Let me clarify, though, that the Family Circus is not as maddeningly offensive as, say, Frank and Earnest. It's just confusing. Why is this comic so universally popular? Am I on crazy pills? Let me cite an example that I found on the family circus website, which if this blog ever gets readership I will probably have to take down or risk being sued:
When I say I don't understand it, it's not that I don't know what it's saying, even though for a Floridian the concept of icy sidewalks is about as familiar as tse tse flies biting Bengal Tigers while aborigines watch while playing the accordion. I have conceptual understanding that ice forms in the winter on sidewalks and it's slippery, increasing the risk of falling, or sliding, if you will. I get the "joke." Only, it's not a joke. This is a bad pun dressed up as cute because a child (presumably his?) said it. Aww, adorable. No. This is a newspaper. There is no room for adorable, Trixie Flagston aside.
I want to know who it is that looks for this everyday. I want to know if having children will make this comic seem less like something only boring people enjoy to something I look for all the time. If enjoying Family Circus is what I have to look forward to in parenthood, I am going to never stop drinking Mountain Dew.
3 comments:
I don't even think that was a pun. I think it was a sentence and a picture of a kid. I am with you. Family circus is lame.
I agree. I don't even see the "bad pun." I haven't read family circus for years for a reason.
By the way, if you consider that you have published one of a large series of images and used it to make specific criticism against the nature of the strip as a whole, you probably stand on pretty good grounds with the fair use provision of copyright law. While there are clearly egregious copyright violations going on on the web, I also think too many big media companies get away with excessively threating notices and unfounded legal actions which imply that there is no such thing as fair use. That having been said, you may be very right that you could be sued, but only because we have let media companies write our law for us by threatening people who don't have the resources or wherewithal to take it to court.
You stole the premise of this article from Pinky and the Brain. "The Family Circus just isn't that funny any more." - Pinky.
Post a Comment