Morning Joe Gets Antsy

Morning Joke

Deep Space Homer is the 15th episode of the fifth season of The Simpsons in which Homer goes to space. At some point during the adventure, Homer accidentally releases some ants that were aboard for a space study or something like that. Unfortunately, this happens rightbefore Kent Brockman, Springfield’s news anchor, conducts a live stream interview with the astronauts and Homer, whom he refers to as averagenaut. Brockman’s first image of the live stream is a close-up of an ant, making it appear to be a giant ant. Kent Brockman, who’s a horrible journalist, quickly assumes giant space ants have taken over the space shuttle.

Ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've just lost the picture, but what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, 'CONQUERED' if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthmen or merely enslave them. But, one thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants…will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

This bit is considered by many fans to be in the top ten of Simpson’s moments.

After being educated that the spacecraft was NOT conquered by giant space ants, Brockman returns to report:

Well, this reporter was... possibly a little hasty earlier and would like to... reaffirm his allegiance to this country and its human president. It may not be perfect, but it's still the best government we have. For now. [notices "HAIL ANTS" sign taped up, tears it down] Oh, yes, by the way, the spacecraft still in extreme danger, may not make it back, attempting risky reentry, blah blah blah blah blah blah. We'll see you after the movie.

If Donald Trump was a giant space ant about to conquer the Earth and either consume or make us toil in their underground sugar mines, Morning Joe would be displaying a giant “Hail ants” sign behind the heads of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

After years of being tough critics of Donald Trump (Mike once kicked Kelleyanne Conway off the show for lying and banned her), Joe and Mika went scrambling down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring and by ring, I mean his ass.

Smoochy, smoochy, smoochy, smooch.

Joe and Mika know Trump well enough to know that kissing his ass and showering with praise works. It’s the same trick Kim Jong Un and Putin use. They described their visit to mend fences with Trump. Scarborough told colleagues in a private conversation that having “face time with a world leader is a no-brainer.”

Joe is a no-brainer.

I understand that Morning Joe is partly driven by personality and Joe and Mika are extremely pompous and narcissistic, but a news show, even with a talk-show format, shouldn’t just be about the hosts, but mostly about the news. When you watch the show, everyone’s kissing Joe’s ass. It’s weird. They once spent 30 minutes talking about Joe’s “music.”

Let’s say Donald Trump read my cartoons (he probably doesn’t because they’re not on TV and there are words in them). If he shit-tweeted about me, even to go so far as to say blood was running down my face from my sloppy facelift (he did this to Mika), I wouldn’t try to become his friend. I wouldn’t try to become his enemy either. I would try to do my job. It’s not my problem if he can’t handle it. It’s not my job to make him like or hate me.

If you are a journalist, damn the torpedos and do your job.

According to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, Joe and Mika were afraid they could face governmental and legal harassment from the incoming Trump administration (sic). Even if they’re right, and they probably are especially with Matt Gaetz leading the Department of Going After Trump-Hating Vermin, they should do their jobs. They have an opportunity to stand up for journalism, stand against tyranny, fascism, and cult worship, and be American heroes. Instead, they chose to eschew integrity and dignity and be ass-kissing cowards. Shame!

Trump has promised to go after his enemies, calling them “vermin.” He’s called the press the “enemy of the American people.” I had a conversation with a MAGAt last night who told me that the media has “betrayed” America by attacking Trump, which is how she described honest reporting about him. Supporting Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Elon posted on X/Twitter that America needs Gaetz to “put powerful bad actors in prison.” Last week, Steve Bannon warned MSNBC staffers to “preserve your documents” while predicting Gaetz’s Justice Department would pursue cases against them. Bannon, who just got out of prison, put his sites on MSNBC analyst Andrew Weissmann and anchor Ari Melber, saying “You young producers” better “lawyer up.”

Gary Varvel, who is shockingly and incredibly stupid, drew a cartoon, forgetting that Joe Biden is still president, with him asking Trump for a pardon. Gare Bear, a hypocritical religious zealot and Trump sycophant, also forgets that Joe Biden hasn’t broken any laws, but Trump has. Gary and others at the MAGA Kool-Aid teat think people like Biden and Hillary Clinton may be in legal trouble without ever explaining for what reasons. For insulting Trump, running against him, the gall of defeating him? Also, who stabbed Trump in the back in the cartoon? Does Gary not understand the analogy?

While some at MSNBC believe you have to kiss Trump’s ass to gain access to him, lawyer and MSNBC host Katie Phang posted on social media right after Joe and Mika returned from the MAGA-Lardo ass summit, “Normalizing Trump is a bad idea. Period.”

Monday night, Democratic political consultant Chuck Rocha said on CNN, “I think Joe and Mika just don’t want to be audited.”

Media critic Jeff Jarvis said on the same show that the “bended knee” was “a betrayal of the staff at MSNBC who do still criticize Donald Trump, who now feel that they are in some jeopardy because of that, because he has threatened the press.” Exactly. Trump and his goons may go after other anchors on MSNBC for not falling in line like Joe and Mika.

This couple (they’re married) put themselves over their colleagues. Are they willing to finger them to the Gaetz’led DOJ, like Brockman was willing to do for the giant space ants?

Joe posted a link on X/Twitter to a Fox News story about him and Mika meeting with Trump and his praise, “I very much appreciated the fact that they wanted to have open communication.” Joe was highlighting the quote, as if Trump’s praise validates the trip to MAGA-Lardo, but took it down after blowback from other journalists and fans of MSNBC. That was wrong to do.

Joe, who may not think of himself as a journalist, violated journalism ethics by deleting the post. He’s erasing history to save his own ass. He should be reprimanded by MSNBC for deleting the post and for his and Mika’s desires to have the taste of Trump’s ass in their mouths.

Joe and Mika should understand that it’s not all about them. They’re not even owning their past criticism of Trump. Is Joe going to try to delete that too?

Joe went on the air and defended himself, saying, “We were flooded with phone calls from people all day, literally around the world, very positive, very supportive, going ‘I understand what you did,’ etcetera,” That’s Trumpian, like when he said many people are saying it was the “perfect phone call” or “best speech ever.” Scarborough is even using Trumpian talk. What the fuck was in that Kool-Aid?

Joe and Mika went to Trump and didn’t interview him. If they went to his home, talked to him, and didn’t interview, then there was no other purpose for the visit. If the shithead twins can’t understand that, then they both need a crash course in journalism before they resume kissing their own asses for three hours every morning on a national talk show.

And, this is why I don’t watch Morning Joe. Even Kent Brockman would be embarrassed by Mika and Joe.

Hail ants!

Creative note: This cartoon has five layers. I hate using more than two layers while my buddy and colleague, Phil Hands, kinda has a boner for them. I’m going to find out soon if Phil’s reading my blog.

Also, I know a lot of readers won’t get this cartoon. I don’t think any of my proofers did. One amateur cartoonist asked me to explain it but I told him that I don’t explain my cartoons. Also, if you want to be a good cartoonist, you gotta be able to understand references to The Simpsons. But even knowing a lot of readers won’t get this, I said “damn the torpedos” and went ahead with it. If nothing else, it’s for the special kids…the ones who are as weird as I am. They should all get mental help.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse with a voiceover:

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