#my overanalyses

I admire this piece not only for its technique, but for its contextualization. This piece is based off of the Emmy nominated winning song “The World Goes Round” from the Icelandic medical drama LazyTown. Now, the song’s title versus its lyrics is quite a curious case. Pay attention to the singular “round” mentioned in the title. By saying that the world goes round, is Spoilero referring to the world’s rotation about its axis or its revolution around the sun? As the song focuses on the course of history, as opposed to the movement of the Earth, this question is never explicitly answered. Some may argue that the chorus says “the world goes round and round”, repeating the word “round” twice to cover both rotation and revolution, but that does not answer the initial question: which one has the title prioritized? 

The art can be considered a response to the age-old question. The art is in a traditional medium. Focus on that word. “Traditional”. Traditionally, people believed that the sun revolved around the Earth, as per the Ptolemaic system (until the Polish mathemagician Coppernickels formulated a heliocentric model). Perhaps Spoilero, driven by his traditional environment, is attempting to preach to those who will listen to his reasons for supporting the latter theory. The purpose of the microphone is to amplify his speech as to cover a wider range of listening ears; some may argue that he is just singing, but art is about challenging common beliefs. 

What is Spoilero’s motive for trying to promote heliocentrism? The answer is right in front of your eyes. Consider Spoilero’s outfit during the song. It’s entirely yellow. Just like the sun. The black outlines of the lapels are just to make the symbol less obvious in order to give the audience more credit. Indeed, Spoilero considers himself the sun, and in a Copernican society, the center of attention, the being that the world revolves around. The original title of the song was not “The World Goes Round”, but rather “The World Goes ‘Round Me”. 

In the song, Spoilero attempts to conceal this ulterior motive by pointing out flaws in common belief (”common” being used loosely). He refers to “a dusty, old dinosaur bone” coming from “an age named after stone”. Many people have pointed out that this is completely inaccurate. The “age named after stone” is presumably the Stone Age, which occurred tens of millions of years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. But the criticizers have missed the point entirely—Spoilero meant this with sarcasm. 

Dr. Langdon Alger and I analyzed this piece together as well. We were initially confused by that word to the left, resembling the English word “mine”. Perhaps it wasn’t meant to be used in and English context, suggested Dr. Alger. We contacted our linguist colleague, Dr. Gulay, to get her professional opinion and got quite interesting results. 

Flour! It all makes sense. What is flour used to create? Bread. And what is bread’s metonymic partner? Circuses. Bread and circuses: together, a phrase referring to superficial means of appeasement, dating back to the times of ancient Rome (as ‘panem et circenses’). The Roman satirical poet Juvenal (the source of the phrase) expressed his contempt towards the vanity of Roman politicians as well as the human desire for things that ultimately hurt us in his Satura X. Now, why does this matter? Back in the day, Roman politicians used cheap food and entertainment (ergo the phrase ‘bread and circuses’) to keep the vote of the poorer citizens of Rome. It worked well, too well, and became the most effective way to rise to power. Now, isn’t that what Stingy wants? To rise to power? He can get that power through the use of bread and circuses, maybe. 

This symbolism is further supported by the use of shading—the location of the “mine”, the flour, is to the left, where the light is coming in, representing the side of Stingy that is visible to the people, the “illuminated act”. But the right side is slightly obscured in shadow. The shadowy side is “behind” Stingy, opposite the side he is facing. While the “light” side of Stingy contains an unsubtle “mine”, the “dark” side contains no words at all, suggesting that Stingy has an ulterior motive that is yet to be spelled out to the ‘populus’, the people. 

The reasons I have for admiring this masterpiece are several. First of all, this image makes a powerful allusion to a very significant figure in the media.

Caillou. 

This was made obvious with the use of a yellow shirt with red fabric among the neck. Nice job. 

What is the purpose of this allusion? In the French version of Caillou’s anthem, Caillou quite boldly asserts that “j’ai du plaisirs” (translator’s note: “j’ai du plaisirs” means “I am a hedonist”). We can only assume that, through the transitive property, Spoilero is a hedonist (Spoilero = Caillou + Caillou + hedonist → Spoilero = hedonist). 

In addition, Spoilero holds the Colombian cactus (on which he has marked his initial, $) in his left hand. This leads the viewer to believe that Spoilero is, contrary to popular belief, left-handed. Back in the day, left-handed people were associated with the Devil. 

And through logic, we can assume that the purpose of this piece is exploit hedonists as being associated with the Devil. 

Alternatively, this piece can be considered a reference to Caesar, namely Julius. Actually, this piece can be considered a reference to the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar. Spoilero, in some way, represents some of the major characters of the historical tragedy. He stands tall: high, mighty, arrogant, and ambitious, much like the titular character. But the Caesar comparisons stop there. The two other characters that Spoilero represents are Caius Cassius and Marc Antony. 

Yond Spoilero has a lean and hungry look. Just gaze into his eyes and you will find it. In the Icelandic historical miniseries LazyTown, the character of Stingy Spoilero often shows signs of not wanting his friends to be above him (manifesting itself in a desire to be royal). In a similar vein, Cassius does not want Caesar to be “king” of Rome, and would never be at his heart’s ease whiles he beholds a greater than himself. 

If you look closely at the Colombian cactus, it may take on the appearance of money. This is obviously a reference to Antony’s offering of seventy-five drachmas to each pleb, as per Caesar’s will. As revealed by Antony’s 3.1 soliloquy, he is a vengeful character. Is this picture suggesting that Spoilero has the potential to be vengeful as well? Look at him in the picture; the answer is obviously affirmative. The red color seemingly seeping out of his bowtie was no mistake. It represents blood. Antony’s soliloquy foreshadows a civil war in Rome. Have we seen domestic fury and fierce civil strife cumbering all parts of LazyTown before? Yes, actually. The wall. If something as trivial as arguing over the location of a party could lead to the building of a giant wall dividing LazyTown, what could lead to worse?

I felt a deep sadness upon looking at this, and I now know why. The subject is primarily portrayed with the color yellow dominating his outfit. But here, no yellow is to be found. This is especially significant as yellow is psychologically considered the happiest color on the spectrum. But what color is left once that happy yellow is taken away? Red. A color associated with anger, power, war, rises in blood pressure. That is the color representing the subject now. This picture can be considered a symbol of descent into madness, a cynicism that builds once happiness is taken away. 

Note how the subject looks straight at the viewer. This brings on a sense of alarm, as if the subject were to attack the viewer at any moment. But this is not so. Perhaps this is a cry for help, with his eye contact being a way to connect with the viewer, as to relate. 

The outline taken by itself is almost Matisse-like in nature. Below is Vierge et Enfant (1950-51) for comparison. 

There is a reason I chose this piece specifically. It is a “Madonna and Child” variant composed in the modern world. “Madonna and Child” images are typically associated with artists of the Italian Renaissance (such as Giovanni Bellini, Raphael, and Leonardo DiCaprio). Matisse brought back an element of “the old” to apply it to “the new”, a concept personified in Stingy Spoilero. Spoilero defines his style through the use of older aesthetics, shown through his default outfit, his car, his telephone, et celery. However, this picture specifically excludes these “older” elements, leaving only Spoilero’s bowtie. Perhaps this, too, is all a symbol; if so, this image tells a story all on its own. Spoilero may be attempting to let go of “the old” entirely for the sake of the future, and the remaining bowtie may symbolize him trying to “tie” himself together to keep from falling apart from this scary transition. This can be considered a piece with a theme of “moving on”, similar to the Chopin short story “Ma’ame Pélagie”. The white background may intentionally give the viewer a sense of uncertainty, as it represents a world unknown laden with infinite opportunities. 

My art critic colleague saw this picture and said the following to me: “He looks angry.”

“You don’t understand,” I replied sophisticatedly. “This drawing symbolizes the basis of life.”

This image employs the rule of thirds well, but with a twist. Look at Spoilero’s eyebrows. Look at them harder. They form two sides of a triagonal shape. The rule of thirds states that triagonals have three sides, though in this picture, the third side is invisible, implied. But why is it visually missing? 

It is missing so the two remaining sides form the symbol of a chalice. The chalice of life. The holy grail. 

Appropriate, as Spoilero is our lord and savior. 

Now, not only is the symbol itself important; its location is as well. Note how the Grail is directly in front of his forehead. Specifically, it’s in front of his brain. This image does an effective job of making the connection between life and thought, vitality and mind. The two must go together. In this picture, intelligence “backs up” life, as it does in reality—we can consider the brain having the reins on life, like the relationship between a trainer and a sled dog. With this happy marriage between the gift of life and the gift of a greater mind, young Spoilero gazes towards the future. Where will he go? This is all up to the viewer’s imagination.

Some may see this piece and think it to be just an image of a boy holding some money. However, this piece has many layers to it, like an onion. Onions have layers; this piece has layers. And on maybe seven or so of those layers, one may find a powerful piece of political commentary. 

Let’s not see the subject as a boy holding some money.

Let’s see him for what he’s symbolizing.

He is representative of the scales. The scales of justice. 

Note how he lacks a blindfold, going against the age-old saying “justice is blind”. This symbolizes inequality in the world from a variety of categories of prejudices. And, as an added hit, look at his hands—the scales being filled with money represent corruption for the sake of greedy motives. No wonder his expression is of irritation and dissatisfaction. He doesn’t want to be part of a corrupt system, but the world’s situation has forced him into his position.