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Michael Leunig, prankishly entered in an Iranian newspaper’s mock-the-Holocaust cartoon contest, continues whining:
JON FAINE: Do you think you might know who’s behind the hoax? Don’t name anybody, but have you got in your mind any theories?
MICHAEL LEUNIG: Um, yes I’ve had a few emails recently, kind of anonymous emails, you know, taunting me to enter this competition, saying come on, you’d be a natural, said one of them. You know, these taunts come at me all the time and, look, it could be any number of people.
There are a number of columnists and bloggers who have been particularly hateful to me for quite a long time and have suggested all sorts of hurtful and hateful things towards me. And you know, the mind jumps towards all these kinds of people. But I must refrain from imagining anybody in particular. It could be, it could be a kid.
It could be, it could be a duck! Or any other of the vicious entities whom Leunig never names! Nigel Henham, The Age’s communications director, says his stupid newspaper is absolutely appalled:
Well, The Age is absolutely appalled, as is Michael Leunig, that someone would choose to fraudulently use some of his work, and also represent his words that are simply not his. This is a serious hoax, someone has acted fraudulently, and we are quite appalled by it, quite frankly.
Appalled. Got it. Absolutely. Let’s hear from Leunig himself, in a piece bearing the modest headline Amid the pain, God puts his hand on my shoulder:
After my dinner on Monday evening the telephone rang and the senior deputy editor of The Age asked me if I had made a submission to the Iranian holocaust cartoon competition.
The senior deputy editor of The Age didn’t immediately realise this to be a prank. Hmm.
There is a moment of confusion that is almost religious as the mind tumbles about grasping for meaning and reference points but really, you are in free-fall at this moment and the stomach feels weightless for a time as you descend suddenly into the special underworld where you now must spend some unscheduled time.
Just exactly what did you eat for dinner, Michael?
This is what happens when the fact slams into me that I have been secretly and maliciously set up and framed and that the story will soon be on the wire and the twisting and distorting of my life is about to become extreme and that the consequences for me and my family could be dire.
Oh, right. Vengeful cartooniacs want to destroy Leunig’s life. Imagine how spooked this boy might have been if The Age had published certain Danish motoons.
What I had wanted to do was go out into the peaceful garden with my children and the dogs, to smell the fragrant evening air drifting in from the bush like a great consoling anthem, and to hear the kookaburras settling down for the night and the parrots chattering their way home and to watch the ibises rising slowly from the dry grass to their roosts high in the giant old eucalyptus skeleton that towers over the paddock that runs down to the dark treeline. This is something I believe in.
Personally, I don’t believe in children, dogs, air, kookaburras, night, parrots, grass, or paddocks. And especially ibises. But if Leunig wants to base his life around these otherworldly concepts, well, good for him.
You see, I’ve had more than a gutful of hostility and hate mail in the past three years, all because I have resisted the rise of fascism - the idea of war.
Yet Leunig urged us to pray for Osama bin Laden, who doesn’t share Leunig’s resistance to war. In fact, he begins war, and is a fascist.
I can identify with the Von Trapps, particularly so tonight; they meant well but got a hell of a hiding for it and were forced to flee. But they sang so beautifully, so harmoniously. In their own way they made sense of the chaos in the world around.
Expect Julie Andrews to be a prime witness in Leunig’s case against his wicked hoaxster.
Sleep came but then faltered about 3am, so I rose in the solemnity of this grim hour and wandered out into the brilliant moonlight to see if God was out there in the paddock somewhere. Yes, God is there.
I was awake at the same hour with a screaming sinus headache. Yes, pseudoephidrine was there.
I wandered back inside and in a reckless moment I opened the laptop lying on the kitchen table and went to the Iranian website. Lo and behold, the cartoon and the fake words were gone and God came in from the paddock and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
God edits Iranian cartoon sites?
An email popped open; it was the Iranians. They were courteously apologising, they had been co-operative. They cared.
They are GOD!
Somewhere the perpetrator of the hoax rubs his hands with glee, just as arsonists do. Tonight I will water the garden.
You do that, Michael. Water your little head off. Hey, looks like The Age has a lead on the pro-war monsters who may have perpetrated this Godless arsonist hoax:
Age lawyer Peter Bartlett, from Minter Ellison, said a phone number connected to the email sent to Hamshahri was connected to the satirical website The Chaser, although this did not mean that people connected to The Chaser had sent it.
Julian Morrow, writer, performer and executive producer of the television satire The Chaser, said that he knew nothing about the matter and “it’s nothing to do with the television show”.
This is getting more interesting by the minute.
(An earlier post on the Leunig lunacy is here; editorial and comment from The Australian here and here.)
Hmmm.
1. What rubbish prose. This guy actually writes like this? Someone should tell him his hyperbolic style is crap.
2. So. Someone sent in an actual unedited Leunig cartoon to Iran. They accepted it and made it #1 on the list. And Leunig is complaining?
What? That he didn’t think of it first?
Posted by memomachine on 2006 02 14 at 02:05 PM • permalinkWhat with all those kookaburras and parrots and ibises and things I was wondering: does Leunig live in an aviary? I’m trying to picture him having his morning tea in the midst of all the squawking and bird droppings.
I plugged Leunig’s comments into Paco’s Patented Incoherentometer, set the filter for “Prose(Purple)”, and, frankly, the readings were off the chart. Diagnosis: cognitive dissonance resulting from an excess of “feelings”, with complications of egregious error stemming from ignorance. Prognosis: terminal irrelevance. Somebody better notify the family.
It’ll be hard for a while not to think of nature as God’s rubber room. Please don’t tell me he was Waldorf educated, we’re not that far gone.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 02 14 at 02:19 PM • permalinkI’m betting Leunig actually did submit the cartoon himself, and is now saying he didn’t just so he can claim he’s being persecuted by the blogs of war.
Posted by Tatterdemalian on 2006 02 14 at 02:59 PM • permalinkLeunig was so devastated, he lost the use of his commas.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 02 14 at 03:09 PM • permalinkHey . . screw the rest of you, I support the guy. In a world dominated by senseless, pathological consumerism, fascism and self righteous xenophobia, Leunig is a breath of fresh air, a soul refreshing snorkel in the murky swamp of modern day westernism.
If he didn’t submit the cartoon himself, he has a right to be upset about it, even if the cartoon IS genuine, and he DOES hold such views about the Israel/Palestine issue. The fact is someone was fraudulent, and thats not permissible!
If you don’t like the guy, fine, but try to come up with some better arguments than ‘he talks a little funny’ . . you sound like a bunch of ignoramuses.
In a world dominated by senseless, pathological consumerism, fascism and self righteous xenophobia, Leunig is a breath of fresh air, a soul refreshing snorkel in the murky swamp of modern day westernism.
Michael? Is that you?
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 02 14 at 03:22 PM • permalink...a soul refreshing snorkel in the murky swamp of modern day westernism.
A Crazy Straw out my ass would serve the same purpose.
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2006 02 14 at 03:24 PM • permalinkDear Mr. Kong:
When I was a little lad, newspaper reporters, et al, were gungho, hard-drinking, tough men that “Spoke to Power”.
We’re just all a little bit nostalgic for reporters that don’t cry.
Posted by Go Canucks on 2006 02 14 at 03:35 PM • permalinkOh yeah?! Well, pthPTH [Oh for god’s sake people what do I have to do, scream? Okay then: DON’T BLOODY WRITE BLOODY LONG BLOODY SEQUENCES OF UNBROKEN CHARACTERS. IT BREAKS THE PAGE. The Management.]
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 14 at 03:42 PM • permalinkTHERE IS BUT ONE GOD AND HIS PROPHET IS ALLAH AND HE PUT HIS HAND ON MY SHOULDER
By Probably Not Michael Leunig
After my dinner on Monday evening the telephone rang and the editor of The Age asked me if I had made a submission to the Iranian holocaust cartoon competition.
“Why, is there a cash prize?” I asked hopefully.
“No,” he answered grimly. “You only won an honorable mention.”
There is a moment of confusion and trembling that is almost religious as the mind tumbles about pirouetting and grasping the air like a drunk Rum Tum Tigger in a low budget revival of “Cats,” but really, your stomach and spleen and pancreas are in free-fall at this moment, hurling about on a Orwellian Disneyland nightmare roller coaster descending into the darkened cave of Pirates of the Carribean, screaming like an 8 year old girl, never knowing when the ride will end and with no money for the souvenir shop.
What I had wanted to do was go out into the peaceful garden with my children and the dogs, to smell the fragrant evening air drifting in from the bush, mixing with the hearty natural aroma of the dogs’ fresh dookie, like a great fragrant consoling anthem, and to hear the kookaburras and parrots settling down for the night, their sounds like the smell of a dog-eared copy of “Creative Writing For Dummies,” to taste the ibises rising descriptively from the dry grass to their crispy roost high in the giant old onamatopaeia tree that towers over the paddock that runs down to the old Roget’s Thesaurus. These are the sounds and smells and feels I believe in.
You see, I’ve had more than a gutful of hostility and hate mail, all because I have been a courageous one man army standing in the path of fascism, armed with nothing but a pen and a sensitive gastrointestinal system.
I can identify with the Partridge Family, particularly so tonight; traveling about in their Mondrian-painted bus, their velour outfits and beautiful lip-synced harmonies somehow help make sense of the chaos of the 1972 world of Nixonian dystopia.
I lay awake in the grim gripping hourful solemnity of 3am, looking at my David Cassidy posters, unable to sleep. I rose and wandered out into the brilliant fragrant tactile moonlight to see if God was out there in the paddock somewhere. Yes, God is there.
God put his powerful hand on my shoulder in the adjectiveful moonglows. “Life’s a bitch for you, eh mate?” he said reassuringly.
That is when I realized my courage against the fascist had not been for naught. But still I wondered, why did God look like the club tennis instructor? And why was he holding my wife’s negligee and my copy of Roget’s Thesaurus?
You’re being a bit unfair to Mike. So okay, he’s a lefty, he’s anti the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, he once did an anti-israel cartoon, etc. Sure, give him hell. But this is a sneaky attempt at discrediting him. Amusing perhaps, but defamatory- despite his political stance. And btw, whatever his weaknesses, I doubt if anyone here seriously believes he secretly submitted the cartoon himself and then lied about it. He’s just not that wily.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 14 at 03:44 PM • permalinkLeunigtic, with the help of the Maker of the Universe, is searching for that amazing right wing blogger who had entry into the secret files of the newspaper that rejected his cartoon, and slipped it to the Iranians without leaving a trace, and -oh, yes, O. J. Simpson is still looking for the killer of his wife and the innocent waiter.
Need me to dumb it down a few shades?
You’re at “Blind Man in a Coalmine at Midnight” right now, so: Nah.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2006 02 14 at 03:45 PM • permalinkLeunig is a breath of fresh air, a soul refreshing snorkel in the murky swamp of modern day westernism
Yeah sure if we were ten years old maybe. But he has had plenty of time to become a guilt ridden ashamed member of his own civilisation like you.
GO live in Iran and enjoy the wonders of superior civilisations.“In a world dominated by senseless, pathological consumerism, fascism and self righteous xenophobia,” - sweeping generalizations, the truth of which is assumed but completely unsupported by examples.
“Leunig is a breath of fresh air, a soul refreshing snorkel in the murky swamp of modern day westernism.” - Felonious metaphoricating.
“If he didn’t submit the cartoon himself, he has a right to be upset about it” - granted; however, the congenital inability to make intelligent distinctions - e.g., equating Israeli governance in Palestine with the genocidal modus operandi of the Nazis - is a matter for legitimate criticism. And isn’t it relevant that a Leunig cartoon would be seen as a ntural entry to the contest?
#16 Ah, the Donkey King speaks from the lofty heights of his moral plane (or plain), tilted dangerously to the left, and bespeaks to us ignoramuses in lips that spring forth flowers (for his mouth doth hold much fertile fertilizaer). He, like his lefty beseechers of Mo-favoaers, knows the truth, but we infidels will never be as wise as he, or the billions of Leugnatics who swarm the earth (80% illiterate), until we are able to study and obey the gracious Donkey King, may peace be upon Him, who insults noone.
Can someone, Donkey Kong maybe, go over this again? I got lost right around the Sound of Music stuff.
And if it is Donkey Kong who steps in, can you also spend a minute on why it’s ok for Leunig to be so reflexively anti-semitic that even people who think Hitler’s greatest fault is that he failed will cheer at the sight of Leunig’s cartoon and say “you go, boy”, but wrong for someone to be his anonymous benefactor?
Or, more clearly, why it is worse for someone to send a Leunig cartoon to the Iranians, but ok for that cartoon to be so racist that they love it? Is it because Leunig’s racism meshes so perfectly with your own racism that you don’t notice it?
Posted by tim maguire on 2006 02 14 at 04:08 PM • permalinkYou sure these ramblings by Leunig are not another hoax,sounds like he is losing it.
Posted by Torontosteve on 2006 02 14 at 04:13 PM • permalinkStats
Donkey Kong is surely not an Uber Muslim but a member of those who are ashamed to be westerners.
i have some nice papyrus brooms made up from my garden plants. Methinks they would be ideal for self flagellation to expunge guilt and shame of leftist apologists.
Do you think there is a strong market?But this is a sneaky attempt at discrediting him.
You misspelled something there. It’s actually a sneaky attempt at crediting him. With his own words and opinions, that is. Whoever submitted the cartoon to the Iranians is merely trying to make sure that Leunig’s Fight Against The Fascists And The Zionists gets the biggest-possible platform. Who could possibly have something against that? Surely not the brave and courageous Leunig.
And folks, go easy on that Donkey Kong guy. That’s obviously a satire, nobody would be so insane or stupid to actually believe such tripe. Keep it up, kid, you’ll be the next iowahawk in no time! Or at least the next wronwright!
“If he didn’t submit the cartoon himself, he has a right to be upset about it.”
I don’t argue this point. For whatever talent Leunig thinks he has, this cartoon is his creation, and thus his property.
On the other hand, Kong…...it’s a fucking cartoon. The Iranians withdrew it and apologized. End of story.
That it was wholeheartedly accepted for a Holocaust denial contest by a state run newspaper of one the most nastiest, aggressive, and insane theocracies on this planet is simply icing on the cake.
But let’s look at it from a different direction. Leunig has publicly stated his opposition to the Iraq War, the right of self-defense for the state of Israel, and in general, is an anti-Western Western. He makes these statements (oral, written, and graphically) in a public forum without fear of arrest by the government, under freedom of speech. Unlike what could happen in, say, Iran, but whatever. That’s his right, and no one disputes it.
But the “fraudulent use” of his cartoon is strictly limited to him not giving permission for it’s use in his name.
And to publicly whine that he has been recognized by like minded people is simply the peak of intellectual dishonesty. Pot, kettle,
People jump on Leunig as‘he talks a little funny’ because the prose is fancy and colorful, but says little more than he’s pissed because the phone call came during his dinner.
So, nope, no sympathy from this region of the blogosphere. Want to hear meaningful conversation about Leunig’s comments on this cartoon caper? Tell him to say something meaningful.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 14 at 04:30 PM • permalinkVon Trapp? - Sound of Music - Pray for Osama Bin Laden - aaaaah! - Lonely Goatherd!
Knew there had to be a connection in there somewhere.
Still working on the problem of why killing wheelchair bound terrorist icon = bad, whereas killing and ditching overboard wheelchair bound jewish tourist on Achille Lauro = no big deal.
Perhaps one day Spielberg and Kushner will explain that as well.Oh, and another thing. Leunig shares other characteristics of Islamonuts beyond hating Jews and the West.
He takes cartoons way too seriously. Especially stupid ones. All that stress is bad for the heart.
But, hey, I’ll give Leunig this: he doesn’t committ assault, arson, and murder in response to this prank. Even if he does support the Islamothugs in spirit and words.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 14 at 04:35 PM • permalink10. Sonetka, I’m a Steiner person myself. I just thought I saw anthroposophy in overdrive when Leunig called out the parrott troopers. Two extra Morning Verses for me. Auf Deutsch.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 02 14 at 04:38 PM • permalinkThe real irony of the whole debacle is that Leunig and his defenders would applaud this level of minor disobedience if it was directed at the Howard government. Somebody decided to speak truth to Leunig’s power (and did so in the most beautiful way possible, by using Leunig’s own work against him), and they don’t like it one bit.
giant old eucalyptus skeleton
Eh? I thought eucalyptus were invertabrates. Or am I thinking about menthols?
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 02 14 at 04:40 PM • permalinkCruella, in re 18
DON’T BLOODY WRITE BLOODY LONG BLOODY SEQUENCES OF UNBROKEN CHARACTERS. IT BREAKS THE PAGE.
I’m sorry. I was overwrought and um the passion of the moment was too much for me. I probably won’t do it again for a while.
I don’t mean to be a bad poster, I just am one. I think I must’ve been born bad.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 14 at 04:44 PM • permalinkBTW, couldn’t one even make a case that submitting the cartoon constitutes “fair use”, copyright-wise? I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to construe the activity as a form of commentary on both the Iranian contest and Leunig’s opinions.
PW, you’re right. I’m convinced. In fact, the Iranian paper (if they wanted) could probably have published the cartoon as an example of the sort of thing they were looking for.
It was still pretty sneaky though… :-)Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 14 at 04:54 PM • permalinkLeunig: ”...the ibises have flown from Indonesia. Muslim ibises, or Hindu, perhaps.”
Assuming they are Muslim, and assuming they are of mixed sexes, were the male ibises bearded? Were the females wearing chadors, or (surely not) flaunting their slim naked legs and criminally exciting the bearded males?It is most important that everything be done to track down the perpetrators of this fraud.
Otherwise people would have to turn their attention to Leunig’s culpability.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2006 02 14 at 05:41 PM • permalinkA friend showed me a pamphlet on matchbooks, including one Australian model identifying the kookaburra as a “laughing jackass.” Talk about coming home to roost…
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 02 14 at 05:54 PM • permalinkFor the record, my thoughts are not my property, though they are my creation. What’s the difference?
There might be some sort of copyright issue here. Still, PW makes a good point about fair use of copyrighted material. Although international enforcement of copyright laws is difficult (at best) at times, or so I’ve read. If
our herothe prankster is in Australia, that might be less of a problem forthat idiotLeunig.But I suppose that the real “problem” is that some people consider this cartoon to be
crap“art”, and thus Sacred.Oh, and
that idiotLeunig was misrepresented to the world bysome villianous miscreantour hero.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 02 14 at 05:59 PM • permalink#29, I believe you are quite right about Donkey. As for self-flagellation tools of garden variety, thorny branches from stout Rose Bushes reinforced with hardy spiny cactus flown in from the Arizona desert are what’s needed to rouse these anti-west Leunatic lovers from their sleep in the slime pits of delusion. (Flowery enuff?)
Poor widdle Woonig
You want me put some molasses on your dummy for you?
Posted by Jay Santos on 2006 02 14 at 06:39 PM • permalinkIowahawk: laughed like a laughing jackass.
Posted by arrowhead ripper on 2006 02 14 at 06:45 PM • permalinkThose that can, check out the pic of the self important twerp on the front page of The Oz today. A fop striking a butch pose in the great outdoors. One look and you’ll never doubt where the prose comes from (sorry, not into links yet).
Maybe he’s in his “garden”. But wait… are those chainsaw cuts on the ends of the log he’s sitting on? Is Loser-ig really a chain-saw carrying, old-growth clearing, greenhouse propagating, Gunns supporting forest de-flower-er? And what’s up with those 2 brown branches he’s leaning against? Is it a metaphor for Loser-ig’s life?
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 02 14 at 06:49 PM • permalinkLook, after Tim’s last post on Leunig I decided that I had to find something nice to say about him. So I drew my own Leunig cartoon.
http://humbugonline.blogspot.com/2006/02/michael-leunig-portrait-of-artist.htmlIt looks to me that Leunig just got caught again expressing his own [copyrighted?] thoughts. What else is new? He even seems to like it, according to his masochistic ethic = “the more pain I feel, or claim to feel, while I attempt to inflict as much pain as possible on others and thus myself, is good”. Did I mention that this is also sadistic?
#5 ‘What with all those kookaburras and parrots and ibises and things I was wondering: does Leunig live in an aviary?’
I hope he catches bird flu. Seriously, what a self absorbed exercise in onanism his response proved to be. What next? A novella where he ‘swoons’?
National treasure indeed, he should be buried on some deserted island and left there for 200 years.
It’s all been said really, the lefties think that in this case (as opposed to any others) copyright and private property are critical concerns and the “government should do something!”. All the usual suspects have jumped in to defend Leunig. The evil forces of the right have attacked him.
The reality is that someone has submitted a cartoon in his name to an Iranian newspaper. They should not have done it but Leunig has made himself an even bigger target by calling on God and nature and the old “hide behind my family” defence.
Leunig has entered the political fray through his inflammatory cartoons in the past. He is therefore a political figure in the same way as Howard and Bush. He gives it so he must expect to “get” it. No one thinks it is lawful or correct morally or otherwise to misrepresent him but we also think he looks ridiculous in the manner in which he and his defenders have reacted to it.
Strewth, seems God’s paddock has an abundance of mushrooms and “widdle leunig” is right amongst them on a regular basis.
“widdle leunigs’” prose is very illuminating and pyschiatric qualifications are not required to recognise this pathetic individual is in an advanced delusional state.
Many genuises are borderline nutcases.
The trouble with “The Age” newspaper and its cerebrally challenged readership is that they believe the terms are interchangeable.
“widdle leunig” is about as far from being a genius as zero is from infinity.
As for the borderline, it seems “widdle leunig” passed it heading South several kilos of mushrooms ago.Posted by desert rat on 2006 02 14 at 08:05 PM • permalinkWhy does this guy get so much publicity? He’s a cartoonist!!!!
Posted by Bullshit_Mr_Han_man. on 2006 02 14 at 08:56 PM • permalinkLeunig is a breath of fresh air...
He’s a nauseating cliche! Who only impresses shallow, adolescent activist-types like you Donkey.
Go and have your say on one of the ABC’s websites, or SBS’s, where predictable left-wing views like yours are welcome, and almost everyone else’s are censored by the self-righteous, so-called defenders of free speech, dissent and diversity of opinion!
Your naive brand of anti-Western hypocrisy won’t be out of place there.What I had wanted to do was go out into the peaceful garden with my children and the dogs, to smell the fragrant evening air drifting in from the bush like a great consoling anthem, and to hear the kookaburras settling down for the night and the parrots chattering their way home and to watch the ibises rising slowly from the dry grass to their roosts high in the giant old eucalyptus skeleton that towers over the paddock that runs down to the dark treeline. This is something I believe in.
What an effin’ leunatic! This guy has children? Everybody outta the gene pool…
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2006 02 14 at 09:04 PM • permalinkReflecting on Leunig’s cartoon, it seems to be that there are many people who are upset, to the point of hysteria sometimes, by armed Jews defending themselves against another genocide. I can only wonder why.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 02 14 at 09:08 PM • permalinkSo now it’s official; Leunig is both a wanker AND bat-shit insane. What a sad end for such a once profound talent.
Posted by blandwagon on 2006 02 14 at 09:21 PM • permalink#73 Why does this guy get so much publicity? He’s a cartoonist!!!!
Well Mr Bullshit… y’know cartoonists and their cartoons have been getting a bit of airtime recently - have you heard about the Danish cartoons? Caused a bit of a stir in some places.
- you idiot.
Posted by Stop Continental Drift! on 2006 02 14 at 09:40 PM • permalinkI thought his cartoons were bad enough, but his writing? Wading through that made me feel he should be paying me for therapy.
Posted by Just passing by on 2006 02 14 at 09:51 PM • permalinke’s not only a cartoonist, e’s a National Living Treasure!
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2006 02 14 at 10:03 PM • permalinkOkay, maybe you hate his style (a lot of people here seem to) but that’s not the point. it’s art. it just comes down to personal opinion. It’s the politics that he advocates through his art that are the problem.
I used to be a Leunig fan. okay, call me whatever you like at this point, I can take it, but when I first saw Leunig’s stuff (maybe 15 years ago) it was different, quirky, weird. And you know, it was all completely non-political. Then one day, bang! He was a celebrity. Now, people want to know what he thinks about everything… and he tells them. Encouraged by the left, he’s increasingly become a political commentator, but he doesn’t apply the rigorous thought that other commentators do. It’s all gut reaction, which unfortunately has become self-indulgent reinforcement of his own prejudices.so I agree with #77: “a sad end to a once profound talent”.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 14 at 10:06 PM • permalinkLeunig said the editors of the Iranian website had been “the first to defuse this”, removing the cartoon immediately and apologising. He said he was pleased the editors were “acting in the interests of truth”.
For Leunig, the newpaper that is preaching holocaust denial is acting in the interest of truth.
I also agree with #77 and #81: he has done some fantastic non-political work. He still does some gems, but his political art is shite and brutal rather than funny and clever.
His books “The First Leunig”, “The Second Leunig”, ... etc. had some funny, subversive stuff that you can’t pigeon-hole politically.
Posted by closeapproximation on 2006 02 14 at 10:12 PM • permalinkReading that, I reckon the crazy old fart could turn a quid writing cards for Hallmark- it’s just the sort of insipid, turgid twaddle that’s right at home in a flowery missive sent to some forgotten relative about an unknown maiden aunt.
If Fairfax gets bought by a company who’s actually keen on turning a profit out of the publishing game, it might be his only hope- that or a grant from the AC based on his living treasure status to continually remind us that being hip during the Whitlam era means permament entitlement, both to recognition and public funding.
#3.Ed, yes he actually writes like that.
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 02 14 at 10:19 PM • permalinkczech to the mohtoon thang:
The Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda is seeking to rally EU support
for Denmark which faces mounting pressure from Moslem countries following
the publication of cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammad. Mr. Svoboda
said that while he considers the caricatures in bad taste, the violent
reaction to them is unacceptable. The Czech Foreign Minster would like to
see the EU take a united stand in condemning the violence and he has
suggested that the EU could provide some form of financial compensation to
Denmark for the economic losses it has suffered in connection with the
scandal.it’s a nice touch that svoboda means freeman (as in a free man or yeoman)
It is most important that everything be done to track down the perpetrators of this fraud.
Certainly. We have to know who did it so they never have to buy a drink ever again.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 02 14 at 10:21 PM • permalinkI’m still waiting to hear how these mysterious people got a Leuinig “original” that was never published and was in fact rejected by the allegedly sole market Leunig submitted it to…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 02 14 at 10:22 PM • permalinkA couple of questions:
1. What would have been his reaction if somebody had sent the cartoon to the Iranians clearly stating that it wasn’t the submitter’s work but that of Loonig? Would they have accepted it? Would Loonig still be so pissed off?
2. Why was Gary Ablett in Loonig’s paddock - was he doing a drug deal or something??
#92- it’s posted on the ABC’s Media Watch website; they kicked up a ruckus over The Age refusing to publish it.
‘Aint irony wunnerful?
#90- gotta agree on that one; wish I’d thought of it. If it was The Chaser, it’s the first funny thing they’ve done since getting the monopodal member for Werriwa to say “fuck” on national tv; I’m betting it was neither of the two retards who infested JJJ last year, they lack the imagination (and the will to poke fun at a pinko icon).
I was just reading an article by the interesting Mr Leunig on the Curly Flat website (Curly Flat), and I have to say that a couple of paragraphs stood out in particular:
I didn’t mind my own company as a child; I was happy playing alone in the sandpit.
Oh, I’ll just bet you were, my friend. In the same way I’m happy not being a multi-millionaire with about 5 supermodels hanging from my arm.
I built fairy homes in the garden and in the flower petals I would make little beds for the fairies to sleep on, and in the morning I would rush out to see whether they’d visited and sure enough they had, I was sure, I could see the marks. To this day the way is probably not too different – when I make a cartoon I’m making a little fairy garden in my mind. It’s the same feeling. I’m engrossed in creating this fantasy, believing some magic is going to come into it, and when they get published it’s my hope that people enter into it in the way the fairies entered into my garden places.
Leunig is a guy, right? It’s very hard to tell when you read something like the paragraph above (although it does go a hell of a long way towards explaining his zany views on world affairs).
I was tremendously self – occupied…
What’s changed? He still is.
Posted by Mr Snuffalupagus on 2006 02 14 at 10:38 PM • permalink#81 - so I agree with #77: “a sad end to a once profound talent”.
Once artists are seduced by the left to take up their cause they are on a slippery slide to irrelevance.Watching the O.C the other night the dark haired girl put it so well when discussing which band to perform at an event. She said don’t choose them, they used to be good before they got political. Nice put done.
I know what she means. To bad the yarts in Australia don’t.
“I built fairy homes in the garden and in the flower petals…I’m making a little fairy garden in my mind and yahda,yahda,yahda”, the confessions of a delusional crank. A fairy garden in his mind? More like a hog pit full of dung! Of course, he can’t tell the difference. Oh, there’s widdle Michael playing in the hog pen again. Wish his mum would clean him up before sending him to school. It’s no wunder none of the kids will play with hum. And he tried to get my boy into the muck, he said he’d hope my Tommy would would “enter into it the way his fairies entered” his garden place. Tommy punched him in the face and shoved him under the hog. Don’t blame Tommy, myself. That Michael is going to grow up with a lot of revenge in his bleeding heart.
Fixed. If you guys don’t watch what you are doing I am going to set everything to bold permanently. No—strikeout.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2006 02 14 at 10:57 PM • permalink#77, 81 et al.:
Since I was just thinking of it the other day (in relation to a baseball forum, of all things) - Leunig just might qualify as a one-man embodiment of Conquest’s Second Law of Politics.
Reading this stuff today, and his earlier “fairy” rantings, its fairly clear to me that this fruitcake needs to be institutionalised in some psychiatric establishment for a serious course of treatment…
i’d even volunteer to drive my commodore down and hook him up to my car battery to provide a bit of gentle electro shock therapy… of course, once my foot got tired, someone else would have to volunteer to press the accelerator… see if we could get back the “good loonie” of the ‘70s which some people here seem to have some admiration for???
while we’re at it, maybe some of his brood could be checked in for a course of de-loonie-fication before they also become lost causes like their terminally wierd father???
i have to say being from the west i had never seen him before, just heard and seen a bit of his work, but seeing him dribbling shite on the news yesterday, he looked like a bigger fool than i had imagined…. and this manure he has come out with should tell u why he stuck to drawing instead of writing or speaking!!!!!
#19 Iowahawk, for that, I’d have your child. Since that’s not going to happen, I’d like you to replace the replacement keyboard that Paco kindly sent me not long ago.
ROFL!
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 02 14 at 11:16 PM • permalinkMaybe someone will enter his work in this contest too?
(Via LGF)
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 02 14 at 11:29 PM • permalink“I built fairy homes in the garden and in the flower petals I would make little beds for the fairies to sleep on, and in the morning I would rush out to see whether they’d visited and sure enough they had, I was sure, I could see the marks. To this day the way is probably not too different – when I make a cartoon I’m making a little fairy garden in my mind. It’s the same feeling. I’m engrossed in creating this fantasy, believing some magic is going to come into it, and when they get published it’s my hope that people enter into it in the way the fairies entered into my garden places.”
It is an interesting mental exercise to imagine the reaction of, say, the Age’s commentarite if John Howard or Tony Abbott had written this shite. - Or Loonig’s latest, unsatirisable, shite about God putting his hand on his shoulder.Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 02 15 at 12:27 AM • permalinkIt is an interesting mental exercise to imagine the reaction of, say, the Age’s commentarite if John Howard or Tony Abbott had written this shite. - Or Loonig’s latest, unsatirisable, shite about God putting his hand on his shoulder.
#108, No mental exercise needed - witness their reaction when they (falsely) reported that Bushy McSmirkyHitler had said that God had told him to invade Iraq.
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 02 15 at 12:38 AM • permalinkAn email popped open; it was the Iranians. They were courteously apologising, they had been co-operative. They cared./quote]
Dear Kafir Leunig,
We’re really sorry that your work was accidentally included in our petty circus of holocaust denial and historical revision. That’s just pickles on parade. But still, it was a fantastic cartoon, and we wish you the best. Watch out for those bloodthirsty Jews.
Love,
IranThere was a time when I enjoyed Leunig’s work (going back about ten years or more).
I hadn’t paid much attention to him for a long time until his more recent explorations into political comment.
When you hear him speak you wonder if he really is just some gormless naif living in his own world and reacting only to what he sees as awful occurrences.
Trouble with that theory is that he always does the reacting on the one side. I suspect the innocent child face he presents is a front for just pushing his own fairly conventional leftist political views.
Personally i find his cartoons on globalisation just as irritating as his other commentary. As political stances go its all too obvious to be the product of a true free spirit as he tries to present himself.
“Lo and behold, the cartoon and the fake words were gone and God came in from the paddock and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder.”
Touched by an anvil???
He must have 2 dicks he couldnt get that stupid just playing with one.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2006 02 15 at 05:43 AM • permalinkI can’t understand people claiming Loonig was once a talent, let alone a great one. All he ever did, before he decided to become an incompetent political commentator, was to scrawl niave drawings with obscure or ambiguous meanings, leaving it to the observer to interpret and attribute profundity to the inane. He’s the Chancey Gardner of cartooning.
115
I love it when sensitive (sniff) elites are confronted by the praise and solidarity of real fascists.
When Dandrew meets Therzal ...
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 02 15 at 01:38 PM • permalink#113 All he ever did, before he decided to become an incompetent political commentator, was to scrawl niave drawings with obscure or ambiguous meanings, leaving it to the observer to interpret and attribute profundity to the inane.
maybe. what can I tell you? it worked for me. I’m not going to justify having enjoyed his work in the past, it’s just how it was. Some people think the TV shows I watch are total cr*p too, so what do I know.
Posted by daddy dave on 2006 02 15 at 05:18 PM • permalink
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What a sniveling wanker. What an insufferable ignoramous. The hateful little man doesn’t appreciate the spotlight? You’d have never guessed such a “astute, insightful, brave, and provocative artiste” would have the spine of a slug.