July 22, 2025 • 17 mins
Watch the full video here --->> https://youtu.be/TBVevzoMgxA
When artist Obi Arisukwu dropped this Black Superman comic strip, MAGA lost their minds. The comic? A five-panel moral mic drop: Superman sees a man falling — then sees the MAGA hat — and re-buttons his shirt. No cape. No save. Just a question: “Would he have saved me?” Elon’s Twitter (X) flagged it for “hateful content.”
The post was visibility-limited — censored. So Obi reposted it. The result? It went double viral. Over 2.2 million views, 86,000+ likes, and a digital firestorm that exposed the real hypocrisy behind "free speech" rhetoric. We sit down with Obi to break down the comic, the backlash, the cultural moment around Superman 2025, and what happens when truth goes mythic. 🎨 Follow Obi and support his work:
👉 Website: https://www.obiaris.com 👉 Twitter/X & Instagram: @ObiAris
Support the Benjanin Dixon Show by becoming a Patron: Patreon.com/thebpdshow
When artist Obi Arisukwu dropped this Black Superman comic strip, MAGA lost their minds. The comic? A five-panel moral mic drop: Superman sees a man falling — then sees the MAGA hat — and re-buttons his shirt. No cape. No save. Just a question: “Would he have saved me?” Elon’s Twitter (X) flagged it for “hateful content.”
The post was visibility-limited — censored. So Obi reposted it. The result? It went double viral. Over 2.2 million views, 86,000+ likes, and a digital firestorm that exposed the real hypocrisy behind "free speech" rhetoric. We sit down with Obi to break down the comic, the backlash, the cultural moment around Superman 2025, and what happens when truth goes mythic. 🎨 Follow Obi and support his work:
👉 Website: https://www.obiaris.com 👉 Twitter/X & Instagram: @ObiAris
Support the Benjanin Dixon Show by becoming a Patron: Patreon.com/thebpdshow
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Black Superman hears the screams a man is falling and
his life is in danger. Our hero unbuttons his shirt,
revealing the iconic s on his chest. Black Superman is
ready to save the day, but then he sees who
it is that's falling, a Donald Trump supporter, still wearing
(00:20):
a Maga hat. This isn't just a comic strip. It's
an essential question detonated in just five frames. What happens
when the hero recognizes that the person needing to be
saved is someone who wouldn't save him, someone who would
rather see him deported, discredited, or dead.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
This is Obi R.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Rusuku's comic, and in those five quiet panels, it holds
the exact moral fracture at the center of the latest
Superman blockbuster success and the firestorm it unleashed. The immigrant hero,
the darker skin, and the savior, the outsider now asked
to serve the very empire that is attacking other outsiders.
(01:07):
But this isn't just about one cartoon, one comic strip,
or one film. It's about the structural pattern they both
activated and revealed, about the myths that an empire tells itself,
and the fault lines that reveal mythic pressure points. It's
about the refusal to play savior for systems that wouldn't
spit on you if you were on fire. And yet
(01:29):
the moment Black Superman sees the red hat of the bigot,
he re buttons the shirt and the cape stays folded.
We speak with the creator of the comic that broke
the minds and exposed the hypocrisy of the very people
who cry free speech and comedy is legal again. That is,
of course, until the joke was on them. MAGA launched
(01:51):
a campaign to get the comic strip removed from social media,
just like their campaign labeling the latest Superman film woke,
trying to cancel it before it even came out. But
judging by the box office numbers and judging by the
views ob Rusuku pulled after Elon's Twitter flagged his work
as hate speech, it's clear what the enemy meant for
(02:13):
evil has once again turned around for good.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The Benjamin Dition Show is only possible when listener's important.
Go to Petreon, dot comcast VPD show which report The
Benjamin Iction Show.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Meet ob r Resuku, the first generation Nigerian American cartoonist,
animator and storyteller whose work blends sharp cultural commentary with
unmistakable heart. This comic was just five panels, a black man,
a Superman emblem, and a decision save the man falling
from the building or don't once he sees the man
(02:58):
is wearing a maga hat. Obi posted it on x
and it immediately took off with over one million views
and thirty three thousand likes before Elon's platform slapped it
with a hateful conduct label and Shadow banned the post.
So Obi reposted it that second upload two point two
million views, eighty six thousand likes, and over six thousand retweets.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I knew it was gonna be a banger because once
I First of all, when I wrote it, I was laughing.
So then when I finished drawing it, I was laughing.
And I know most of the time when.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I laughed on my own like when I laughed a
loud and my.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Own drawings, knowing that I already know what the drawing is,
already made, the thumbnail, wrote it, sketched it out, you know,
all that kind of stuff, and I still laugh at it.
That's when I go, oh, this is gonna be great.
So when created comic strip, I knew that Superman was
coming out. That's my favorite superhero. I'm really I was
really excited about it. So when I knew it was
coming out, I said, Okay, what can I do to
(03:56):
make this comic strip about Superman?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
But also lad and so allowed.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
My comic strips, I try to do it where the
punchline is really really strong. I'm about to get to
a phase of my comic strips where they do feel
more Sunday comic like. However, certain things like this one,
I was like, how do I really make it hit?
And I was like, if Superman does the opposite of
(04:21):
we think he does, especially with knowing my audience and
knowing who my audience likes and does like, I felt
like the best surprise would be for him not to
save somebody with a Maga hat.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
On, because we all know men will save anybody, but
this Superman.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
This Superman sees the Maga hat on the man he
could save, and he chooses not to move. This single
act of stillness triggered a firestorm, not because it was cruel,
there's a comic strip, after all, but because it represents
the denial of a moral performance that oppressed people are
(05:08):
always expected to put on Obie as an artist who
has chased his dreams into animation and storytelling, understands what
it means to be asked to save the people who
mocked your dreams then blamed you for succeeding. His comic
book doesn't scream, It whispers a question, are we still
obligated to rescue the people trying to burn us? And
(05:31):
that question is blasphemous to those who believe in the
supremacy of their own fragility.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I know when I got a lot of blowback from
this comic strip, from the Maga side of things, and
they were like supermansas everybody, and even at night as mac,
I have comic book people saying I honestly, you're saying,
but it's not the cutminutes in this, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Like, go back to my comic strips.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
My comic strips aren't about, you know, following the rules
and stuff like that. That's part of the jump to
part of the JOm is doing things that are out
the door, or doing things that are unexpected. A had
a comic strip where I was at them and I
had Eve next to me and we're naked, so we're
in the garden even and we're naked, and Even was like,
let's go get the apple back there.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I say, now, I don't think we sugart.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
The apple's not right, this and this, and all of
a sudden usher out of nowhere possible on the scene
and start singing the eve and he was like.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Oh my god, it's us shirt.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
And I'm like, you know what, let's eat that out right,
Like that's not that didn't happen in the Bible, right,
Adam tell like.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
None of stuff happened, and so that's just part of
humor things.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
But again, going back to the Maga base, they condition
it out, but they can't take it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And they and they saw this as.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
An insult to them, right, because it hits them hard
that people don't like them, right.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It hits them really hard that people do not like them.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
This is a phenomenon that we see everywhere and it's
something that I want to title the burden of virtue loop.
It is the belief that oppressed people must always remain kind,
always remain peaceful, always be patient, even when the powerful
are gleefully cruel. It is the trap of being asked
(07:21):
to be the bigger person by people who never made
space for your full humanity to begin with. Obai's comic
punctures this logic simply by saying no, a refusal that
isn't hate, but discern it. It's in this moment that
we see the true hypocrisy of privileged people. We see
(07:44):
the hypocrisy indeed of empire itself. They absolutely want our strength,
they want us to be strong, but only when it
serves them, and only if it saves them.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
In their original post, maybe you can see it because
it got flagged. But if you see the things of
again saying Superman don't have a father, I see, and
that's why Superman can be black and being called a
monkey and the man is steal but still is spelled
xt e a L. And then people call me the
INN word. People are stilling out the N word.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
It was just and I was like, and I was like,
this is why we don't like y'all huff right, because
this is the first thing y'all go towards, especially when
you're against something and something that's racial, and they do
it trying to trigger us.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I don't get triggered by it, because again, I know
y'all gonna say it to my face.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I know you won't like somebody even created a comic
strip mocking my Clark Kent character and with Superman is
holding the same Mega guy in his arms while he's
kneeling on my neck like I'm George Floyd. I didn't
and I didn't want to post it and say, hey,
look at this, this was going on. I don't want
(09:00):
to give those people a voice, because that's what they want.
But what did What I didn't notice in the image
is that Superman says something in that comic strip where
he's like kneeling on my neck, and it's in Spanish,
and that are whatever, whatever it is, I believe with Spanish.
But that threw me off. I said, I triggered you
(09:21):
so much that you made a comic strip about me
and you're not even in America.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
That made no sense.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
But I'm happy that I got, you know, back to
your computer to draw and I inspired that, right. I'm
happy for the arts, but that just really really puzzled me.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Comedy is legal again, Elon Musk tweets, but only when
it's punching down. Obie's comic was satire. It used exaggeration, reversal,
and amazing timing, all classic tools of the comedic craft.
But because the punchline landed on maga, not on trans people,
not on immigrants, not on the left up, it was
(10:00):
called hate Maga. Memes about drowning liberals and helicopters circulate freely,
but a cartoon about a hero choosing not to save
a racist that's a bridge too far. What Obi proved
is that laughter is welcomed so long as it comes
at the expense of the marginalized, and so long as
it buys you into the dominant crowd. Obie, like all
(10:24):
great comedians, didn't just try to make people laugh. He
made them see. And the people who hate being seen
will always mistake clarity for cruelty.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Especially with all the bitchy all that they spit. And
I was like, this is the thing that gets flagged.
And even in my video I had to show example.
I shot SpongeBob. I shot SpongeBob and it's blood squirting
out his pores. I shot SpongeBob right, and because that
comes from about me still in the crabbit Patty formula,
(10:57):
and I'm like, out of all the things that I've
this is what gets flagged. And I was like, of course,
it gets flagged. As Elon Musk it's what he wants
to know. He boosts the voice of the right wing
right because we've seen where people have been called the
N word, and not even in my comments, but we've
seen where other people been called in word and other
(11:17):
things happened, and they try to flag it and acts like, nah,
that's not that doesn't violate our guideline. But this guy
falling in a cartoon did it.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Obi's comic didn't contain a slur, it didn't depict violence,
it wasn't threatening, but it got flagged for hateful content.
Why because it exposed the truth too plainly and too
cleanly and too close to the surface. That's what systems
of power called hate, anything that exposes the contradictions they're
(11:50):
trying to hide. Obi's art wasn't flagged because it violated
the rules. It was flagged because it revealed who the
rules actually protect. And by flagging the comic, Elon's Twitter
tried to kill the moment quietly, but when Obi reposted it,
naming the censorship directly, the second version went twice as viral.
(12:14):
Sometimes in the digital age, when you attempt to suppress something,
you inadvertently put a spotlight on.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It after my comshore got flagged and they got blocked.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
The very next day, I said, hey, I posted this
persensitive ass maga got it flags.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So you justn't see it.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Soon reposting it, have a nice day, and I end
up getting eighty six thousand likes, and so I was
like appreciating because I was able to use that as
fuel to get people to see why did this get flagged?
And now it's kind of like, I appreciate it because
with doing that again, a couple more thousand.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Followers got more impressions than this.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And I'm also to a point where I'm not really
worried as much about following and things like that, because
I told myself that I wanted to get a certain
amount of following, especially like on Instagram, in order to
sell a cartoon project.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And once I did it, I kind of like fell
back on it.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And then I started seeing that social media and it
plays a game, which you were one. They want to
make it a full time job that you're on here,
and also they restrict things and they push things, they
change the algorithm up, all that kind of stuff, to
the point that I'm like, I don't me personally I
don't want to play the game anymore. I just want
to share my art and share my work. If the
(13:30):
followings do come from it, that's great. I'm more so
just like hey, I want you to enjoy this and
see what I can I can get out of it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, Overcoming adversity is something that obar Risuku is very
familiar with, and considering all that he's been through, dealing
with Maga was light work for the brother.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
What I realized, I honestually had to come to Jesus
meeting about a couple of months ago, because back in
what was it, twenty twenty one, I believe I suffered
ten of nights in my drawn head, so I couldn't
draw for the entire year. So for people who follow
my work, they realized as a gap of no artwork, illustrations.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I couldn't draw anything. I could barely write.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I had to hire somebody as a writing assistant to
like write what I vocalized to m that's how bad
it was.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I couldn't even type, I could barely drive a car.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And so now that I recover it, I'm about eighty
five percent.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're allowed me to draw these things that I.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Was trying to become the best artist write my mindset,
I was like, let me become the best artists ever
kind of thing, and when it's kind of hard, we
have so many things going on, you can't really dedicate
yourself towards their craft. But I also realized that I
meet a lot of fantastic artists. I follow a lot
of fantastic artists who I personally believe they're way better
(14:52):
than me on every level, all the strengths. But many
of those artists aren't successful, right They're still struggling to
make it. They're still doing things that they because they're
struggling to make it, they undervalue their worst And I
realize that success doesn't come from being the best unless
(15:13):
you're an athlete, right when you're creative.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Honestly, success comes from.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Being the biggest, whether it's music, whether it's acting, whether
it's like I said, artistry, what photography, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Because we've we've seen we've seen.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Musicians or artists and actors who aren't that great, but
they are the biggest stars in the world, right are
they the biggest whatever in the world? And they have
to shave my mentality and saying like hey, instead of
trying to be the best?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
How can I become one of the biggest.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
And with that being said, I'm like, Okay, do I
continue to pack up my craft to get stronger? Yes,
I do, but I'm no longer in the mind state
of Okay, this has to be the best piece of
art work or I have to be the best artist
in the world. I have to realize how to become
the biggest. And I realized that because my art is
good enough, I lean a lot on my creativity and
my storytelling. And I think that's what kind of separates
(16:08):
me from a lot of artists.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Who are struggling. Again, They're great, They're fantastic.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
It's just one of those things that we got to
kind of spitsh our mentality. Especially as creatives, you want
to be known to create the creative force behind you.
But Sally, this world doesn't value creativity as much as
we wanted to.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Ob breaking the brains and the frames of Maga one
comic strip at a time. This is how you can
support his work.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
If you want to follow me support my work, you
can check me out on obi rist that's Obi A
r I S.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's my Twitter, that's my Instagram.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
It's also my my TikTok life, follow share those kinds
of things.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'm not asking anybody to buy anything. I'm not doing
those things. I just want you to share and enjoy
my work. It's pretty much it.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Gets you.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Show is only possible.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Listener is important. Go to Patreon dot com clast VPD
show and support the Benjamin Dition Show
Black Superman hears the screams a man is falling and
his life is in danger. Our hero unbuttons his shirt,
revealing the iconic s on his chest. Black Superman is
ready to save the day, but then he sees who
it is that's falling, a Donald Trump supporter, still wearing
(00:20):
a Maga hat. This isn't just a comic strip. It's
an essential question detonated in just five frames. What happens
when the hero recognizes that the person needing to be
saved is someone who wouldn't save him, someone who would
rather see him deported, discredited, or dead.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
This is Obi R.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Rusuku's comic, and in those five quiet panels, it holds
the exact moral fracture at the center of the latest
Superman blockbuster success and the firestorm it unleashed. The immigrant hero,
the darker skin, and the savior, the outsider now asked
to serve the very empire that is attacking other outsiders.
(01:07):
But this isn't just about one cartoon, one comic strip,
or one film. It's about the structural pattern they both
activated and revealed, about the myths that an empire tells itself,
and the fault lines that reveal mythic pressure points. It's
about the refusal to play savior for systems that wouldn't
spit on you if you were on fire. And yet
(01:29):
the moment Black Superman sees the red hat of the bigot,
he re buttons the shirt and the cape stays folded.
We speak with the creator of the comic that broke
the minds and exposed the hypocrisy of the very people
who cry free speech and comedy is legal again. That is,
of course, until the joke was on them. MAGA launched
(01:51):
a campaign to get the comic strip removed from social media,
just like their campaign labeling the latest Superman film woke,
trying to cancel it before it even came out. But
judging by the box office numbers and judging by the
views ob Rusuku pulled after Elon's Twitter flagged his work
as hate speech, it's clear what the enemy meant for
(02:13):
evil has once again turned around for good.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The Benjamin Dition Show is only possible when listener's important.
Go to Petreon, dot comcast VPD show which report The
Benjamin Iction Show.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Meet ob r Resuku, the first generation Nigerian American cartoonist,
animator and storyteller whose work blends sharp cultural commentary with
unmistakable heart. This comic was just five panels, a black man,
a Superman emblem, and a decision save the man falling
from the building or don't once he sees the man
(02:58):
is wearing a maga hat. Obi posted it on x
and it immediately took off with over one million views
and thirty three thousand likes before Elon's platform slapped it
with a hateful conduct label and Shadow banned the post.
So Obi reposted it that second upload two point two
million views, eighty six thousand likes, and over six thousand retweets.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
I knew it was gonna be a banger because once
I First of all, when I wrote it, I was laughing.
So then when I finished drawing it, I was laughing.
And I know most of the time when.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I laughed on my own like when I laughed a
loud and my.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Own drawings, knowing that I already know what the drawing is,
already made, the thumbnail, wrote it, sketched it out, you know,
all that kind of stuff, and I still laugh at it.
That's when I go, oh, this is gonna be great.
So when created comic strip, I knew that Superman was
coming out. That's my favorite superhero. I'm really I was
really excited about it. So when I knew it was
coming out, I said, Okay, what can I do to
(03:56):
make this comic strip about Superman?
Speaker 2 (03:58):
But also lad and so allowed.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
My comic strips, I try to do it where the
punchline is really really strong. I'm about to get to
a phase of my comic strips where they do feel
more Sunday comic like. However, certain things like this one,
I was like, how do I really make it hit?
And I was like, if Superman does the opposite of
(04:21):
we think he does, especially with knowing my audience and
knowing who my audience likes and does like, I felt
like the best surprise would be for him not to
save somebody with a Maga hat.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
On, because we all know men will save anybody, but
this Superman.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
This Superman sees the Maga hat on the man he
could save, and he chooses not to move. This single
act of stillness triggered a firestorm, not because it was cruel,
there's a comic strip, after all, but because it represents
the denial of a moral performance that oppressed people are
(05:08):
always expected to put on Obie as an artist who
has chased his dreams into animation and storytelling, understands what
it means to be asked to save the people who
mocked your dreams then blamed you for succeeding. His comic
book doesn't scream, It whispers a question, are we still
obligated to rescue the people trying to burn us? And
(05:31):
that question is blasphemous to those who believe in the
supremacy of their own fragility.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
I know when I got a lot of blowback from
this comic strip, from the Maga side of things, and
they were like supermansas everybody, and even at night as mac,
I have comic book people saying I honestly, you're saying,
but it's not the cutminutes in this, and I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Like, go back to my comic strips.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
My comic strips aren't about, you know, following the rules
and stuff like that. That's part of the jump to
part of the JOm is doing things that are out
the door, or doing things that are unexpected. A had
a comic strip where I was at them and I
had Eve next to me and we're naked, so we're
in the garden even and we're naked, and Even was like,
let's go get the apple back there.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I say, now, I don't think we sugart.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
The apple's not right, this and this, and all of
a sudden usher out of nowhere possible on the scene
and start singing the eve and he was like.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Oh my god, it's us shirt.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
And I'm like, you know what, let's eat that out right,
Like that's not that didn't happen in the Bible, right,
Adam tell like.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
None of stuff happened, and so that's just part of
humor things.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
But again, going back to the Maga base, they condition
it out, but they can't take it.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And they and they saw this as.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
An insult to them, right, because it hits them hard
that people don't like them, right.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It hits them really hard that people do not like them.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
This is a phenomenon that we see everywhere and it's
something that I want to title the burden of virtue loop.
It is the belief that oppressed people must always remain kind,
always remain peaceful, always be patient, even when the powerful
are gleefully cruel. It is the trap of being asked
(07:21):
to be the bigger person by people who never made
space for your full humanity to begin with. Obai's comic
punctures this logic simply by saying no, a refusal that
isn't hate, but discern it. It's in this moment that
we see the true hypocrisy of privileged people. We see
(07:44):
the hypocrisy indeed of empire itself. They absolutely want our strength,
they want us to be strong, but only when it
serves them, and only if it saves them.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
In their original post, maybe you can see it because
it got flagged. But if you see the things of
again saying Superman don't have a father, I see, and
that's why Superman can be black and being called a
monkey and the man is steal but still is spelled
xt e a L. And then people call me the
INN word. People are stilling out the N word.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
It was just and I was like, and I was like,
this is why we don't like y'all huff right, because
this is the first thing y'all go towards, especially when
you're against something and something that's racial, and they do
it trying to trigger us.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I don't get triggered by it, because again, I know
y'all gonna say it to my face.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
I know you won't like somebody even created a comic
strip mocking my Clark Kent character and with Superman is
holding the same Mega guy in his arms while he's
kneeling on my neck like I'm George Floyd. I didn't
and I didn't want to post it and say, hey,
look at this, this was going on. I don't want
(09:00):
to give those people a voice, because that's what they want.
But what did What I didn't notice in the image
is that Superman says something in that comic strip where
he's like kneeling on my neck, and it's in Spanish,
and that are whatever, whatever it is, I believe with Spanish.
But that threw me off. I said, I triggered you
(09:21):
so much that you made a comic strip about me
and you're not even in America.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
That made no sense.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
But I'm happy that I got, you know, back to
your computer to draw and I inspired that, right. I'm
happy for the arts, but that just really really puzzled me.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Comedy is legal again, Elon Musk tweets, but only when
it's punching down. Obie's comic was satire. It used exaggeration, reversal,
and amazing timing, all classic tools of the comedic craft.
But because the punchline landed on maga, not on trans people,
not on immigrants, not on the left up, it was
(10:00):
called hate Maga. Memes about drowning liberals and helicopters circulate freely,
but a cartoon about a hero choosing not to save
a racist that's a bridge too far. What Obi proved
is that laughter is welcomed so long as it comes
at the expense of the marginalized, and so long as
it buys you into the dominant crowd. Obie, like all
(10:24):
great comedians, didn't just try to make people laugh. He
made them see. And the people who hate being seen
will always mistake clarity for cruelty.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
Especially with all the bitchy all that they spit. And
I was like, this is the thing that gets flagged.
And even in my video I had to show example.
I shot SpongeBob. I shot SpongeBob and it's blood squirting
out his pores. I shot SpongeBob right, and because that
comes from about me still in the crabbit Patty formula,
(10:57):
and I'm like, out of all the things that I've
this is what gets flagged. And I was like, of course,
it gets flagged. As Elon Musk it's what he wants
to know. He boosts the voice of the right wing
right because we've seen where people have been called the
N word, and not even in my comments, but we've
seen where other people been called in word and other
(11:17):
things happened, and they try to flag it and acts like, nah,
that's not that doesn't violate our guideline. But this guy
falling in a cartoon did it.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Obi's comic didn't contain a slur, it didn't depict violence,
it wasn't threatening, but it got flagged for hateful content.
Why because it exposed the truth too plainly and too
cleanly and too close to the surface. That's what systems
of power called hate, anything that exposes the contradictions they're
(11:50):
trying to hide. Obi's art wasn't flagged because it violated
the rules. It was flagged because it revealed who the
rules actually protect. And by flagging the comic, Elon's Twitter
tried to kill the moment quietly, but when Obi reposted it,
naming the censorship directly, the second version went twice as viral.
(12:14):
Sometimes in the digital age, when you attempt to suppress something,
you inadvertently put a spotlight on.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
It after my comshore got flagged and they got blocked.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
The very next day, I said, hey, I posted this
persensitive ass maga got it flags.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
So you justn't see it.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
Soon reposting it, have a nice day, and I end
up getting eighty six thousand likes, and so I was
like appreciating because I was able to use that as
fuel to get people to see why did this get flagged?
And now it's kind of like, I appreciate it because
with doing that again, a couple more thousand.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Followers got more impressions than this.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
And I'm also to a point where I'm not really
worried as much about following and things like that, because
I told myself that I wanted to get a certain
amount of following, especially like on Instagram, in order to
sell a cartoon project.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
And once I did it, I kind of like fell
back on it.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
And then I started seeing that social media and it
plays a game, which you were one. They want to
make it a full time job that you're on here,
and also they restrict things and they push things, they
change the algorithm up, all that kind of stuff, to
the point that I'm like, I don't me personally I
don't want to play the game anymore. I just want
to share my art and share my work. If the
(13:30):
followings do come from it, that's great. I'm more so
just like hey, I want you to enjoy this and
see what I can I can get out of it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, Overcoming adversity is something that obar Risuku is very
familiar with, and considering all that he's been through, dealing
with Maga was light work for the brother.
Speaker 4 (13:48):
What I realized, I honestually had to come to Jesus
meeting about a couple of months ago, because back in
what was it, twenty twenty one, I believe I suffered
ten of nights in my drawn head, so I couldn't
draw for the entire year. So for people who follow
my work, they realized as a gap of no artwork, illustrations.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
I couldn't draw anything. I could barely write.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
I had to hire somebody as a writing assistant to
like write what I vocalized to m that's how bad
it was.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I couldn't even type, I could barely drive a car.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
And so now that I recover it, I'm about eighty
five percent.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
We're allowed me to draw these things that I.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
Was trying to become the best artist write my mindset,
I was like, let me become the best artists ever
kind of thing, and when it's kind of hard, we
have so many things going on, you can't really dedicate
yourself towards their craft. But I also realized that I
meet a lot of fantastic artists. I follow a lot
of fantastic artists who I personally believe they're way better
(14:52):
than me on every level, all the strengths. But many
of those artists aren't successful, right They're still struggling to
make it. They're still doing things that they because they're
struggling to make it, they undervalue their worst And I
realize that success doesn't come from being the best unless
(15:13):
you're an athlete, right when you're creative.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Honestly, success comes from.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Being the biggest, whether it's music, whether it's acting, whether
it's like I said, artistry, what photography, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Because we've we've seen we've seen.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Musicians or artists and actors who aren't that great, but
they are the biggest stars in the world, right are
they the biggest whatever in the world? And they have
to shave my mentality and saying like hey, instead of
trying to be the best?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
How can I become one of the biggest.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
And with that being said, I'm like, Okay, do I
continue to pack up my craft to get stronger? Yes,
I do, but I'm no longer in the mind state
of Okay, this has to be the best piece of
art work or I have to be the best artist
in the world. I have to realize how to become
the biggest. And I realized that because my art is
good enough, I lean a lot on my creativity and
my storytelling. And I think that's what kind of separates
(16:08):
me from a lot of artists.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Who are struggling. Again, They're great, They're fantastic.
Speaker 4 (16:14):
It's just one of those things that we got to
kind of spitsh our mentality. Especially as creatives, you want
to be known to create the creative force behind you.
But Sally, this world doesn't value creativity as much as
we wanted to.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Ob breaking the brains and the frames of Maga one
comic strip at a time. This is how you can
support his work.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
If you want to follow me support my work, you
can check me out on obi rist that's Obi A
r I S.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's my Twitter, that's my Instagram.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
It's also my my TikTok life, follow share those kinds
of things.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
I'm not asking anybody to buy anything. I'm not doing
those things. I just want you to share and enjoy
my work. It's pretty much it.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
Gets you.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Show is only possible.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Listener is important. Go to Patreon dot com clast VPD
show and support the Benjamin Dition Show
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!