Comments on: Yorktown Improved

Yorktown Improved

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:25:32 -0800

Artist Joseph Griffith, whose work draws from fantasy and mythology, has also turned his attention to one of America's most significant historical moments: "I painted this for the 225th anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown when George Washington and the Continentals traunched the British. The county would not dignify it with a response, however, George Washington's Mount Vernon estate kindly wrote me an e-mail saying they would 'pass it along to the staff'."

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:37:58 -0800

I love that painting. George Washington's Mount Vernon estate is an idiot.

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:41:18 -0800

You just made my day. Thanks!

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:43:29 -0800

I am intrigued by its completely perfect horribleness. It is really hard to make such art.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:44:29 -0800

Word of warning: Waldo will betray us.

By: Damn That Television

Damn That Television — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:49:36 -0800

Pretty much a direct knockoff of Brandon Bird's style but still funny enough to be awesome anyway.

By: burnmp3s

burnmp3s — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:50:03 -0800

To me this guy's stuff is the same kind of lazy one-joke comedy that Family Guy continually churns out. Putting familiar pop culture characters in unlikely situations can be funny (see House of Cosbys) but doing it over and over again without any real originality gets old fast.

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:53:58 -0800

It's like unto Will Elder's stuff for MAD, with all sorts of crap crammed into the panel. Chicken Fat Art, he and Kurtzman called it.

By: Mastercheddaar

Mastercheddaar — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:54:48 -0800

I like the happy flight. It gives you a warm feeling inside. JC could actually be doing that right now as we speak...

By: erifneerg

erifneerg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:57:12 -0800

I can't see anyone would not mount this in there living room. truely a work of great art.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:58:19 -0800

Hehe Kool-Aid is there.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:02:13 -0800

Photography wasn't invented back then. How do we know that this isn't EXACTLY how it happened?

By: JHarris

JHarris — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:04:44 -0800

To me this guy's stuff is the same kind of lazy one-joke comedy that Family Guy continually churns out. Truly, no matter how awesome a thing is, there will always be a person to call it crap.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:13:18 -0800

It made me smile a little, but it's a one-note joke. If I had to live with it, it wouldn't be long before I was avoiding the room it was hanging in.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:14:30 -0800

Wait, is that the gay guy from Mannequin and one of the baddies from The Dark Crystal? This guys is the Dennis Miller of art.

By: DU

DU — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:14:34 -0800

How many notes of a joke can a single painting be?

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:15:05 -0800

A more traditional take, for comparison.

By: BeerFilter

BeerFilter — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:16:22 -0800

Who's the guy on the left, standing between Rodney Dangerfield and Mr. T?

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:19:10 -0800

I'm all for a good joke, and I'm certainly no stickler for tradition, but I fail to see the awesomeness in this. It's just not terribly original. I see things like this shilled over on BoingBoing all the time. And they get big boners over it, too, for no apparent reason other than it crams a metric-buttload of tired pop-culture references into the frame. Coat it with an extremely thin political/cultural narrative, and I guess you've got what passes for awesome. It's certainly well-drawn, though.

By: thanotopsis

thanotopsis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:21:00 -0800

My favorite recent Washington compilation has to be the following.

By: gyusan

gyusan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:23:25 -0800

Is this what they call "derivative art"?

By: DU

DU — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:23:56 -0800

MetaFilter: I fail to see the awesomeness in this MetaFilter: It's just not terribly original. MetaFilter: I see things like this shilled over on BoingBoing all the time. MetaFilter: they get big boners over it MetaFilter: it crams a metric-buttload of tired pop-culture references into the frame MetaFilter: Coat it with an extremely thin political/cultural narrative, and I guess you've got what passes for awesome.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:26:51 -0800

Well, it's a more balanced view of history than The Patriot, I suppose.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:37:00 -0800

Why is the character displayed most prominently under the American flag an Australian Crocodile Hunter?

By: daniel_charms

daniel_charms — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:37:49 -0800

Looks like one of those pictures where you have to find 25 song names.

By: R. Mutt

R. Mutt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:37:57 -0800

Weak.

By: adamms222

adamms222 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:40:42 -0800

BeerFilter: It's Meshach Taylor (see GuyZero's comment above yours)

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:44:04 -0800

Who's the guy on the left, standing between Rodney Dangerfield and Mr. T? The gay guy from Mannequin! Meshach Taylor as "Hollywood Montrose".

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:46:22 -0800

Why is the character displayed most prominently under the American flag an Australian Crocodile Hunter? They're all colonials from where I'm sitting

By: burnmp3s

burnmp3s — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:48:00 -0800

Truly, no matter how awesome a thing is, there will always be a person to call it crap. I blame SA/Fark/4chan for ruining this joke for me over the years by doing it over and over and over again. I probably would still think it was funny if I hadn't seen Kool-Aid Man photoshopped into WWII photographs a dozen times.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:52:22 -0800

It should be noted that the Triceretops was a gift from France. If not for the aid of the French Dinosaur Legion, America would be part of the British Commonwealth today.

By: magstheaxe

magstheaxe — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:55:39 -0800

Truly, no matter how awesome a thing is, there will always be a person to call it crap Truly, no matter how crappy a thing is, there will always be a person to call it awesome. Just different strokes when it comes to art. I see why some folks like it, but I also see why the Mount Vernon folks said, "Yeah, right."

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:58:29 -0800

I just like that he worked the Death Star in there.

By: ShawnString

ShawnString — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:16:42 -0800

and Cobra Commander.

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:18:03 -0800

Waldo sure looks pissed off!

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:19:18 -0800

Why is the character displayed most prominently under the American flag an Australian Crocodile Hunter? Because the U.S.A. rules and everybody wants to be like us. Err, what?

By: Sailormom

Sailormom — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:21:25 -0800

You can totally see the horse love in the more traditional take mwhybark linked to above.

By: washburn

washburn — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:24:42 -0800

Loves it. The surrender of the evil-doers here reminds me of an Elaine Scarry essay I read just today about terrorism and white flags. Actually, the picture makes a point similar to Scarry's, drawing up a hypothetical surrender scene between the forces of America, and America's imagined enemies that's absurd for a range of reasons that are worth considering. The sad part is that only Cool-aid Man seems to understand what's really going on.

By: quin

quin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:31:47 -0800

This is so ridiculous as to be absurd. Washington on a triceratops? Where the hell to even begin? Ok first, the triceratops is basically the dinosaur equivalent of a cow, and we all know that someone as bad ass as Washington ain't gonna come riding to victory on the back of Bessie, he road a Utah-Raptor. Secondly, there is a cherub on the good guys side, and everybody knows those little fuckers are evil, so unless he's suggesting that it's some kind of turncoat spy, it's presence is insulting. And finally, where the hell is the ED-209? I've read the literature and studied the history, and while it ended in a stunning defeat, the big walker robot almost turned the tide of that battle against the side of good. Is the artist afraid to show how close it might have actually been? Fucking revisionist history is what this is.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:43:04 -0800

And finally, where the hell is the ED-209? You can't see it in that rendering, but you have to climb some stairs to get to that part of Yorktown. Note also, no Daleks among the evildoers.

By: gompa

gompa — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:43:35 -0800

It made me smile a little, but it's a one-note joke. I respectfully disagree. The Crocodile Hunter and the Kool-Aid Guy at the very front of the Colonial army, wearing near-identical masks of shock? That's at least two notes before we even get to the fact that there's an infant angel going stingray-like for the Croc Hunter's ankle.

By: cowbellemoo

cowbellemoo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:46:54 -0800

That was wonderful.

By: Xoebe

Xoebe — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:50:59 -0800

It's no less ludicrous than the shenanigans being pulled by the current Administration. It's as accurate and real as their fantasy of victory in the Global War on Terror^tm. That may be the point of the piece, although of course that's subject to interpretation.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:15:39 -0800

And they get big boners over it, too, for no apparent reason other than it crams a metric-buttload of tired pop-culture references into the frame The same way that porn has rendered womens' bodies no longer sexually arousing, BoingBoing has rendered absurdity no longer amusing. Thanks, internet.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:19:28 -0800

They should do a steampunk George Washington.

By: Atreides

Atreides — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:30:13 -0800

The "Surrender" appears to be nothing more than pop culture fluff. I could see someone in the history field possibly putting this up in the break room for the jokey aspect, but that's about it. Otherwise, it's, "Hi. I Make Political Statement with Cobra Commander!" Don't get me wrong, it's fun to look at it, but he should try selling it to the freshman moving into their dorms right now, versus contacting places like the county or Mt. Vernon.

By: MythMaker

MythMaker — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:02:16 -0800

I'm not so sure I'd call those first two links "fantasy" and "mythology" so much as pop culture references to '80s kids movies crossed with Jesus Christ.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:33:06 -0800

It made me smile a little, but it's a one-note joke. Well, smiling a little is a good thing, though, right? But I wanna hear more about this one-note joke. Lemme guess... it's a B flat, right? I mean, that's the funniest of all notes, right? Meanwhile, here's One Note Samba.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:21:13 -0800

And here's One Note Samba with jokes.

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:38:26 -0800

I love Kool-Aid Man. He appears in my own sketchbooks all the time. But why? Why is Kool-Aid Man so Iconic? Is it because us 30-somethings grew up watching him bust through walls to bring good cheer and cold drinks? Is it because he's easy to draw and graphically pleasing? Or is there something deeper going on? Remember when they introduced the flavor 'Sharkleberry Fin?" What the hell was that? That was bullshit.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 03:45:22 -0800

Or is there something deeper going on? Well, there was the Reverend Jim Jones, who gave his 900-plus followers a nice cyanide-laced cocktail with grape Flavor Aid, but it was always Kool Aid in the popular imagination.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:31:27 -0800

If only there was a mass astronaut suicide involving Tang...