Removing everything
I spy an Archie Digest reprinting A 1987 story where Much dad’s young cousin — Souphead (???)– has purchased a box of random crappy comics. So, Highest reads off the titles — “Ninja Worm, Bob the Android” —
And stop right there. There is blank space before “Android”, indicative of an erasure. So what word have the editors of Archie Comics removed from the original 1987 title? ” Anorexic”. Now objectionable in the 2010s, lest kids reading this pick up on the harmful effects of Androids’ frail body images. The thing is inasmuch as this is a parody, it is a takeoff of the glut of adjective laden ripoff which came in the result of the surprise sensational success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The humor is flattened into nonexistence — why, I do not believe I woulda even remembered the title “Bob the Android” as I did “Bob the Anorexic Android” which, when I saw in 1992 I naturally thought — “Why, that is a title I want to read!”
We are now at an interesting point where rap and hip hop performers are dropping Trump out of their old songs, a shifted signifier that represents something else than he did in the 1990s and 2000s — forgetting for a moment that this is after his race baiting with the Central Park 5, but I guess such items things multiply in the 2010s and are less ameliorated by the signifier of meaningless golf games. The puzzling thing here is the replacement of Tiger Woods who … Um… I suppose to fit into something approaching the original meaning with Trump should have a new verse put in regarding Tiger World’s taste in White Blonde women?
I know there was a hubub A few years’ back when rightwing Internet noted that Canada’s broadcast of Home Alone 2 had edited out Trump’s appearance — and they were having none of it with the response that this editing for time had been shown prior to 2015. Trump’s showing was a contractual stipulation for use of his property, superfluous additions to movies with filmmakers grinning and baring it — Trump’s appearance then signalling nothing but his own ego — harmless enough, if you were a rich guy with property filmmakers needed to film you would insert yourself in batches of movies, wouldn’t you?
Trying to see the future as allusions to Trump get knocked out lest we get kids asking “Mom, what was Trump?” — and returning to the editorial shifts of Archie Comics as they edit around changing cultural mores and lines getting shifted to more safety —
A curious trio of alterations. Highest in terms of arbitrariness, the decision to fully cover Melody’s midriff — arbitrary in the sense that the digest this is reprinted in has reprinted stories where girls are in much the same dress. I suppose the difference may be that they aren’t objectified — which simply means we don’t see the Tex Avery cartoon buffoonery reaction. The second change makes some sense — the word “stimulating” by a hither come Melody is changed to “satisfying” — stimulating too attached to a suggestion of increased sex drive. The third change has “Go suck a lemon, you dumb rich kid” changed to “Go suck a lemon! You’re the pits, rich kid!”. In both cases, confounding as it is coming out of the mouth of a rich kid — the management coming in with monopolistic practices to squash a little kid’s lemonade stand whose scheme was undone by Melody wearing a skimpy outfit — but you can’t be too mean about it and use the direct insult ” dumb rich kid”. Or maybe the editor thought that “You’re the pits” makes for a play on words as… do lemons have pits? Or it is a reticence to use the word “suck”.
Trump is changed to Tiger, though we gots some photos of the two together.  It begs a question of how much association is needed before the erasure needs to get pulled out. I am wondering if Archie Comics has any likenesses of Billy Bush for Access Hollywood that they will just have to on the fly change one further degree away from any suggestion of inference.