Neil Gaiman famously misquoted writer G.K. Chesterton when writing Coraline. Chesterton originally wrote, "Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon," within his short story collection, Tremendous Trifles.
Gaiman wrote, "Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten," which recently inspired The Oatmeal.
The Oatmeal shared its newest piece on Twitter, with its title, "Fairy Tales 2020" as the post's caption. It's the latest within a slew of new work to debut from The Oatmeal concerning the past week's anxious mood on social media as Americans awaited election results.
The Oatmeal also tweeted a link to his inspiration, which was a Neil Gaiman Tumblr post containing every misquote/usage of G.K. Chesterton's saying. The post came days after the United State's 2020 Presidential election was called in favor of President-Elect Joe Biden, which seemingly suggests this piece is the artist's response to the ousting of Trump from the White House.
The image shows an animated, smaller creature attempting to fight a fanged beast. Above the monster and the brave attacker are Gaiman's words, "Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten."
While this analysis seems slightly subtle, The Oatmeal created a more direct reply to the election's results on Nov. 7. The image, shown below, shows Joe Biden trying to drag Trump out of bed with the quote, "It's time to go."
The artist also debuted this piece less than 24 hours ago with a caption of an American flag and the word, "Mood."
The artist replied to this piece with, "I'm exhausted and delirious and I don't know if this comic even makes sense. I'm just trying to say that I'm so happy I get to feel patriotic again. I missed it."
The Oatmeal was created and run by cartoonist Matthew Inman in 2009. By 2010, his site averaged over four million unique viewers per day. Past and new work has been compiled into several books, including 2019's Why My Cat Is More Impressive Than Your Baby. Inman recently served as a creative consultant for the animated film, The Secret Life of Pets 2.