6 - Trog

By Wally Fawkes, “Trog”, in ‘Private Eye’ 1966

I’m afraid that this, to put it politely, makes no bleeding sense. "Ban the Bum"?
Looked at superficially it appears to have the form of a joke, but even the faintest attention to its content causes the whole thing to fall apart like a pair of used paper knickers.
Some ugly lumpen transvestites (or even uglier prostitutes, a supposition to which I shall return later) are staging a demonstration outside parliament. Ho ho. The sign features the word “bum” prominently. Ho ho again. The word “bum” is used in parody of a popular demonstration slogan. Ho ho even more. Homosexuals and bums. Ho ho effing ho.
Except.
That if you take all this together and attempt to make it all add up, then it honestly makes my brain slip a cog.
The cartoon would then seem to depict homosexuals who are protesting against bottoms and presumably homosexuality: “Ban the Bum”. What? Why? Are they particularly self-denying homosexuals? Are they anti-gays disguised as gays, so they can appear as gays who are anti-gay? Is this a cartoon about fifth columnists in the struggle for homosexual rights? (**)
Or are they instead lady whores, who resent the intrusion of homosexuality into the menu of pleasure for British men, and therefore demand its banishment so that the men of England will be driven back to their reasonably-priced claggy solaces?
So…but…no…rather…why…how…instead…doesnotcompute…doesnotcompute…doesnotcompute...ow
As I retire for a long lie down.
Answers please.

(**)Postscript, 20/11/07. A parody reader's survey in the 100th issue of 'Private Eye', lists one of the categories as "the man who, as a homosexual, likes the strong, virile, anti-poove line". So yes, my horribly convoluted theory may in fact be right.