You know, now that I’m a parent I think I’m supposed to be changing my attitudes about the appropriate response to Authority. Happily, that doesn’t seem to be happening, and I still seem to think that the more Authority is asserted, the more the correct response becomes mockery.
(Here’s my intellectual pretension for the day: Thomas More once wrote, “The devil … the proud sprite … cannot endure to be mocked.” Laughter is one thing that Authority, like the devil, can’t take.)
Which is why this series of photos of some wonderful trompe l’oeil work by well-known prankster Banksy cheer me so. The images would be great on any surface, but when you combine the pictures with the context of that particular wall the are even better.
Whenever I get to thinking about humour as the weakness of Authority, I think of a perfect 6-page wordless comic that I read when I was a kid which completely captured the idea. A little bit of work with the internet found me the comic, and some scans of the pages, so I’ll present it here so you can share it with me. The strip is entitled “Mime”, by Will Brown, and was printed in Epic Illustrated #17, back in the days when Marvel actually published innovative, adult work occasionally.
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