Is it the intention of Comedy Central to promote anarchy here in the United States? I’m not talking about revolutionary comedy or contrarian views. I’m talking about something important. I’m talking about map madness.

Thursday on The Nightly Show, Larry Wilmore focused on Cuba. As a result, there were two countries that had themselves displayed in map form. I’m not going to say anything. Just see if you notice anything that doesn’t make sense. You need to take the wide view, however.

First is Cuba, of course:

And next is China:

One reason I liked The Nightly Show immediately was the south side up map that Wilmore has behind him. I like maps. I like how they distort reality. So it is nice to be reminded with different projections and different orientations. But if you are going to have a south side up map in back of you, you had damned well better have other maps similarly oriented. Both Cuba and China are presented north side up.

What the show is doing is not reminding us of our geographical delusions. Instead, it is creating anarchy!

Afterword

If the show wanted to present maps in random orientations as if to say, “There is no up,” I would not have a problem with that. There is a difference between introducing chaos because the world is chaotic and maps are liars, and just making stuff up. But mostly, I just think that if you are going to play with people’s perspectives, you should really do it. Not that I’m serious about this. And The Nightly Show continues to show great promise.