

Comments

[baerana.livejournal.com]

I don't see it either, when I've come across him, he cracks me up (it's funny 'cause it's true :) )

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

I feel like I can never quite trust anything he says.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Shortly after 9/11, he did a gratuitously nasty cartoon about 9/11 widows, implying that they were attention whores who weren't really grieving. That's when I decided he was an asshole.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I find him amusing, but very few of my friends like only people -- movie stars, cartoonists, LJ folks, relatives -- who I like. Almost everyone I know likes someone who makes me say, "You like that person? What am I missing?" and hasn't been able to tell me what I'm missing in a way that makes me like that person any better. (Still, no one I know likes Rick Santorum.)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

How come?

[nooks.livejournal.com]

28 July's cartoon seemed more than a bit off; some of the others only a little.

Then again I don't much care for lots of cartoonists of this ilk, so there you go.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

His exaggeratio ad absurdam style sometimes goes right into "I'll bullshit just as badly as the other side to make my point, and it's OK if I do it because I'm on the side of the angels" territory. Yawn.

[schillerium.livejournal.com]

That's how I'd characterize Michael Moore.

[jodawi.livejournal.com]

Not sure if there was some specific incident that made me think that. I just get the impression that he's willing to add spin where needed to boost his points, and possibly more than spin if he thinks he can get away with it.

[someotherguy.livejournal.com]

FWIW, If it's the cartoon I'm thinking of, I've always felt like it was directed at some specific widow or group of widows, not all of them.

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

Ted is doing edgy political humor. He's doing it on deadline. It's the nature of such things that every now and then he's going to end up in the weeds. He's done a couple of comics that has struck me as tasteless or misdirected. However, when he is on he's very funny and perceptive.

[firecat]

I think he's often on target. I do get sick of political cartoons in general because I find it depressing to be reminded of that stuff, but that's not Ted Rall's fault.