Banksy is Just the Best

Last week, the high-and-mighty people who are the Academy had the gall to tell  guerilla street artist Banksy that he would be barred from going onstage at the Oscars if his film Exit through the Gift Shop wins the Oscar for Best Documentary. Why you ask? Because wearing a monkey mask onstage at the Oscars is down right undignified. 

This week, Banksy decided to respond to the Academy in an equally undignified style–by creating new street art in LA.

Yesterday, the Internet was a-twitter with reports of new Banksy street art in LA–specifically a child soldier whose gun shoots crayons and a Charlie Brown smoking a cigarette and holding a gas can, a la old-school Eminem.
 

Then today a new, much larger piece featuring a drunk Mickey fondling a super model with a very pronounced rib cage, and an equally caricaturistic Minnie looking on, emerged on a billboard across from the Directors Guild of America. If you’ve seen Exit through the Gift Shop, or just follow Banky’s work, I’m sure you appreciate the choice of using Mickey and Minnie to illustrate this particular point.

Sadly, this piece has already been ripped down, because the company who paid for the ad threw a damn fit. I guess they don’t understand that their billboard had suddenly become far more valuable than whatever sum they paid for their ad to be showcased.

It has been pointed out that perhaps Banksy is just trying to drum up publicity a few days before Oscars ballots are due, but that just doesn’t really seem like Banksy’s style. So I’m going to sit here and believe that Banksy is making a statement regarding the Academy’s slight at his anonymity rather than performing a PR stunt to get more votes for his film.

In any case, let’s just hope he keeps this up all the way until the Oscars air. And then that he and James Franco create some sort of art installation piece during the Oscars that pisses everyone off.