Jokey Smurf is a Terrorist

I remember getting gas in West Virginia, and on the pump of all places was a sticker featuring a picture of Jokey Smurf and the words, "Jokey Smurf is a Terrorist." This got me thinking about humor and affective energy. The Jokester is also the Trickster is also the Abbie Hoffman dissident, and you can see where I'm going with this. Sudden outbursts of affect are becoming, it seems, more politically significant. Take Howard Dean and his "unpresidential" hooting. Not acceptable in a time of terror.

Well, now we have another icon for the age. An alien, a middle finger, and an ad prank. Looks like a bomb. Implicates itself into the signs of terrorism, however accidentally. Winds up a public relations circus. This is the place where performance art and guerilla advertising meet. This is also the place where advertising and terrorism meet (if terrorism wasn't already a form of advertising and vice versa). And certainly, if we are to believe in the recent buzz about the death of advertising and the rise of public relations, then we have our man. And however much contempt I have for advertising's nothing-sacred approach these days, I have to say that this press conference was freaking hilarious. Give us a circus, we'll give you a circus. Everyone has fun. A big obscene orgy of public relations, tabloid journalism, and the politics of fear. Feedback loops collapsing into black holes of infinite density.

Watch this.