# boondocks just taking up space!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 2, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301 "2003-02-02T14:08:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/1 "2003-02-02T14:08:49Z")
I hate the boondocks. Every Sunday I read the funnies and there they are just one big panel. It’s not really that funny and I find it wanting. And what the hell does today’s edition (2-2-03) mean? I hate the boondocks.
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### Author:  [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/2 "2003-02-02T14:56:02Z")
BLASPHEMY!
(Although I didn’t get today’s either)
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/3 "2003-02-02T15:06:24Z")
_Boondocks_ performs a vital function in my household. When confronted with a pop cultural reference, I refer to my resident Expert in pop culture, affording him the opportunity to indulge himself in condescension to the aged and woefully out-of-touch parental unit.
But what do I know? I still mourn the loss of _Bloom County_.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/4 "2003-02-02T15:13:30Z")
Hey, I like _Boondocks_.
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/5 "2003-02-02T15:14:44Z")
Today’s edition is a reference to the groundhog predicting weather, and a slam against those who say African rituals are primitive.
At least, that’s how I read it. It’s my first stop on the comics page, too.
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### Author:  [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/6 "2003-02-02T15:45:29Z")
_Boondocks_ is one of the best comic strips out there. These days, when the comics page is dominated by either generic pap or by dozens of strips that have now lived longer than their creators did, _Boondocks_ is a breath of fresh air. Aaron Magruder (sp?) is bright, has something to say, and doesn’t hesitate to say it. I wish there were more strips like this.
For those who don’t like _Boondocks_: you still have your _Garfield, Marvin, B.C._, etc., so please allow the rest of us this one little indulgence. And maybe \*Doonesbury, Zippy, \* and… uh… _Fox Trot._ Is that so much to ask?
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/7 "2003-02-02T15:52:51Z")
I like **Boondocks**. But I hate **Dusenberry**.
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/8 "2003-02-02T16:02:33Z")
The only newspaper comic out there worth a damn right now is _Fox Trot_. Consistently makes me laugh. I used to like _The Boondocks_, but it’s just boring now. If I want to hear the ravings of some communist lunatic, I just scroll down and read some of **Chumpsky’s** old posts. Those make me laugh far more often than _The Boondocks_ nowadays.
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### Author:  [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/9 "2003-02-02T16:12:29Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Aceospades \*
> **I hate the boondocks. Every Sunday I read the funnies and there they are just one big panel.**
I suppose you long for the good old days when comic stirps like Calvin and Hobbes graced the funnypages?
Oh wait, practically no comic strip was more guilty of the One Big Panel on Sundays than Calvin and Hobbes.
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/10 "2003-02-02T16:19:42Z")
Actually, I think Family Circus holds the title of One Big Panel champ.
If you wanted to discuss truly awful comics, that is.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/11 "2003-02-02T17:20:02Z")
Most “comic strips” continue to be constrained by the concept of a “strip”, that is, a series of smaller pictures, usually following a line, line, line, punch line! format. Given the space limitations of the daily comic, this is almost unavoidable. But a Sunday comic, given its larger space allowance and the use of color, allows an _avant garde_ “block” approach, which daring young cartoonists find liberating. Naturally, this “block” approach is intimidating to some more conservative comics viewers, who find it daunting and, sometimes, incomprehensible.
Which is to say…
Its a “block” thing…you wouldn’t understand.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/12 "2003-02-02T17:20:24Z")
I think that virtually all of today’s newspaper comics suck. _Boondocks_ is one of the better ones but it’s still not worth reading, IMO. About 10 years ago I was down to _Far Side_, _Doonsbury_ and _Calvin and Hobbes_. Eventually it was just _Doonsbury_ after the other two retired. Nowadays it’s just not worth it to me to open the comics page just for _Doonsbury_. A couple of times a year I read the comic pages to see if anything has changed but I’m always disappointed.
Haj
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### Author:  [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/13 "2003-02-02T17:24:55Z")
I like _Boondocks_. It’s edgy. For a despicably, egregiously bad Sunday comic strip, check out _Non Sequitir_. I could go on and on about the deviant sex acts this comic strip performs on monkeys, goats, Barbra, etc. but it’s just too obvious. It’d be like saying the sun is yellow.
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### Author:  [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/14 "2003-02-02T18:09:16Z")
Sunday strips have a much less forgiving deadline than weekday strips. Since The Boondocks tends to draw its humor from current events, the Sunday strip is at something of a disadvantage. It usually _has_ to be kind of innocent and nonthreatening, so as not to disrupt any ongoing storyline in the weekday editions.
Every now and then, some strips (Calvin and Hobbes, for example) will plan storylines out so far in advance that they can incorporate the Sunday into the regular events, but for the most part it’s just its own entity.
And today’s Boondocks was about Groundhog Day.
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/15 "2003-02-02T19:40:59Z")
I forgot about _Non Sequiter_! It’s right up there with _Fox Trot_, IMO. Frankly, it’s the satirical, insightful, clever comic that _The Boondocks_ wishes it could be.
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### Author:  [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/16 "2003-02-02T19:59:12Z")
In the weekday paper I like the boondocks. The comic strips during the week don’t have a lot of room and if you can do something witty in one, two, or three blocks, then that’s good. But Sunday comics are BIG. You have more room to build. I guess my rant is that yes, boondocks is witty, but only one panel witty. Come on! On Sundays you have the opportunity to be 5 panels witty. Part of me feels that this is wasteful and that boondocks is wasting its resource and part of me is angry because I want my 5 panels of wittyness.
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### Author:  [@The\_Ace\_of\_Swords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ace_of_Swords)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/17 "2003-02-02T20:06:01Z")
Boondocks? Taking up space? You philistine, it’s a retro throwback – all comics used to be the single block panel, not our jittery minature windowed dross. If you’re going to bitch do it right – what about the execrable, unfunny, and pointless _Mallard Fillmore_?
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### Author:  [@apotheosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apotheosis)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/18 "2003-02-02T20:07:12Z")
I miss _The Far Side_ and _Calvin & Hobbes_.
Thankfully, with the advent of web comics, the increasingly-misnamed ‘funny pages’ became irrelevant. _Megatokyo, Penny Arcade, Sinfest, Errant Story,_ Eric Schwartz’s _Sabrina, Kevin & Kell_…even old _User Friendly_…
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### Author:  [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/19 "2003-02-02T20:18:31Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hajario \*
> \*\*About 10 years ago I was down to _Far Side_, _Doonsbury_ and _Calvin and Hobbes_. Haj \*\*
yes, for me it was these and also _bloomcounty/outland_ those were the good old days. and although _Calvin and Hobbes_ did do one panel sunday strips, it wasn’t every sunday. with _Calvin and Hobbes_ i felt that the few times that he did it it helped him make the witty statement he was going for (the less is more thing). with _boondocks_ i get the impression that he’s saying “ya i only did one block, so 😛 to you!”
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### Author:  [@nogginhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nogginhead)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/boondocks-just-taking-up-space/152301/20 "2003-02-02T21:39:40Z")
Boondocks saves my life on a regular basis-- no one else seems to have the right reaction to Ashcroft, in particular.
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