Sketch comedy

PM’s ‘bomb’ explodes online

Netanyahu’s cartoonishly simple diagram inspires spoofs

An edited photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivering his speech to the United Nations on Thursday depicts the prime minister as the bumbling cartoon character Wile E. Coyote.
An edited photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivering his speech to the United Nations on Thursday depicts the prime minister as the bumbling cartoon character Wile E. Coyote.

As quick as Road Runner racing through the desert, a small army of photo editing copycats have turned the image of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presenting a cartoon bomb diagram to the United Nations General Assembly into a spoof of the Israeli leader.

Playing on classic Looney Tunes tales imagery, the mocking commentators presented Netanyahu as the bumbling Wile E. Coyote. The simplistic diagram that the prime minister meant as a stark reminder of the impending danger of an Iranian nuclear weapon instead drew comparisons to the bird-brained drawings of the Acme Corporation that never failed to disappoint Wile E. Coyote.

In one image, Netanyahu’s face is blackened by the “bomb” that has blown up in his face — much like the gambit has, at least in the eyes of political opponents back home in Israel.

Still others exchanged the cartoonishly drawn bomb with popular Israeli snack products, portraying the prime minister as complaining that the packages were mostly filled with air rather than depicting the point at which Iran’s nuclear capabilities put it beyond the reach of western powers to stop its drive toward a nuclear warhead.

Another commentator noted the irony of Netanyahu spending the first half of his speech remarking on Israeli ingenuity and technology, only to present a paper diagram that most schoolchildren could recreate.

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