Brian in Mesa

Obama 'Joker' Poster Causing a Stir in L.A.

KTLA News
August 3, 2009

LOS ANGELES -- A poster showing President Barack Obama as Heath Ledger's "Joker" character from "The Dark Knight" is creating a stir on the streets of Los Angeles where the image began appearing over the weekend.

The Obama-Joker poster shows President Obama with white face paint, dark eye shadow and smudged red lipstick and also has the word "socialism" printed in bold, dark letters under the image of his face.

It's unclear who created the image and who is posting it across the city. No one has taken credit so far.

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous.

Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves.

"Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous."

"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

The poster has also gone viral online, crashing the website that first posted images of it and rising to the top of Google's "Today's Hot Trends" list.

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HONEY BADGER DON'T CARE

Louis

It's pretty awesome that the funny guy who did this is using an anarchist to depict a socialist.

devilalum

This?

Attached Images

 

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My avatar's bigger than yours.

Cardinals.Ken

Excellent point.

Now, I'm stumped as to how it could be considered, in the words of Earl Ofari Hutchinson, "dangerous".

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Moses parted the Red Sea, Oppenheimer split the atom, but dotKen cut the crap. - Steve Antczak

AzCards21

So what. We saw years of Bush being portrayed as a monkey and we all know that is out when it comes to Obama. Very original and right on target as near as I can tell. Good job poster makers.

It's not dangerous at all. Unless you want this government interference in your life, then you may be upset. We are still free though so deal with it.

Dan H

This picture was hanging up in a customer's office in Flagstaff about six months after 9/11.



Village Voice, 2004.



Vanity Fair, just last year:



What's sauce for the goose is good for the gander, eh?

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DWKB

Sure it's fine to do, but can we at least expect some form of intelligence behind the mockery?

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LVG

Damn you 1st Amendment

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RISE UP DARK SIDE

"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is often difficult to verify their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln

HeavyB3

It's disrespectful, I've always maintained that. But It was also disrespectful for the monkey pictures that Bush was always portrayed as. I'm sure these people had no issues with those. If you dish it, you better be able to take it.

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Originally Posted by HeavyB3
I wasn't serious in my post.. I don't really give a crap.

Linderbee

Well, I don't really have a problem with it, but I'll disagree with you that it's "original" and "right on target" (as Louis so awesomely pointed out).

I mean, if calling him a socialist is on target, then I guess it doesn't matter what the picture is. Might as well have him morphed with Captain Kangaroo with "Socialist" written underneath. Would that still be on target?

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Mulli

Hah

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conraddobler

If you're talking Mr. Rodgers then yeah, but the Captain.... that's just silly talk.

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Mulli

I suppose one could say that 1) the Joker did pal around with terrorists, 2) the movie was filmed in Chicago and 3) Heath Ledger was not born in the USA.

Hmmmm.

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Cardinals.Ken

Why so serious?

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Moses parted the Red Sea, Oppenheimer split the atom, but dotKen cut the crap. - Steve Antczak

AzCards21

Yeah that's fine. But the Captain would have a silly moose for a Czar so I think the Joker is better.