No. I did not pull this out of my butt. Doctor Pimple Popper is actually a thing. If you haven’t heard about it before, now you will.
Anytime something new enters the pop culture lexicon, political cartoonists think, “Can I use this for a cartoon”? It’s something I had to train my brain to do when I first started cartooning, and I’m still working on it. Sometimes, I have to see it three or four times before it occurs to me that it might be a cartoon. My brain can be slow. That was the case with Dr. Pimple Popper.
Doc Popper is pretty new for pop culture despite being around since 2010. I’m sure my use of it with this cartoon will make a few other cartoonists think, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Every cartoonist, including myself, have done that. As for being the first to use this reference, it helps that most of my colleagues haven’t returned to their drawing tables yet after the holidays. Lazy bastards.
Instead of thinking about a cartoon the first time I saw a reference to Dr. Pimple Popper, I thought, “EW! I don’t want to see that.” When I was a teenager, I felt like God was punishing my face with acne. I really felt persecuted. My son got it even worse than I did, which made me feel guilty as hell. I have seen enough acne treatment to last two lifetimes, which is how long it does seem to last. So, I don’t need to see any television shows about popping pimples. I’m good.
But, guess what. There’s a TV show about popping pimples. Right, when I’m wondering how many seasons The Walking Dead can get out of killing zombies; Dr. Pimple Popper has been renewed for a second season. But, hey. If Honey Boo Boo can get fives seasons, why can’t pimples get two?
Dr. Sandra Lee is Dr. Pimple Popper. She started uploading videos to YouTube of popping pimples in 2010. From that, she got her own TV show. Meanwhile, my YouTube channel of these cartoons being drawn and my witty commentary only has 254 subscribers after nearly a year. Pimples are more popular than my cartoons.
Dr. Lee’s show started on TLC (which I’m sure stands for something) back in July. The second season starts later this month. Last month, it had its own Christmas special. IT HAD ITS OWN CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! What did they call it, “It’s a zitty Christmas, Charlie Brown?”
Our nation is experiencing a breakout of stupidity and just really bad taste. People are famous for being famous. It shouldn’t surprise me that we’re watching reality shows about popping pimples when our president was a reality show celebrity endorsed by Duck Dynasty reality celebrities. Are we living in a Simpson’s episode? When you think about it, it’s shocking there isn’t a Kardashian in the United States Senate.
Hopefully, Robert Mueller pops that one great big, giant, racist zit that’s revealed the ugliness of our nation, but I’m not sure anything can save us from the rest of the outbreak that is Trump sycophants.
