Puppets Galore: Jerm's cartoon on Steve Hofmeyr

Steve Hofmeyr vs Chester Missing. Who is the better puppet?

You know you have a lot of time on your hands when you time to engaging a puppet on a public space. This is so after self appointed 'deliverer' of the Afrikaaner folk Steve Hofmeyr, and his followers went on a full on attached against ventriloquist Conracd Koch's puppet, Chester Missing.

The feud began after Independent On Line ran story about hoe the AWB his allegedly been killing farmers in order to fuel racial intolerance and violence in South Africa. Naturally, the famous puppet, Chester Missing, jumped in and made his comments. Since Steve Hofmeyr and his 400 plus people had just embarked on the flop that was Red October, Chester Missing's first comment took a jab at him. "Turns our the AWB is killing farmers. March for THAT, Steve," tweeted Chester Missing.

Knowing his nose for controversy and attention, Hofmeyr was the first one to respond. In his response, Steve Hofmeyr tweeted, "Haha. Really. Remember to own up when this crap is disapproved next week. I'll wait". What followed there after was an exchange of tweets from the two with followers from both sides joining in on the discussion about who was more pathetic.

Of course many are aware that the arrogant puppet that is Chester Missing is actually ventriloquist Conrad Koch. However, one can hardly expect a full on debate when Koch speaks, or even tweets for that matter as Chester Missing. But that did not stop Hofmeyr from attempting to state his case. Granted, in the beginning, there was potential for a good debate. Even in a debate, you need not to have spent 27 years in jail to figure out that your activism is being ridiculed, meaning it's time to stop taking part in the debate. That does not necessarily mean that one is conceding defeat, it's surely for sanity purposes. This is something that Steve Hofmeyr should have done once he learnt that Chester Missing was going to be himself about the topic.

Steve Hofmeyr should have exited the debate when one of his statements was met with a response such as "Do u (sic) want a cookie?" from Chester Missing. By virtue of himself not allowing to be ridiculed in that manner would have sent a message to the Missing and Koch, but most importantly, it would have sent a clear message to own followers.

If the ridiculing by Chester Missing that Hofmeyr and his followers endured were not enough to make him stop entertaining it, then the sole reason that Missing is a puppet should have been enough for him to focus his energies on more pressing matters. If you expect the nation to respect you as an activist and actually give you some respect, the last thing you need is to be that fellow who was beaten by a puppet knock-out-style on twitter. Steve Hofmeyr even went as far as announcing on twitter that he had blocked Chester Missing. Isn't that just pathetic.

By allowing himself to be drawn into such a discussion, Hofmeyr opened himself up to more scrutiny, more so by people who question his credibility as an activist. It did not need a brain surgeon to figure out that cartoonist Jeremy Nell, popularly known as Jerm, was going to theme his next cartoon on Hofmeyr. In the cartoon, Chester Missing is telling Steve Hofmeyr how he is "nothing but a puppet for the lunatic fringe," to which Steve, depicted with one had stuck up in his own posterior, responds with "Ja, but at least I am my own puppet".

With that caricature, the obvious conclusion is that the two are both puppets, now we just need to establish which one is the better puppet.