31.5.14

Private Eye cartoon: Not exactly topical


I've just got back from a family holiday, during which I was mostly offline, so it was good to go online and find that this cartoon, which was in this week's Private Eye, got a very nice reaction and lots of retweets on Twitter (including here and here).

It was a little surprising as the cartoon refers to a song from 1979 (ask your parents, kids) so it's not exactly topical. But it seems to have tapped into a nostalgia vibe.

UPDATE: The cartoon made it into Pedantry Corner in the most recent Private Eye (13 June):


Being a bit of a pop music pedant myself, I was actually fully aware of this but I thought putting "Pop Musik" would get in the way of the joke, a view backed up on Twitter by someone who knows a bit about comedy.

UPDATE UPDATED: Here's my follow-up letter in this week's Private Eye (27 June):


Errr ... but someone pointed out that I put "Musik" instead of "Muzik" so this could run and run. Hoist by my own pedantry!

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8.5.14

Another First World War cartoon

"Due to the inclement weather conditions, you are reminded to please take extra care ..."

Here's another cartoon about the First World War. It can be seen in the current issue of Prospect magazine. Unlike my recent war silhouette cartoon, this was not inspired by the centenary coverage of the war in the media, but by something far more mundane.

I was walking through a London Tube station after we had had what can only be described as a spot of light rain. The floor was slightly damp so they played the standard health and safety recorded message about "inclement weather conditions".

Like the middle-aged person I am, I thought, "And to think we won two world wars ..." From such nonsense are cartoon ideas spun ...

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