Iraq Shoe Tosser Guy: The Animated Gifs

Mr. al-Zaidi has become Iraq's version of Joe the Plumber -- with nicer taste in loafers. (Thanks, John Walsh!) Previously: Arab shoe-tossing isn't a gesture of friendly affection

Update: And the hits keep on comin'!

(that last one via substitute.livejournal.com)

Update 2: December 16, 2008. I've unpublished, alternately hosted, republished, and added a few new sources. The original post here made our bandwidth bill go through the roof. Big thanks to Boing Boing's amazing sysadmin Ken Snider for catching the problem quickly, and big thanks to Archive.org for hosting the images now.

More gifs here (Thanks, Teresa). I am also quite fond of this YTMND creation, Bush Dodges Everything. Also here's a fine Flash game: Sock and Awe.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: Art and Design • politics

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thequickbrownfox

The guy was just demonstrating a new Dual Boot technique.
Anonymous

Stripper Shoe Bush

http://flickr.com/photos/28114232@N05/3112171340/in/set-72157611307101970/
ill lich

Why is Bush smiling?

(A little boy playing a man’s game, except politics is never really a game.)
Anonymous

Just wanted to say that the Three Stooges image got an audible laugh out of me. Thanks
slamorte

Crispa’s comment reminds me of the classic Onion article, “Dead Iraqi Would Have Loved Democracy.”
Anonymous

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll293/treygreen13/bushshoe.gif

I like this one too. A gift for the holidays.
acx99

Bush sneered that the reporter was lucky he lived in a free country and was able to do that.

The reporter has now been beaten and possibly tortured, and reports allege he is now an occupant of a US-led prison.

In fact, a fitting punishment for Bush would be to die under a hail of shoes thrown by the remaining members of the Iraqi families he has murdered. A shoe-stoning, if you will.

It’s only a shame that this shoe didn’t at least give that cunt a bloody nose, or he didn’t cower like a baby behind Malaki for the second throw :(
krylon

Gifs are big. I coulda done told you that.
ErikO23

YTMND is crawling with this stuff right now.. i’m just so sad that John Stewart and Colbert are both off for the rest of the year. why does all this great stuff happen at the beginning of their vacations?
Anonymous

Of course Bush dodged. He has been dodging for YEARS!
ErikO23

ok two from ytmnd.. gotta have the audio for the first one

http://bushdodgeseverything.ytmnd.com/

http://bushoe.ytmnd.com/
Anonymous

Iraq Shoe Tosser Guy: The videogame
http://blog.zanorg.com/index.php?perm=370
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

I love it!

I’d previously agreed with the person who observed that that footage could only be improved if we had the Bush HeadCam shot of the incoming shoe; but I see now that I was wrong.

Who knew that Bush’s most notable skill was dodging thrown objects?
Caroline

Duck Hunt one wins, by laugh-o-meter of all people on my couch (myself and boyfriend).
paulatz

The comment are going a bit off-topic, yet I wish to say it. I want the shoe-throwing flash game!
Takuan

The Shoe President!
Purly

teh awesome!
StRevAlex

Thanks, Shoe-throwing guy. Thanks for everything.
crashsystems

Unfortunately, the cost of our lolz is that the guy has probably recently arrived at Gitmo. In honor of his bravery, I suggest that every 15th of December be known as “International Shoe Toss Day.”
Frank W

@ Teresa:

Who knew that Bush’s most notable skill was dodging thrown objects?

First time he shows a notable skill in eight years.
OM

…Hey Xeni! For those of us who want to post those animations on our own blog, what *was* causing the bandwidth to get chewed up so bad? OMBlogging minds want to know!
Antinous

The shoe hurler (that was no toss!) did one thing very wrong. He should have thrown it with his left hand.
Takuan

Crispa: if you think his family is safe you haven’t been paying attention.
Salty

The Warcraft one is priceless! Pwnage!
MadFist

Bush as an Elite Horde Boss, FTW. . . Though I had much greater respect for most Horde players when I played.
Frank W

If you’re in Washington, here’s something you can do for Al-Zaidi tomorrow.
Takuan

this is going to become a standard amusement fair game. It’ll replace the dunk tank, the milk bottles everything. I’ll pay two million dollars for those shoes.
13tales

@7 Quite right. We should always remember the cost of our LOLz. *moment of silence for the shoe thrower*

Personally I think the pokÃ©ball toss gif could be improved, if it spawned an angry pokÃ©mon standing behind bush :D

…but that’s just me.

I think the Austin Powers-derived shoe-cam one is the slickest. I’ve been WAITING for someone to dig up that clip/soundbyte: “Honestly, who throws a shoe!?”
kyuzo

There are now 465,000 google results for “george bush ninja”.

Have we discovered something?
gths

This was a good one
http://substitute.livejournal.com/1831654.html
lava

Those were two good throws, and at least one good dodge by Bush. I really don’t like him but I have to admire that move, just a quick dodge and right back up, made it look like he didn’t duck out or anything. I’m gonna call that move the GW National Guard Dodge.
pauldrye

There’s a few good ones on the front page of B3ta.com as well, my favorite for hurtful and insensitive animated lolz.
Anonymous

a cool game :
http://blog.zanorg.com/?perm=370
a_user

I have to say – it’s Bush’s face after the first throw that cracks me up – “Buddy wtf but I just know you aren’t going to do that again.”

As to the duck – now we know what he’s been doing all that time since he dropped off the radar some time before the election (cue Rocky training montage scenes).
Anonymous

oh man…this is so fantastic. That man is a hero in america too. God, if only that shoe had actually hit him!!
awesome
beecaper

How about F@&% Hunt?!
wolfiesma

The video game guys did good. This could provide a lot of theraputic value to many people in the country.
theLadyfingers

You have to think that King George’s duck reflexes have been progessively more primed with each day in office.
arkizzle

http://www.mofahaimages.com/b3ta/bushpython.gif

Haha!
Anonymous

Please sign the petition to saveMuntadhar al Zaidi: http://www.savemuntadharalzaidi.com/
Johnny Cat

Haha GTHS!

Three Stooges wins every time. And there’s 3 in that awesome example.
Tom Hale

That’s pretty funny. Heh heh – That’s what I love about BB type folks – you take a loss, like Bush dodging the shoe, and turn it into a win by making animated gifs. Hilarious! Just imagine how funny it would have been if Bush hadn’t ducked out of the way – a riot! lol
Xydexx

I like the Stooges one the best.
jowlsey

He moves to his left and hides behind the Iraqi. I’m not sure what that means, but I’m sure it’s important.
nehpetsE

Bush isn’t ducking…He’s moving away from the microphone to breath in!!

(first!)
Crispa

The reporter was arrested, who is naive enough to think he wouldn’t be. Anyone who attacks a world leader, anywhere is going to be arrested. That’s reality.

A few have pointed out stories of the reporter being tortured. I have seen 3 stories all quoting the same person, each one having different and conflicting details. Until something a bit more solid comes out, I am not going to assume he was tortured. I could understand the iraqi authorities being upset, it is an insult to them as well since Bush was their guest.

My point was and is, That he is free to do what he did without worry of the ultimate retribution against him and his family. In the past his whole family would of been taken away and never heard from again. You can’t tell me that not having to worry that your family, everyone you love and care for is going to be tortured to death because of your activist actions is a bad thing.
minTphresh

tom, though i know u were being facetious, i agree with your statement 110%! if that size-10 had riccocheted off his bean i think i would have peed myself. however, that shifty-eyed lil bastard can duck and cover with the best of ‘em. i like lava’s idea, but would shorten to “the g.w. dodge’. FTW!
Anonymous

Heres my OMG Shoes :: Bush Remix :: I put way too much effort into this semi rough edit … but here it is… behold… or some thing like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naViPplnTEA

- satat
Bonnie

I could watch those all day.
pitir

I saw the shoe-hurling clip and couldn’t help but hear a soundtrack playing in the background…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yvhe0p5fQ4

Yakety Sax FTW!
B Dagger Lee

I could watch these all day, too.

MOAR SHOEMATION!

Please.
mj77

I was considering what it would be like if we all sent old shoes to the White House for W for Christmas, together with the lump of [char]coal. I just have visions of piles of old, smelly shoes coming from all over America.
Anonymous

@22 Jowlsey: al-Zaidi shoe’d first?
lazarhat

Particularly funny is the WoW animation. (AFK) Malaki. Funny because I thought the same thing the first time I saw the clip. Like “what the hell, (AFK) Malaki?!? Guy didn’t even flinch…”

Then (dodge) on shoe number one with a hit for 50 (190 blocked) on the second shoe… that damage should have gone to (AFK) Malaki who put his hand up on the second try. Either way (block) indicates that both Bush and (AFK) Malaki are most likely warrior class since warriors are the only ones who can use shield block.

I’m gonna say Fury spec warrior on Bush because of his tendency to incessantly spam the (Whirlwind) attack macro to spin out of difficult situations and probably Protection (Prot) spec on (AFK) Malaki since he threw up the block. Kudos, (AFK) Malaki. Kudos. But dude — as Prot spec YOU are supposed to hold the mob aggro, NOT do CC (crowd control)! CC is usually done by Cheney the Hunter. Blammo! Shot to the face… crowd controlled. Dick must have been late to the raid or something. And don’t even get me started on the Secret Service Mage and Priest who must have been in another room looting a corpse…

It’s also possible that Bush is a Combat spec Rogue because of his good dodge skills and his ability to (sap) and (backstab).

Yes. I need to get a life. Please send me one for Winterveil. WoW online game cards also accepted.

Thank You,

-Laz
Nur

I think it’s hard to beat: http://vash.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Anims/bushoes.gif . Pop culture reference and iffy compositing in one.

For all my negative opinions about Bush, I think he handled it really well – the only response he could possibly have given was really a well “I know he threw a shoe at me, it missed, what more can I say?” It’s a big insult and everything but really, Bush is handling it about as well as he could by not dwelling on it and laughing it off.
Anonymous

A couple more…

Matrix Bullet time:
http://vash.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Anims/bushoes.gif

Snowball fight:
http://www2.b3ta.com/host/creative/61609/1229336413/ggtu.gif

Foot:
http://www.mofahaimages.com/b3ta/bushpython.gif
jogar

Baghdad shoe BOGO sale: Buy one to go, one to throw – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vBUfbWV-qE
Xeni Jardin

Arkizzle, GTHS, and #28 Nur, LOL at all, and added!
Ugly Canuck

hey crispa they’ll beat him into a coma, if the publicity stops.
seamusiv

Here’s another.

http://video2gif.leechvideo.com/convert/gif/200812170825042743.gif
Keeper of the Lantern

Note no one is surprised, not even ole Dubya himself.

I hope this guy understands that he has spoke not just for Iraq, and not just the Arab world, but for pretty much everyone in the world.

I need a t-shirt of this,…NOW!
KWillets

Dodging thrown objects is perhaps the first skill one must learn to become a good public speaker. I suspect he’ll spend the next eight years working on step two.
Takuan

jest git the ball rollin’
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/04-06-05/bush-blackeye001.jpg
MollyMaguire

Just so sad that he missed…
Lauren O

Haha, I love the last one. My boyfriend’s first reaction to the original video was, “He dodged it like the Matrix!” We then discussed if it would have been awesomer to see him dodge it, or to see him get hit full in the face. The issue at hand was grudging admiration of reflex skillz vs. grudging sympathy for getting clocked in the face with a shoe.
llainy

Are you faster than Bush?

take a look at this game – http://www.mind360.com/braingames/teasers/bushshoeincident.html

I did it in 150 milliseconds!..
catbeller

He’s been tortured. Yes, being beaten is torture.

Crossposted from Digg:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/1 …
“Muntadhar al-Zaidi will go down in Arab folklore as the man who dared to throw his shoes at George Bush but his immediate problem is how to recover from the reprisals he suffered after his bold gesture. His older brother, Dargham, has told reporters Muntadhar suffered a broken hand, broken ribs and internal bleeding, as well as an eye injury, and is in hospital.
”

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/12/montat …
“Monday, December 15, 2008
Albaghdadia, the TV channel where the Iraqi Journalist Montather Al-Zeidi works, reports that an Iraqi MP (Ms. Zainab Al-Kanani) informed them that Montather’s hand was broken in jail.
This confirms a lot of reports and rumors about Montather being subject to torture while the Iraqi authorities are interrogating and detaining him in some unspecified location.”

http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/12/16/urgent-just- …
“Iraqi TV al-Sharqiya just reported on the news that AL-Zaidi is transferred to Camp Cropper prison [the Airport prison, managed by the American forces].
The TV Channel announced that Al-Zaidi is in a difficult condition, with broken ribs and signs of tortures on his thighs. Also he can not move his right arm.
P.S.
I am just telling you what I heard on TV.”
Anonymous

Tom Hale

It’s not a “loss” for “us” that he missed.

That an Iraqi threw his shoe (rather than his explosive laden body) at Bush is a win for all.

That the iraqi chose to ridicule Bush’s failure using shoes is the win for ‘us’.

The gif’s are just gravy.

your approval tastes like gravy too

–mdh (who hates sigs but can’t recall his password today)
Izzlepie

What i’m wondering is where the bodyguards were? Surely they should have dived in front of GW and “taken the shoe” so to speak?
Xeni Jardin

@OM, they’re large images (some around a megabyte each), 9 of em or so, and this post was linked to and the images were hotlinked on other blogs.
akirabergman

This may evolve to artificial limb or %tit% throwing in the future. Pi$$ or s##t throwing is also possible with some clever design. Hard to imagine head throwing tho. It takes a genius to start something like this. I hope he gets out alive. Who says â€œGod is a comedian, playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.â€?
IWood

!ZOMFG POKEDENT!1!!
OM

“they’re large images (some around a megabyte each), 9 of em or so, and this post was linked to and the images were hotlinked on other blogs. “

…and multiplied by the millions of BB readers, and triplicated by the thousands of regulars, your link to the backbone probably is wringing their hands in anticipation of delivering you your next bandwidth bill too. Egads!
Takuan

a chicken wire cage at his next press conference?
gelos

You can’t tell me that not having to worry that your family, everyone you love and care for is going to be tortured to death because of your activist actions is a bad thing.

What if your loved ones had already been killed by American bombs? People with nothing to lose can be dangerous.
akirabergman

Oops.. I just found a way to throw pi$$. Wear a condom and tie it tight enough. Drink enough, hold and time it to the moment. Nobody will notice or suspect the unzipping.
grimc

@antinous

The shoe hurler (that was no toss!) did one thing very wrong. He should have thrown it with his left hand.

Plus, he should’ve pump faked once or twice.
Takuan

training and discipline and projectile vomiting could be the next.
redemmie

Bush learned to dodge after hunting with Cheney for awhile.
arkizzle

MinT:

The Dubya Dodge

*for*the*win*
Takuan

sigh… coulda used that……

“In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world’s most famous pair of black dress shoes.”

wayddda minute! The sneaky son of a bitch! This is how he’s financing his retirement since he knows no one will buy his coloring book memoirs! Damn!
Watch and see, there’s gonna be a whole host of things chucked at his head in the next month.
Anonymous

carnival shoe toss
http://i34.tinypic.com/2potx8h.gif
sammich

Tak @ 36 – a chickenwire cage?
no no no – i want to see him try his luck with a blindfold and a light sabre…
ok?
chenobble

Hi Xeni,

Do you think you could credit the hard work of the people at b3ta.com who made most of these animations?
buddy66

Is it “Duck Soup” where Minnie’s boys start throwing things at the soprano who bursts into song at the war’s end? Maybe a new clownish brother: Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Busho.
dhalgren

I thought Obama was Neo, er, the One? Although Bush being President for 8 years could be explained by us being in the Matrix.

The Monty Python foot is priceless.
ConsiderThis

Love the classic stuff! Personal favorites are Monty Python and Three Stoges.

How great would it be if world leaders got together and fought it out with double eye pokes and windmill bops to the head? ….nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
Anonymous

i bet he could have scored by throwing both shoes at the same time.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Takuan, funny you should mention that. As Nicholas Kristof wrote this very day in the New York Times:

Paying down the deficit with whizzing shoes
A Saudi reportedly has offered $10 million for just one of the shoes thrown at President Bush in Iraq. That got me thinking. The journalist who threw the shoes no longer possesses them, of course, but hopefully some member of the White House staff picked them up and will do a deal with the Saudi buyer. The second one could be put on Ebay to defray the White House travel costs.

But that got me thinking. The Times article about the Saudi offer says that the shoe-thrower is a hero around Iraq, and indeed in much of the Arab world. That suggests that the resale market for shoes thrown at Mr. Bush is fairly deep. And in this difficult economic environment, can we as a nation overlook any way of raising money? …

Fighting Liberals says:

As a sign of your admiration, please feel free (compelled) to send your old shoes to
George W. Bush Presidential Library
c/o SMU
6425 Boaz Lane
Dallas TX 75205

And The Rude Pundit (“Proudly Lowering the Level of Political Discourse”) writes:

Because We Won’t Have Him to Kick Around Much Longer, Part 2 (Featuring Shoes and a Fun and Easy Real Protest Idea):
This morning, the Rude Pundit decided to honor the efforts of Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi shoe-tosser, by taking out a raggedy old pair of sneakers, putting them in a Priority Mail shipping box, helpfully provided by the United States Post Office, and shipping them to President George W. Bush at the White House. He included a note that read, “This is a farewell kiss from the American people, you dog.”

Since throwing objects at the president is generally considered a crime, the Rude Pundit figures sending shoes to Bush is a small, good thing, a gesture of contempt that has context. Sweet Christ, at this point, there should be giant sacks of shoes heading to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC, 20500, like letters to Santa. …

Someone should be there every day of Bush’s life to throw shoes at him. Hell, someone should market a fuckin’ game that includes a Bush face mounted with velcro with tiny shoes that’ll stick to his puss.

Oh, sweet Muntader, you who is probably hanging hooded in a basement with electrodes on your nipples and nuts right now while the vast majority of your country celebrates your leather-soled middle finger to the nation that occupies it, all over America, people are smiling and nodding. Maybe that we should come up with other things that should be hurled at the President because that mthrfckng monkey has slung his shit at us for eight years.

Like, say, golf balls, birthday cake, your 401K, your sick child, clean coal, or Donald Rumsfeld.

It can’t be fun to be George right now.

Thank you, Muntader al-Zaidi.
Anonymous

pokemon one ftw!!!
Crispa

You know, for all the humor of it, it does show something. If the journalist had done that to the previous regime, Hussein, he would of been shot on the spot as well as most of the folks around him. I guess they truly are free, even though it was US soldiers who did the dirty work.
PixelFish

Sorry, Madfist@10, but I gotta correct you. Bush is merely some ‘leet mob in what appears to be Thousand Needles. He can’t be a Horde factional leader because the shoe thrower guy is Horde.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say Bush is associated with the Venture Company. (The Venture Company goes out and has environmentally unfriendly camps, complete with armed mercenaries. It’s very Halliburton.)

(Digression: I never did finish my WoW machinima of SarahPalin piling up baby wolves and talking about how she could see the Burning Steppes from Redridge. We had the election, and I lost steam.)
arkizzle

CatBellet, your guardian link isn’t working for me. try this one:

Journalist emerges as hero of resistance
grimc

Don’t mean to be a downer, but it should be noted that there is at least one report that the guy is being tortured while in custody:

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/12/montathers-hand-broken-in-jail.html
arkizzle

*CatBeller

sorry :)
ROSSINDETROIT

I think it was a setup. Call me a cynic but I just don’t see how you could miss at that range. Maliki didn’t even look surprised. Desperate bid for sympathy? What are they really up to here?
Anonymous

That first thrown shoe, the mission accomplished sign, the national debt clock (that ran out of digits) and the hanging chads from Florida should become the main exhibits in the G.W. Bush Presidential Library. They cover the story so well: dubiously elected, ruined our economy, wars with no exit strategy and our international standing plunging downward as Dubya dodges accountability once again.
Anonymous

Here’s another one (voice is Dutch):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35kQ9sxkGCI
bnt

Here’s one that’s not animated, but still pretty good, in Laugh-Out-Loud Cats: http://apelad.blogspot.com/2008/12/laugh-out-loud-cats-1010.html
Anonymous

what about the isp’s that offer unlimited bandwidth?
thanks for all the great posts. . .
Takuan

Downer? Hell no! SHOUT IT LOUD! The more attention worldwide the less chance they have to murder him.
akirabergman

#46 BY CRISPA;

“I guess they truly are free, even though it was US soldiers who did the dirty work.”

Oh really? Utter whitewash. At the cost of how many hundreds of thousands of people? They are not free either. That news thing is just a stage. Don’t forget Guantanamo, Al-Ghraib, Falluca. Don’t forget the families and their little daughters raped and killed by the US soldiers. Don’t forget the Blackwater mercenaries. Don’t forget Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, Chile… USA also kill and torture, but they do it more cleverly.
grimc

True that, Takuan.

THERE ARE REPORTS THE REPORTER IS BEING TORTURED:

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/2008/12/montathers-hand-broken-in-jail.html

http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/12/16/urgent-just-reported-al-zaidi-in-us-run-camp-cropper-prison/

And, uh, you were saying, Crispa?
ConsiderThis

REDEMMIE-
Now that would have made a great animation. Chenney waving a shotgun back and forth while hails of buckshot fly as President Bush ducks the blasts.

Thanks for the visual.