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What Is the Purpose of Really Dumb Political Stunts?
Someone flew a giant inflatable chicken with Trump hair next to the White House.
I’m not sure why someone flew a giant inflatable chicken with Trump hair next to the White House, but apparently it made an important political statement. Perhaps something about animal rights, vegetarianism, or the importance of free-range conditions. Or that Trump is chicken for not doing something that the balloon owners want him to do. Maybe a basic cable channel is premiering a show that has something to do with flying poultry.
Regardless, the picture was passed around social media by people thinking it was a “sick burn,” as the kids liked to say a decade ago. But, as with most silly protests, I was left with a simple question: Why?
Really Dumb Political Stunts have long been a feature of the American political system. Candidates are regularly followed by sad oppo interns dressed as ducks, gorillas, or TV characters. At Barack Obama’s inauguration, someone inflated a giant George W. Bush effigy and invited attendees to toss shoes at it. But when a dedicated protestor donned a papier-mâché Dick Cheney head and a blood-spattered prison outfit with $100,000 bills falling out of its pockets, did a single undecided voter think, “that fellow makes a good point?”
Considering the cost and effort involved (custom inflatables run up to $25,000), political activists must mistakenly believe that Really Dumb Political Stunts help their cause. But will a giant inflatable chicken with Trump hair change one voter’s mind about whatever point the rogue ballooners are trying to make?
Published in Politics
The deadly bacterium? Or the band?
Does it matter? They’re both deadly.
Great point, Jon. I mean, you’re supposed to put up a big banner, or at least paint a dotcom address on it; something to let people know what the heck you are talking about. It makes me think of “12 Monkeys” where Brad Pitt’s Group Of Idiots let all the zoo animals loose without making it clear why. People just saw it as a traffic problem.
All this stunt did for me was help me decide what to have for lunch tomorrow.
Giant balloons don’t make me want a new car, either.
The only thing that seeing a giant balloon ever made me want was a giant balloon.
I saw the guy on the morning news. He said Trump is a chicken because he won’t release his tax returns and he won’t stand up to Putin.
Now, what would the reaction be if a big eared daffy duck with Obama’s face had been deployed last go round? Well, we know. See, parody and silly cartoon inflatables are only acceptable to promote left wing causes. And to be honest, I’m OK with that, because when a cartoon balloon is the best argument you have, it’s more a parody of you than it is of the target.
Oh, I should add that they mentioned he has a Go Fund Me page and he is asking for 25K. He had just under $300 at the time of this mornings story.
My first reaction when I saw the photo of that giant chicken over the White House lawn was that whoever did this must be in jail right now. Or at least released after being arrested for flying something too close to the White House.
Also, wouldn’t the secret service at least attempt to shoot down anything flying into the White House lawn airspace?
Should have.
Yeah, in those movies where guys are attacking, they always have all sorts of cool ordinance behind sliding panels, and popping up out of the roof.
No need to over think it. It’s ridicule. Plain and simple. It need not make sense.
Side Note: @dougwatt, the Arab wedding reception thing….seems like a really bad idea.
Don’t all the neighbors then have bullets raining down on them, their children and their shiny cars, filling their swimming pools with lead, poisoning the peacocks, frightening those notoriously nervous Arabian polo ponies…
Correct. What goes up will come down. People have been killed on the 4th of July here in years past because of idiots firing guns into the air.
And apparently, we don’t even rate compared with New York or Puerto Rico.
Not quite! but would make a great Christmas gag gift for your liberal friends and family – add a box of Mr. Bubble…
“I won’t give you money, but I signed a petition on change.org to get you a NEA grant. I’m helping! :D “
Its always fun to laugh at these stunts, but let us be honest here. The fact that people think these gimmicks can help is a good sign. Otherwise these people might feel compelled to do more productive things like fire bombing the White House. Imagine how much change you can create with 25,000 dollars of fertilizer and dynamite? I say thank God they spend it on inflatable chickens with funny hair pieces.
Plus, that chicken looks kind of hilarious. I hope they leave it inflated for the duration of Trump’s presidency. To sit there in judgement of him. Always looking at the White House with its disapproving gaze. That thing can then go on to stare at the Trump Presidential Library and Casino. And then from now until the ending of the world a picture of that giant disapproving chicken will always be there in any depiction and description of the Trump presidency. A powerful reminder of the spirit….what ever. I got bored writing this.
If you had not mentioned the chicken on this website I would have gone my whole life without knowing it had been put up, and I think 90% of Americans will do just that.
Yep. :D
It’s sort of funny in an absurdist way, putting Trumps whispey orange pompadour on anything makes it funny. Remember Pepe?
As for any of these things holding deeper meaning, well people who believe that are dumb.
Actually, as originally conceived, it was a brilliant and insightful metaphor that required a giant inflatable kakapo with Trump hair.
But the inflatable guy told them he could only do a chicken. But he did give them 5% off, so there’s that.
I may not be able to define girl to everybody’s satisfaction, but I know one when I see one.
(Plz, no links to the “Female or Shemale?” quiz.)
I’m suspicious that these deaths are the result of firing bullets at high angles. A tumbling 160 gr bullet will have a terminal velocity of about 200 ft/s (rough estimate), and an energy of about 14 ft-lb. That’s comparable to a common spring-piston air gun, but with considerably less penetration potential. I’m sure it would hurt like heck to get hit by one, but it would take an extremely unfortunate strike to kill somebody – even a child.
I’d hate to volunteer for a Mythbusters-type testing of this theory.
They actually did test it.
And?
I couldn’t find the video, but here are the findings from Mythresults.com:
This begs the question of how far off from vertical must one shoot to maintain the bullet’s spin. Just transitioning to subsonic speeds usually causes bullets to begin tumbling. It’s hard to imagine them retaining enough spin through the tumbling to regain their normal orientation on the way down from altitude, but I guess it’s possible. Does one of the rocket engineers care to weigh in?
Keep in mind, these are the same people who think wearing an AIDS ribbon will cure the disease, and a #SaveOurGirls hashtag will rescue ISIS child slaves.
So it makes perfect sense that they are excited by paper mache puppets and inflatable chickens.
Shirts of the chicken already for sale.
I assume whoever is selling the shirts put the chicken there for advertising.
I agree it looks like ridicule, plus it makes sense to me because it looks like Chicken Little, who ran around yelling The sky is falling! The sky is falling! – raising false and ludicrous alarms. My guess is someone is ridiculing this Administration for taking seriously various issues of national security.
This is Chicken Little from the edition of the book from my childhood: