Rockwell Rolls Over In His Grave:"Freedom From Want" Parodies

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and since you, the Toner Mishap audience, have enjoyed my Edward Hopper posts so much, I've decided to share with you a collection of parodies based on Norman Rockwell's painting, "Freedom From Want," from his "Four Freedoms" series. It's that famous Thanksgiving painting -- you know the one:



Here it is in its original poster form:

And here are a bunch I've been collecting for your viewing pleasure (feel free to click on any of them for a larger view).

MAD Magazine


Zombies


Muppets


The Simpsons #1


The Simpsons #2: Sideshow Bob


The Simpsons #3: Flanders


Sausage Party


Redneck Thanksgiving (with all due respect to rednecks)


Raw Bar


Pizza


The Bush White House


A Sketch from Tiny Toons


Lilo and Stitch


Justice Society of America


Skrulls! Flee! (Once DC did it, Marvel had to, right?)


More Jellyfish, Please


CNN


At An Airport


Island Feast


Hollywood


Family Photo #1


Family Photo #2


Dessert!

Feeling inadequate as a parent enough?No? Check this out.

Every so often when I make my kids' lunch to take to school, I cut their sandwiches into the shapes of their initials. I felt pretty good about that extra effort, and then I saw Cooking for Monkeys. Below you'll see three examples (pirates, goodnight moon, and Scooby Doo), but you should check out the site to see more.

Marvel's Secret Wars

When I was a kid, Marvel's "Secret Wars" limited series was big news -- it was the reason behind Spidey's black costume, to name only one earth-shattering development. The original cover was drawn by Mike Zeck (above; click it to see it bigger), and "they" apparently keep coming back to the original design, revising it or parodying it a couple of times over the years. Cool.

Here they are as separate images:

The original:


The redrawn reprint:


The fancy version:

Reimagined for kids:


Marvel Zombies:

Garfield Minus Garfield

We've blogged before about Garfield comics with Garfield's caption bubbles excised, but removing Garfield entirely works even better. Click here for more. [Thanks to Mt. Holly Mayor's Office for pointing it out.]

Songs for the Working Class

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), writer

Times are bad, people need to hold onto their jobs for dear life, but when high profits start heading for the exit management sends workers out the door too. If one is fortunate enough to keep their 9-5 positions can look forward to those on the higher rungs of the corporate ladder urinating on those below. To start of the work week I have complied a list of working songs from my collection, please list titles I may have overlooked or do not own.

• Blue Monday -- Randy Newman (this really sums up the work week)

• Nine to Five -- The Kinks (Ray Davies once again captures most of our lives Monday through Friday)

• Working Poor -- Horse Feathers (I just discovered them this weekend from a Paste Magazine CD sampler, I haven’t figured out the lyrics yet, but the sound is perfect for the title)

• Work Song -- Nellie McKay (Every day's another loss/Need the pay so please the boss/Through the sludge they mingle by the mile/Every worker looks ahead/Ah the kiddies must be fed/So they trudge along in single file –the lyrics say it all)

• Working Class Hero [#] -- John Lennon (Lennon didn’t pull any punches and tells us what we really are)

• Welcome to the Working Week -- Elvis Costello (A punchy tune that is apropos to a Monday)

• Rush Hour Blues --The Kinks (What life would be like for a celebrity to if they had to work nine to five)

• Just Us Kids -- James McMurtry (Reminded me of conversations when I was a teenager)

• It’s Just Work for Me -- Ry Cooder (Captures the hopelessness of making a buck doing things you really don’t want to do)

• We Can't Make It Here -- James McMurtry (What outsourcing has done for all of us)

• I Can't Wait to Get off Work -- Tom Waits (A working palooka who is looking forward to punching out)

• When Work Is Over -- The Kinks (Drinking helps us to forget/a double scotch helps us to forget who we are)

• Tired -- Willie Nelson (What we have to look forward to)

• Salt Of The Earth -- The Rolling Stones (Raise a glass and feel proud you are enriching backstabbers, political pigs who are all nicely dressed and who disguise their contempt for you)

• God's Away on Business -- Tom Waits (The only explanation why the world is the way it is)

• Hard Work -- John Handy (A classic jazz song)

• Mr. Pinstripe Suit -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (I like the title)

Incredible ad for HSBC

Who cares what HSBC does? This ad is awesome, touching, powerful, and quirky.

(Thank you again, BoingBoing.)

Make Yourself a Superhero

Make your own superheroes at this awesome Portuguese site (it takes a little while to get used to the Portugese, but it's a WYSIWYG editor, so you'll figure it out). You can customize EVERYTHING; I made a Green Lantern avatar for myself.

Hit the site here, and click on "criar" to start creating.

Jews on Babylon 5?

Does anyone out there know if there are Jews on the show "Babylon 5"? This is a screen shot from a trailer showing what appears to be an old man in a derby, beard, and tallit... WTF?

Simpsons and Fine Art:A Compendium

Poorly structured, but incredibly thorough -- a must-see for all fans of The Simpsons and/or art history. It shows SO MANY references in The Simpsons to fine art -- with little JPEGs of them all. Lots of work went into this site.

Click here.

UPDATE

To see a comparison of Simpsons scenes with famous movies, check this out.

Yes We Did!!!

Yes We Did!!!












“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!”

Dreams do come true

They called me Mr. Glass.

I love M. Knight Shyamalan's movie "Unbreakable." It was on cable, so I watched it -- again. Noticed for the first time the headline on a newspaper clipping in Elijah Price's office; nice typo.

Best Prop 8 Ad Ever!Vote No on Proposition 8

This is the best "No on Prop 8" ad ever -- it's a parody of the "I'm a Mac" ads from Apple.

We never get tired of O.J.

A little something macabre for Halloween: this is a panel from a remix I made of an old O.J. Simpson ad for Dingo boots. With genuine O.J. quotes (as far as I can verify on the web)!

My remix || The original

Studs Terkel - RIP

Oh sleep, thou art a gentle thing
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary Queen, the praise be given,
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slide into my soul
Coleridge (1772 – 1834) poet, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” written in 1797


I was saddened to hear that Studs Terkel passed away. Any journalist or wannabe journalist should know Terkel. His interview style allowed the subject to tell the story without the intrusion or interruption by the writer or interviewer. I wonder today if anyone is still interested in journalism and if so have they read Terkel?

I vividly remember a passage from his book the “Good War” when a U.S. soldier was wounded, but he had killed the German soldier who lay dead with blood dripping – it was described far more graphically – and the soldier noticed that the enemy had his shoes on the wrong feet.
Terkel wrote several books and I pulled out his book “Will the Circle be Unbroken? Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith,” which was suggested by Gore Vidal many years before he actually wrote it. As he started working on the book his wife of 60 years passed away, which makes the book even more poignant.

I loved this piece from the LATimes obituary:
When officials from Rutgers University knocked on Terke's door in May 2007 to present him with the Stephen E. Ambrose Oral History Award, they could hear furious typing inside, [he was 95].

I hope that will be the case with me too, but I suspect it will most likely be subpoena servers for my blogging.

The verse from the poem above was the words that allowed a child Terkel to find comfort to sleep, and I think a nice send off for a writer who listened to the proletariat.

For a professional obit see the NYTimes' profile.