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For the most part, America’s editorial cartoonists have gotten better at drawing Obama over the last year. They’re no longer depicting him as a generic black guy but as an unique individual with his own distinctive features. (I’m sure there’s a dissertation topic in there somewhere about how this somehow mirrored many white Americans’ evolving views of candidate Obama.) But there are some still some stragglers, whom I feel obligated to call out—in the name of improving the quality of political satire, of course. Not that good editorial cartoonists have to be good caricaturists: The Washington Post‘s Tom Toles, who is for my money the most original of the newsprint cartoonists, draws Obama like he has a bow tie stuck behind his head. But at least it kinda, sorta looks like him.

What bugs me are the cartoonists who still do the random-black-dude thing or use some kind of slapdash combo of Obama’s most prominent features (“Big ears? Check! Angular chin? Check! Longer than average torso? Check!”). Or worse. After the jump, a collection of nine of the most egregious examples of editorial cartoonists’ attempts to capture Obama’s likeness, and some thoughts on who—or what—they actually look like.

Editorial Cartoonists’ 9 Worst Attempts at Drawing Obama

PLUS: Honorable Mentions, International Division



Mario Cuomo… walking like an Egyptian. (As drawn by the Vancouver Sun‘s Roy Peterson.)

A man with “Obama” embroidered on his jacket. (Wonsoo is from South Korea, but that’s really no excuse.)

Blue-lipped Obama, as drawn by three confused Canadian cartoonists. (Perhaps responding to Gary McCoy’s overly bipartisan purple-lipped Obama?)

Your nominations and suggestions of what these artists were thinking in the comments…

Images from Slate‘s Today’s Cartoons and Daryl Cagle’s Political Cartoonists Index