Megg Mogg & Owl in Quarantine

[Mister Six]

well maybe I'm thick but I think Simon should focus more on the story than recent political events. he doesn't have the space to say something meaningful about it.

The whole strip has been about recent political events. That's basically its entire remit.

Oh come on, if you're reading that comic you can't take that on face value...can you?

I think the criticism is fair: the depiction of the protesters as venal, self-absorbed twats more interested in political grandstanding and puritanical harassment than political change is there. The comments made legitimate criticisms of how he seemed to be portraying a movement that, at its heart is basically about stopping black people from being murdered en masse with impunity.

The swift disavowal by WWJ in the next day's strip clarified that, though. Whether it will satisfy the critics, I don't know.

[chveik]

People that claim they're not being political when talking about obscenely conspicuous political things are absolutely thick.

is this directed at me?

The whole strip has been about recent political events. That's basically its entire remit.

I wouldn't say it's about them. it's just the context in which the characters are evolving.

[idunnosomename]

the characters are basically the same pieces of shit they were six months ago

[Mister Six]

Yeah, the strip is basically "look at all these years dealing with stuff that's happening right now". Covid, the George Floyd protests, Amazon warehouses, Tiger King, police brutality, BLM, web conspiracy shows, even fucking Glinner turned up at one point...

[The Mollusk]

Hanselmann seems to be caught between a rock and a hard place, I guess. Given the way this Instagram strip has evolved, it's only right that he should bundle in more of the big current events that are shaking up the world around him, but then his style as an artist is very much swayed towards "look at these cunts". Personally I don't blame him for depicting (a small cluster of) the protesters as such and I'm receptive enough to comedic ambiguity/irony to acknowledge that those probably aren't his real thoughts on the whole movement, but I can understand that there are people more politically charged up than I am who have reason enough to be offended by that depiction.

[samadriel]

I LOVE that they covered Mike's mum up with a pic of Black Panther, and not even an unmasked pic of Chadwick Boseman! WWJ is truly shameless.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

is this directed at me?

Nah

[Pink Gregory]

I keep forgetting that Jones is perpetually naked

[The Mollusk]

My guy bringing back the fedora tip. Just when I thought 2020 couldn't get any wilder.

[The Mollusk]

Here we go then gang, potentially last big arc of this thing before he wraps it up!

[Mister Six]

I reckon by the time the election's done he might be tempted to wait till New Year before wrapping it up.

[13 schoolyards]

WWJ's election platform seemed... surprisingly reasonable?

"Some cunts are just useless"

[idunnosomename]

notice WWJ got a boner during his speech.

new one. oh man. hanselmann knows how to keep throwing those curveballs

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

Ian wtf

[MojoJojo]

Allergic to soy milk? I mean he's got a gunshot wound but that doesn't explain the spots.

[Mister Six]

Or he's got bubonic plague: https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/Plague-bearing-fleas-spark-closures-at-popular-15541389.php

[idunnosomename]

christ all these people are cunts aren't they. even owl.

[The Mollusk]

Haha Owl's sudden delight at being able to stick the boot into WWJ again is brilliant. That blank smile, such a cheap imitation of actual happiness.

[boki]

Owl's on a roll right now - wonder how much more fun Simon's going to allow him.  I don't see the Valeria thing ending well.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

oh god I can't look at the horrible infected eyes much longer

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

New one out. So another BLM joke: 'SAY HIS NAME'.

Gotta ask what's Simon's real feelings on this? There's been a lot jabbing at something approaching a genuine political revolution and I don't really know who he thinks his audience is making crass low-hanging-fruit jokes like that.

Not interested in libertarian 'all things are funny or nothing is' logic.

-------------------

Update:

Made a slight crit and get this smoothbrained response. yeesh so predictable and tiring. I'm sorry Hanselmann has some truly insufferable South Park-level fans

you are putting way too much thought into this jesus christ, what accountability does there need to be for Simon incorporating a hashtag into his comic? how is there nothing in the world more pressing to your liberal sensibilities? in what world is everyone who recognizes that this is just a comic suddenly a libertarian? you sound insane to such a degree you delegitimize yourself and anyone with adjacent views by doing so publicly. this insistence on purity from the neoliberal-in-social-justice-wolves clothing left is more of a bane to the entire movement than Simon writing in 'say his name', and that in and of itself is the reason that Simon no doubt gets joy from mocking the once transgressive left's obsession with purity in this very series. go away

[samadriel]

edit bug

[13 schoolyards]

New one out. So another BLM joke: 'SAY HIS NAME'.

Gotta ask what's Simon's real feelings on this? There's been a lot jabbing at something approaching a genuine political revolution and I don't really know who he thinks his audience is making crass low-hanging-fruit jokes like that.

Not interested in libertarian 'all things are funny or nothing is' logic.

-------------------

Update:

Made a slight crit and get this smoothbrained response. yeesh so predictable and tiring. I'm sorry Hanselmann has some truly insufferable South Park-level fans

All Hanselmann's characters are horrible people, none more so than WWJ and his gang of hangers-on (It's not like Dracula Jr has been held up as a symbol of virtue either). They've all been fairly consistent in throwing around current slogans and catchphrases while not giving much of a shit about what lies behind them, which doesn't to me read like Hanselmann himself is attacking their real-world meaning or values - the joke (or "joke") here being little more than it was an easy segue into WWJ's cruel and hurtful reference to Dracula Jr Jr's shit name.

I think he tends to use Megg as his outlet for (something closer to) his real feelings on these issues, and she's been noticeably quiet for a fair while now.

[The Mollusk]

^ I'm inclined to agree, but ... I dunno. I tried to address this as succinctly as possible in a post up near the top of this page, and I still stand by what I said, but it is awkward and it's not the easiest thing to defend.

I get where you're coming from but it's fair to say that it's a bit more of a prickly subject due to it being a very current event. I can watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and laugh at all the reprehensible rapey and homophobic things those characters come out with because of the shock factor and knowing they're the worst people in the world and they often suffer for it. I can appreciate the same stuff coming from MM&O as well but wouldn't you agree that some of this stuff is a bit "too soon"?

Sorry this post might be even more rambly than usual I have just woken up

[idunnosomename]

oh god I can't look at the horrible infected eyes much longer

yes i would like him to fix wwj's face. Although another hospital trip for most of the attendees of this funeral might be in order now

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

New one out. So another BLM joke: 'SAY HIS NAME'.

Gotta ask what's Simon's real feelings on this? There's been a lot jabbing at something approaching a genuine political revolution and I don't really know who he thinks his audience is making crass low-hanging-fruit jokes like that.

Not interested in libertarian 'all things are funny or nothing is' logic.

-------------------

Update:

Made a slight crit and get this smoothbrained response. yeesh so predictable and tiring. I'm sorry Hanselmann has some truly insufferable South Park-level fans

I agree, that is a smoothbrained response. Let me offer a more crinkly-brained one.

I didn't know that "Say their name" was a BLM chant/slogan until you said it. I went back and re-read today's strip with that in mind. And... I don't think it's a joke at BLM's expense.

Look at what Dracula Jr's doing by yelling "Say his name!" He's comparing his son to victims of police brutality. And he's wrong. All the people BLM want remembered were, by and large, innocently minding their own business. Some of them may have committed some minor infraction of the law. Then suddenly, power-tripping police, and the next thing they're dead. Over nothing.

Now, why is Dracula Junior Jr dead? He's dead because his father brought him to a drug house and let him play Hotel in a firetrap built by a couple of kids. He's dead because his father didn't stay at home with him playing PS4 like a responsible parent. Drugging and fucking were more important and he couldn't put it off for one day. Go back a few days to his speech at the funeral. Drac Junior barely takes responsibility for his son's death. The extent of his responsibility, in his mind, is "I should've been there more, I should've been watching him" and it's taken off with "I'm an addict" (implying, "I can't help it"). It's his "bitch ex's" fault. It's WWJ's fault. It's addiction's fault.

I don't think you're meant to take Dracula Junior and project him onto the BLM movement or even onto the relatives of victims of police brutality. I think you're meant to see this as someone arrogantly trying to claim a status that he's not entitled to.

I do think Hanselmann is walking a fine line here, in that his depiction of the protests can be read in multiple ways. He hasn't shown a single black protester - they've all been sunburnt white people. The hippies in the autonomous zone were dirty/smelly but ultimately well-meaning. He's had WWJ break the fourth wall and specifically mention anarchists and douchebags co-opting a "very valid movement". Now, by depicting the protests as white people fucking shit up, it can be read that he's saying the protests are just white people fucking shit up and nothing else. Certainly that's what the billionaire-owned media outlets and alt-right "news" sites would have us all believe. But "we don't need white people using our movement as an excuse to engage in violent behaviour" is something that's been said by people from black communities. And I do think there's room to criticise white people either cynically using the injustice suffered by non-white people as a cover for fucking shit up, or treating the protests as WOO YEAH FIGHT THE POWAH BIG DAY OUT without understanding what's really at stake here.

Ultimately there's only so much an author can do to ensure that their audience reads the text the right way, without descending into hand-holding. And maybe Hanselmann should've simply not made any commentary on the protests. That's also a valid view.

[The Mollusk]

Good post.

I agree that he's walking a thin line, and I'm sort of leaning towards thinking that, because of the speed at which this strip has been constantly moving for months now and how much of a strain that must realistically put on its sole creator, the whole thing is just a bit of a chaotic mess. This is fine, and it has held together extremely well for the most part because the characters are all chaotic and messy, but when you're moving at that pace and then trying to incorporate a movement as vital and current as BLM into your comic strip of ceaseless asshole behaviour, at some point you're going to cross a line with a joke that was probably only intended to be wildly convoluted and dumb.

[imitationleather]

Personally I think Black Lives Matter have been getting away with it for too long and it's about time someone took them down a peg or two.

[The Mollusk]

It's like, we get it, they matter! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯