The bastion of right-wing comic mediocrity, Mallard Fillmore, is finally taking heat from readers of the Globe who expect comic strips to be actually, well… funny.
The controversy started on Monday with conjecture from the Globe
ombudsman, Christine Chinlund, that Mallard may soon be replaced by Prickly City, a “conservative” strip with a fresher and funnier perspective than the duck. Chinlund quotes two readers in her piece:
But some say the The Duck has a more fatal flaw: “It’s just not
funny,” said reader Michael LaVigne. “He can have his opinion, fine,
but it needs to be funny, too.”Reader Kathy Tappan asks why the Globe wastes precious space on a strip
that is “usually hateful, nasty, ill-informed, or mean-spirited…”
If the strip was also funny, she said, “you might have an excellent comic on your hands.” But, she said, it’s not.
The letters on the editorial pages, pro, con, or flip-flop (plus this letter
from just before the brouhaha), generally seem to miss the point:
Mallard Fillmore lays eggs as a comic artist. Let’s review some recent examples of what passes for
humor in Bruce Tinsley’s hackneyed world:
- Using an elipses to create comic timing… for a one-liner that isn’t funny! Ha!
- Making opponents out to be idiots by drawing them
cross-eyed.
I remember doing that… in third grade! - Earnesty. Oh, and a duck thrown in to remind you that it’s a comic strip.
- Pimping out the tooth fairy for a joke.
- Anger.
Not that Mallard is alone on this score. One Mallard preservationist went after a similarly humor-challanged strip:
Why not drop “Doonesbury”?
Some would argue “Doonesbury” has certainly lost its relevance.
Amen,
brother. (I remember attracting some dirty looks for criticizing Gary
Trudeau at Brown’s 2004 Commencement, where he was receiving an honarary degree. Lighten up, liberals!) Jonathan Franzen summarized the problem with Doonesbury in a sentence:
Garry Trudeau is essentially a social novelist, his topical satire and
intricate family dynamics and elaborate camera angles all serving to
divert attention from the monotony of his comic expression.
Sack ‘em both, I say! And take the cat with you!
