I’ve written in the past about the rather annoying habit of op-ed cartoonists who insist on drawing strips about the death of a famous celebrity by depicting said celebrity in Heaven. Katharine Hepburn, anyone? So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that with the death of Marlon Brando these same clueless cartoonists are at it again. So it was with some amusement that I came across this entry over at The Raving Atheist which talks about the Brando cartoons:

However, I was highly insulted by Jean-Paul Fastidious’ prediction last week that the cartoonists would be so stupid as to portray him in Heaven over some lame “offer he can’t refuse” caption. Although they made that mistake last year with the godless Katharine Hepburn, I’m sure they’ve learned their lesson. Just because people are religious, it doesn’t mean they’re stupid:

Or maybe it does. And more to come, no doubt. But what, exactly, was God’s “offer” here? Isn’t the point that you end up in heaven if only you do refuse the offer? I think this would have made more sense if they had just left him fat and used the “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” line.

TRA’s commentary was inspired in part by an entry about all of this from the folks over at Everything Isn’t Under Control which itself was a commentary on TRA’s entry on the death of Ray Charles where many cartoonists gave Charles his sight back.

Personally, this kind of silliness has been going on for so long now that I don’t pay it all that much attention anymore. The Op-Ed cartoonists have demonstrated that they’re basically pretty fucking clueless and insensitive on too many occasions for me to be surprised by it any longer, let alone angry about it. I’m sure when Penn or Teller finally kick the bucket they’ll depict them showing God some of their illusions and so on with any other famous person who’s an atheist. Though I will give credit to John Fewings, who drew the editorial cartoon shown above, as he contacted Skallas of Everything Isn’t under Control and promised to be a little more sensitive in the future according to this entry over at TRA. It’s a start, but I don’t expect this silliness to change for the most part anytime soon.