Cartoonists — like poets and short story writers in the tradition of Jorge Louis Borges — have an advantage in that they are forced to make their statements pithy. This one from truly brilliant webcomic xkcd is a good demonstration of the art.
Club Troppo
Fearlessly dispensing political, legal and economic analysis (and some whimsy) since 2002
Oh I LOVE xkcd. Love love love. My whole family loves xkcd, to prove it: here is my brother in law in Las Vegas recently meeting Penn Jillette in his xkcd Science: It Works, Bitches shirt. I should buy me one of my own.
I like that shirt too.
Of course Penn & Teller also have their show Penn & Teller: Bullshit! which is a very brash, brassy advocate for skepticism. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys them taking the piss.
Yeah, I put my sister and her hubby on to Bullshit a few years ago and that’s why they wanted to go see them. I’m not so convinced by Penn’s contrarian libertarian schtick (getting Michael Fumento and Steven Milloy on as talking heads. Ugh to the power of infinity) but on woo they are brilliant.
I recently wore my “Science: It Works, Bitches” t-shirt to the office. I figured it’d be okay, my office is way out the back where nobody ventures for fear of Grendels, the people who actually do have desks near me are almost always out on sales calls, and besides, I had a jacket on.
Turned out the Managing Director was in town that day and meeting with the guy whose office is next to mine. I hadn’t met the MD at that point so was introduced. About five minutes later I realised my jacket was unzipped and there was a reasonable chance the MD was able to read my shirt.
Amanda;
I agree that P&T are hardly “without sin” – they make no secret of their bias. But mockery is an important form of dissent, surely?
Well, for sure. I bow to no one in my worship of P&T and am insanely jealous of my sister. I’m just saying, their “social issues” eps don’t work, IMHO, as well as their woo eps. I could mock astrologers and feng shui-ists and astral travellers and homeopathers and fire walking charalatans all the live long day. The mockier the better.
Just a personal taste.
I am a particular fan of Jorge Cham’s PhD comics. They are an uncannily accurate description of grad school life!!! They can be found online at the following website:
http://www.phdcomics.com/ .