Banksy’s spoof video of Syrian rebels gets panned by a Middle East satirist
The street artist Banksy created a spoof video of the Syrian rebels where they celebrate shooting down an enemy plane, only to discover it’s actually Dumbo they’ve shot down.
The mysterious British graffiti artist known as Banksy has struck again.
But this time, his canvas isn't a building's wall, but an online video. His new video is a spoof of Syrian rebel videos featuring lots of yelling and what seems to be the shooting down of a government plane. Except in Banksy's video, instead of a warplane, it turns out they've killed the Disney character Dumbo the Elephant.
Lebanese satirist Karl Sharro, better known by the name of his blog Karl reMarks, wasn't impressed. Sharro is a supporter of the Syrian uprising, but says that's not the reason he objects to Banksy's video.
"I think he's taking Boy George's complex message 'war, war, stupid' and oversimplifying it," Sharro said.
Sharro says it's Banksy's simplistic message that irks him.
"I'm more offended as a satirist, rather than someone from that part of the world, at the shallowness of the message," Sharro said.
Banksy has typically positioned himself on the left with his art. But, Sharro says the release of this video exposes that the left cannot come up with a coherent line on Syria.
"To treat it with this shallowness exposes (an attitude of) 'Let's do something without any depth or thought to it and that's enough.' But that's not really enough," Sharro added.
(The video below is Banksy's parody of the Syrian rebels featuring Dumbo the elephant.)
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly quoted Sharro quoting Boy George's complex message. Sharro says Banksy is oversimplifying Boy George's "complex message 'war, war, stupid.'"
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