I totally agree with you-- and I have no idea why this particular opinion is greeted with such backlash, and especially on this subreddit. This is a vulgarization of a masterpiece. I think artists like Godspeed have to be treated with dignity, and not reduced to stupid puns and a meme of sorts. I for one, don't want to see my favorite album of all time debased by popular internet culture.

The artwork isn't just a pretty picture, like much of Will Schaff's work, it has a message. If you look at the second illustration in the album, it's a depiction of the result of capitalism. It is a message of the dangers of conformity. It's George Washington with a skull-like face, cutting off the hands of a distraught man after he signed a contract. In the third picture, George gives a second man an ultimatum, while holding a pinstriped suit resembling his own. Now the picture on the front of the album consists of the man's severed hands, in what appears to be George Washington's bowl.

You've thrown a cat in George Washington's limb bowl. I guess this makes sense, because internet culture, and more specifically Reddit is the hallmark of conformity and the loss of individuality. But I suppose all true democracies are like that-- they all dilute any contrasting disposition, regardless of what opinion may be closer to the truth.

Art shouldn't be taken seriously? There is a time for comedy, and there is a time for courtesy. But isn't this an example of a parody? Parody marks the death of art. In the words of Nietzsche, "A joke is an epigram on the death of a feeling"-- we can take this one step further by saying a parody is an epigram on the death of an artwork. Parody trivializes the meaning-- and often the "seriousness" of art.