Charades is a game where players act out a word or phrase without speaking, while others guess what it is.
The message
In my cartoon, she is playing Charades.
She acts out ‘snake’ and her friends guess the word correctly.
Then she acts out ‘oil’ and they guess the word correctly.
Finally, they realise the overall phrase is ‘vaccine’ and shout it out, pleased that they’ve guessed correctly.
The woman is very happy.
Snake oil
My cartoon is obviously a metaphor, saying that vaccines are deceptive or ineffective (which they are), much like actual ‘snake oil’, which was sold as a remedy but was actually useless.
Historically, ‘snake oil’ was basically fake medical remedies claimed to cure various illnesses. The salesmen were fraudsters selling them. The remedies were actually made from boiled rattlesnakes (apparently) and were a popular cure-all.
Moral of the story?
Stay away from vaccines.
They’re a scam.
