Banksy’s Happy Choppers is among the most striking works from his 2005 exhibition Crude Oils: A Gallery of Re-mixed Masterpieces, Vandalism and Vermin, staged in a small West London shop. The show, which famously featured 200 live rats running through the gallery, presented parodied versions of canonical artworks alongside some of Banksy’s best-known motifs.

In Happy Choppers, a fleet of military helicopters fills the sky, painted in stark black silhouette against a soft pastel background. Yet each helicopter bears a childlike pink bow on its nose, a visual contradiction that instantly undercuts their menace. By fusing the iconography of war with the innocence of playful decoration, Banksy exposes the absurdity of militarisation and the way instruments of violence are often normalised, disguised, or even celebrated.

The Crude Oils exhibition itself was a statement against the traditional art world, satirising its reverence for masterpieces while confronting viewers with a blend of humour, provocation, and biting social critique. Happy Choppers exemplifies Banksy’s ability to pair stark political commentary with disarmingly simple visual gags, transforming the tools of destruction into a parody of themselves. The work has since become one of his most recognisable anti-war images, reproduced across prints, stencils, and murals worldwide.