Christ on Campus cartoon

February 28, 2006 8:45 AM

Offensive cartoons aren't limited to Islam.Others: 1,2,3,4, 5. The cartoonist's name? (wait for it) Christian Keesee. In the current environment, Radford's Whim Internet Magazine is getting "exciting" media attention.
posted by spock (56 comments total)

*riots*
posted by brownpau at 8:55 AM on February 28, 2006

If only they were funny.
posted by null terminated at 8:58 AM on February 28, 2006

posted by Captaintripps at 9:01 AM on February 28, 2006

That's about as funny as your average college newspaper cartoon. Which is to say, not funny.
posted by rxrfrx at 9:03 AM on February 28, 2006

Cartoonists (political or otherwise) need to remember the cardinal law of cartooning: Cartoons should be funny. Oh yeah, drawing even a minimal background wouldn't hurt either. Gary Trudeau got away with it in his early strips because he was funny. This stuff seems to be designed to provoke a reaction rather than to be funny.
posted by doctor_negative at 9:04 AM on February 28, 2006

political cartoons are not funny.
religious cartoons are not funny.
ergo: religion is politics.
posted by NinjaPirate at 9:05 AM on February 28, 2006

I still think it's funnier with Mohammed. Jesus is just old hat.
posted by Captaintripps at 9:05 AM on February 28, 2006

OK, this one was better.
posted by NinjaPirate at 9:09 AM on February 28, 2006

BANISH THE INFIDEL TO ART SCHOOL!!
posted by pyramid termite at 9:10 AM on February 28, 2006

I dont think anyone will ever be able to top John Callahan when it comes to politically incorrect and offensive comics.
posted by mrbill at 9:10 AM on February 28, 2006

NinjaPirate: that was funny!
posted by sonofsamiam at 9:12 AM on February 28, 2006

Jesus throws a right hook? Nice!

I've said ever since the protests and demonstrations began that all we need to do to diffuse the whole thing is put up a big cartoon on the front page of every newspaper on the planet showing Mohammed doing Jesus or God in the doo-doo hole. Would that placate the anger or would that incite more violence?

I bet it would also piss the holy hell out of the Bush powerbase so it'd be a win/win.

I think this cartoonist should change his last name to Islam, then he'd be the great uniter, Christian Islam!
posted by fenriq at 9:12 AM on February 28, 2006

Fenriq Wins the thread!
posted by Elim at 9:17 AM on February 28, 2006

Those cartoons are so crappy I think I might riot and burn down an embassy - and by embassy, I mean that guy's house.
posted by RokkitNite at 9:26 AM on February 28, 2006

Those are the worst goddamn comics I've ever seen. The only thing offensive about them is that they're offensively shitty.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 9:31 AM on February 28, 2006

More in the vein of mocking christianity, and not jesus, so not exactly analagous to the mohammed dealie.

Of course, the type of 'christians' he's mocking are often the ones who hold their own faith above even jesus (in a way), so maybe this hurts more.
posted by chaz at 9:37 AM on February 28, 2006

I watched Moral Orel last night. I was the funniest thing I have seen on tv in a while.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:37 AM on February 28, 2006

Fenriq Wins the thread!

I don't know about Fenriq winning but I do know you just lost.
posted by srboisvert at 9:47 AM on February 28, 2006

Is it wrong to like the one where Jesus is sulking 'cause god didn't give him a penis? They were generally shitty, though. And not really that offensive. Not like blowing up a huge and ancient buddha statue or anything.
posted by OmieWise at 9:56 AM on February 28, 2006

As far as Jesus cartoons go, I've always liked this one.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:57 AM on February 28, 2006

Alvy, I just had an awful (and by awful I mean funny) image of Jesus jacking off with that "holey" hand. Thank you, I be here all of the week.
posted by fenriq at 10:06 AM on February 28, 2006

I am deeply offended by bad comedy.
posted by JeffK at 10:06 AM on February 28, 2006

they're offensively shitty

They're not even that good. Reading them is like sitting at a red light.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:11 AM on February 28, 2006

My favorite Jesus cartoon.
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:12 AM on February 28, 2006

These are offensive? Jesus smacks down skeptics. Makes fun of shameless televangelists. Makes fun of Christian hypocrites. The author claims they are pro-christian, and they sure are. They're edgy but certainly not the anti-christian diatribes the FPP suggests. From here:

A Pentecostal, Keesee said he views the cartoons as “pro-Christianity.” The weekly feature appears in Whim, an online magazine produced by Radford students.

Keesee said he is particularly proud of the “commercialism vs. religion” theme of his Christmas edition of the cartoon, which shows Santa and Jesus fighting and in which Santa stabs Jesus. Keesee said that his seriousness about the messages of Jesus inspired the cartoon.

This is Bill O'Reilly mixed with South Park. If its shocking, the shock seems to be the shameless persecution syndrome of some religious people and the constant need to appeal to youth, not to mention the constant damage control of fighting secularism - the war on xmas nonsense.
posted by skallas at 10:20 AM on February 28, 2006

I was wondering how long it would take someone to recognize that, skallas. The author is not intending to mock Jesus or the teachings of Jesus, only those he interprets as not being True Christians. As seen in his comics, his interpretation of that view, ironically, denegrates his own brand of Christianity.
posted by spock at 10:28 AM on February 28, 2006

It would be sad to think this is shocking, given that irreverent comics with Jesus as the central character is an idiom dating back at least to the Sixties. Sturgeon, Crumb and other underground cartoonists pretty much covered this ground to death. But then, Jesus always comes again, right? (That Santa Claus one was, I admit, worth a chuckle.)
posted by soyjoy at 10:29 AM on February 28, 2006

OK, I've been away for a few days so I'm not sure if anyone has posted a link to the Israeli anti-semitic cartoon competition. Entries limited to jews only.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 10:35 AM on February 28, 2006

I dare someone to make a mohammed one of these. (NSFW)
posted by Mr_Zero at 10:37 AM on February 28, 2006

What Captaintripps said.
posted by MikeKD at 10:39 AM on February 28, 2006

On live preview:

That's awesome, Mayor!
posted by MikeKD at 10:40 AM on February 28, 2006

My favorite Jesus cartoon, by Johnny Ryan, probably NSFW. And this one's good too!
posted by Superfrankenstein at 10:53 AM on February 28, 2006

Shockingly, the people in this thread who criticize the cartoon as not being funny do not offer their own proof of a funnier cartoon.

And those who did present cartoons that they thought were funnier did not go about mocking the cartoons of the post.
posted by flarbuse at 10:59 AM on February 28, 2006

Shockingly, the people in this thread who criticize the cartoon as not being funny do not offer their own proof of a funnier cartoon.

[IMG SRC="http://www.website.tld/literallyanythingelse.gif"]
posted by Optimus Chyme at 11:09 AM on February 28, 2006

They aren't funny, and I haven't even looked at them yet.
posted by mrmojoflying at 11:13 AM on February 28, 2006

Old Jokes. And not even as good as the original that I heard from a minister.

You know the one of Christ on the cross:

"Peter... PETER..."

"Y-yes lord?"

"Peter... I can see your house from here..."

Everything else is just an imitation.
posted by tkchrist at 11:20 AM on February 28, 2006

Did anyone else mistake "Radcliffe" for Radford and then look at the cartoons? Because that made the whole thing a lot more funny. Christian humor is the new Christian rock.

And BTW, according to scripture, Jesus did have fully working junk--created in his image and all that stuff. And able to stifle his hard-ons because he was way cool. But did he have a belly-button? Because then the virgin birth didn't happen. So why do we have them? Were they planted there like dinosaur bones after the fact? Did Yahweh have one? Harvard Divinity, here I come.
posted by bardic at 11:24 AM on February 28, 2006

I shoulda known that when my hometown finally made it into the hallowed halls of Metafilter, it would be for the lame antics of some asshat RU student. Not funny. Not original. Not even particularly offensive.

Radford University -- aiming high for mediocrity.™
posted by junkbox at 11:32 AM on February 28, 2006

bardic writes "But did he have a belly-button? Because then the virgin birth didn't happen. So why do we have them? "

Wha? We're placental mammals, as would Jesus have been, assuming you accept the theology of the dual nature of Christ. The miracle of Christ's birth was his conception by divine intervention; the pregnancy was a normal one, with placenta and umbilical cord.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:38 AM on February 28, 2006

Some Christian sects only consider "virgin birth" to mean divine insemination, but some others believe Mary was perpetually a virgin with an intact hymen (a little harder to square with scripture.) And of course, others read it in an allegorical or metaphysical way.
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:42 AM on February 28, 2006

NinjaPirate writes "OK, this one was better."

Yeah; too bad it's a rip-off.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:45 AM on February 28, 2006

sonofsamiam writes "but some others believe Mary was perpetually a virgin with an intact hymen (a little harder to square with scripture."

C'mon... Has anyone believed that since like the 4th century?
posted by mr_roboto at 11:48 AM on February 28, 2006

Apostatic Catholics, or some Orthodox groups might.

But just google for ["perpetual virginity" mary] and you'll turn a couple up.
posted by sonofsamiam at 11:53 AM on February 28, 2006

Those are all about the perpetual virginity of Mary (the idea that she never had sex with anyone, even Joseph), which is mainstream Catholic dogma. They say nothing about her hymen. The hymen thing was an argument back in the early days of Christianity.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:57 AM on February 28, 2006

You may be right. I was fairly sure that belief had survived up into modern times, but I cannot find any references now.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:08 PM on February 28, 2006

The one where all the gods and buddha are playing poker is kinda funny (though I have no idea why some players have 5 cards and others 2), at least for the look on Jesus' face.

The rest are just lame pro-xian jokes. Snooze. I wouldn't think it deserves much attention.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:19 PM on February 28, 2006

the pregnancy was a normal one, with placenta and umbilical cord.

Where in the Bible does it say that Mary, Joseph or their guests cleaned up some afterbirth?
posted by Mayor Curley at 12:35 PM on February 28, 2006

Where in the Bible does it say Mayor Curley posted such a ridiculous question?
posted by spock at 12:48 PM on February 28, 2006

Southern Baptist Funnies
posted by ktoad at 1:34 PM on February 28, 2006

Good Lord, doesn't anybody bother to learn to draw anymore?
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:24 PM on February 28, 2006

Late to the thread, but I still think Skallas got it. Plus everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that images of Allah or Mohammed are seen as taboo in Islam whereas images of Christ and God are very much allowed in Christianity.
posted by hue at 2:30 PM on February 28, 2006

Plus everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that images of Allah or Mohammed are seen as taboo in Islam whereas images of Christ and God are very much allowed in Christianity.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:36 PM on February 28, 2006

Where in the Bible does it say that Mary, Joseph or their guests cleaned up some afterbirth?

Come on. They were in a freakin' stable. Those animals'll eat anything.
posted by soyjoy at 7:38 PM on February 28, 2006

Mostly I just wanna know how Mary kept her hymen after giving birth. Was Jesus a C-section?
posted by five fresh fish at 9:00 PM on February 28, 2006

If those offend you, you definitely shouldn't read Ghastly's Ghastly comic. No siree. [NSFW, and really, really wrong]
posted by boaz at 10:57 PM on February 28, 2006

And really, really borken.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:11 AM on March 1, 2006