GI Joe toys were too expensive, so we had those little plastic guys whose arms didn't move. On the plus side you could set up tons of them around your bedroom and re-enact glorious battles.
A good friend of mine did that once and showed it to his mother and asked her "which side do you think would win?" She (an immigrant from Iran) said "no one wins in a war."
::Once Ramirez learns the truth, he immediately requests an interview with Cobra Commander, a known terrorist leader. Fortunately, only cartoon “journalists” are this stupid.::
Didn't have time to join in yesterday, but this is more than tangentially related. In 1945 Hollywood put out "The Story Of GI Joe". It was based on the writings of Ernie Pyle, who himself didn't survive WWII. The movie starred Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. It came out late in the war, when it was pretty obvious we were winning. Maybe that's why it got away with jettisoning the usual gung-hokum propaganda from so many of it's contemporaries. The picture accepted that we were on the right side of the fight. The music swelled when our squad of soldiers were on the advance against the Nazis. But there were jarring moments, and not just the usual, "I always thought The Old Man would make it out alive" bits. The soldiers' lives were shown as squalid boredom, interspersed with random violence. In one sequence, a tough, central character literally loses his mind under the strain. (This would be the kind of guy Patton would call a lousy coward and backhand a couple times.) I saw the movie as a kid on late night TV in the late '60s/early '70's and was totally unprepared for it. That scene stuck with me long after everything else in the movie faded from memory. At the time, I got the faintest sense of adults making art aimed at adults.
If I remember correctly, the 80's GI Joe was reintroduced to the market as intentionally 'woke' in contrast to earlier versions. It was still nowhere enlightened enough to make it to my toy box, but my friend next door got one for a birthday, proceeding to simulate terrible things between Joe and his sister's Barbies.
Well, as the Ferengi like to say—why alienate potential customers when you can make more profit selling to them, too?
The realization that Quark was more ethical than the current Republican Party is a sobering one—so it's a good thing Quark's Bar sells watered-down drinks!
Dang I never realized this when I was a kid (and I liked G.I. Joe.). This is some great media exegesis. And sadly, the most horrific references in the show are the ones that bear the most truth.
I loved the comic.and cartoon in the 80s, and the toy line was my main toy focus in my youth. I even watched the entire series run again during the pandemic and it blew my mind how progressive it was for being a jingoistic toy commercial. Competent, capable women leading shit. All sorts of ethnicities represented and being treated like people.
GI Joe was my absolute jam. Larry Hama had a significant impact on moral code. But we don't need to talk about Lt. Falcon and the movie. Let's all just agree it never happened.
1. "he immediately requests an interview with Cobra Commander, a known terrorist leader. Fortunately, only cartoon “journalists” are this stupid." I'm picking up what you're Putin down there.
2. The GOP is ready to all go down together, like a good team. The unwavering fealty to one idea - Donald Trump - animates them in ways democrats and liberals, in general, can only dream of.
3. That is a frightening set of coincidences re Cobra leader and TFG, but not too hard a thing to have imagined evolving in the middle of the Reagan years.
4. How old am I? I think I was too old for this version of G.I Joe. I had the 12" articulated dolls w fuzzy hair. And I loved military fiction, but leaned into Beetle Bailey, M*A*S*H, Star Trek, and McHale's Navy.
At the time, Cobra seemed a take-down of Ayn Rand, but the morph from “I got mine, fuck you” libertarianism to flat-out populist fascist terrorism is plain, thanks to Stephen’s delineation. Anyway, GI Joe the doll was weird; unlike Ken he didn’t have a girlfriend or any kind of domestic life. Sad.
One of the advantages of a military that admits women as well as men (and though they didn't deal with that in the Eighties, I'll bet GI Joe had no problems with integrating gays in the military!) is that Nature Will Always Find a Way—and smart CO's know when to enforce regulations, and when to say, "Fraternization? What 'fraternization'? They're just men and women working together towards a common goal!
"La-la-la, I can't see anything, I can't hear anything...." 😉
I just wanted to say that I am thoroughly enjoying Murderbot. I considered getting into it a couple of times and demurred. Then you mentioned it in passing (that you were excited that a new episode had dropped) and that decided it for me. I have now read the first four. Brilliant, love the character. Thanks!
As these clowns' sole connection to the military is watching FOX News and war movies, I'm not surprised they're clueless about the realities of war, combat, and the horror it creates.
"No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action...fighting is agreeable to those who are strangers to it." -- Vegetius.
He was a Roman military writer of the eighth century.
He also said: "If you desire peace, prepare for war."
Everything Sun Tzu wrote in the days of chariots, spears, and shields, still holds true in the age of GPS, nuclear weapons, drones, and supersonic jets.
Wow, great analysis of one of my favorite childhood comics! I remember the excerpts you used, but of course never considered them in a serious light. You are correct, they were prescient. Also, nice call on the diversity of G.I. Joe. They were about as woke as they come.
Stan Lee was a Marvel when it came to highlighting truly diverse and empathetic characters. His support of writers and illustrators of a similar mind was genius.
I’m struck by how often extremist groups—and especially extremist right wing ones—are also involved in some kinda shady ass/exploitative financial shenanigans. In a lot of cases sure it’s maybe a bit of a forced move—since financing whatever other awful things they might be doing is likely to require accounting practices a bit on the creative side. There are often practical obstacles that arise from going down to the local bank to ask for a business development loan to kick start your violent coup, sure.
But it looks to me to be more than this. And if so I guess no surprise. As fascisms in general seem to me to a category of kleptocracy. The inner circle generally finds a way to make money from the blind adulation. So that these are people you should trust neither with any political office nor with your bank account number, the two things also probably naturally go together.
Reminds me of the climactic observation of the main Nazi in SALON KITTY (freely paraphrased), "It's not about ideology—it's about looting! Looting everything—from everybody!"
At the time I thought director Tinto Brass (the man who later tried to give us CALIGULA, before producer Bob Guccione took it over and added obvious hardcore inserts while cutting narrative scenes!) was being overly simplistic. Now, I'm not so sure....
Well their fellow travelers are also good marks. After all if you can accept disturbingly simplistic and fantastic explanations for everything you think is a problem, you'll probably take fantastic 'cures' for what ails you too.
It's all quite uncanny...seriously
GI Joe toys were too expensive, so we had those little plastic guys whose arms didn't move. On the plus side you could set up tons of them around your bedroom and re-enact glorious battles.
A good friend of mine did that once and showed it to his mother and asked her "which side do you think would win?" She (an immigrant from Iran) said "no one wins in a war."
Way to ruin the fun, ma!
::Once Ramirez learns the truth, he immediately requests an interview with Cobra Commander, a known terrorist leader. Fortunately, only cartoon “journalists” are this stupid.::
What you did there—see it, I do!
Didn't have time to join in yesterday, but this is more than tangentially related. In 1945 Hollywood put out "The Story Of GI Joe". It was based on the writings of Ernie Pyle, who himself didn't survive WWII. The movie starred Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. It came out late in the war, when it was pretty obvious we were winning. Maybe that's why it got away with jettisoning the usual gung-hokum propaganda from so many of it's contemporaries. The picture accepted that we were on the right side of the fight. The music swelled when our squad of soldiers were on the advance against the Nazis. But there were jarring moments, and not just the usual, "I always thought The Old Man would make it out alive" bits. The soldiers' lives were shown as squalid boredom, interspersed with random violence. In one sequence, a tough, central character literally loses his mind under the strain. (This would be the kind of guy Patton would call a lousy coward and backhand a couple times.) I saw the movie as a kid on late night TV in the late '60s/early '70's and was totally unprepared for it. That scene stuck with me long after everything else in the movie faded from memory. At the time, I got the faintest sense of adults making art aimed at adults.
yeah, that was a great movie...I just recently saw it myself
So, "Cobra" was funded by Amway, that totally checks out.
If I remember correctly, the 80's GI Joe was reintroduced to the market as intentionally 'woke' in contrast to earlier versions. It was still nowhere enlightened enough to make it to my toy box, but my friend next door got one for a birthday, proceeding to simulate terrible things between Joe and his sister's Barbies.
Well, as the Ferengi like to say—why alienate potential customers when you can make more profit selling to them, too?
The realization that Quark was more ethical than the current Republican Party is a sobering one—so it's a good thing Quark's Bar sells watered-down drinks!
Dang I never realized this when I was a kid (and I liked G.I. Joe.). This is some great media exegesis. And sadly, the most horrific references in the show are the ones that bear the most truth.
I loved the comic.and cartoon in the 80s, and the toy line was my main toy focus in my youth. I even watched the entire series run again during the pandemic and it blew my mind how progressive it was for being a jingoistic toy commercial. Competent, capable women leading shit. All sorts of ethnicities represented and being treated like people.
GI Joe was my absolute jam. Larry Hama had a significant impact on moral code. But we don't need to talk about Lt. Falcon and the movie. Let's all just agree it never happened.
1. "he immediately requests an interview with Cobra Commander, a known terrorist leader. Fortunately, only cartoon “journalists” are this stupid." I'm picking up what you're Putin down there.
2. The GOP is ready to all go down together, like a good team. The unwavering fealty to one idea - Donald Trump - animates them in ways democrats and liberals, in general, can only dream of.
3. That is a frightening set of coincidences re Cobra leader and TFG, but not too hard a thing to have imagined evolving in the middle of the Reagan years.
4. How old am I? I think I was too old for this version of G.I Joe. I had the 12" articulated dolls w fuzzy hair. And I loved military fiction, but leaned into Beetle Bailey, M*A*S*H, Star Trek, and McHale's Navy.
At the time, Cobra seemed a take-down of Ayn Rand, but the morph from “I got mine, fuck you” libertarianism to flat-out populist fascist terrorism is plain, thanks to Stephen’s delineation. Anyway, GI Joe the doll was weird; unlike Ken he didn’t have a girlfriend or any kind of domestic life. Sad.
That you KNOW of...!
One of the advantages of a military that admits women as well as men (and though they didn't deal with that in the Eighties, I'll bet GI Joe had no problems with integrating gays in the military!) is that Nature Will Always Find a Way—and smart CO's know when to enforce regulations, and when to say, "Fraternization? What 'fraternization'? They're just men and women working together towards a common goal!
"La-la-la, I can't see anything, I can't hear anything...." 😉
I just wanted to say that I am thoroughly enjoying Murderbot. I considered getting into it a couple of times and demurred. Then you mentioned it in passing (that you were excited that a new episode had dropped) and that decided it for me. I have now read the first four. Brilliant, love the character. Thanks!
As these clowns' sole connection to the military is watching FOX News and war movies, I'm not surprised they're clueless about the realities of war, combat, and the horror it creates.
"No great dependence is to be placed on the eagerness of young soldiers for action...fighting is agreeable to those who are strangers to it." -- Vegetius.
He was a Roman military writer of the eighth century.
He also said: "If you desire peace, prepare for war."
Sun Tzu’s first admonition was to avoid war at all cost. He would have agreed with Vegetius implicitly.
Everything Sun Tzu wrote in the days of chariots, spears, and shields, still holds true in the age of GPS, nuclear weapons, drones, and supersonic jets.
Wow, great analysis of one of my favorite childhood comics! I remember the excerpts you used, but of course never considered them in a serious light. You are correct, they were prescient. Also, nice call on the diversity of G.I. Joe. They were about as woke as they come.
Stan Lee was a Marvel when it came to highlighting truly diverse and empathetic characters. His support of writers and illustrators of a similar mind was genius.
Thanks!
Wow, now I know!
And knowing is half the battle!
I still say this jokingly today.
Part of my lexicon too.
Holy fuck that villain’s backstory. It’s like MAGAboy read it as a how-to.
MLM as terrorist group.
I’m struck by how often extremist groups—and especially extremist right wing ones—are also involved in some kinda shady ass/exploitative financial shenanigans. In a lot of cases sure it’s maybe a bit of a forced move—since financing whatever other awful things they might be doing is likely to require accounting practices a bit on the creative side. There are often practical obstacles that arise from going down to the local bank to ask for a business development loan to kick start your violent coup, sure.
But it looks to me to be more than this. And if so I guess no surprise. As fascisms in general seem to me to a category of kleptocracy. The inner circle generally finds a way to make money from the blind adulation. So that these are people you should trust neither with any political office nor with your bank account number, the two things also probably naturally go together.
Reminds me of the climactic observation of the main Nazi in SALON KITTY (freely paraphrased), "It's not about ideology—it's about looting! Looting everything—from everybody!"
At the time I thought director Tinto Brass (the man who later tried to give us CALIGULA, before producer Bob Guccione took it over and added obvious hardcore inserts while cutting narrative scenes!) was being overly simplistic. Now, I'm not so sure....
Well their fellow travelers are also good marks. After all if you can accept disturbingly simplistic and fantastic explanations for everything you think is a problem, you'll probably take fantastic 'cures' for what ails you too.