# 2 for 1 question about comics: Get Fuzzy & Eric the Circle
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 6, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426 "2012-07-06T16:16:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/1 "2012-07-06T16:16:12Z")
I understand that humor is in the mind of the beholder; however, it seems to me that there must be some level of common funny, so to speak, for something to qualify for the mass market. What I don’t understand is how Get Fuzzy and Eric the Circle last longer than one day.
At the risk of ruining the humor, can anyone explain the appeal of these two so-called funnies?
For those who want links, you can read both of them [here](http://www.comics.com).
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/2 "2012-07-06T16:24:44Z")
I’ve never heard of Eric the Circle before. And now, having read a dozen of the strips, I am hating you so much for alerting me to its existence. It was so unfunny I think my eyes are bleeding.
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/3 "2012-07-06T16:24:46Z")
Never heard of Eric the Circle, but I enjoy Get Fuzzy. I rarely read it in the paper though; usually I get one of the book collections and read a chunk in one sitting. I think it’s a better format for the humor. Plus Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine will do crossovers and that always amuses me.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/4 "2012-07-06T16:25:54Z")
Format might be good, but where’s the humor. They both are strikingly unfunny to me. And I like a lot of different types of humor.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/5 "2012-07-06T16:42:48Z")
I’ve said this before when Get Fuzzy has come up in discussion: I think it would work better as something like an animated TV show. The characters and their dialogue are good, and with the right delivery could be laugh-out-loud funny; but the strip’s creator doesn’t use the comic strip format all that well IMHO.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/6 "2012-07-06T16:47:37Z")
Get Fuzzy is in our local paper, so I read it on the weekends (the only time we get the paper); it’s hit and miss for me.
I’ve never heard of Eric the Circle before today. I like it; it made me chuckle. He’s a circle, and as such his world view is quite a bit different from ours…
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### Author:  [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/7 "2012-07-06T16:53:44Z")
Get Fuzzzy, I think there are people that just like cat comics.
Haven’t heard of the other one not interested in seeing more un-funny comics.
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### Author:  [@Tarwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tarwater)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/8 "2012-07-06T17:15:32Z")
What comics do you enjoy?
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### Author:  [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/9 "2012-07-06T17:39:33Z")
I haven’t heard of Eric the Circle, but I often find Get Fuzzy to be very funny, and I’m not especially enamored with cat comics. Just funny interesting ones.
The appeal to me is that it makes me chuckle at times. Get Fuzzy isn’t my favorite, but there are often funny jokes thrown in. Absurd conversations between the cat and the dog are usually good for a laugh. The combination of the cat’s over the top cruelty and naivete of the dog makes for funny lines.
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### Author:  [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/10 "2012-07-06T17:46:16Z")
> [@Tarwater](#):
>
> What comics do you enjoy?
I enjoy Beetle Bailey, Andy Capp, Dilbert, Pickles, Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Garfield, and a few others.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/11 "2012-07-06T17:49:31Z")
I’ve never heard of Eric the Circle before. It looks like the work of someone who theoretically understands that humor exists, but hasn’t quite figured it out. It’s like what Sheldon Cooper would come up with.
Get Fuzzy is in our paper. I’m not a big fan.
But either of them is a laught riot compared to the existential strip _Zippy the Pinhead_, which runs in the Boston Globe every day. How it has kept its position all these years, while other strips have come and gone, I do not understand.
> **[Zippy the Pinhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zippy_the_Pinhead)**
>
> Zippy the Pinhead is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Zippy, an American comic strip created by Bill Griffith. Zippy's most famous quotation, "Are we having fun yet?", appears in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and became a catchphrase. He almost always wears a yellow muumuu/clown suit with large red polka dots, and puffy, white clown shoes. (Other forms of attire may be seen when appropriate to the context, e.g. a toga.) Although in name and appearance, Zippy is a microcephal The c...
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/12 "2012-07-06T17:50:31Z")
Get Fuzzy is a serial comic. The daily strips are built in a storyline series, and play on the history of the story. The cat and the dog are just common characters with predictable personalities, much like you find in the supporting cast of a sitcom. It’s not for everyone’s tastes, but I like it. Maybe once every other week a strip is really funny. The rest of the time the story is just being pushed along, and there’s only a mild chuckle here and there.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/13 "2012-07-06T17:55:03Z")
Get Fuzzy was far funnier in the beginning, but it still comes through from time to time. It is a strip you have to read regularly; a random strip usually makes reference to things that happened in previous strips.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/14 "2012-07-06T18:23:25Z")
Just checked out Eric the Circle. It’s a comic by committee – evidently people log on to [http://www.ericthecircle.com/](http://www.ericthecircle.com/) and create their own comic. Others vote on them and it looks like the winners get put up on GoComics.
The appeal is that people can publish their work online in a legitimate venue. I suspect most of those who follow the strip either create the comic (successfully or unsuccessfully) or are friends/family of those who try their luck.
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/15 "2012-07-06T18:31:46Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Get Fuzzy and Pearls Before Swine will do crossovers and that always amuses me.
I don’t recall that. Have you a link?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/16 "2012-07-06T18:40:35Z")
I think _Get Fuzzy_ (and _Pearls Before Swine_), both of which are in my local paper, are just too hard to read. It’s something about the font style of the lettering, or the letters are too small for my aging eyes. It doesn’t help that they’re at the bottom of the page, when I’m tired of squinting (and no, I’ve never thought of reading from bottom to top).
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/17 "2012-07-06T18:43:13Z")
Umm,[there](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/17) [was](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/18) [this](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/18) [week’s](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/19) [worth](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/19) [of](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/20) [strips.](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/20) It goes on longer but I’m tired of coding hyperlinks. They’ve also done one offs for Cartoonist’s Day and April Fool’s Day, as well.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/18 "2012-07-06T18:58:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Get Fuzzy was far funnier in the beginning
That’s my take on it, too. The Chicago Tribune ran Get Fuzzy for a number of years; when I first started reading it, I found it to be pretty consistently funny. Then, it just started getting progressively weirder, to the point where I no longer read it (and that was at about the point where the Trib dropped it, anyway).
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [July 6, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/19 "2012-07-06T18:59:06Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#):
>
> Umm,[there](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/17) [was](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/18) [this](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/18) [week’s](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/19) [worth](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/19) [of](http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2006/04/20) [strips.](http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2006/04/20) It goes on longer but I’m tired of coding hyperlinks. They’ve also done one offs for Cartoonist’s Day and April Fool’s Day, as well.
Cool, thanks again!
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-for-1-question-about-comics-get-fuzzy-eric-the-circle/627426/20 "2012-07-09T22:40:51Z")
I don’t see anything particularly unfunny about these comics, but, in general, newspaper comics are all like 60s sitcom jokes. They all lack any real punch. They’re all just sorta amusing.
The bar is just not that high.
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