New mid-week political cartoon

(Last updated: March 20, 2017)



A reader has sent me a picture. He suggests this picture is really a political cartoon. Is it?

Take a look at it. Read the caption. Then tell me if it--or the man in it--qualifies as a 'political cartoon'.

Please page down.

  Iran’s Khamenei calls Western view of women a ‘Zionists’ plot’

from: jerusalempost

Of course, this picture, by itself, is no cartoon. It isn't political. It's just a picture of a man sitting on a platform above an audience. The man appears to be, perhaps, a religious leader or, at the very least, a religious man about to give a speech (or having just finished a speech)--notice his notes and the microphone. 

It's the caption containing his words that sets the picture apart. Together, this picture-with-caption makes a statement that isn't funny at all. 

It changes the picture from neutral to vicious. It transforms the picture from 'interesting' to ugly.

Perhaps that's why a reader saw this as a 'political cartoon'; that is, a pictorial representation with an ideological message. 

It's a message of demonization. It's a message of hate.

Does it qualify as a political cartoon? Or, is it too vicious to be called such?