My favorite part of watching J.J. is how he can talk about politics, even ordinarily divisive American politics, without inserting his own views and browbeating viewers with personal bias. Kudos to you, J.J.
@@PockASqueeno yeah i think he might have made a comment about identifying as a Canadian conservative. That's still probably a Democrat in America tho.
@@TheoMurpse America has two right wing parties. The only difference between them is that one pretends to be left wing while the other one is openly right wing.
Agreed! He is a conservative but I only know that because I said that and read some of his colums but from his political videos I could not tell this. He is really one of if not the best political channels on Youtoube.
@@TheoMurpse Canadian Conservative definitely doesn't fit the description of American Democrats. Democrats are quite moderate, but that's mostly just because of their lack of ideological action rather than them just generally being conservative.
I feel it would be funny to do this with Nixon But also he could choose someone who was in my opinion the exact opposite of Clinton which would be Reagan
This is one of my favorite videos you've ever made. I would love for you to turn this into a series! I think you explained his presidency as fair as you possibly could have, considering how recent his presidency was.
@@ThugShakers4Christ Actually, the Whitewater scandal was regarding Bill & Hillary's crooked real estate investments. Monica Lewinsky had nothing to do with that. There was also the "Travelgate" scandal and, of course, the cover-up of Vince Foster's murder. Imagine the White House ordering the D.C. Homicide police to not investigate the murder because, since the body was disposed of in a DC park, the park rangers should do it!
Pretty much par for the course a I recall it in high school. For the courses that focused on world history, it seemed getting up to the 1950s was the cutoff point by the time a school year ended; and for US history it was kind of the same thing. Too much material and not enough time, even for a basic foundational instruction (as those classes were).
This is such a common problem, Karl. I'm a bit older than you, because I studied history before Watergate, but even then, 50 years ago, my high school had the sense to make US History a 3-semester course, thinking that there was too much to get it done in a single year. To think that high schools are still trying to do it in two semesters boggles my mind.
Last year I took US History (Part 2) in college, which covered 1860-present day. My professor basically acknowledged that the 1970s were the last decade historians can analyze with any real objectivity. We very quickly glossed over the 90s and post-9/11. So it's the same situation outside of high school as well
History courses are actually ussually intentionally designed this way because historians don't like covering contemporary history within the last 30-40 years.
I would love to see more of this. I feel like this format distilled down Clinton's presidency to a more manageable level while still not missing the important details and nuances of his time in office
For clarity, the 90's era "compromise" on gays' ability to serve in the military was colloquially known as "don't ask, don't tell." A fairly succinct descriptor coined by a prominent sociologist of the day.
@@DerpDerp3001 I mean I suppose 'don't ask because it doesn't matter, tell if you want to--we got no problem with it, and if you don't want to it's also ok'.
It always surprises me how turbulent 90s politics were when learning about it. Compared to today it might be relatively calm, but it wasn’t the chill vibe that it’s sometimes made out to be in hindsight
I like to use the analogy. I was in first grade when the Berlin Wall came down and I was a freshman in college when 9/11 happened so almost all my formative years happened in this weird window when there were no major international turmoils that dominated news and politics. The powers that be had to literally go looking for problems. So they did.
The big thing I notice is that politics weren't so divisive, I could have agreed with a republican or a democrat on any issue or disagreed with them and not immediately be the enemy of the other party. Being centrist was an option.
Garison, that *is* a cool piece of trivia, and I won't say it's untrue. But the caveat must be that it is true only if our "losing presidential" campaign only includes being the nominee of a party. *Several* losing VP nominees went on to run unsuccessfully for their party's nomination in future races (including Dan Quayle, Joe Lieberman, and the one who came closest, Ed Muskie), but, although they entered the race for President, were not on the ballot in November.
@@cooliphoneguy2934 I'm not going to engage in a semantic debate. Take it up with Nikki Haley, RFK, Jr., Tim Scott, and Donald Trump, all of whom have announced that they are "running for President of the United States."
The RGB cartoon also seemed like a Jurassic Park reference--it was the big movie around the time of her appointment, and it made a big impact with its novel "facts" about dinosaurs. It's sort of funny how it this piece could have been very temporal, but JP ended up being a pretty evergreen movie classic, and Ginsberg became an icon (and subject of the two movies) in her own right,
That was my take as well. There's a pivotal scene where the core cast first encounters the T Rex where the advice is given that it detects motion and can't see you if you don't move.
I appreciate how frequently you cover the late ‘80s through the ‘90s on your channel. I feel it’s similar to the ‘50s in having an unfair reputation as extremely uneventful.
Socks the Cat almost had his own video game. The game never made it to market, but an unfinished version for one console was later released online. The game contains a lot of dated references.
I have always felt that Clinton is an example of a guy with good intentions who didn't end up being an effective leader. Take the example of the Rwandan genocide. He knew it would be unpopular to support a peacekeeping mission there because the then-recent US-backed peacekeeping operation in Bosnia was seen as a failure, so his administration fought to limit the scope of UNAMIR, the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. Turned out to be a horrible mistake, and 800,000 Rwandans died. He has since apologized to the country., been to Rwanda a few times, and done a lot of work there through his foundation, etc, but the damage is done. Similar story for many of his other decisions.
@Cryptic I bet Clinton could have been more effective if he used most of the other 94% of donations to the Clinton foundation; that 6% actually paid out didn’t go that far.
I generally tend to dislike traditional political cartoons because they don't really fit with my gen z comedy sensibilities, but I actually did find the ones you picked pretty funny, especially the budget surplus one.
Kosovo is one of the few places which sees Clinton in a different way to most people. In fact, there is a statue of him on his namesake "Bill Klinton Boulevard" in Pristina.
love this video, growing up in the 2000s, reading one of these political cartoon collections was my first real intro to the political culture of the 90s. would love to see more videos about these!
@@JJMcCullough Next you should do this video with good old Jimmy Carter, that way we get to see the progression from smiling outsider to frowning one-term president
This was a great video and fantastic idea to present based on the cartoons! You do such a great job of making ordinary-seeming topics interesting and humorous.
@@AW-zk5qb Perhaps not as important, but to me the question posed by J.J.'s format here is how *interesting* they were. No one ever said John Major was interesting.
Eh, no, he was not "pretty thin." He was known to gorge on junk food, and was actually a little overweight. One reference I found said his BMI was over 28. So, yeah, given that cartoons exaggerate physical characteristics, it makes sense that he was portrayed as overweight. And the comment about "boomer cartoon style" is just pure ignorance. Stop slapping "boomer" on anything that existed before you started paying attention to the world.
Someone told me about a poll of nearly a thousand women who were asked, "Would you consider having a sexual relationship with President Clinton," and roughly two thirds answered, "Never again!"
Just finished brewing my cup of coffee, started shaking the sleep out of my eyes, and got a brand new informational J.J. video. Not too shabby a morning.
It's really fascinating how back in those days, the most heinous act of public betrayal was lying about a blowie in the Oval Office. I mean, I know it was a bit more complicated than that, but still...those were simpler times. Great video, J.J.! Pre-social media, 90s America is always an interesting subject and it honestly feels like a million years ago!
@@Cassieniemann2541 oh, absolutely! There were definitely more consequential presidential scandals in the past, I just meant in the context of Clinton's presidency and the political climate of the time.
Clearly, many people felt the allegations were trivial at the time. As JJ explained, Clinton's poll numbers improved after the story. Just as true now as then... the average voter is unconvinced and annoyed at Republican's performative "holier than thou" attitudes. (EDIT: Newt Gingrich was himself embroiled in his own set of allegations at the same time he was working to impeach Clinton. The whole thing looked like a circus to most people)
Curious how time has obfuscated the actual events. President Clinton wasn't impeached over being "Serviced;" he was impeached over willfully perjuring himself before a court of law. This was and still is considered a felony and ended up costing him his license to practice law. On a more serious note, it left him, and thus the office of the President, open to blackmail, which is why such a serious action was needed to be taken.
This was such an entertaining idea. I think George W. would be the obvious pick for the next installment, I can still remember quite a few of those political cartoons, especially around the time of him winning a second term.
I would love this for Regan, Obama, or Bush Jr. Hell, you could prob do a good one for some Canadian or British prime ministers too. Cameron and Harper would be interesting figures.
You probably just assumed that it was obvious but the Ruth Bader Ginsburg cartoon was also a reference to the highest grossing film of 1993, Jurassic Park. I always love it when two extremely timely things cross over like that.
Yes exactly was going to comment this. However t-rex vision based on movement was entirely created for the film with no evidence to back-up that up but still a funny cartoon!
This is a fantastic idea. Love you combining your love of cartoons and politics in a creative and educational way. Would absolutely LOVE more videos like this.
Great video as usual. I've been to the Clinton Library in Little Rock, it's a great museum. Lots of 90s stuff there, it's more like a museum to the 90s, esp the politics of the 90s. Also, there's a mock-up of the Oval Office, where the nice people there will take your picture behind the desk if you want. (I did not.) Presidential Libraries might make a neat video (if you haven't done that one already...)
The Reform Party is kind of amazing. It cast a massive shadow at the time, but because it was so Lazer focused in a few individuals it had 0 staying power.
Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder what might've happened had Ross Perot managed to beat Clinton and take the White House (cue shameless AlternateHistoryHub plug).
Hey JJ, I’ve always thought you should do a video on the US State of Kentucky. It’s a relatively poor, rural and low population state with an interestingly high amount of “middle class objects” associated with it like fried chicken, ginger ale, horse racing, bourbon, etc. A good study as to why would be interesting.
This was great, using the cartoons means that it really looked at how the events were viewed at the time while still being an obvious look back with perspective. Too often a video summarizing a presidency would err too hard on one side or the other. I'd love to see more!
As a late '96 baby who's spent many moments on LimeWire and FrostWire DLing "songs" that turned out to be audio clips of Clinton denying allegations, I appreciated this informative video. Please do more!
another award-winning* video J.J. if you have the means i’d love to see more presidents talked about in this style. Always love when you talk political cartoons
As somebody born a few years after the end of the Clinton administration, it is interesting to me to look back on this distant time that influenced politics both in the time I was growing up in the early 2000s and in the present. I feel like a lot of people my age, myself included before this video, only know the broad strokes of that time like the Lewinski scandal and the impeachment inquiry. Great video.
Tbh I totally understand why we wouldn't know most of the stuff in this video -- it's mostly pretty irrelevant and all the scandals are really not all that scandalous. Even the whole Lewinsky thing feels more like high school drama compared to the extreme political divide and absurdity of today's politics
20:56 that “Cookie” line from Bill is likely a reference to a famous Hillary quote, where she said “Well, I suppose I could have stayed home and made cookies…” JJ I’m positive you knew that but I wanted to throw in a bit more context
This was super informative, and even as someone who wrote a term paper on Clinton in high school, I still gained a lot from this video. I hope you consider doing Bush Jr. and Obama too, or even older presidents. I think this would make a great series!
Thank you for this video JJ, I always find it so valuable to learn about this era which was a tad too recent for my generation to learn about in our history classes, but too long ago for me to have experienced it. (I am 22) I find it fascinating how little effect the Monica Lewinsky scandal had on his popularity at the time, considering if Clinton were to ever be mentioned to anyone my age, that's what would immediately come to mind, it really is interesting how legacies evolve, and what remains present in the minds of the future and what gets lost to time.
JJ, instead of doing this for other presidents (which you totally should), you should take up Brooks’ mantel and release a yearly editorial of what you thought were that years best political cartoons.
This was so great. Some of those cartoons and the way you presented them made me laugh out loud and it reminded me of a lot of stuff I'd kind of forgotten about from back then. Please do more!
I think that doing one of these on George H.W. Bush would be a good idea, as his presidency isn't particularly well remembered aside from the Gulf War. Even then, the Gulf War is often over-shadowed by the second Gulf War which occurred under his son.
Great topic! I just got myself another little book of cartoons. It's about the premier of my state and his recent antics. Can't get enough of this stuff. 🤤😄
I was born in 1986 so I was a kid during the Clinton years and while I definitely remember all these names (Bosnia War, Newt Gingrich, Janet Reno, Kenn Star, etc) I didn’t really understand what they all were (except that mom was super angry at them - she was a big Clinton fan.) So, this is good way for me to finally catch up/contextualize things.
@Max Tax I don't think it changed her support of him politically (though she didn't like that aspect of him personally.) my mom was pretty traditional w/r/t marriage and divorce... my dad had an affair and my mom stayed with him; so the fact that Hillary stayed with him made her like Hillary even more and she was a really big supporter of Hillary in 2008 (she died before the 2016 elections unfortunately, or I'm sure she would have been a big supporter then too.)
Good on you for mentioning Janet Reno. It was during her tenure as Attorney General that I was held at gunpoint by law enforcement (FEDERAL law enforcement at that) for the one and only time in my life, and they did it because I stopped when a message came through on my truck's computer (early version of "Don't Text and Drive"). They were just obeying the standard codes of behavior her administration put forth, but it could easily have led to me being filled so full of lead that I'd have been nothing more than a human pencil.
Great concept, I would love to see J.J. create a whole series of videos about world leaders careers told through their political cartoons, whether or not it’s unique to America or the 90’s.
even after taking ap us history, jj just taught me more about bill clinton in 22 minutes that what i learned about him in class. thanks man, you’ve done it again.
This was a really interesting watch. As someone in the UK, it's fascinating to see what people "on the ground" thought about Clinton's presidency. I'd love to see you cover other presidents like this.
I will take one video about Franklin D. Roosevelt political cartoons please and while you're at it throw in some figures from other nations marker thatcher must have some great cartoons. She's so controversial
It would have been nice to include the cartoonist's name on the screen. I know they sign their work, but if one doesn't know them beforehand, it's often hard to read the name.
I’ve walked into a Barnes and Noble and seen piles of books on Nixon, Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, and W Bush, but I didn’t see a single one on Clinton. Not even his autobiography or anything.
J.J. could you recommend some good sources for cartoons about current events? I know Politico publishes a collection of them every sunday, but maybe there's a whole scene on some platform that I don't know about. 👀
@@JJMcCullough I teach a current events class and one thing we do is once each week we analyze some political cartoons. Although I will acknowledge that the cartoons are rarely of a caliber such as I grew up with in the '60s and '70s, I do find that oftentimes it does more to help kids understand the issues than reading a long article. It sparks questions, and as the kids grow to recognize the caricatures and the personalities behind them, it really builds their confidence about understanding the news. But I do have to spend a lot of time just looking for two or three quality cartoons each week, and occasionally I have to tell them, "Nothing worth looking at this week."
@@BS-vx8dg most newspapers have long ago laid off their cartoonists. Most of the people drawing political cartoons now are just hoping to sell them on a freelance basis to any publication that will take them. A lot have become very stridently conservative and propagandistic, because it often seems like only right wing blogs and news sites are interested in keeping political cartoonists employed.
I've been a long time fan and this is definitely one of your best videos. I love your cartoonist perspective as much as your political one, happy to see you embrace both!
What a great idea and a great execution! I was looking through a similar book and I was amazed at its value as a time capsule, illustrating all these events that once dominated the public's attention but ended up quickly fading away into footnotes, and then mostly getting forgotten.
That comic comparing Vietnam to Bosnia has to be up there with the most braindead political comics i have ever seen. Pretending there is a contradiction there is the hight of dishonesty
The only difference is that there wasn’t a large leftist movement at the time. Put the Bosnian War in the 1960s and Milosevic is an “anti-imperialist” hero.
As long as I live I will never understand the disparity between the reception Clinton’s lack of a moral compass and Trumps lacking the same thing. Surely many things changed in those years but it still doesn’t add up.
The twenty years between Clinton's second election and Trump's election allowed for significant changes in the general values of electorate: 1) People who were in their 60's+ during Clinton were now largely dead or too old to participate. More recent generations obviously have more libertine social values. 2) The Internet. While yes, the World Wide Web existed in the early 90's, I would say that 1996-97 was when it started becoming a widespread thing for American households. As such the 1996 election was not really affected by it but all later elections have been. The Internet also meant the mainstream news media could no longer control the political narratives and of course easy access to porn changed the general public's morals regarding sex. 3) The big one, the massive racial demographic changes viz. the continuing influx of brown skinned immigrants from south of the border. In 1990 the the population of the USA was 75% White and Hispanics were ~9%. By 2016 Whites were only 60% and Hispanics were 18%. Although I can remember Progressive activists in the early 90's throwing it in the Conservatives faces that immigration trends, even that far back, meant that the country would one day no longer be White majority and the Hispanics would not vote Republican, the immigration trends were something that the news media has never liked to cover so in the 90's it was largely ignored except by Conservative commentators like Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter. Plus in 1990 Hispanics were largely still in their traditional areas: California, Texas / the Southwest, southern Florida and NYC. By 2016 with the doubling of their population, they had also spread out across the country to a lot more formerly all White towns, which brought the demographic changes to people first-hand. For basically the last decade there have been more non-White babies born in the the USA than White babies. Combined with continuing immigration it is basically guaranteed that at some point in the near future Whites will no longer be the majority in the USA and eventually at some point after that Hispanics will be the majority. There are a lot of people who consider brown skinned immigrants taking over the country to be an existential crises and as such are willing to go along with ANY politician who is willing to address the issue with extreme measures.
Agreed! But it's what a lot of us said at the time - while Newt and the others were cheating on their wives too - their "morals" are just a weapon to use against their opponents. They don't believe any of it.
@@themurdernerd Whether you think it's a good thing, a bad thing or are indifferent to it is, of course, up to you, but understand that the mass immigration of non-Whites into majority White countries is what is driving most of the right-wing populism in the USA and Europe. It's just most extreme in the USA because they have by far the highest % of the population as non-White minorities and are the only one of the countries where Whites have actually lost the demographics war. Sam Dupont was asking why the Lewinsky scandal was a much bigger deal than Trump's many indiscretions. I'm explaining that it is because the people who would normally be concerned about sexual peccadillos are far more concerned about immigration and as such are willing to overlook ANYTHING as long as the politician says they will do something about stopping immigration. Trump has their loyalty because in his first speech announcing he would run for President he called Mexicans rapists and murderers, said he would build a wall and stop all immigration from south of the border.
thanks for making this video J.J. ! political cartoons are invaluable historical tools for understanding public perception of particular events/figures. it would be cool to see this turned into a series :)
My favorite part of watching J.J. is how he can talk about politics, even ordinarily divisive American politics, without inserting his own views and browbeating viewers with personal bias. Kudos to you, J.J.
Agreed! I remember him saying once in one of his videos, several years ago, that he leans right, but I’d never be able to tell if he hadn’t said that.
@@PockASqueeno yeah i think he might have made a comment about identifying as a Canadian conservative. That's still probably a Democrat in America tho.
@@TheoMurpse America has two right wing parties. The only difference between them is that one pretends to be left wing while the other one is openly right wing.
Agreed! He is a conservative but I only know that because I said that and read some of his colums but from his political videos I could not tell this. He is really one of if not the best political channels on Youtoube.
@@TheoMurpse Canadian Conservative definitely doesn't fit the description of American Democrats. Democrats are quite moderate, but that's mostly just because of their lack of ideological action rather than them just generally being conservative.
Do this for every president you can! This is such a good "everyday man's" view of a president in summation! Super interesting.
I feel it would be funny to do this with Nixon
But also he could choose someone who was in my opinion the exact opposite of Clinton which would be Reagan
@@bathamsteryt true that would be interesting
@DavidMartin-qj8gf which one or your own suggestion cause I think especially mid-second half of cold War ish presidents this would be great for
Agreed!
This is one of my favorite videos you've ever made. I would love for you to turn this into a series! I think you explained his presidency as fair as you possibly could have, considering how recent his presidency was.
I agree! Please make one for bush or obama next!
He was elected 31 years ago. I don't know if many people would consider that recent.
BTW, that comment made me feel old, too.
@J W A lot of RUclipsrs refuse to cover President Clinton through Trump because most people have lived through the past five presidents.
I would absolutely love one on George "Walker Texas Brain Injury" Bush!
Such a great format!!
didn't realize how little I knew about Clinton's presidency beyond "the scandal." this was really interesting!
Man not carrying the clinton presidency
And that was just ONE of the MANY scandals of the Clinton term.
It's crazy how many people only remember the Whitewater scandal
@@ThugShakers4Christ Actually, the Whitewater scandal was regarding Bill & Hillary's crooked real estate investments. Monica Lewinsky had nothing to do with that. There was also the "Travelgate" scandal and, of course, the cover-up of Vince Foster's murder. Imagine the White House ordering the D.C. Homicide police to not investigate the murder because, since the body was disposed of in a DC park, the park rangers should do it!
I did not have
Thank you for covering this, JJ. My US history classes did chronological order, and sort of ran out of time after Nixon or so.
I always noticed this. The turn of the century was when my classes normally fizzled out due to time constraints and lack of history textbook material.
Pretty much par for the course a I recall it in high school. For the courses that focused on world history, it seemed getting up to the 1950s was the cutoff point by the time a school year ended; and for US history it was kind of the same thing. Too much material and not enough time, even for a basic foundational instruction (as those classes were).
This is such a common problem, Karl. I'm a bit older than you, because I studied history before Watergate, but even then, 50 years ago, my high school had the sense to make US History a 3-semester course, thinking that there was too much to get it done in a single year. To think that high schools are still trying to do it in two semesters boggles my mind.
Last year I took US History (Part 2) in college, which covered 1860-present day. My professor basically acknowledged that the 1970s were the last decade historians can analyze with any real objectivity. We very quickly glossed over the 90s and post-9/11. So it's the same situation outside of high school as well
History courses are actually ussually intentionally designed this way because historians don't like covering contemporary history within the last 30-40 years.
I would love to see more of this. I feel like this format distilled down Clinton's presidency to a more manageable level while still not missing the important details and nuances of his time in office
For clarity, the 90's era "compromise" on gays' ability to serve in the military was colloquially known as "don't ask, don't tell." A fairly succinct descriptor coined by a prominent sociologist of the day.
What would be an actual compromise to push for progress?
@@DerpDerp3001 I mean I suppose 'don't ask because it doesn't matter, tell if you want to--we got no problem with it, and if you don't want to it's also ok'.
It was a cop out at the time.
@@NYCS19339 Exactly.
@@blinski1 How is that a compromise? That's basically just everything that they wanted
JJ I love this idea so much! You picked a great period of history to cover this way. Hopefully you can do another period like this soon?
My vote goes for Bush (dubya), or perhaps Reagan.
@@anonyKinetic Which Bush, William Henry or Benjamin?
It always surprises me how turbulent 90s politics were when learning about it. Compared to today it might be relatively calm, but it wasn’t the chill vibe that it’s sometimes made out to be in hindsight
You could disagree with the left without being cancelled 🤷
@@mybodyisamachine You could disagree with the right without being called woke.
I like to use the analogy. I was in first grade when the Berlin Wall came down and I was a freshman in college when 9/11 happened so almost all my formative years happened in this weird window when there were no major international turmoils that dominated news and politics. The powers that be had to literally go looking for problems. So they did.
The big thing I notice is that politics weren't so divisive, I could have agreed with a republican or a democrat on any issue or disagreed with them and not immediately be the enemy of the other party. Being centrist was an option.
@@xraymind Nice try, but those two arent the same thing. Cope and Seethe.
Fun fact: Bob Dole is the only man to lose both the VP (1976) and Presidential (1996) race.
Yikes
I remember a sticker 'Dole for Pineapple' in a New York bar around 1996.
Garison, that *is* a cool piece of trivia, and I won't say it's untrue. But the caveat must be that it is true only if our "losing presidential" campaign only includes being the nominee of a party. *Several* losing VP nominees went on to run unsuccessfully for their party's nomination in future races (including Dan Quayle, Joe Lieberman, and the one who came closest, Ed Muskie), but, although they entered the race for President, were not on the ballot in November.
@@BS-vx8dg technically running in a primary isn’t running for president. It’s running to be the representative of a party in a presidential election
@@cooliphoneguy2934 I'm not going to engage in a semantic debate. Take it up with Nikki Haley, RFK, Jr., Tim Scott, and Donald Trump, all of whom have announced that they are "running for President of the United States."
The RGB cartoon also seemed like a Jurassic Park reference--it was the big movie around the time of her appointment, and it made a big impact with its novel "facts" about dinosaurs. It's sort of funny how it this piece could have been very temporal, but JP ended up being a pretty evergreen movie classic, and Ginsberg became an icon (and subject of the two movies) in her own right,
Ginsberg is an embarassment
That was my take as well. There's a pivotal scene where the core cast first encounters the T Rex where the advice is given that it detects motion and can't see you if you don't move.
@@peiyili5292 You are an embarrassment.
I've never seen Bill's presidency be so easy to follow and look at without missing any important beats. I look forward to you making this a series!
I appreciate how frequently you cover the late ‘80s through the ‘90s on your channel. I feel it’s similar to the ‘50s in having an unfair reputation as extremely uneventful.
The ninetys were eventful they just stand in the shadow of the World Trade Center attacks
This is a very enjoyable format JJ. Looking forward to the next one. 😊
I’m BEGGING you to do this with more presidents. Loved this.
This is such a creative way to deliver information that could've just been released as a regular video essay. Well done J.J.!
JJ really said “cookie? 🥺🥺” in all lower case at the end there
The way JJ says "Cookie?" made me chuckle.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention Clinton’s career in video game development
Yeah! He even won a game awards nomination!
Or his time as an orthodox rabbi
@@jimb0e186 *reformed orthodox Rabbi
Gaming in the clinton years
Socks the Cat almost had his own video game. The game never made it to market, but an unfinished version for one console was later released online. The game contains a lot of dated references.
I have always felt that Clinton is an example of a guy with good intentions who didn't end up being an effective leader. Take the example of the Rwandan genocide. He knew it would be unpopular to support a peacekeeping mission there because the then-recent US-backed peacekeeping operation in Bosnia was seen as a failure, so his administration fought to limit the scope of UNAMIR, the peacekeeping mission in Rwanda. Turned out to be a horrible mistake, and 800,000 Rwandans died. He has since apologized to the country., been to Rwanda a few times, and done a lot of work there through his foundation, etc, but the damage is done. Similar story for many of his other decisions.
He’s apologized for basically all the socially conservative things he’s done too. At the time, that’s just where the country was, he will say.
@@JJMcCullough Essentially he is apologizing for being a politician, then.
@Cryptic
I bet Clinton could have been more effective if he used most of the other 94% of donations to the Clinton foundation; that 6% actually paid out didn’t go that far.
Knowing him, it was probably intentional.
It wasn't Bosnia that failed; it was Somalia.
I generally tend to dislike traditional political cartoons because they don't really fit with my gen z comedy sensibilities, but I actually did find the ones you picked pretty funny, especially the budget surplus one.
Tbf these were the best ones from each year, and there's a lot of bad ones that aren't worth remembering.
Yeah, not enough crying wojack faces nor Nordic Chad with laser eyes for my Gen Z "sensibilities"
@@jabrokneetoeknee6448I hate to say it but you're pretty much right.
Kosovo is one of the few places which sees Clinton in a different way to most people. In fact, there is a statue of him on his namesake "Bill Klinton Boulevard" in Pristina.
love this video, growing up in the 2000s, reading one of these political cartoon collections was my first real intro to the political culture of the 90s. would love to see more videos about these!
I love that 90s history is a recurrent theme on your channel, it's a very interesting, barely covered period
And the one I know best!
@@JJMcCullough Next you should do this video with good old Jimmy Carter, that way we get to see the progression from smiling outsider to frowning one-term president
This was a great video and fantastic idea to present based on the cartoons! You do such a great job of making ordinary-seeming topics interesting and humorous.
Please make one of these for Jean Chretien as well! He seems like an interesting political figure
As imperfect as both Clinton and Chretien were during their tenure, I miss the relative sense of stability when they were both around.
This American would love that.
I agree - please do one for Chrétien, J.J.! One of the most memorable PMs we've ever had - and often for all the wrong reasons.
Chretien isn't as important a figure during the 1990s as say John Major/Tony Blair, Francois Mitterand/Jacques Chirac, Helmut Kohl or Boris Yeltsin
@@AW-zk5qb Perhaps not as important, but to me the question posed by J.J.'s format here is how *interesting* they were. No one ever said John Major was interesting.
I like how Bill was actually pretty thin but the comics made him seem like he was one of those humans from Wall-E
That seems to be a Boomer cartoon style.
Eh, no, he was not "pretty thin." He was known to gorge on junk food, and was actually a little overweight. One reference I found said his BMI was over 28. So, yeah, given that cartoons exaggerate physical characteristics, it makes sense that he was portrayed as overweight.
And the comment about "boomer cartoon style" is just pure ignorance. Stop slapping "boomer" on anything that existed before you started paying attention to the world.
His weight went up and down but he wasn’t ever super overweight.
I did not have sexual relations with that woman!
-Bill Clintion
The only true thing actually remembered about his presidency lol
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, she's not my type!" Donald Trump
I remember watching that live and thinking, You’ve made a very dangerous choice.
Someone told me about a poll of nearly a thousand women who were asked, "Would you consider having a sexual relationship with President Clinton," and roughly two thirds answered, "Never again!"
Just finished brewing my cup of coffee, started shaking the sleep out of my eyes, and got a brand new informational J.J. video. Not too shabby a morning.
It's really fascinating how back in those days, the most heinous act of public betrayal was lying about a blowie in the Oval Office. I mean, I know it was a bit more complicated than that, but still...those were simpler times.
Great video, J.J.! Pre-social media, 90s America is always an interesting subject and it honestly feels like a million years ago!
LOL
Well I mean Watergate did happen a couple decades before then. I think it might just be a problem with certain people not now vs then
@@Cassieniemann2541 oh, absolutely! There were definitely more consequential presidential scandals in the past, I just meant in the context of Clinton's presidency and the political climate of the time.
Clearly, many people felt the allegations were trivial at the time. As JJ explained, Clinton's poll numbers improved after the story. Just as true now as then... the average voter is unconvinced and annoyed at Republican's performative "holier than thou" attitudes. (EDIT: Newt Gingrich was himself embroiled in his own set of allegations at the same time he was working to impeach Clinton. The whole thing looked like a circus to most people)
Curious how time has obfuscated the actual events. President Clinton wasn't impeached over being "Serviced;" he was impeached over willfully perjuring himself before a court of law. This was and still is considered a felony and ended up costing him his license to practice law. On a more serious note, it left him, and thus the office of the President, open to blackmail, which is why such a serious action was needed to be taken.
This is one of my favourite videos of yours! I’d love to see a version for Canadian prime ministers
This was such an entertaining idea. I think George W. would be the obvious pick for the next installment, I can still remember quite a few of those political cartoons, especially around the time of him winning a second term.
I would love this for Regan, Obama, or Bush Jr. Hell, you could prob do a good one for some Canadian or British prime ministers too. Cameron and Harper would be interesting figures.
You probably just assumed that it was obvious but the Ruth Bader Ginsburg cartoon was also a reference to the highest grossing film of 1993, Jurassic Park. I always love it when two extremely timely things cross over like that.
Yes exactly was going to comment this. However t-rex vision based on movement was entirely created for the film with no evidence to back-up that up but still a funny cartoon!
@@tob007I seem to recall that it was a long standing misconception that the movie simply parroted.
Amazing video JJ! Really like the concept. Would be super interested in a similar video on Reagan.
This is a fantastic idea. Love you combining your love of cartoons and politics in a creative and educational way. Would absolutely LOVE more videos like this.
JJ's hat holding on for dear life lol
I didn’t even notice it, until you pointed it out.
Great video as usual. I've been to the Clinton Library in Little Rock, it's a great museum. Lots of 90s stuff there, it's more like a museum to the 90s, esp the politics of the 90s. Also, there's a mock-up of the Oval Office, where the nice people there will take your picture behind the desk if you want. (I did not.)
Presidential Libraries might make a neat video (if you haven't done that one already...)
The Reform Party is kind of amazing. It cast a massive shadow at the time, but because it was so Lazer focused in a few individuals it had 0 staying power.
Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder what might've happened had Ross Perot managed to beat Clinton and take the White House (cue shameless AlternateHistoryHub plug).
Hey JJ, I’ve always thought you should do a video on the US State of Kentucky. It’s a relatively poor, rural and low population state with an interestingly high amount of “middle class objects” associated with it like fried chicken, ginger ale, horse racing, bourbon, etc. A good study as to why would be interesting.
And headhunters
This was great, using the cartoons means that it really looked at how the events were viewed at the time while still being an obvious look back with perspective. Too often a video summarizing a presidency would err too hard on one side or the other. I'd love to see more!
I would definitely like to see this become a series!
Fine. I guess I'll watch this video. Wasn't super interested in this topic but I love JJ's videos and the algorithm keeps recommending it
As a late '96 baby who's spent many moments on LimeWire and FrostWire DLing "songs" that turned out to be audio clips of Clinton denying allegations, I appreciated this informative video. Please do more!
another award-winning* video J.J. if you have the means i’d love to see more presidents talked about in this style. Always love when you talk political cartoons
As somebody born a few years after the end of the Clinton administration, it is interesting to me to look back on this distant time that influenced politics both in the time I was growing up in the early 2000s and in the present. I feel like a lot of people my age, myself included before this video, only know the broad strokes of that time like the Lewinski scandal and the impeachment inquiry. Great video.
Distant time? I feel attacked.
Tbh I totally understand why we wouldn't know most of the stuff in this video -- it's mostly pretty irrelevant and all the scandals are really not all that scandalous. Even the whole Lewinsky thing feels more like high school drama compared to the extreme political divide and absurdity of today's politics
What a great way to contextualize history! I've always thought of art as such a valuable entry point for understanding history and politics.
20:56 that “Cookie” line from Bill is likely a reference to a famous Hillary quote, where she said “Well, I suppose I could have stayed home and made cookies…”
JJ I’m positive you knew that but I wanted to throw in a bit more context
JJ videos manage to be very distinctive yet always interesting!
We all know that Bill's true passion was playing the saxsophone.
Really good format. Love to see more of these in the future :)
This was super informative, and even as someone who wrote a term paper on Clinton in high school, I still gained a lot from this video. I hope you consider doing Bush Jr. and Obama too, or even older presidents. I think this would make a great series!
The truck and the fly are my favorite cartoons.
Thank you for this video JJ, I always find it so valuable to learn about this era which was a tad too recent for my generation to learn about in our history classes, but too long ago for me to have experienced it. (I am 22)
I find it fascinating how little effect the Monica Lewinsky scandal had on his popularity at the time, considering if Clinton were to ever be mentioned to anyone my age, that's what would immediately come to mind, it really is interesting how legacies evolve, and what remains present in the minds of the future and what gets lost to time.
I'd love to see more of these type of videos, it should be a series!
I spent a lot of the video trying to figure out how JJ’s hat is staying on. 😅
It definitely helps develop one's multi-tasking abilities.
it’s like the Curtis cartoon. look it up.
One of your best videos yet and a wonderful, ingenious way to tell a history!
I’d definitely like more of this type of video. Maybe with a Canadian PM?
i'm quite late to this vid but man, i gotta say, what a creative way to structure a video. :)
JJ, instead of doing this for other presidents (which you totally should), you should take up Brooks’ mantel and release a yearly editorial of what you thought were that years best political cartoons.
Great idea.
This was so great. Some of those cartoons and the way you presented them made me laugh out loud and it reminded me of a lot of stuff I'd kind of forgotten about from back then. Please do more!
I see that "irony cults" video on the laptop in the background. Starting to think these videos are being uploaded out of order.
And i JUST watched your video on caricature yesterday! What timing
I think that doing one of these on George H.W. Bush would be a good idea, as his presidency isn't particularly well remembered aside from the Gulf War. Even then, the Gulf War is often over-shadowed by the second Gulf War which occurred under his son.
He raised taxes after saying, "Read my lips. No new taxes." "1000 points of light" "New World Order"
Great topic! I just got myself another little book of cartoons. It's about the premier of my state and his recent antics. Can't get enough of this stuff. 🤤😄
I was born in 1986 so I was a kid during the Clinton years and while I definitely remember all these names (Bosnia War, Newt Gingrich, Janet Reno, Kenn Star, etc) I didn’t really understand what they all were (except that mom was super angry at them - she was a big Clinton fan.) So, this is good way for me to finally catch up/contextualize things.
@Max Tax I don't think it changed her support of him politically (though she didn't like that aspect of him personally.) my mom was pretty traditional w/r/t marriage and divorce... my dad had an affair and my mom stayed with him; so the fact that Hillary stayed with him made her like Hillary even more and she was a really big supporter of Hillary in 2008 (she died before the 2016 elections unfortunately, or I'm sure she would have been a big supporter then too.)
Good on you for mentioning Janet Reno. It was during her tenure as Attorney General that I was held at gunpoint by law enforcement (FEDERAL law enforcement at that) for the one and only time in my life, and they did it because I stopped when a message came through on my truck's computer (early version of "Don't Text and Drive").
They were just obeying the standard codes of behavior her administration put forth, but it could easily have led to me being filled so full of lead that I'd have been nothing more than a human pencil.
Great concept, I would love to see J.J. create a whole series of videos about world leaders careers told through their political cartoons, whether or not it’s unique to America or the 90’s.
even after taking ap us history, jj just taught me more about bill clinton in 22 minutes that what i learned about him in class.
thanks man, you’ve done it again.
Reagan next, so much mythologizing about his presidency. It would be fun to see you explain it.
This was a really interesting watch. As someone in the UK, it's fascinating to see what people "on the ground" thought about Clinton's presidency. I'd love to see you cover other presidents like this.
I will take one video about Franklin D. Roosevelt political cartoons please and while you're at it throw in some figures from other nations marker thatcher must have some great cartoons. She's so controversial
This was an AWESOME video formate. Definetley do it again
It would have been nice to include the cartoonist's name on the screen. I know they sign their work, but if one doesn't know them beforehand, it's often hard to read the name.
I didn't have time for that. I will add it to the description later.
Really enjoyed this video. Great walk down memory lane. Thanks JJ.
Wow all of these scandals (except Lewinsky) all seem very tame by today's standards lol
Even The Lewinsky affair is, compared to what a more recent president has done.
I’ve walked into a Barnes and Noble and seen piles of books on Nixon, Carter, Reagan, HW Bush, and W Bush, but I didn’t see a single one on Clinton. Not even his autobiography or anything.
J.J. could you recommend some good sources for cartoons about current events? I know Politico publishes a collection of them every sunday, but maybe there's a whole scene on some platform that I don't know about. 👀
There kits aren’t that many people making political cartoons these days. Most of them are pretty bad
@@JJMcCullough I teach a current events class and one thing we do is once each week we analyze some political cartoons. Although I will acknowledge that the cartoons are rarely of a caliber such as I grew up with in the '60s and '70s, I do find that oftentimes it does more to help kids understand the issues than reading a long article. It sparks questions, and as the kids grow to recognize the caricatures and the personalities behind them, it really builds their confidence about understanding the news. But I do have to spend a lot of time just looking for two or three quality cartoons each week, and occasionally I have to tell them, "Nothing worth looking at this week."
@@BS-vx8dg most newspapers have long ago laid off their cartoonists. Most of the people drawing political cartoons now are just hoping to sell them on a freelance basis to any publication that will take them. A lot have become very stridently conservative and propagandistic, because it often seems like only right wing blogs and news sites are interested in keeping political cartoonists employed.
@@JJMcCulloughu can’t make fun of anything now due to EVERYTHING being offensive. The 90s was fine but at least there was free speech
More. More of these videos. Do all of em. Not just presidents. All the ploy toons. This was awesome.
Always learn something and have a good time with your videos. Thanks J.J.
will be immensely dissapointed if there is no drawing of bill getting blown at the oval office
JJ, you're one of the best people for discuss these kinds of topics. Great job
Nice
I really liked this format! I would definitely like you to do more pieces like this.
I think that Bill Clinton is funny as fuck, my grandma voted for him solely because he was hotter than Bob Dole. 🤣
Now *that's* a low bar.
I've been a long time fan and this is definitely one of your best videos. I love your cartoonist perspective as much as your political one, happy to see you embrace both!
I vote for Nixon next.
What a great idea and a great execution! I was looking through a similar book and I was amazed at its value as a time capsule, illustrating all these events that once dominated the public's attention but ended up quickly fading away into footnotes, and then mostly getting forgotten.
That comic comparing Vietnam to Bosnia has to be up there with the most braindead political comics i have ever seen. Pretending there is a contradiction there is the hight of dishonesty
The only difference is that there wasn’t a large leftist movement at the time. Put the Bosnian War in the 1960s and Milosevic is an “anti-imperialist” hero.
Possibly my favorite video so far
And slick Willy's policies were damn great😎
As long as I live I will never understand the disparity between the reception Clinton’s lack of a moral compass and Trumps lacking the same thing. Surely many things changed in those years but it still doesn’t add up.
The twenty years between Clinton's second election and Trump's election allowed for significant changes in the general values of electorate:
1) People who were in their 60's+ during Clinton were now largely dead or too old to participate. More recent generations obviously have more libertine social values.
2) The Internet. While yes, the World Wide Web existed in the early 90's, I would say that 1996-97 was when it started becoming a widespread thing for American households. As such the 1996 election was not really affected by it but all later elections have been. The Internet also meant the mainstream news media could no longer control the political narratives and of course easy access to porn changed the general public's morals regarding sex.
3) The big one, the massive racial demographic changes viz. the continuing influx of brown skinned immigrants from south of the border. In 1990 the the population of the USA was 75% White and Hispanics were ~9%. By 2016 Whites were only 60% and Hispanics were 18%. Although I can remember Progressive activists in the early 90's throwing it in the Conservatives faces that immigration trends, even that far back, meant that the country would one day no longer be White majority and the Hispanics would not vote Republican, the immigration trends were something that the news media has never liked to cover so in the 90's it was largely ignored except by Conservative commentators like Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter. Plus in 1990 Hispanics were largely still in their traditional areas: California, Texas / the Southwest, southern Florida and NYC. By 2016 with the doubling of their population, they had also spread out across the country to a lot more formerly all White towns, which brought the demographic changes to people first-hand. For basically the last decade there have been more non-White babies born in the the USA than White babies. Combined with continuing immigration it is basically guaranteed that at some point in the near future Whites will no longer be the majority in the USA and eventually at some point after that Hispanics will be the majority.
There are a lot of people who consider brown skinned immigrants taking over the country to be an existential crises and as such are willing to go along with ANY politician who is willing to address the issue with extreme measures.
Agreed! But it's what a lot of us said at the time - while Newt and the others were cheating on their wives too - their "morals" are just a weapon to use against their opponents. They don't believe any of it.
@Shiori Saitou dude why you so worried about "too many non-white babies"? Sounds kinda racist.
@@themurdernerd Whether you think it's a good thing, a bad thing or are indifferent to it is, of course, up to you, but understand that the mass immigration of non-Whites into majority White countries is what is driving most of the right-wing populism in the USA and Europe. It's just most extreme in the USA because they have by far the highest % of the population as non-White minorities and are the only one of the countries where Whites have actually lost the demographics war.
Sam Dupont was asking why the Lewinsky scandal was a much bigger deal than Trump's many indiscretions. I'm explaining that it is because the people who would normally be concerned about sexual peccadillos are far more concerned about immigration and as such are willing to overlook ANYTHING as long as the politician says they will do something about stopping immigration.
Trump has their loyalty because in his first speech announcing he would run for President he called Mexicans rapists and murderers, said he would build a wall and stop all immigration from south of the border.
I saw him at international village at 7:30 tonight. What a good chance to bump into one of my fav youtube celeb in Vancouver. Cheers!!
Clinton's election was the first I was politically conscious for.
This was great!
I would love to see you do more of this format.
First
This was a trip down memory lane. I came of age during the Clinton presidency.
This is so great!
Love these videos summarizing a period or person. Pick up a lot more than just the cartoons!
I really enjoy this format!
thanks for making this video J.J. ! political cartoons are invaluable historical tools for understanding public perception of particular events/figures. it would be cool to see this turned into a series :)
I enjoyed this format and learned a lot. I say continue this series
Super interesting! Thanks for making this. I would definitely watch more!