Sunday, October 17, 2010

To Officer Tiny Bubbles: It's a cartoon. It's a piece of fiction!

[A comment I posted on Dawg's Blawg:]

Officer Tiny Bubbles claims that the cartoon videos and some of the YouTube comments are defamatory. [According to] Tiny, the video is slanderous, and the comments are libelous.  I can't comment about the comments because the cartoon videos and related comments are no longer posted on YouTube.  I will comment about the cartoon videos which are posted elsewhere on the internet [but are also being deleted].

The person who created and posted the cartoons is a brilliant cartoonist who has definitely insulted Officer Bubbles.  This cartoonist is much like political cartoonists who sometimes post insulting cartoons at political leaders.  One example is by cartoonist Theo Moudakis of the Toronto Star who drew a picture of Stephen Harper at the UN General Assembly trying to get a seat for Canada on the Security Council.  Behind Harper was a row of G20 riot squad officers.  Were these officers really with Harper when he actually spoke to the Assembly?  No.  Was it insulting to Harper?  Probably.  Was it actually Stephen Harper in the cartoon?  I don't know.  The same ideas hold true for the A. Josephs "Officer Bubbles" video cartoon.  Is that actually Adam Josephs in the cartoon?  No.  It's a cartoon.  It's a piece of fiction.  Is Wile E. Coyote actually Adam Josephs?  Should we ban "The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote?"

Have people threatened his family because of the cartoon and some of the comments?  I did not see anything in the cartoon that told people to attack his family.  I hope none of the commenters said that his family should be attacked.  If people threaten to attack Adam Josephs' family, then he and his family should go after the people who actually make those threats.

Finally, I am wondering why Officer Bubbles is just going after the commenters who posted possible defamatory comments on the cartoons and not the live video of Adam Josephs.  I'm guessing that the live video comments would be as nasty as the ones posted under the cartoon videos.



Remixed cartoon and video for those who want to see the cartoon version.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The cartoons are still/back on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/MisterOfficerBubbles

Skinny Dipper said...

Thanks anonymous!

tom and jerry cartoons said...

Id say that this is tightly related to the question if freedom of speech still exists or not. Maybe we don't have a freedom to draw, or to think