The women of Mad Men as vintage Playboy covers

Fan art is such a weird part of internet culture. Thinking about the amount of time it must take to create something that will make the viral rounds for a few days and be promptly forgotten baffles me.

Case-in-point:

Joan in Playboy. Via Tauntr. It's astute, creative and brilliantly executed. After all, Christina Hendricks gets all the credit for bringing Marilyn-style voluptuousness back to the popular definition of beauty. This in itself is a cool piece of pop art that says all kinds of things about that era, as well as how far we really haven't come. Christina Hendricks continues to complain that all people ever talk about is her body, while also working it on the red carpet at every opportunity. This cover, and the look on her face, seem to sum up the conflict in real life, as well as on the show — where she often regrets the way she has used sex to be taken seriously by men. (Later addition: She also simultaneously reminds me of the Virgin Mary and a vampire.)

And then the artist messes up everything by bringing Betty and Trudy into it, just because they're attractive:

And why the hell isn't she "Miss January"?

Totally wrecked it, because now it's just about being hot in a '60s way. And where's Peggy? I guess she doesn't cut it.

And then, the artist throws a joke one in there:

Seriously, anonymous fan artist. You could have quit while you were ahead, instead of showing everyone that your masterpiece of artistic social commentary was just a fluke.