This picture humorously represents the cartoonist’s sarcastic idea toward Mitt Romney’s tax returns issues in his presidential election campaign. Romney’s financial situation is not well-shown as he only released his last two years of tax returns documents during the election. Traditionally, U.S. presidential candidates are required to reveal their past ten years tax returns and other financial documents in order to gain public support.
In the picture, the surface of Mars, the formula of Coca-Cola, the whereabouts of Big Foot, and the contents of Area 51, which have long remained mysterious and we are unfamiliar with, are compared with Mitt Romney’s tax returns. The powerful statement at the bottom clearly teases the low transparency of his tax returns. Even though we have very limited information about these four things, we still have better knowledge on them than Romney’s financial situations in the past. The cartoonist exaggeratedly uses these four objects to show the sarcasm of his mysterious personal income and history of financial activities.
For me, the 4 mysterious subjects become the focal point of this cartoon. People's eyes will move from photo to photo and finally see the statement below. This is a very good placement because people first do not know the cartoonist's intention. After reading the statement, they can totally understand what the cartoonist want to say. This cartoon is very powerful to express a simple idea. This is a perfect example to show that a picture is better than a thousand words.
Overall, we can easily understand the sense of humor that the cartoonist tries to express in this cartoon. Although we do not know much about U.S. politics, we still get it and remember the meaning of the cartoon because it is represented in a creative way. After reading the picture, we will definitely ask – What is Mitt Romney hiding?
Source: http://www.gocomics.com/stuartcarlson/2012/08/17
