HOLLA ATCHA POWELL!

[thehefner]

Context is, as they say, for the weak. But here it is for the weaklings out there.

I think this blows both "M.C. Rove" and Bush's "Africa Malaria Day" dancing out of the water. I am dying of laughter, whereas Mom is *still* deeply disturbed.

Comments

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

I especially like how the guy on the right is looking like HE'S the fish out of water.

[jcsbimp.livejournal.com]

Three words: Rap Master Ronnie.

[droidboy010101.livejournal.com]

You date me sir...

Shame he couldn't bring on the funk and be real in front of the UN a few years back (OH DAMNIT, must.control.cynicism level)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

ahaha, when I saw these, the first thing I thought was, "Go Colin! Get down with your bad self! OH WAIT, YOU ALREADY DID."

[jcsbimp.livejournal.com]

I shall explain, then, sir.

A couple of decades ago, give or take, the comic strip "Doonesbury" went on hiatus. Word was, Trudeau wanted to work on other things, including a Broadway musical based on the strip, and of course it was a chance for him to recharge his satirical batteries. Already he had reached the point where newspapers were wrestling with whether to put his strip on the comics page or the editorial section, or just . . . where!?

After he took his well-deserved break, a few years passed, Bloom County sorta kinda conceptually filled the void. (In a rather self-congratulatory way, I should add... I've never been that crazy about that strip.)

Then Doonesbury came back. Mike Doonesbury was now working in New York for an ad agency. His first job? To sell the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan to young black voters.

This was a wonderful tribute to creativity under pressure. Trudeau was back with spunk and style, and it was positively EXHILARATING to see how Mike D. was going to handle an advertising job even he saw as absurd.

But he did it. He promoted the Reagan campaign. With a Rap Music Video. Rap was new at that time, at least to White audiences, and so when the comic strip ran the story of the making of "Rap Master Ronnie," it was Trudeau's first post-hiatus hit.

But there's more. Also newly popular in that day was a form of art pioneered by The Monkees and others, called the Music Video.

Trudeau used it. "Rap Master Ronnie" left the newspaper page and hit the screens of TVs whose producers were courageous enough to run it. And the Republicans have enjoyed satirizing themselves ever since.

Unfortunately, to be quite honest, the ratings for the "Rap Master Ronnie" video put it in Bargain Bin status. I can't find a trace of it on YouTube.

[droidboy010101.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, when I said "you date me, sir," I meant, "I remember it." (I was born in 73) I have Donnesbury and Bloom County (which I loved for its warmth as well as it's satire) for my current political insanity/obsession. What I didn't know was that the song came from Doonesbury (which I didn't get into until later after Bloom County went away.)

I actually remember Rap Master Ronnie on the radio playing in Cleveland and can faintly remember the HBO special.

I'm a little shocked someone hasnt put it up online yet. I'm trying to google it and I get just one or two short crappy clips.

[jcsbimp.livejournal.com]

Okay! Sorry for the miscomm.

I'd not fallen in love with Bloom County chiefly because I could hear the strong overtones that said "Doonsbury-esque", and pretentious little snot that I can be, that meant "derivative". Yeah, I've read it a lot, but sometimes I wonder where it's headed.

[interdisciple.livejournal.com]

almost as good as MC Rove