A remarkably clever and incisive parody

Fun fact

There seems to be an endless number of political signs trolling Trump.  I found this one on Imgur.

Addendum:   Because some readers disagree or don't know, I'll start adding on some brief examples of his pronouncements that either represent abysmal ignorance or intentional lying.  Wikipedia has a page devoted to Trump's "false or misleading statements" (over 30,000 of them during his first presidential term), but I'll try to confine the addenda to displays of ignorance rather than lies.

A request for Photoshop assistance

I saw the above request in a Facebook thread.  I don't normally monitor Photoshop request sites, but I have enjoyed some responses I've seen in the past, including my post "When you ask the internet for assistance" in 2017, this "Photoshop battle" in 2018, and more recently "AI is the new Photoshop" earlier this year.  So I was delighted and not surprised to see these responses to the above request:

There are dozens more at the Facebook source; cyberspace abounds in amazingly creative people.

Addendum:  Here's another request with hundreds of responses -

- and there are of course many more clever requests/replies in that Facebook group.

Three giraffes

"I took this in 2025 in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, in the Oltepesi area. Three young giraffes were standing side by side on the savanna and looked back at me with great curiosity. Right behind the middle one stood a single umbrella acacia, perfectly lined up with its head and neck. The giraffe seemed to be wearing the tree, like a green hairdo or a fancy hat. Nothing was staged or arranged; it was a matter of being in the right spot at the right moment’"

Photograph: Dirk Koster/Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026

Via The Guardian, where this was one of several featured photos from the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards finalists for 2026.  (Image cropped for emphasis from the original)

Lunch with grandma

Cartoon found in the discussion thread of this image:

Reposted from 2020.

I felt bad for laughing at this...

Brilliant

Found in The Babylon Bee ("Fake News You Can Trust"), where there is tongue-in-cheek discussion of the topic.

AI is the new Photoshop

It wasn't that long ago that Photoshop was the top-of-the-line image-altering program.  The new AI technology has left the crude tools of Photoshop in the dust.  The image above was posted on Facebook with a request: "Could you fabulous and talented artists put my friend's mom doing activities or things she'd never want her mom to do?"  I've embedded below just four of the dozens of clever and skillful images posted on the thread. 

Not worthy

A subtle and wry comment on current events

Image of Haley Joel Osment from his Oscar-nominated performance in the movie The Sixth Sense.  Updated with a cultural reference to current U.S. politics.  The scene occurs at about the 4-minute mark of this excerpt - but beware that this is a major spoiler for those who have not seen the movie.

A reflecting pool cocktail

There are a seemingly endless number of memes on the reflecting pool disaster.  Readers are welcome to provide links to their favorites in the Comments.  I thought this one posted by Sarah Dahlinger on Facebook was nicely done.

I've seen a lot of brilliantly made craft cocktails dedicated to the Reflecting Pool this past weekend, and I thought, something was missing. Something wasn't right. 

They didn't quite capture the level of class and sophistication that our Reflecting Pool currently has, so here's my version. 

To start, line your glass with a blue fruit roll up. Then you're going to need:

2 oz rum

4 oz juice that is kinda yellow (pineapple, mango, orange, lemonade, whatever you like)

1 oz blue curacao (you can adjust for color)

Garnish with lime zest

The yellow and blue liquids make a lovely shade of algae and the rum eventually melts the blue fruit roll up, which is, IMHO, the best part. 

I'm glad the teacher graded this with a smiley

Via Miss Cellania.

Reposted from 2024 because I needed a laugh tonight.  And it's interesting on a reread to notice how the errors the girl made actually make some sense.

Humor for English majors

See also A Cartoon for English Majors.

A cartoon for English majors - updated

This one was "over my head."  I'll post now for other English majors to ponder, and update after the weekend with some relevant details and links.

Addendum: As I was preparing this series of memorial posts about George Booth, one of the library books included some biographical material.  They indicated that Booth did not tend to use "gag writers" to provide the captions accompanying his cartoons, but that when he did encounter a potentially useful phrase, he saved it up until an appropriate cartoon came to mind.  Two examples were cited.

The cartoon above has text based on the play Cymbeline (in Act III, Scene 6 "Wales.  Before the cave of Belarius"), when they spot Imogen (dressed as a boy) in the cave:

BELARIUS

[Looking into the cave]

Stay; come not in.

But that it eats our victuals, I should think

Here were a fairy.

GUIDERIUS

What's the matter, sir?

BELARIUS

By Jupiter, an angel! or, if not,

An earthly paragon! Behold divineness

No elder than a boy! 

Re-enter IMOGEN

IMOGEN

Good masters, harm me not:

Before I enter'd here, I call'd; and thought

To have begg'd or bought what I have took:

good troth,

I have stol'n nought, nor would not, though I had found

Gold strew'd i' the floor. Here's money for my meat...

The scene has been illustrated for various publications of the play, as in this example (a reproduction from the Dallas Museum of Art):

and again here:

and yet again here:

So the scene appears to be well recognized by artists and thespians.  But the phrase "By Jupiter, an angel..." was totally unfamiliar to me (in my defense I would suggest that Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare/deVere's lesser-performed works).  It wasn't until I read the Booth biography and the cartoon at the top was discussed that I was prompted to search Google for the true source of the quotation.

Interestingly, the biography went on to offer one more cartoon based on a quotation from someone.  The caption in this cartoon -

- was credited to "Hank Martin."  I spent a lot of time fruitlessly Googling that name before finally deciding that the reference must be to Henry Martin, who like Booth was a longtime New Yorker cartoonist.

But... to what is the text of the caption referring???  I have been unable to find a primary source for the "lone grape" sentences (searches typically lead to cartoon compilations that include both Booth and Martin).  Perhaps the excitement on the bus was something spoken to Booth by Martin privately, or perhaps it exists in some correspondence or book.  For now it remains a mystery unless some reader of this blog can suss it out.

Related:  Humor for English majors and A jury of English majors.

Resposted from 2022 to accompany a new post about humor for English majors.

News re the Strait of Hormuz

From Facebook, so it might not be true...

But what is true is that I listed to an Al Jazeera interview with a fellow from Tehran who mentioned that closure of the Strait of Hormuz was not a new idea.  Apparently Iran has had this strategic maneuver on their list of options for over twenty years.  They have never exercised the capacity to do this because it was decided that doing so would be tantamount to declaring war on their Gulf neighbors.  But once the U.S. and Israel initiated the war, they had justification for the maneuver.  I will bet you a dollar to a doughnut that the old-time senior Pentagon generals who were dismissed by Trump must have been aware of this possibility.  It would have come up in any serious war gaming strategies conducted over the past several decades.

Addendum:  An excellent op-ed of the diplomatic consequences of the war makes note of the fact that closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a "commonplace doomsday scenario" used in non-military settings:

"Fatih Birol, the chief executive of the International Energy Agency, recently disclosed that in job interviews at the IEA, after asking candidates why they are applying for a job at the IEA, the second is: “What would you do if the strait of Hormuz was closed?” It was a commonplace doomsday scenario, yet the US had to improvise a response."

Why was it not considered (or why was it ignored) for this war???

p.s. - yes I know Andy Borowitz is a humor columnist...

Satire

A brilliant turn of phrase

"A beleaguered grunt from the other room interrupts him.  Moments later, a teenage boy lopes out... Without a glance at Cameron, the boy holds up a cereal box and moans, 'Mom!  We're outta Cheerios."...

A look of surprise crosses Avery's face, then she inhales stiffly... "Marco, hon, what do we do when we're out of Cheerios?"

Marco rolls his eyes.  "The list."

"Right.  We add it to the shopping list," she says, her tone pointed  "I'm sure you'll find something else to eat in the meantime."

Marco mutters, "We're out of chips, too."

"Oh, the humanity," Avery says dryly.  "Look I'll try to get to the grocery store later..."

-  excerpted from Remarkably Bright Creatures, by Shelby Van Pelt.

Very seldom do I actually laugh out loud when reading a book, but the mother's phrase of exasperation with her teen's complaint was truly chuckleworthy.  In the past, when confronted with such a situation, my response probably would have been to say (or at least think) "First World Problem."  But this response is better.

Relevant reference (0:40)

"Fake news you can trust"

That seems to be the motto of the Babylon Bee, where I found this item.