Felix Sockwell - Sanity & Colbs

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Sanity & Colbs

posted:September 21, 2010

Jon Stewbeef and Stephen Colbert are hosting a rally/ march on October 30 in DC. If you watch the Daily Show (a satire) or Colbert (a parody) you already know this, but allow me to perform a See Section for our older, unawares folks.

You see, Beck's aesthetic was hinged on restoring America to an earlier time, using something Heller calls the sachplakat (I just say "Micheal Schwabby"). I've always considered Beck a bi-polar clown. This poster, by Neal Aspinall isn't bad actually. The colors, type and a few details in the drawing are lacking but overall I think he channels Micheal Schwab well. Notice the steps under Lincoln.

Comedy Central's version (seen here) has dear Stewart as Der Fuhrer. Notice the steps borrowed from Beck's poster. Why? It makes no sense! Can you imagine being in the meeting that this was sold in? Were they drunk?
Check out the weird grey halftone and blue containment line. Its a mess.

The lesson here is that aesthetics trump concept. The intern's concept was to parody Beck. But heres the thing: NO ONE GIVES A SHIT. Beck's rally is over. Done. If you're going to parody Beck, make the aesthetic actually mean something.

Heres my Stewart rendering. Does he really look like David Sedaris?

Here are a few T Shirt ideas I've been toying with. I was rather proud of myself for pulling out Sweetness (Colbert's gun on the show)

Heres a brilliant idea from Marc Burckhart. As I was working on this, I sent it to a few friends, one of whom, Greg Mably, noticed the red/blue discrepancy in the original Comedy Central design. Red should be fearsome conservative, blue is sanely liberal. Let us know your thoughts... who knows. with any luck they'll come around and use something better than what they are using.

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