Jungle Freaks, an NFT project endorsed by American actor and producer Elijah Woods, has spiralled into chaos after the artist’s racist cartoons from the 1970s resurfaced. A report unveiled this news on November 2, noting that the drawings elicited different reactions among the project’s investors. While multiple high-profile investors dumped the project, others dismissed the case, citing cancel culture.
According to the report, the Jungle Freaks collection is a father-and-son project that comprises 10,000 zombie NFTs. The artist behind the project is George Trosley, a former Cartoonist for Hustler Magazine. While working for the magazine, Trosley published a series of racially provocative cartoons.
a lot of people dunking on this for the nft part alone but not enough pointing out this dude is the guy elijah commissioned https://t.co/Bm734Svl3R pic.twitter.com/JDN66OB1x1
— Alexis (she/her) 🏳️⚧️ (@AlexisuwuAlexis) October 29, 2021
Although the racist drawings were well in the past, Wood’s endorsement of Jungle Freaks on October 27 subjected the project and Trosley to scrutiny. As a result, his work from the past resurfaced.
After learning of the racist drawings, Wood took to Twitter to say,
— Elijah Wood (@elijahwood) November 1, 2021
Wood further noted that he donated the funds from the NFT sales to LDF and Black Lives Matter.
Trosley claims his drawings are not racist
Trosley’s son came to his father’s rescue, saying he and his father would take a LinkedIn course on anti-racism. In the post, the son admitted his father’s cartoons were horrible. He acknowledged that the resurfacing of the drawings came with a chance to accept responsibility. Assuring collectors, he said Jungle Freaks does not condone racism.
Everyone, this statement was made to our discord last night but we wanted to publish it here. pic.twitter.com/UuVYzXvBGn
— JUNGLE FREAKS BY TROSLEY (@JungleFreaksNFT) November 1, 2021
He added that although the racist drawings were part of a culture that Hustler and Larry Flynt Publications pushed, his father should not have participated. The son added that his father was ashamed for drawing the cartoons.
However, Trosley did not seem apologetic. Instead, he refuted claims that his cartoons are racist, adding that his role as a cartoonist at Hustler involved illustrating topics the magazine focused on. Trosley further noted that the magazine was infamous for publishing material that pushed the edge.
According to him, many illustrations sought to evoke attention and conversation about societal and political issues at the time.
NFT community finds fault with Jungle Freaks
Apart from Trosley’s previous work, the NFT community scrutinized the artworks in the Jungle Freaks collection and found a piece containing Nazi imagery. Specifically, the NFT depicts a zombie donning a Nazi’s General hat complete with Totenkopf, the skull badge. As a result, community members are calling for the delisting of Jungle Freaks.
Again, Trosley defended himself, saying,
The hat is not Nazi related. The Jungle Freaks are zombies, and we thought adding a skull ‘trait’ to the military hat was a unique way to signify that they were an army of the dead.
As a result of coming under fire, Jungle Freaks suffered a massive selloff that saw the floor price plunge 94% to hit 0.3 ETH.
