While the FLY HEARD ROUND the WORLD may be distracting us from the real issues at hand, I think that little scamp provided not just comic relief, but hardcore satire. Here we had a living embodiment of a trope from cartoon history that comes from lexicon of images that has long been used to subvert despots and sycophants, going back to Honore Daumier (and much further). Daumier’s cartoons subverted the abuses of power by King Louis Phillipe, illustrating through symbolic and metaphoric imagery the truth of tyrants and aristocrats. (Here’s a PDF about Daumier from my favorite art museum The Phillips Collection!)
Participating in the tradition of satire, our fly succinctly illustrated the truth- that when Vice President Pence was denying systemic racism and implicit bias that fly smelled what was coming out of his mouth… and it wasn’t honey.
There’s a lot of bull sh*t out there now and we all need to pay attention to where we’re getting information. Don’t just follow MEMEs but read. And when you do, like a good like fly, use the CRAP test.
So have fun with the fly and have a laugh- but don’t stop at giggling and take action. Vote and donate if you can. And don’t forget to VOTE!