Taco is at it again! And just when I thought his cartoons had reached the outer limits of sophistication. Today’s mind-bender in the Taipei Times contains SIX labels. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but Taco gives us not only the picture, but the thousand words too. All this for us so we can get the point that using a hat attached to a trombone is an easy way to piss of Taiwanese officials.
Oh and Taco was also at his/her best on Saturday, drawing a pig (to represent the “pig councillors” in Kaohsiung) with a turtle-like shell (that’s the “councillors’ protective shield”) with an arrow bouncing off it (that’s the judiciary failing to get those guys). And just in case you didn’t get the point via the pictures or labels, Taco’s got the turtle / pig saying, “I’m an invulnerable political animal…” How considerate.
There’s also a rabbit with a question mark over it’s head, but I think that’s just there to confuse us.
So he’s a crap cartoonist. I suppose the TT figures crap is better than nothing at all, which is no more than yet another mistake by the pointy heads. Or maybe they think he’s good. Maybe they think “foreigners just wouldn’t understand” cartoons with even a modicum of wit or humour. Or maybe he’s a friend of the boss’ family.
I wouldn’t mind, but the idiot can’t even draw for toffee.
Actually, there’s a small subtlety there that I think you guys are missing. The story is “the tortoise and the hare”, not “the turtle…”.
And in Chinese, calling someone a “tortoise’s egg” is a really nasty way of calling someone a bastard. Unlike in the U.S., where “you bastard!”, said lightly, can be a jocular way of expressing envy to a friend, calling someone a tortoise’s egg is a serious insult in China, from what I’ve read. . . .
[quote=“MaPoDoFu”]Actually, there’s a small subtlety there that I think you guys are missing. The story is “the tortoise and the hare”, not “the turtle…”.
And in Chinese, calling someone a “tortoise’s egg” is a really nasty way of calling someone a bastard. Unlike in the U.S., where “you bastard!”, said lightly, can be a jocular way of expressing envy to a friend, calling someone a tortoise’s egg is a serious insult in China, from what I’ve read. . . .[/quote]
So, I’ve been going at this the wrong way. Instead of complaining that Taco uses 6-10 labels per cartoon, I should be suggesting that he add a dozen or so more, in order to properly explain the meaning behind his ever-sophisticated cartoons…
They’re Chinese cartoons. Unfathomable in English. Most of the readers of the TT are Chinese speakers, so I presume they don’t have a problem with it. (Why don’t they just read Chinese language newspapers ?)