Get Fuzzy is Garfield with a thick layer of wit.
As I said, the resemblance wasn’t in the subject matter but in the way it was handled.
In Family Circus there’s strips about:
The mother chasing the baby after he steals her sunglasses.
A boy asking his grandmother to read to him.
The family goes to the airport and watchs the planes.
In You Damn Kid there’s strips about:
Two kids going to their aunt’s house and not liking it.
A kid asking annoying questions to a nun.
A woman trying to jump rope and falling down.
And in all these examples, I’m not intentionally making them sound mundane. These really were all that happened. There was no interesting characters, witty wordplay, funny punchlines, thoughtful insights, continuing storylines, or anything else to enliven the strips.
I love Get Fuzzy. It’s the only comic strip that makes me laugh out loud. I knew it was a strip for me when I saw the one in which Satchel gets a garden gnome and names it Chompsky. (Rob: “Gnome Chompsky?”)
And Qadgop moves up another notch in my list of Cool Folks on the SDMB.
As to laughing out loud at Get Fuzzy: When I buy a book of GF cartoons, I fall out of chairs laughing. I have to block off time for recovery. GF is the only cartoon that can do that to me.
Another cartoon I like is Megatokyo, but trying to jump into the storyline now might be a bit difficult.
Come to think of it, those are among the only* cartoons I really enjoy. I only read Megatokyo and Get Fuzzy on a regular basis, but there was a time when You Damn Kid held an honored part of my routine (hard to hold a routine when the comic comes out so rarely).
*Dilbert frequently makes me chuckle and sometimes makes me laugh out loud.
little nemo
De gustibus non disputandum est.
You damn kid still cracks me up, though. Maybe it helps to be a child of the 60’s.
I love Get Fuzzy.
I’ve never read You Damn Kid.
The only other strips that make me laugh out loud occasionally are Pearls Before Swine and Zits. (Though Zits might only be funny to those people who have had a teenaged boy in the house.) I still like Fox Trot, but it no longer causes me to laugh – the most I get now is a smile.
I was about to suggest Boondocks, but I do not have a link. While looking for one I was amazed to discover the controversy over it. I had always struck me as an intelligent witty and damn funny political cartoon. Apparently it pisses a lot of people off.
I have to admit I wasn’t too impressed by Get Fuzzy at first. But I just needed a little time to get to know the characters, because the humor is really generated from personalities, not gags per se. Now whenever I run into certain friends, a GF reference is almost guaranteed (“Mmmmm. Monkeys.”)
The Chicago Tribune comics section has a really strong finish (botom right hand side). Agnes (http://www.comics.com/creators/agnes/index.html), Get Fuzzy, Boondocks, and Doonesbury. Good stuff. Almost makes up for the fact they carry Cathy. :rolleyes:
The Boondocks
pisses the hell out of me. Not because of the political stuff, but because it used to be funny until McGruder decided to stop developing the characters and engaging in clever, personality-based social commentary, and instead went for the cheap-shot political gags with the same two talking heads in every frame. MacGruder has talent; he could be great. Instead, he’s just lazy, and his laziness grows in direct proportion to his success. That pisses me off a lot. :mad:
Just the thought of the one where Bucky finally breaks through the straps on his “Little Bundle O’Joy” during his birthday outing and runs toward the zoo cage muttering “Monkey monkey monkey monkey…” produces hysteria around here. Our trivia team is always named The (FITB with Our Stupid Idea O’The Week) Monkeys in honor of that one.
The Mojo-Dog is very Bucky-like. He’s an equal opportunity hater. Binkley is like Satchel (come to think about it, he kinda looks like Satch, too) - on some level he knows Mojo can’t stand him, but he’d rather believe he can wear Mojo down with niceness and sheer proximity. Poor deluded fool…
I don’t get to read it much, but I do enjoy Get Fuzzy when I read it.
I was at the garage today, and while I was waiting I had the chance to read a Calvin and Hobbes book. I just want to say that I still love that comic strip! It was hard not to laugh out loud, and some of the scenes with Hobbes getting a belly rub were SO much like my cat!
We have that strip hanging on our fridge. I can make my hubby laugh (even on a day when he’s cranky) by saying “Monkey, monkey, monkey…”
We were thrilled when our local newspaper finally started putting Get Fuzzy on the comics page.