The Intersection

The Media Evolution of the Pachyderm Posterior

Posted by Chris C. Mooney on October 10, 2006
(5)
More »

I know I am supposed to be working on my book, and indeed I am–a productive day today has made me feel less guilty about blogging.

Anyway, following on my last post, I’d like to go further. The earliest elephant’s ass I’ve seen in the media (broadly conceived) is the following:

i-851d09b360748999c292d42c2078e694-Gas We Pass.jpg

However, so far as I know, there was no influence of the above image (# 1) on this one:

i-b7892218defef18f66c872c7ad285ca0-RWOS Cover.jpg

I cannot be sure, however, that image # 2 (above) did not in any way influence image # 3:

i-ba415909fb2885c481b5c2da8882f622-Time Elephant's Ass.jpg

So, where does that leave us? Well, first of all, the elephant’s tail has moved to the center and then swung back to the left again across these three images.

Also, the elephant appears to have been moving away from us, and continues to do so.

Also also, across depictions, the elephant’s posterior has grown less cartoonish, and much more….wrinkly.

Finally, somewhere along the way, the whole thing became partisan.

Read into all of this what you will. I, for one, feel like I’ve learned something.

(5)
More »

Comments

  1. #1 Fred Bortz
    October 11, 2006

    Here’s a “cheeky” comment:

    Given W.’s penchant for flatulence jokes and whoopee cushions, I think the first and third will “resonate” with left and right alike.

    (And thereby hangs a tail)

  2. #2 Inoculated Mind
    October 11, 2006

    You should make your next book have a holographic cover, maybe with several changing images, so the elephant appears to be walking away. 🙂

  3. #3 porlob
    October 13, 2006

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but it appears that the first and third image feature Loxodonta africana, or the African bush elephant, while the RWoS image features Elephas maximus, or the Asian elephant. I’m having trouble contriving any kind of significance from this fact, though it is worth noting that the former species contains “bush” in its common name.

  4. #4 cserpent
    October 17, 2006

    Back when I used to golf, my brothers and I used to call a bad shot (the type that goes straight up in the air and lands a few feet in front of you) a pachyderm posterior – because it was high and stinky. Perhaps that’s a metaphor for the republicans that quickly comes to mind.

  5. #5 MJR
    October 18, 2006

    If I was an elephant, I’d be a little frightened. Humans obviously have a fetish going here…

New comments have been disabled.