Budding career in cartooning nipped in the bud

For decades now, Canadians have been doing well in the exciting fields of animation and satire. There's John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy. And all those guys who write for the Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy. You knew there was a reason for all those Canuck jokes, eh?!

Jack Christie is a senior at Douglas A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario. He aspires to make people laugh and get paid for it, thus to rocket to the top of the cartooning heap, just like the creators of South Park, Family Guy etc.

And Jack has been practising. With his buddy Connor Brazeau [How's that for a Canajan name? Ed.] he has created three cartoon shorts which Walt predicts will go viral in about 35 seconds from now. Since embedding is disabled, all I can show you is a YouTube screen grab from "Jack Christie Talks to Children 3 - Run for the White House". Click here to see the video...if it hasn't been pulled down by the time you get to this.

Why should it be taken down? Well, Forces for Good at the Durham District School Board have deemed Jack's little opuses [opi? -- just say "works"! Ed.] a mite, errr, offensive. Apparently lines like "kill all the black people" and the assertion that Senator Joe Lieberman "sticks his penis in goats" are not politically correct.

Said board spokesthingy Andrea Pidwebecki, "If a student produces or submits work that encourages the destruction of an entire racial group, we’re going to report it. We have moral and professional obligations."

Ms Pidwhatever added that the matter has been referred to the school’s liaison police officer, Officer Barbrady. [Are you sure about this? Ed.]. She could not or would not comment on Jack’s statement that teachers reportedly found the videos -- this is the third in the series, so far -- funny. She said only that the matter had been suggested to him that he consider taking the videos down and that "he should be focusing on graduation."

Said Mr Christie, "I can understand why people take offence. Really, my problem in the end is people in power taking those films and labelling me as some sort of threat. I believe [that] does infringe on some very fundamental rights of the Constitution ... the right to freedom of expression and media."

Walt isn't sure that the word "media" actually appears in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. However, let it be remembered that cartoons are not required viewing. If someone is going to be offended, better they not look.