The Daily Show uses Iwo Jima image to spoof Occupy Wall Street
November 17th, 2011 | History and heritage Iwo Jima Memorial Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
So I was watching The Daily Show last night, and on came a clip spoofing the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City. That’s no surprise.
The twist came when host Jon Stewart noted that the movement had vowed to take over the park, “if only to erect a monument to what was perhaps the occupiers’ biggest challenge.”
That fictional monument looked like this:
The "monument" that The Daily Show says the Occupy Wall Street movement erected in New York City. (ComedyCentral.com screen grab)
The bit got a good laugh, playing on the perceived messiness of the “facilities” at the park, where protesters have demonstrated against the state of the economy, corporate greed, unemployment and other social ills.
“They truly were,” Stewart said, “the least toileted generation.”
Five U.S. Marines and a Navy Corpsman raise the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on Feb. 23, 1945. This photograph, taken during the heart of World War II, is one of the most iconic U.S. photographs of all time. (Joe Rosenthal/Associated Press)
Plenty of people have mocked the Occupy movement, but I’ll be the fuddy duddy who asks: Did The Daily Show go too far by using the famous image of the U.S. flag-raising on Mount Suribachi?
Every few years, the iconic World War II image of five Marines and a Navy corpsman erecting the flag on Iwo Jima is altered for another purpose. Typically, doing so is blasted by veterans groups and many Marines, whose own Marine Corps War Memorial near the Pentagon replicates it.
In 2008, for example, Time magazine came under fire after it doctored the image to replace the U.S. flag with a tree for an issue about global warming.
Last year, a British Airways employees union sparked outrage by altering the photograph to promote their cause during a labor strike.
And earlier this year, a cultural group in New Jersey apologized after veterans complained about them altering the Iwo image to promote a parade honoring Indian heritage. The Indian flag was super-imposed over the American flag in that image.
Those are just a few examples. The Daily Show wasn’t promoting anything specific with their version of the image, but it certainly had an edge to it. It’s a freakin’ toilet swapped in for the American flag, after all.
The United States Marine Corps Memorial on 4th of July
July 5th, 2011 | Iwo Jima Memorial Sangin | Posted by Dan Lamothe
The United States Marine Corps War Memorial, better known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, is seen in Arlington, Va., during the Independence Day fireworks display yesterday. (Photo by Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)
For all of you who were away from the computer during the holiday weekend, welcome back. I thought it’d be a good idea to share here the Associated Press photograph posted above, as highlighted on our Line of Sight blog.
If you’re playing catch-up, it’s worth reading back a few entries to see what senior writer Gina Cavallaro and photographer Tom Brown are up to Sangin, Afghanistan.
They’re embedded with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., and received a sobering assessment of the security situation Marines there face. They also were at Forward Operating Base Jackson this weekend during a shooting incident that killed a member of the Afghanistan National Army and wounded a Marine.
Rain? What rain? Marines marched on, and so did we
July 15th, 2010 | Events Iwo Jima Memorial | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
Patriotism was soaked to the undies on Tuesday as hundreds of VIPs in cushioned chairs and hundreds more seated on blankets or standing at attention braved the rain to line the lush green field at the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arilngton, Va.
The Silent Drill Team marches in front of the Iwo Jima Memorial. Gale winds, sheets of rain and thunder and lightening cut the Sunset Parade short on July 13. (Photo by Gina Cavallaro)
It was the Marine Corps Sunset Parade, a glorious public pageant of music, colors and military precision that takes place every Tuesday during the summer.
It wasn’t raining the whole time. It started slowly then stayed steady for about 20 minutes as umbrellas popped up all around. After 10 minutes everyone was totally drenched.
A man in his work clothes — a white shirt, tie and gray pants — stood on his family’s quilted picnic blanket, his hands at his side, fingers curled, a steady stream of raindrops slipping off the end of his nose and earlobes. Clearly, a Marine.
And another guy, long hair, shorts, T-shirt, same thing. Clearly, a Marine.
And the rain kept coming and no one moved as the band played a retro medley of 1960s tunes like Age of Aquarius and Hair. The guest of honor, Rep. Madeleine Bordallo, the delegate from Guam, stuck it out like a champ in her spiffy white pants suit and coiffed hair, unfazed.
And the band played on.
Who knew that the real soaker was on the way. It was as if a giant swat of wind had come smashing down on the open area, gray-green sky, trees whipping, sheets and sheets and sheets of rain. Truly dangerous, when you think about it.
Only then did the announcer elegantly conclude the ceremony and people scrambled off the field, looking for shelter that wasn’t there. Children cried, women’s shoes came off and men did what they could to shelter their families with their arms… their wet arms.
Everyone fled but the Marines on the field. They concluded the ceremony in their own way, as they would have if the sun had been shining brightly.
I can’t wait to go again.