Election 2020

Or; The Election Store.

This comic went through a couple of different forms. The main driver here is not a particular joke, but rather a specific image. The original version of this comic was going to be titled "This is What 2020 Feels Like" and just have a man lying in a hospital bed. Then, a nurse arrives and says "So, we can't give you any medicine or anything, so uh... here's an old guy." She leaves, and the old man just stands there. The comic ends on a zoom in on the bedridden man's face, squinting, perplexed and exasperated at the old man, who might have said "c'mon mack" or something.

Obviously, the old man is a stand in for Biden, who represents nothing. No help, no savior. Being presented him in a time of dire need instead of any sort of support is so absurd that the image really didn't even need to be abstracted that much. You want help? Uh... here's this guy. He's just gonna... be here I guess. He won't do anything.

I worried the metaphor wouldn't come across, so I used this election framing method instead, which I think makes it a little more clear, and also allows for a few additional jokes. In this version, the old guy could also just as easily stand for Trump (some might even argue bernie!). In this version, there is also a critique of the voter; democrats and republicans alike joyfully accepting a slow death via covid, climate change, poverty, what have you-- so long as their specific old guy they like is also there, who, once, again, offers only symbolic value. 

I normally think election jokes where the punchline is some south park-style "both parties are bad! Douchebag vs shithead hur hur hur" are pretty fucking hack and trite at this point, but I'd like to think this comic takes a different sort of approach. It isn't some "both parties bad duhhh" it's a focus on how absurdly little we are being offered in a time that is essentially pre-apocalypse, and how many voters will happily accept it.