Ugh. Not Now, Banksy

You know, until now, we've really been taking our good fortune for granted. Sure, there's a deadly pandemic ripping through the globe, a series of economic crises following close behind it, and a serious lack of good TV shows forthcoming, but at least we hadn't heard from Banksy.

Well, that's not strictly true. Apparently, his spring campaign against the coronavirus consisted of images of rats fucking up a bathroom captioned, "My wife hates it when I work from home" (which, okay?) and a drawing of a boy playing with a superhero doll that's -- get this -- actually a nurse.

When those stunts only got him the appreciation of the staff of Southampton General Hospital, to whom the latter drawing was donated, he apparently resolved to go bigger. He's like an attention vampire: If he doesn't feed, he'll crumble into a dust of privilege and paint chips.

That's presumably why nobody stopped him when he walked right into the London Underground and started spraying shit everywhere. Not literally -- that would be way too artistic. He decorated the walls of the train with images of his trademark rats using face masks as parachutes or becoming comically tangled up in them, confusing (and in at least one case, confronting) passengers who really don't need to deal with this kind of whimsical bullshit on their commute. He also sprayed a wall and set of doors with the phrase "I get lockdown but I get up again," because it wouldn't be a Banksy observation if it didn't come 20 years too late.

This is, obviously, super illegal, but not only did Banksy not get the most arrested at any point in the time it took him to thoroughly deface public property, a spokesperson for the London transportation department literally thanked him for it. "We appreciate the sentiment of encouraging people to wear face coverings," they said, even though it's not at all clear how parachuting rats encourage people to wear masks. It could very well be read an anti-mask statement by someone.

As usual with Banksy, it kind of seems like it might mean something at first glance, but when you look closer, you're relieved to find that it's just nonsense. They even offered him, "the chance to do a new version of his message for our customers in a suitable location," because alas, it was immediately scrubbed off by a city cleaning crew who didn't realize it was Important Art and not just some dipshit with a can of spray paint. That's as close to a burn as you get with these people.

Manna makes way better jokes about '90s pop songs on Twitter.

Top image: Banksy