Toon In, Drop Out: JuicyCampus as Oozing Gremlin
Among the more bizarre institutions of daily newspapers is the idiosyncratic world of op-art, where people and objects frequently wear labels and the metaphors are thick. The Ivy dailies are, of course, no exception, their readerships gathering ’round the lunch table to marvel at the incomprehensible images produced daily in their pages. To mitigate the task of tracking down the week’s worst in cartoons, IvyGate introduces a new weekly feature in which we handpick and deliver this week’s ripest.
Princeton correspondent Donny Dietz (’09) breaks it down, after the jump.
Daily Princetonian (Thursday 3/27): The girl in the Garden State dress
Tiffany Ko is this week’s winner with the most hilarious image to grace the pages of the Prince in a long, long time. JuicyCampus is depicted as a somewhat hairy, sharp-toothed gremlin-baby, punctured by the sharply balled fist of a homely, barefooted woman wearing the state of New Jersey as a dress. We assume the woman-who is about to get gremlin-baby blood all over her Garden State pinafore-is the attorney general. At least New Jersey gives her a slim waist. Then again, Cape May sort of looks like a dick.
Daily Pennsylvanian (Tuesday 3/25 and Wednesday 3/26): Adventures in Ignorance
Which is worse: not realizing that a presidential candidate is speaking on campus, or not realizing that a presidential candidate is speaking on campus two days after your campus newspaper publishes a cartoon informing you that you were probably unaware that a presidential candidate was speaking on campus?
Daily Princetonian (Monday 3/24): Looks like someone dropped acid during Spring Break!
This might have something to do with South Park’s straight-to-DVD release, but all we’re getting is a South Park-Girls Gone Wild mash-up in nightmareland. Also, what is it with the Prince and these half-assed half-cartoon-half-photograph things?
The Brown Daily Herald (Thursday, 3/20): The one we actually like
Although Brown is on break this week, we decided to include the Herald’s most recent cartoon for our weekly dose of optimism. The subject matter is a bizarre policy removing lunch trays from Brown cafeterias, but there’s more to laugh at here: Brown’s stereotypically misguided activism, Ivy League oneupsmanship, capital campaigns, and a guy with a sad look on his face holding a fistful of spaghetti. Coupled with a crisp artistic style, this cartoon takes our A+ grade for the week.
Note: While “Toon In, Drop Out” strives to include all Ivy League schools under its critical umbrella, this week is particularly inauspicious in its variety, since nearly half the Ivy League is on spring break. Whatever. We never cared much for Yale, anyway.
