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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Mike Luckovich

Aired December 15, 2002 - 09:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The funny side of Al Gore. Do you remember that? For 90 minutes anyway, the former vice president was the prince of Saturday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I think we need to take these Social Security funds that people have worked so hard for and keep them away from the volatility of the stock market.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I so totally agree with you.

GORE: These funds need to be protected, they need to be put aside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, in some kind of a metaphorical...

GORE: Lockbox.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, that was on "Saturday Night Live" last night. And it was hilarious.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of funny, we have Mike Luckovich here from the "Atlanta Journal Constitution," taking a look at our news of the day. What are you working on today?

MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Well, what I did is after finding out about Al Gore being Trent Lott last night on "Saturday Night Live," I tried to imagine what Trent Lott is going to be tomorrow night on BET, the Black Entertainment Television network, when he will, I'm sure, offer another apology. So this is what I ended up doing. I imagined him as being -- dressing up at Dr. Martin Luther King, and he's saying, "I have a dream not to be judged on the content of my character, but on the quantity of my apologies."

MOLINEAUX: Ouch.

LUCKOVICH: That would be like the fifth apology, I think, so.

COSTELLO: Yes, you're correct. And I wonder how many times he will apologize on BET.

LUCKOVICH: Many, many times.

MOLINEAUX: And you even disposed of his trademark hair for that.

LUCKOVICH: No, I gave him the kind of a Martin Luther King haircut there. So he is...

COSTELLO: Oh, my goodness. We liked some of your other ones too.

MOLINEAUX: Yeah, let's take a look -- you had a few of them out in the past week.

LUCKOVICH: Yeah, well, this Trent Lott thing has really dominated everything. It all started at Strom's birthday party, where it really exploded this time. And so, I did this cartoon. Trent is saying, "I didn't mean nothing by it, I just thought burning crosses would be cute." We see the -- that's on Strom's cake.

MOLINEAUX: We have got to get a close look at Strom, because that is just brutal. I have seen Egyptian mummies that look better than that. That is harsh.

LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's hard to really look good when you are 100 years old. And I just -- I worked very hard on that particular caricature. It was just so much fun to draw.

COSTELLO: Actually, the burning crosses on the birthday cake is kind of a nice cynical touch there.

LUCKOVICH: Everything just seemed to work with that one.

Another issue that really made me mad in particular the last couple of weeks has been this continuing Catholic Church scandal. I'm Catholic, and the most recent revelations that Cardinal Law knew that these things were going on, and he was actually very sympathetic to the priests that were engaging in this monstrous behavior -- I did this cartoon. This was before he had resigned. It's a two-panel cartoon. In the first panel, the priest is saying, "Cardinal Law, 'tis the season for you to give the innocent victims a heartfelt message of support." He says, right.

And so in the next panel, you see he's writing a letter, "my dear pedophile priests."

MOLINEAUX: Now, what about -- you got that -- I look at Law, and you made him look like a pig.

LUCKOVICH: Well, he has got that kind of a nose. Actually, I'm so glad that he has resigned. And I feel -- not sympathy towards him now, but I feel like he really did the right thing. And so I'm glad that he's gone. And maybe we can -- Catholics can get past this. And the Catholic Church is such a great institution. It helps so many people, and this is just such a terrible, terrible thing that's happened.

COSTELLO: It's really hiding all the good things the Catholic Church does.

LUCKOVICH: Exactly, exactly.

COSTELLO: This must be a fertile time for those in your business.

LUCKOVICH: It really is. You have so much going on in the world. The world is such a dangerous place. And then you have these scandals, and people resigning. It's sometimes the news is just really great for editorial cartooning. And so, if say, Trent Lott, if he continues, and if he is able to save his job, he will be a continuing target for cartoonists.

MOLINEAUX: Now, the real reason you like Lott because he's relatively easy to draw. It doesn't take much to say, yep, that's him.

LUCKOVICH: You know, he's just got this face that's really fun and I love drawing his hair. So just for that reason, keep him in.

COSTELLO: I thought you would have one for sure on Al Gore appearing on "Saturday Night Live."

LUCKOVICH: Now, see, that just happened last night. So, you know, I got to sleep at times. But maybe this week I will hit that.

MOLINEAUX: Now, let's talk about SCUDS. Because that was...

LUCKOVICH: Now, what I love about the Christmas season is that you can take -- you can use that as a metaphor for so many different things. And so in this cartoon, if we can show that, I have got a soldier, he's on the phone with the president. He's saying, "Mr. President, we have intercepted another batch of North Korean SCUDs." And as you see it, they're in Santa's bag.

This just shows how complicated the world has gotten, though. This week, we learned about the SCUDs and North Korea starting their nuclear program again, and Iran is apparently constructing nuclear facilities, and at the same time Bush is trying to keep us focused on...

COSTELLO: Iraq.

LUCKOVICH: The evil guy in Iraq. So it's just not a cut and dry situation, I don't think.

COSTELLO: No. Not at all. Another one.

LUCKOVICH: Another -- well, this is another one related to the Christmas season. In the name of terrorism, the administration is allowing more surveillance of Americans, and it's sort of a little bit scary, I think, and especially since Ashcroft is sort of leading that effort. This is a two-panel. He's watching on a security camera, and he's singing "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus." So then in the second panel, he's saying, "which is enough to detain her indefinitely." He has imprisoned her there. It's his poor mother. MOLINEAUX: Those fun little buzz words are fun to work with, aren't they?

LUCKOVICH: Oh, I love it. I love it. Christmas is the easiest time of year for a cartoonist.

COSTELLO: You feel kind of bad laughing at these things, but somehow it's helpful, because the world is such a dangerous place right now and sometimes you need to poke fun at it.

LUCKOVICH: Well, and I like to make my points using humor. Because I just feel like that's a good way to communicate a point and people will pay attention to it.

One thing that's just sort of been goofy has been the cruise lines and people getting sick on the cruise lines. That's just...

MOLINEAUX: Real briefly.

LUCKOVICH: OK. I have got a cruise line, and someone is saying, I guess it's the captain, "attention, passengers, meet on the sun deck for cookie tossing."

They make an activity of everything on those cruises.

MOLINEAUX: And on that appetizing final note, thanks, Mike Luckovich.

LUCKOVICH: Thank you for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 15, 2002 - 09:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The funny side of Al Gore. Do you remember that? For 90 minutes anyway, the former vice president was the prince of Saturday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I think we need to take these Social Security funds that people have worked so hard for and keep them away from the volatility of the stock market.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I so totally agree with you.

GORE: These funds need to be protected, they need to be put aside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know, in some kind of a metaphorical...

GORE: Lockbox.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, that was on "Saturday Night Live" last night. And it was hilarious.

CHARLES MOLINEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of funny, we have Mike Luckovich here from the "Atlanta Journal Constitution," taking a look at our news of the day. What are you working on today?

MIKE LUCKOVICH, EDITORIAL CARTOONIST: Well, what I did is after finding out about Al Gore being Trent Lott last night on "Saturday Night Live," I tried to imagine what Trent Lott is going to be tomorrow night on BET, the Black Entertainment Television network, when he will, I'm sure, offer another apology. So this is what I ended up doing. I imagined him as being -- dressing up at Dr. Martin Luther King, and he's saying, "I have a dream not to be judged on the content of my character, but on the quantity of my apologies."

MOLINEAUX: Ouch.

LUCKOVICH: That would be like the fifth apology, I think, so.

COSTELLO: Yes, you're correct. And I wonder how many times he will apologize on BET.

LUCKOVICH: Many, many times.

MOLINEAUX: And you even disposed of his trademark hair for that.

LUCKOVICH: No, I gave him the kind of a Martin Luther King haircut there. So he is...

COSTELLO: Oh, my goodness. We liked some of your other ones too.

MOLINEAUX: Yeah, let's take a look -- you had a few of them out in the past week.

LUCKOVICH: Yeah, well, this Trent Lott thing has really dominated everything. It all started at Strom's birthday party, where it really exploded this time. And so, I did this cartoon. Trent is saying, "I didn't mean nothing by it, I just thought burning crosses would be cute." We see the -- that's on Strom's cake.

MOLINEAUX: We have got to get a close look at Strom, because that is just brutal. I have seen Egyptian mummies that look better than that. That is harsh.

LUCKOVICH: Well, you know, it's hard to really look good when you are 100 years old. And I just -- I worked very hard on that particular caricature. It was just so much fun to draw.

COSTELLO: Actually, the burning crosses on the birthday cake is kind of a nice cynical touch there.

LUCKOVICH: Everything just seemed to work with that one.

Another issue that really made me mad in particular the last couple of weeks has been this continuing Catholic Church scandal. I'm Catholic, and the most recent revelations that Cardinal Law knew that these things were going on, and he was actually very sympathetic to the priests that were engaging in this monstrous behavior -- I did this cartoon. This was before he had resigned. It's a two-panel cartoon. In the first panel, the priest is saying, "Cardinal Law, 'tis the season for you to give the innocent victims a heartfelt message of support." He says, right.

And so in the next panel, you see he's writing a letter, "my dear pedophile priests."

MOLINEAUX: Now, what about -- you got that -- I look at Law, and you made him look like a pig.

LUCKOVICH: Well, he has got that kind of a nose. Actually, I'm so glad that he has resigned. And I feel -- not sympathy towards him now, but I feel like he really did the right thing. And so I'm glad that he's gone. And maybe we can -- Catholics can get past this. And the Catholic Church is such a great institution. It helps so many people, and this is just such a terrible, terrible thing that's happened.

COSTELLO: It's really hiding all the good things the Catholic Church does.

LUCKOVICH: Exactly, exactly.

COSTELLO: This must be a fertile time for those in your business.

LUCKOVICH: It really is. You have so much going on in the world. The world is such a dangerous place. And then you have these scandals, and people resigning. It's sometimes the news is just really great for editorial cartooning. And so, if say, Trent Lott, if he continues, and if he is able to save his job, he will be a continuing target for cartoonists.

MOLINEAUX: Now, the real reason you like Lott because he's relatively easy to draw. It doesn't take much to say, yep, that's him.

LUCKOVICH: You know, he's just got this face that's really fun and I love drawing his hair. So just for that reason, keep him in.

COSTELLO: I thought you would have one for sure on Al Gore appearing on "Saturday Night Live."

LUCKOVICH: Now, see, that just happened last night. So, you know, I got to sleep at times. But maybe this week I will hit that.

MOLINEAUX: Now, let's talk about SCUDS. Because that was...

LUCKOVICH: Now, what I love about the Christmas season is that you can take -- you can use that as a metaphor for so many different things. And so in this cartoon, if we can show that, I have got a soldier, he's on the phone with the president. He's saying, "Mr. President, we have intercepted another batch of North Korean SCUDs." And as you see it, they're in Santa's bag.

This just shows how complicated the world has gotten, though. This week, we learned about the SCUDs and North Korea starting their nuclear program again, and Iran is apparently constructing nuclear facilities, and at the same time Bush is trying to keep us focused on...

COSTELLO: Iraq.

LUCKOVICH: The evil guy in Iraq. So it's just not a cut and dry situation, I don't think.

COSTELLO: No. Not at all. Another one.

LUCKOVICH: Another -- well, this is another one related to the Christmas season. In the name of terrorism, the administration is allowing more surveillance of Americans, and it's sort of a little bit scary, I think, and especially since Ashcroft is sort of leading that effort. This is a two-panel. He's watching on a security camera, and he's singing "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus." So then in the second panel, he's saying, "which is enough to detain her indefinitely." He has imprisoned her there. It's his poor mother. MOLINEAUX: Those fun little buzz words are fun to work with, aren't they?

LUCKOVICH: Oh, I love it. I love it. Christmas is the easiest time of year for a cartoonist.

COSTELLO: You feel kind of bad laughing at these things, but somehow it's helpful, because the world is such a dangerous place right now and sometimes you need to poke fun at it.

LUCKOVICH: Well, and I like to make my points using humor. Because I just feel like that's a good way to communicate a point and people will pay attention to it.

One thing that's just sort of been goofy has been the cruise lines and people getting sick on the cruise lines. That's just...

MOLINEAUX: Real briefly.

LUCKOVICH: OK. I have got a cruise line, and someone is saying, I guess it's the captain, "attention, passengers, meet on the sun deck for cookie tossing."

They make an activity of everything on those cruises.

MOLINEAUX: And on that appetizing final note, thanks, Mike Luckovich.

LUCKOVICH: Thank you for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com