Friday 9 March 2012

GORETZKI'S MISCELLANY

And finally, cartoons that defied my mania for categorization, cartoons that either need their own category (Transportation and Force Majeure; Complexities of British Engineering and Fairground Mishaps… Thinking about it, they could both have squeezed in under transport) or need Goretzki to work on some more that are thematically germane, allow me to flesh it out. I know he has a thing for British Rail’s bus replacement service. And that one about being charged for a sick bag could be shoehorned into a Transport category. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this quick buzz through my favourites of Jake’s work. Please Tweet these or email them to friends – he deserves these comic pearls to reach as many people as possible. Spread the chuckles!



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GORETZKI ON FOOTBALL

When looking at right-wing idiocy, we could well have been talking about Jermaine Pennant. Or Paolo di Canio. Especially Paolo di Canio. But we weren’t. For Goretzki has increasingly been turning his pen these last couple of months to the comedic wellspring that is football, for a website called The FCF . Clichéd it ain’t. Here’s a sample:








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GORETZKI ON TWO FACETS OF THE IRISH ECONOMIC MIRACLE

Normally, I wouldn’t advocate such blatant national stereotyping, but I think this is justified on account of Goretzki thinking long and hard about such matters, and if he’s happy drawing it, I’m happy publishing. Three guesses which airline he’s lampooning here?



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GORETZKI ON RIGHT-WING IDIOCY

The Daily Mail. Aren’t we lucky to have such a colossally benighted and intolerant organ to stoke the already knicker-wetting fears and prejudices of Middle England. The acceptable face of facism and the real reason proper socialism has such an uphill struggle in this country, with its gently insistent discursive arc accomplishing the populist displacement of constructive political anger on to some ill-defined ‘Other’ (terrorists, gypsies, thugs, anarchists, chavs, immigrants, etc) for people who know their bally place and are quite happy thank you.





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GORETZKI: CARTOONS FEATURING EAST EUROPEAN FIGURES (inc. AUSTRIA)

Starting with a gag that could easily have gone in the previous section, we have here a troika of Eastern European-themed cartoons, drawing on this great region of melancholic high art, pitiless organized crime, post-communist micro-paranoia, lugubriousness, muscular female tennis stars and an abundance of amazingly gorgeous women, many servicing the sex industry in both DVD production (front of camera) and live dancing (on stage). Iron Curtain, we love you.





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GORETZKI DOES WORD PLAY AND SUPERIOR 'DAD JOKES'

No introduction needed for these (don’t know why I’m typing this, then; it’s like describing a building as “nondescript”).








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GORETZKI ON SALES AND MARKETING

There are many ways to skin a sales/marketing moggy: billboards, magazine pages, banners, buttons and skyscrapers, mail blasts, ambush marketing, viral videos, prime time TV, the sandwich board, the supermarket stand, sponsored links, pattern recognition software, putting your corporate livery on everyday things, holograms in the night sky, tattoos on your face and no doubt several other. They have one thing in common: get exposed to too much of it and you’ll want to spoon your eyes out. There are people who, you know, believe in all this. If you ever come across one, RUN!






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GORETZKI ON CORPORATISM

Is there anything more cringeworthy or utterly depressing than overblown team-building corporate philosophies, and having them rammed down your ear, nose and throat at cultish weekend seminars in which some Big Wig helicopters in to parp utterly flocculent drivel in an attempt to indoctrinate you to the point where you are ready to blow yourself up on the bus of their rival, should it be necessary (no, the analogy is not too strong)? Yes, there is: the utter c**ts that buy into it all. But such naff evangelism works in thousands of more intimate and insidious ways, too, subtly weaving itself into your every thought and action – if you worked for such a company, that is. Thankfully, I do not. As Alan Partridge (impersonating a generic Irishman) once said: Dairs mourr tuh loif dan dis.









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GORETZKI ON PSYCHOLOGY


With a background in market research and a reluctant foot or ironic toe in the rarefied mumbo-jumbo of corporate team-building, it’s to be expected that a look at psychology is coloured by the latter’s “application” to an instrumentalized field in which people are either trying to be persuaded to buy things or to work with greater zeal, both of which, ironically enough, are likely to put you on the psychiatrist’s couch pretty pronto. This kind of world is not an easy one for children to grow up in, a vicious circle of over-stimulation through being fobbed off onto toys as proxy parents and lack of attention from others (causing attention-deficit)…








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GORETZKI ON THE INTERNET

Continuing on from the previous post’s look at sociality and communication, it is true that emailing now consumes a large part of our time, but that we also depend on the Internet for much more: everything from practical knowledge to spiritual succour.




I don't know about you, but I find theres a disturbing font stigma in play with that cartoon...



Anyone know God’s email address?


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GORETZKI ON SOCIAL MEDIA (AND TXTING)

There are many who have seen the rise of social media as the latest, maybe final harbinger of the death of true communality as we retreat into ersatz collectives in which the lack of physical presence removes all constraints on our behaviour at the same time is erodes the affection and intimacy that sustain communities. Such is the view of Sherry Turkle in Alone Together, and, to a certain extent, of Nicholas Carr in The Shallows. What does Jake Goretzki think?  






Papa Mike Sierra Lima. 


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GORETZKI ON CONSUMERISM

Us Twenty-First Century types – we’re so historically mature, aren’t we? So grown up. No wool can be pulled over eyes. No simple object can take such a prominent place in our affections that – …ooh, I simply must get one of those new AppleBlueberry x-ray-phones with 47 terabyte “squindaxia”. Supposed to be mega. 







Those Apple users know their shit, don’t they? Wonder how many squindaxia they reckon is minimum...


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