# Doonesbury: Is B.D. Dead? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899 "2004-03-01T14:26:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/41 "2004-04-21T12:06:30Z")
[SPOILER] Left leg, above the knee. Bummer. He also lost his helmet [/SPOILER] ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/42 "2004-04-21T12:12:25Z")
Holy crap! That WAS his hair, wasn’t it? Something threw me there but I couldn’t figure out what it was! I think that’s the first time that’s happened! ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/43 "2004-04-21T13:21:10Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > Holy crap! That WAS his hair, wasn’t it? Something threw me there but I couldn’t figure out what it was! I think that’s the first time that’s happened! That’s exactly what I was just thinking. I don’t ever remember him _not_ wearing his helmet. Sad that this might have more impact than the lost limb. BD has always been fairly pro-conservative. I wonder if Trudeau is going to use the experience to change his politics. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/44 "2004-04-21T13:29:30Z")
Probably. Trudeu stoppped being either funny, witty or original a long time ago. And his politics don’t exactly apperal to me either. The man is as predictable as the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/45 "2004-04-21T13:51:15Z")
A 180-degree conversion for BD would be too cliched, and I hope he doesn’t go all “Born on the Fourth of July” on us. That said, how he deals with it will be interesting. Taking the helmet off was really shocking too. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/46 "2004-04-21T14:28:36Z")
Yeah, and dig those grey temples! ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/47 "2004-04-21T14:49:32Z")
BD is one of the three original characters from when Trudeau was doing the strip as a student at Yale. The other two were Mike Doonesbury and Mark Slackmeyer, who is usually seen doing his radio show with various guests these days, when he appears on the strip. BD began as the captain of the Yale football team (his helmet originally had a Y on it, changing to a star after the strip went national). Zonker’s first appearance was in one of the old “huddle” strips, where BD was addressing the team; apparently Trudeau thought a hippie character would make a fun foil for BD’s conservative politics. It’s worth noting that BD wore that same football helmet to Vietnam, when he enlisted, and served a term of duty there (becoming quite chummy with Phred, the Viet Cong, when they got lost together during a fight). BD switched to a modern American Army helmet during the first Gulf conflict. To my knowledge, this is the first time Trudeau has ever drawn the character without some manner of helmet on his head. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/48 "2004-04-21T15:04:25Z")
> [@Mehitabel](#): > > Taking the helmet off was really shocking too. THAT’S what was odd. I looked at the stip. Saw the damage, and though to myself, “Why’s his head look funny?” Wow, BD has hair. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/49 "2004-04-21T16:17:00Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > It’s worth noting that BD wore that same football helmet to Vietnam, when he enlisted, and served a term of duty there (becoming quite chummy with Phred, the Viet Cong, when they got lost together during a fight). No, when BD was in Viet Nam he wore an Army helmet. ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/50 "2004-04-21T16:21:17Z")
Actually, the hair didn’t freak me out at all. Just like someone who always wears a baseball cap, I just presumed that he had hair under the helmet(s). But, Jeez Oh Man! Lost a leg? This is a comic strip! Right in the middle of Garfield getting a Veggie Burger and Cathy fighting with her Fiance about money, there’s BD missing a leg. Trudeau needs to get a grip. I’m calling it now: This is a dream. Trudeau will get some nasty mail over this incident, but I think that he planned this to be a dream from the beginning. It is Boopsie having the dream. This will happen either Friday or Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/51 "2004-04-21T16:30:30Z")
I didn’t think that was grey, I thought it was bandaging… looking closer, I can’t tell. I think BD has worn a helmet _everywhere_, even weddings, reunions, whatever - he’s always had a helmet on. Always. I highly doubt that he’ll have a 180 turn in politics. Mike didn’t wake up one morning a Republican, it was a slow change from where he was to (I think) a Bush voter in 2000. I doubt he’ll be ham-fisted with BD. But no helmet. Wow. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/52 "2004-04-21T17:25:37Z")
See? Losing the helmet humanizes the character and his vulnerability. Good choice there for Trudeau. I think it’s real. I think it’s a means of bringing the war home to his characters. Remember that BD has been through quite a bit for his military service already. In country in Vietnam, POW (for a short period) in Vietnam, he broke down back home reading about the fall of Saigon, and then Gulf War syndrome after the first Gulf War. I actually find myself deeply moved by this. I find that a little surreal. But I’ve been reading Doonesbury since I was in single digits (my mom had all the books). ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/53 "2004-04-21T17:40:47Z")
> [@Chicago Faucet](#): > > Actually, the hair didn’t freak me out at all. Just like someone who always wears a baseball cap, I just presumed that he had hair under the helmet(s). > > But, Jeez Oh Man! Lost a leg? This is a comic strip! > > Right in the middle of Garfield getting a Veggie Burger and Cathy fighting with her Fiance about money, there’s BD missing a leg. Trudeau needs to get a grip. > > I’m calling it now: This is a dream. Trudeau will get some nasty mail over this incident, but I think that he planned this to be a dream from the beginning. It is Boopsie having the dream. This will happen either Friday or Saturday. Heh you seem to forget that Trudeau killed an old man while he was birdwatching (just as he got the perfect shot of a rare bird), gave that guy’s wife Alzheimer’s (and killed her), gave a guy Aids (killed him), killed Doonesbury’s old boss in the World Trade Center, and more I’m sure I forgot. He doesn’t flinch away from death and suffering. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/54 "2004-04-21T17:44:08Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > BD is one of the three original characters from when Trudeau was doing the strip as a student at Yale. The other two were Mike Doonesbury and Mark Slackmeyer, who is usually seen doing his radio show with various guests these days, when he appears on the strip. > > BD began as the captain of the Yale football team (his helmet originally had a Y on it, changing to a star after the strip went national). Zonker’s first appearance was in one of the old “huddle” strips, where BD was addressing the team; apparently Trudeau thought a hippie character would make a fun foil for BD’s conservative politics. It’s worth noting that BD wore that same football helmet to Vietnam, when he enlisted, and served a term of duty there (becoming quite chummy with Phred, the Viet Cong, when they got lost together during a fight). > > BD switched to a modern American Army helmet during the first Gulf conflict. > > To my knowledge, this is the first time Trudeau has ever drawn the character without some manner of helmet on his head. Wasn’t he also in the Highway Patrol for awhile before he went to the first Gulf War or was that after? I remember the motorcycle helmet he wore for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/55 "2004-04-21T17:55:01Z")
> [@](#): > > _From a [Doonesbury Fan Trivia page](http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/trivia/funk/hours/doones.html)_ > > We never get to see BD without a helmet on. (He claims he has bad hair.) Over the course of the strip we’ve seen him in seven different helmets: > > LA Rams > LAPD motorcycle helmet > gulf war combat helmet > Walden football helmet > riot helmet > Vietnam combat helmet > Walden football helmet > But not in this order. Put (label) BD’s helmets in the proper chronological order. But I don’t ever recall seeing a different helmet. I thought in the Vietnam strips he just wore his football helmet. That’s always been his calling card. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/56 "2004-04-21T17:59:52Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > > [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > > > It’s worth noting that BD wore that same football helmet to Vietnam, when he enlisted, and served a term of duty there (becoming quite chummy with Phred, the Viet Cong, when they got lost together during a fight). > > No, when BD was in Viet Nam he wore an Army helmet. **Wang-Ka** had it right. As indicated on cover of [the Life’s Little Ironies](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=377&item=4204564793&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW), BD definately wore the football helmet in Viet Nam. I have that book at home and could check if he ever wears an Army helmet but I don’t believe he did. > [@SpazCat](#): > > Wasn’t he also in the Highway Patrol for awhile before he went to the first Gulf War or was that after? I remember the motorcycle helmet he wore for a long time. After. [He had to quit when he was diagnosed with Gulf War Syndrome](http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/thecast/bd.html). ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/57 "2004-04-21T18:09:17Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > No, when BD was in Viet Nam he wore an Army helmet. You sure? I remember one cartoon in particular where Zonker was in Vietnam as a war correspondent for the campus paper, and was sharing Firebase Bundy with a very underwhelmed BD… …when a bullet abruptly ricocheted off BD’s helmet. BD, of course, leaps to his feet with a cry of “Into the fray!” and begins blazing away with the tripod machine gun, with relish. The main thing I remember about the strip was “In real life, an AK-47 slug would have punched through that helmet like cardboard…” Still, perhaps I am wrong. Now I’ll have to check my paperback collections when I get home… ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/58 "2004-04-21T18:12:14Z")
Not only does he wear his football helmet to Vietnam he wears his **Football Jersey** half the time. The other half he’s wearing some kind of sweater with a collar. (looking at Doonesbury Flashbacks CD) anyone want any trivia answered? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/59 "2004-04-21T19:22:54Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > BD has always been fairly pro-conservative. I wonder if Trudeau is going to use the experience to change his politics. It’d make up for Mike Doonesbury turning Republican in the '90s. 😉 (And ditto on the "Ohmygawd BD has **hair!** reaction) ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899/60 "2004-04-21T19:59:43Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > Probably. Trudeu stoppped being either funny, witty or original a long time ago. And his politics don’t exactly apperal to me either. The man is as predictable as the sun. Predictable as the sun, eh? In that case, why don’t you make some predictions about things that will happen in the next, say, 3 months of Doonesbury strips? And I’m talking specific things, not “he’ll bash Bush” or “he’ll draw some political figure as a caricature of some sort”. Or else you could withdraw your baseless criticism, at least the part of it that _isn’t_ purely subjective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doonesbury-is-b-d-dead/231899.md?page=4)