print Print Cartoon
Questions
1. Tone is the attitude a cartoonist takes towards a subject. Which pair of words best describes the tone of this cartoon?
a) indifferent/apathetic
b) light-hearted/humorous
c) resigned/defeated
d) elated/ecstatic
2. To what recent news item does this cartoon refer?
3. One type of humor editorial cartoonists use is irony. Irony is defined as when the opposite of what you expect to happen occurs. Describe the irony in Mike Lester’s cartoon.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.
Cartoon by Mike Lester
Answers
1. b) light-hearted/humorous
2. To what recent news item does this cartoon refer?
On Aug. 12, violence broke out at a protest from a white-nationalist group opposing the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. A driver ultimately rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring more than a dozen other people, police said.
In the wake of the events in Charlottesville, ESPN decided to pull one of its announcers from calling the University of Virginia football game season opener on Sept. 2nd in Charlottesville and move him to the Youngstown State game at Pittsburgh — because his name is Robert Lee.
Lee, an Asian-American sportscaster who started with the network in 2016, was moved to a different game “simply because of the coincidence of his name,” ESPN said, referencing the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. (from an Aug. 22 New York Post report)
ESPN announcer Robert Lee (left) and Confederate General Robert E. Lee (right).
3. Describe the irony in Mike Lester’s cartoon.
You would expect the cartoonist to depict announcer Robert Lee at another football game. Instead, the cartoonist ironically places him at a ping pong match (something a politically correct company would not do because of the stereotype.)
