Racist can’t even summon clever wordplay

Posted by Jason Ihle | No Comments

There are a host of photos from the recent tea-bagger protest in Washington that are laughably absurd, the best of which accuse Obama of being simultaneously a fascist and a communist, but one that has been sitting with me all week is this one:

Finally it dawned on me that the reason I couldn’t get it out of my head was not the racism behind the message but the ineptitude at creating a clever quip.

First let’s start with the opening: “The zoo has an African.” I presume, given the picture of a lion on the poster that the African in question is the lion. Although when we say ‘African’ we are generally referring to a person unless you specifically say ‘African lion’.

Then she makes an attempt at a pun with “and the White House has a lyin’ African.” Obviously she’s trying to make a play on words between a lion, the animal, and a person who is lying. As lions come from Africa and Obama has African roots the pun is rather obvious. But this dolt screws it up! It should read, “The zoo has an African lion and the White House has a lyin’ African.”

I might also consider reversing the positions of the last two words. which provides a balanced equilibrium to both sides of the pun, but I also like the reversal of the words African and lion/lyin’ in my first example.

The poor pun notwithstanding, bringing the African lion into the equation doesn’t seem to make much sense to me except insofar as it provides the opportunity to make the pun (which she fails at anyway!) and to equate Obama with an animal. Maybe she’s bored with the old gorillas and monkeys trope.

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