Monkeys To Sue New York Post Over “Chimp Cartoon”, Reverend Al Sharpton Takes Offence

As I am going to print I can tell you that the situation is very tense here in New York. The controversy over the “Chimp Cartoon” has taken a new turn as representatives of the chimpanzee colony in New York zoo are suing the New York Post for “libel and defamation” as well as “incitement to commit murder”, after the cartoon below was printed in Today’s New York Post.

The New York Post cartoon drew immediate criticism from Al Sharpton, the black activist and community leader Photo: AP/NEW YORK POST

In an unprecedented move, a group of chimpanzees who have been learning to communicate through sign language as part of an ongoing experiment on the cognitive powers of chimps, have been acting as spokesmonkeys for the “Ape Federation” by suing the newspaper for showing two NY policemen shooting dead a chimpanzee. The first lawsuit is one of “libel and defamation” based, according to the spokesmonkey, “on the explicit accusation that it was the chimps that got us all into this financial mess, when everybody knows it was the humans that did it by believing that markets could be rational and regulate themselves, when in fact, even a rhesus monkey will tell you that there is no such thing as rational monkey, let alone a human. We are also being accused of not being able to put together a decent stimulus package when we are capable of greater works of fiction. It is a well known fact that if you give enough chimps typewriters, they will produce the complete works of Shakespeare which, I am sure you will agree, is a superior fiction to the stimulus package”.

According the same statement, “we apes resent and categorically reject  the categorisation of apes, and chimps in particular, as profligate and unable to run an economy without running it into the ground. Evidence shown that prior to the arrival of humans, crashes never happened, and apes happily lived in harmony with nature without the human cycles of boom and bust.”

According to the second lawsuit  to the spokesmonkeys, “the graphic depiction of gratuitous violence against chimpanzees is nothing more than incitement to go out there and kill chimps and other apes for bushmeat as happens in Africa.” The spokesmonkey of the Ape Federation, the body responsible for managing human-ape relations, spoke today of her fears that “the difficult economic situation facing America, and made worse by the passing of a mediocre stimulus plan, would cause people to start eating monkeys, like they do in Africa.”

Revered Al Sharpton, the veteran civil rights campaigner quickly issued a statement condemning the second lawsuit by the monkeys, and in particular the references comparing America to Africa. According to the Reverend, this constituted a racist comment as “it implied them monkeys were comparing America to Africa simply because we now have ourselves an African-American President”. In reply the spokesmonkey issued a statement which went as follows:

“We strongly condemn the unfortunate words of the Reverend Al Sharpton. We understand he is a man who never misses an opportunity to take umbrage and slight from any situation that may give him publicity. While we apes today are the victims of his baseless accusations, we know that humans, with whom we have no axe to grind and who have kindly fed us bananas for a long time, have been constant victims of his hyperbole and constant obsession to find insult where there is no none. Why only this morning, the Reverend was trying his luck again with his blackmail tactics against the Newspaper which has surely insulted us apes far more than it could possibly have insulted that man or African Americans, as he claims to be the case.”

This was in reference to events earlier in the day, when the Reverend Al Sharpton had taken issue with the newspaper, accusing it of being racist by implying that the “chimp in the cartoon was a depiction of Obama, which is nothing more than the worst stereotype held by white America about African-Americans, that we’re all monkeys.” He threatened to boycott the newspaper and its advertisers unless it withdrew what he called a “racist cartoon of the most despicable type”.

He further added “The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that “Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?”

Separately, the Reverend Al Sharpton later turned again on the apes asking for an apology after they accused him of “blackmail”. According to the Reverend, the word “blackmail” is a racist comment. The apes have challenged him to find a more suitable and politically correct word.

The situation continues to develop.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/02/19/chimp.cartoon.react/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/021908dnnatcartoon.2b2772f.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE51I61D20090219?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6664873&rss=rss-wabc-article-6664873

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/new-york-post-chimp-carto_n_167841.html#postComment

© Sameh El-Shahat 2009