Where To Drill

In this cartoon we see a horse, turning what appears to be a wheel that will slowly drill a giant screw into a small man’s head, killing him in a very untasteful bloodbath. To the untrained eye, there is little to no practicality in a machine that only consists of giant screw, supported by interweaving metal bars. To the more educated viewer however, it is not a screw at all but a giant supercomputer using technology similar to that of Marvin the Martian’s gun, in the popular Looney Toons television program. The artist distinctly places a box in the top left corner that reads “Not Drilling,” this is important because it indicates to the reader that the horse is not actually drilling into the man’s head but performing a complex and intricate procedure.
The horse on the left hand side of the cartoon is a reference by the cartoonist to the Chinese zodiac. The horse is described by the Chinese zodiac as “very quick-witted and is right in there with you before you have had the chance to finish what you are saying: he's on to the thought in your mind even before you've expressed it.” This goes along exactly with what is shown in the cartoon, by utilizing this enormous supercomputer, the horse is able to gain access to all of the man’s thoughts and memories.
This cartoon obviously takes place in the future, considering that the horse is in the process of using a device based on the gun from a science fiction television show. Other examples to further support this are that anti-gravity technology has apparently been developed, as is indicated by the hard hat floating above the horse’s head. Another of the author’s hints that this is in fact the future is that the underground pipe infrastructure has become so crowded that we are in a situation where we must build pipes that alternate between being above and below ground in order to prevent them from interfering with other critical utilities.
There appears to be an American flag pinned to the man’s chest, however there is one crucial difference between this and an actual American flag. In the American flag there are 13 stripes to represent the 13 original colonies, on this man’s pseudo flag however, there are only 6 stripes. Does this represent 6 of the original 13 colonies? Or does it represent something else, something much, much, worse? I know for a fact that the cartoonist intended the later of these two options. In the bible, the number seven stands for completeness from God’s standpoint. Therefore, the number six, which falls short of the number seven, stands for things that fall short of God's standards. The number 666, (a triple six) represents gross imperfection from God's standpoint. The man shown in the cartoon is obviously part of a satanic extremist group, as indicated by his flag pin. Most likely this satanic extremist was captured by the horse race, due to a failed attempt to feed their leader poisoned sugar cubes from the palm of his hand. After the supercomputer has finished probing the man’s brain, he will become a slave for the horse race, doing work for them that would be impossible due to the lack of opposable thumbs.
As the horse in the picture turns the wheel, three “squeek” noises are produced. This is an allusion to a television series made by Animal Planet titled “Meerkat Manor.” This television series follows the daily activity of a group of wild meerkats, small rodent-like mammals. In this series, squeek was the smallest pup in his litter with Bubble. He survived the Commando attack and it was said the spirit of Big Cy lives on in him. The spirit of “big cy” is obviously another way of saying “big sigh,” which emphasizes the horse’s boredom in the cartoon. The horse is shown with his eyes closed, and is obviously struggling to stay awake. This is a reference to “sleeping at the wheel,” or sleeping while driving, which is a common side effect of many widely prescribed sleeping pills. One could only imagine what a meerkat would do in its sleep if it was taking prescription sleeping medication, and there were no cameras around to chronicle the intense cuteness. The artist’s message with this is more of an advertisement than anything holding political significance. The cartoonist is saying that the only way that major networks can continue to provide us with such fine entertainment as Meerkat Manor, is if we continue to support their sponsors, such as Ambien prescription sleeping medication.