# Does this cartoon offend you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2004, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551 "2004-03-10T21:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/21 "2004-03-11T08:28:46Z")
Ya see–he just blew this dog’s head off, and then he’s acting all girly because he burnt his finger! Get it? Haw haw. And he’s a flower! Count me in with the “not offensive, but not funny” vote. While the subject matter is obviously very different, the humor level of this strip ranks right up there with **Family Circus**. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/22 "2004-03-11T08:36:22Z")
I’m not a BtAF fan, but I have to say his 9/11/2001 strip was memorable. Not offensive, but an accurate capture of how most of us felt, IMO. The dog strip was just meaningless, tho. ---
**Author:** ![notquitekarpov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@notquitekarpov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notquitekarpov)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/23 "2004-03-11T12:10:36Z")
> [@Raygun99](#): > > On second read it is a shotgun, not a flamethrower. My mistake. It doesn’t change my reading of the strip though. It does for me. Now, a flamethrower might just have been funny, “Nuke that Hound!”, but as is you can put me in with the ho hum crowd. ---
**Author:** ![gaba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@gaba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaba)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/24 "2004-03-11T13:40:18Z")
Yes, it offends me, in a way. As far as stupidity can be offensive. Or if you dislike the word “stupidity” as too judgemental - a sensitivity drastically different and somewhat upsetting to yours truly. No big deal, since I can practice my right to avoid reading any further “comic” strips by this “artist”, which will be beneficial to us both, I think. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/25 "2004-03-11T13:44:21Z")
Add me to the “Not offended, not funny” group. And poorly draw, to boot; the next to last panel is a muddle. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/26 "2004-03-11T14:07:59Z")
Another “not offended, not funny” vote here. Animal cruelty is something that has to be handled properly in order to be funny (like the resussitation scene from **There’s Something About Mary** ), and this didn’t do it. Plus, the overly graphic detail was rather distasteful. Again, distasteful can work if handled properly…this just didn’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/27 "2004-03-11T14:10:30Z")
In the next to last panel, the poodle is a puddle. What I find offensive about this strip is that someone actually bought it and is using it. It isn’t funny. Not even in a dark way (which _is_ acceptable to me, btw). Is has no entertainment value whatsoever in my eyes. And yet, someone is getting paid for it. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/28 "2004-03-11T15:54:03Z")
It takes quite a bit to offend me (I laughed my ass off at tribute.wmv), but it also takes a bit more than this to make me laugh. The joke itself, the execution of the joke, timing, whatever, at least one of those things has to hit something with me. I’m not above laughing at something stupid, but this just doesn’t strike me as funny. It needs to be more over-the-top. Like the flower could say “Remember when I said I’d kill you last? I lied” and then use a Daisy Cutter or something like that. So yeah. Not offensive, but not funny either. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/29 "2004-03-11T16:00:09Z")
It’s not offensive, it’s not funny, and it’s badly drawn. It’s not even stupid - it’s just an untalented cartoonist trying to make an offensive joke and completely failing. Boring. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Haniver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Jenny\_Haniver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Haniver)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/30 "2004-03-11T16:40:40Z")
Also chiming in to say neither offensive, nor funny. I think if it was better executed (heh), we might find it more objectionable, but it’s hard to get your righteous indignation on over a failed effort. It just ain’t funny. Part of the reason it’s not funny even for the reason it’s _supposed_ to be (The “you’re not man enough” to “Ouch, my finger” bit) is the amount of time Bob is comforting dog – four freakin panels, none of which advance the action at all – maybe one panel of the dog, and then a panel of Bob’s earnest expression – BOOM! would help, but four panels of the dog being praised is just dumb and kills all the momentum of the strip. It’s not like there was any doubt that he was gonna plug the dog. Also, I will now prove that I have no sense of humor at all by mentioning another thing that bothers me about the strip is that I don’t see how Bob would burn his finger as depicted – he wasn’t holding the barrel or anything. Power burns? Wouldn’t a better joke be a play on that macho “I’ve got something in my eye” idea – he goes back in and it seems like he’s crying, but actually he’s got brain matter in his eye? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/31 "2004-03-11T23:59:29Z")
I’m not sure the Bob strips are ever supposed to funny in the usual “three panels and a punchline” way. Although some of them have a few laughs, they’re mostly just odd vignettes with little to no continuity in between. Sometimes Bob even dies. Witness [this comic](http://angryflower.com/drtz.gif) (titled “drtz”) – no dialogue, no punchline, just Bob and a very big robot indeed. It could easily be a parable on the theme of the inevitability of death or fate, condensed into a few short panels, or it could just be a strip about Bob getting squashed. It’s just kinda “there” – could be pointless, could be profound. That’s pretty much what Bob is like. If there’s any humor at all to be found in the “dog killer” strip, it’s in the incongruity of it all. Bob accuses the owner of not being man enough and then whines about his finger, Bob treats the dog gently and then kills it gruesomely, we get four panels of calmness and quiet which lead up to an abrupt and graphic act of violence. I’m guessing the artist is deliberately trying to play emotional pong with the readers – is Bob cruel or kind or amoral or what? Will the kneejerk “killing dogs is bad!” reaction be subsequently replaced by more complex emotions? I dunno, and I suspect he didn’t either. Maybe it’s the ambiguity of it that I like. Anyhoo, as mentioned here’s the [9/11](http://angryflower.com/septem.gif) comic, and, just for **Left Hand of Dorkness** , [some pointless drunken destruction](http://angryflower.com/cars.gif). ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/32 "2004-03-12T00:11:37Z")
It’s the comic strip equivalent of masturbation. Maybe the author is getting his rocks off by writing and drawing it, but it’s not much fun for the rest of us to watch. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/33 "2004-03-12T00:50:20Z")
Jiminy. Philistines, the lot o’ ya! Bob is great. Similar to [Explodingdog.com](http://Explodingdog.com)’s appeal, I think. ---
**Author:** ![JRootabega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@JRootabega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRootabega)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/34 "2004-03-12T01:23:30Z")
I don’t see the finger burn part as being a joke about his wimpiness. I see a joke about how emotionally unaffected he was by shooting the dog. Instead of being sickened or upset by what he just had to do, he immediately complained about a comparatively trivial problem. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/35 "2004-03-12T04:35:59Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > Jiminy. Philistines, the lot o’ ya! Bob is great. Similar to [Explodingdog.com](http://Explodingdog.com)’s appeal, I think. So… we should be looking forward to the toothpaste strip? 😃 **S** elf **P** roclaimed **O** verlord **O F E**arth I a w a i t y o u r o r d e r s ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/36 "2004-03-12T05:01:41Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > Jiminy. Philistines, the lot o’ ya! Bob is great. Similar to [Explodingdog.com](http://Explodingdog.com)’s appeal, I think. I mean this kindly, Spoofe, but nonsense, man. There are tons of great strips about angry characters who can cross the line and are funny. This isn’t one of them. Try “Reid Fleming: World’s Toughest Milkman” for example. Although David Boswell has [a fine Web site,](http://www.reidfleming.com), there’s no samples of his work there to give you an idea of just what a bizarre and angry strip it is. Fortunately, the comic’s first issue [has been published on line.](http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/comics/t17-4048-e.php?mode=1) It’s from 1980, so it looks a little rough, but it’s a good sample. (It’s 38 pages long and it’s all there). And let’s not forget [Ralph Snart](http://www.ralphsnart.com) ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/37 "2004-03-12T07:35:41Z")
> [@](#): > > So… we should be looking forward to the toothpaste strip? Why, I oughtta… > [@](#): > > There are tons of great strips about angry characters who can cross the line and are funny. That’s the irony! Few of the strips are about Bob being “angry”! He just happens to be an angry flower in a WEIRD AND CRAZY WORLD!! Don’t you see the _BEAUTY_? Shakespeare wasn’t this deep! This is better’n _The Godfather_! Well, okay, I’m exaggerating, but this is still one of my new favorite strips. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/38 "2004-03-12T07:58:12Z")
> [@pesch](#): > > There are tons of great strips about angry characters who can cross the line and are funny. This isn’t one of them. For angry and funny characters I always turn to the English magazine [Viz](http://www.viz.co.uk/) and it offends many. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/39 "2004-03-12T09:25:15Z")
Well there’s another 30 seconds of my life, wasted. If anything, the money shot detracts from the (alleged) humor. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551/40 "2004-03-12T15:16:14Z")
It was one of the weaker Bob strips. One of the best has got to be the [Atlas Shrugged Sequel](http://www.angryflower.com/atlass.gif) strip. It perfectly portrays Objectivists. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-cartoon-offend-you/233551.md?page=3)