Bus Route of Tears

The gag in this cartoon references the famous Keep America Beautiful “Crying Indian” anti-litter PSA from the ’70s. This commercial has of course been referenced countless times on countless television shows over the last few decades, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people are familiar with it despite having never seen the original ad before. It’s like a Web meme 30 years before the Web and 5 years before the word “meme” even existed!

The bus in the first panel is based on this vehicle. In addition to making the name a little funnier, I’ve also changed the words written on the side of it, though they may not be fully legible online. I have them saying the following:

ARE DEMANS:

• NO TAXES
• MORE MONY IN MEDICARE
• SUPPORT ARE TROOPS
• BRING BACK McRIB
• MEXICANS + BLACKS WORK IN FIELDS!!

I wanted to also include “DRILL, BABY, DRILL” and have the final line conclude “…NOT IN WHITE HOUSE,” but there wasn’t room.

Oh, and before anybody points it out: I do realize Iron Eyes Cody, the “Indian” from the ad, wasn’t actually a Native American. I’m not sure if this fact enhances or detracts from my cartoon, but either way, I didn’t think it made enough of a difference to merit throwing the joke out.

7 Responses to “Bus Route of Tears”

By » Devin (February 19th, 2010 at 11:28 am)

Your history is a bit off. The ad came out only 5 years before the word “meme” was coined.

By » Deane (February 19th, 2010 at 4:45 pm)

As always great work…

But I did have to lean in real close to read ‘teabaggers’ to get it…

Oh and I’m linking to your work here:

http://netvibes.com/olyblogwatch.com

By » Deane (February 19th, 2010 at 4:47 pm)

Oops… I meant http://netvibes.com/olyblogwatch

By » deephurting (February 19th, 2010 at 6:45 pm)

Thanks, I edited my article to reflect this fact. For some reason, I thought Dawkins coined the term in ’96, rather than ’76.

By » Kathy Kennedy (February 21st, 2010 at 10:06 am)

Are the misspellings on purpose?

By » Sam F (February 22nd, 2010 at 5:24 pm)

This is very nice, although it’s a pity that the text on the side of the bus can’t be seen (and even “Teabagxpress” is hard to read). Perhaps a different angle on the bus would have made that possible?

@ Kathy: No, I really think that Mr. Nowicki suddenly slipped up and accidentally made a bunch of errors all together in an otherwise error-free paragraph of text. And I don’t think that the misspellings were meant in any way to relate to the intelligence of teabaggers.

By » Poogboy (March 23rd, 2011 at 11:44 pm)

“ARE” heheh.
This one really touched me.