The other night I was watching random old clips from the 1980's cartoon G.I. Joe. Other than Transformers, this was my favorite childhood cartoon. I had all the figures and watched all the episodes. But back in the 80's, all I cared about were the ninja characters and the characters who looked like ninjas or robots. I didn't care about Pyramids of Darkness, Weather Dominators or Cobra Commander's quest for his face on the moon, because ultimately G.I. Joe was going to prevail and Cobra was going to always be a lousy shot.
It wasn't until the other night that I realized these G.I. Joe cartoon storylines foreshadowed many of the things going on in our society today -- most notably that Al-Qaeda resembles Cobra. In fact, Al-Qaeda might have gotten its motivation from Cobra. I particularly noticed this when I saw the training videos that MSNBC used to show where the terrorists were jumping on monkey bars and over tires.
Both are ruthless terrorist organizations determined to rule the world. Both operate cells in countries around the world. Both have seemingly unlimited financing. Both have cunning and evil leaders, though Cobra Commander would have made a great stand-up comedian.
Needless to say, I had great visions of writing a stellar literary piece demonstrating these similarities. At the end of the day though, I was about five (5) years too late, because others have beaten me to the punch.
It wasn't until the other night that I realized these G.I. Joe cartoon storylines foreshadowed many of the things going on in our society today -- most notably that Al-Qaeda resembles Cobra. In fact, Al-Qaeda might have gotten its motivation from Cobra. I particularly noticed this when I saw the training videos that MSNBC used to show where the terrorists were jumping on monkey bars and over tires.
Both are ruthless terrorist organizations determined to rule the world. Both operate cells in countries around the world. Both have seemingly unlimited financing. Both have cunning and evil leaders, though Cobra Commander would have made a great stand-up comedian.
Needless to say, I had great visions of writing a stellar literary piece demonstrating these similarities. At the end of the day though, I was about five (5) years too late, because others have beaten me to the punch.
Mr. Chompers.com was one of the first sites to make this crazy connection. Unfortunately, Mr. Chompers.com's site has gone to the digital boneyard and is no longer available. However, I was able to find it in the Internet archives, because a piece this good shouldn't be lost to the web archives.
Not to be outdone, The Jersey Devil also wrote about the similarities between Cobra and Al-Qaeda.First, we need to start with Osama Bin Laden (though this could easily apply to any 'personality terrorist' like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). We all know what he looks like from the FBI photos we have of Bin Laden. He looks like a diabetic old man. He looks like the smelly old guy that sits across from your Grandpa at the nursing home. Compare that to the look of Cobra Commander from the GI Joe comics and cartoons:
Now if Bin Laden were to appear in videotapes on Al-Jazeera looking like Cobra Commander, you'd bet people would be pretty frightened. Cobra Commander looks like... well, evil.
Who knew that a poorly-animated 1980's cartoon was secretly preparing us for the War on Terror? Yes, I'm referring to "G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero," which during its 1985-6 television run introduced us to a shadowy conflict that pitted the U.S. military's best and brightest - okay, maybe that's laying it on a little thick for the likes of Shipwrecked or Sergeant Slaughter - against a global terrorist organization known as COBRA.
Go back and watch your old G.I. Joe VHS tapes. You know you have them. If you do, you'll see that Hasbro has prepared us for life in the 21st Century. If we want to defeat Al-Qaeda, we need to sign up Bazooka and Alpine ASAP!
Knowing is half the battle.
****UPDATE**** (12/31/2008) Apparently, there is an upcoming documentary called Mindbender that will focus on this very issue. The trailer is below for your viewing pleasure.
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