Saturday, April 17, 2010



Oh Oh! Bush=Monkey hilarious. Obama=Monkey unforgiveable

How many more times are we going to see this double standard? The logic is often obscure where political correctness is concerned but, in the circumstances, one has to suspect that offence is taken in one case only because the resemblance is seen to be real in one case only. This latest episode is from Australia
"The [conservative] Queensland Liberal National Party (LNP) has condemned the action of a member allegedly responsible for calling Barack Obama a "monkey" on Twitter during the US president's interview on the ABC.

The tweets, from an account allegedly belonging to Nick Sowden, a medical student at the University of Queensland, began just after 7.30pm AEST last night, during ABC TV's 7.30 Report with Kerry O'Brien.

"I'm not sure why they paid kerry to fly to america (sic), if they wanted an interview with a monkey surely a ferry to Taronga would have sufficed," one tweet said, referring to Taronga Zoo on Sydney Harbour.

"If I wanted to see a monkey on TV I'd watch Wildlife Rescue," said another.

LNP state director Michael O'Dwyer said the party did not tolerate such comments and would be looking into the matter. "I'm disappointed when anybody from the LNP makes comments that put the party into disrepute and of such a personal nature," Mr O'Dwyer said.

[Leftist] Deputy Premier Paul Lucas said the LNP needed to act immediately. "I think that sort of language is totally, totally unacceptable, to be saying that about people - whether they're the president of the United States or whether they're anybody else," Mr Lucas said. [I can't seem to find find any record of Mr. Lucas saying that the constant comparisions between President Bush and chimpanzees were "totally, totally unacceptable"]

Source

The kid was later expelled from the party over it.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Liberal National Party is conservative? Apparently, the Aussi's are doing their best to become like their cousins the Brits. That is, F.U.B.A.R.

Anonymous said...

'Liberal' may refer to its old sense, as in the Liberal Democratatic party in the UK - that may soon be "king-maker" in the upcoming UK general election.

Anonymous said...

Just more Liberal double standards.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Anonymous said...

So Finn, how do you accept the same action as being ok for Bush, but not ok for Obama? If Bush's "made-up" facial expression made him appear to be chimp-like, (your opinion) then surely Obama's coloring and extra-long arms should make you think the same.

And how did you feel seeing pictures of Bush either being lynched, or depicted as Hitler? Did they bother you as much as seeing that poster of Obama with the white scary face, and the word "socialism" under it?

BTW, i am (not) a Bush supporter/voter. Not then, not now.

The Finn said...

I think the correlation between Bush and the chimp in the picture was more obvious. Especially since someone had gone through the trouble of finding a picture of a chimp with pretty much the same exact expression. One could say that Obama looks like a chimp because of his long arms and skin color but I don't see it that way. A chimp doesn't really look human. Even if the human is a negro.

But like I said, I don't think these are the same thing anyways. The Bush=monkey joke was based on the one picture that became a wide spread internet joke that created a back story to all the other Bush=monkey jokes to come after it. In the Obama case, I'm not aware of such a back story to the joke. This makes me wonder what's the logic behind the joke. Why is Obama monkey? Since I don't know of a clever picture, or a story, or a poster or some other explanation my mind wanders to the old negroes=monkeys joke as a possible explanation to this Obama=monkey situation. And that is racist.

I have no problem with racism, mind you, I'm just making an observation.

"And how did you feel seeing pictures of Bush either being lynched, or depicted as Hitler? Did they bother you as much as seeing that poster of Obama with the white scary face, and the word "socialism" under it?"

I have no problem with these or most other pictures. Some are funny and others aren't. Usually the well thought out ones make me smile regardless of the political ideology behind them.

Anonymous said...

Maybe bambi looks like a chimp because of his big ears?

Malcolm said...

Two points need to be made. Firstly, the racism is largely in the mind of the reader. There was nothing overtly racist about his comment.
Secondly, the author was a very minor figure. He was not an MP, nor even a candidate, just an ordinary, minor member of the party - and such people have a tendency to speak first and think later, until experience teaches them otherwise. If he ever wanted to run for election, he would have to learn that loose talk can be easily seized upon and misrepresented by his opponent. But an ordinary, run-of-the-mill member? Give us a break! The LNP has just shown itself to be ultra-politically correct.

The Finn said...

Out of curiosity, how do you explain the comments if not with racism? What is the logic? Why is Obama compared to a monkey? Do you believe that said comments are just about Obama, that only Obama and no other negro is comparable to a monkey in the eyes of these commentators?

Anonymous said...

How is it racist to say Obama looks like a cute little monkey. Have you ever seen Curious George? They look like they could be twins.

If you want to hear something racist, how about something like - most niggas look like gorillas but Obama looks like a monkey.

Of course, since Obama is half-black, I guess that means he is actually only half-monkey. As Bush is white, he wasn't actually a monkey at all (just a retard, which is another story).

Anonymous said...

If I say "Obama looks like Bush " who will be offended , blacks or whites . Well they do look alike ,they could be close relatives for all we know , look at them .
As for the perpetually offended I say , look at the various breeds of monkeys . There is a monkey to resemble every race . So who's ox is gored ?



ISHGEBOR

The Finn said...

I googled Curious George and I have to say he looks nothing like Obama. I mean really, if you show a picture of Curious George to someone and ask them "who does this look like" they're not going to answer Obama. Or at least not because they would actually think that they look alike.

Now, I'm an outspoken racist. I tell nigger jokes quite often and generally use the kind of language in public that I couldn't get away with in the US. I have referred to Obama numerous times as a monkey and the sentences quoted here could very well have come from me. But I'm honest about it and admit that yes, the basis of the joke is the fact that he's black and black people are inferior.

With Bush it's different. He wasn't called a monkey because people calling him that would think that white people are inferior monkeys. The monkey joke started because of the funny pictures comparing him with a particular monkey in a particular situation with a matching facial expression. There's a basis to the joke. Someone actually made it up and started an internet phenomenon instead of just recycling an old joke.

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images/blbushmonkey3.htm

http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2009-03-08/1236472852464.jpg