# Goddammit, Johnny Hart (B. C. Cartoonist)! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 3, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371 "2004-07-03T14:11:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hermann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b487fb/32.png) [@hermann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermann)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/41 "2004-07-06T00:04:08Z")
I think it’s funny that BC pisses certain people off…just as Doonesbury pisses other certain people off. Get over it. ---
**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:** [July 6, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/42 "2004-07-06T00:19:05Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Liberty Meadows is at [B.C. for Nov 02, 2021, by Mason Mastroianni, Mick Mastroianni and Johnny Hart | Creators Syndicate](http://www.creators.com/comics_show.cfm?comicname=lib) Again, those strips are five years old. You’ll only find _new_ Liberty Meadows stuff in comic books and graphic novels. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/43 "2004-07-06T06:57:22Z")
> [@hermann](#): > > I think it’s funny that BC pisses certain people off…just as Doonesbury pisses other certain people off. Sure, except **Doonesbury** is(\*) funny and insightful. (\* = Well, it’s been in a slow skid, but it still has its moments. The stuff from the late 60s and 70s were effing brilliant, though…) ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/44 "2004-07-06T07:09:30Z")
Much ado about nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/45 "2004-07-06T08:05:18Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > B.C. continues to run in the papers pretty much from momentum. People expect it to be there because it’s always been there and the funnies wouldn’t be the funnies if B.C. wasn’t there right? Not always. The San Jose Mercury News kicked his ass out after one too many Easter “all you heathen are going to hell” strips. Capitalism at work, I love it. And another vote for his old strips being good. Then he got religion, and decided his own mother was going to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/46 "2004-07-06T08:10:28Z")
> [@spectrum](#): > > Please show where the ACLU has opposed age restrictions for pornography access. The law in question would have banned certain types of porn completely, for adults and children. That is what the ACLU opposes. Adults have a right to view this material, if they so wish. Well, my understanding is that the law would require positive identification as an adult for a large number of non-porn sexually related sites, such as health sites and even possibly museums. The court found that the requirement for identification would keep adults away from material that was permissible for them to see. Also, they found that filters were a more effective way of preventing children from seeing inappropriate sites. This is especially true since the law would not affect site hosted outside of the US, therefore parents caring would still need filters. If this law were ever enforced, the hard core pay porn sites would be affected least, while free educational sites would be affected the most. Or, to be brief, Congress screws it up again. ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/47 "2004-07-06T12:13:05Z")
I’m pretty sure I posted this link before, but in case you missed it the first time: [God, That’s Funny – Until He Started Drawing Cartoons about Jesus.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A99035-1999Apr4) It’s an article from the Washington Post. It’s about 5 years old, but still…interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/48 "2004-07-06T15:41:08Z")
Wow. I just read that article. “Nutjob” doesn’t come close. > [@](#): > > God probably engineered the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin as punishment for trying to give away holy land in violation of biblical commands. > [@](#): > > Hart theorizes that all dinosaurs died out in the Great Flood, because they were left off Noah’s Ark. The ark, he explains, had limited deck space. “They wouldn’t have tried to put a giant dinosaur aboard.” and this is the scariest of all: > [@](#): > > [A]re these religious cartoons appropriate? > > “Yeah.” > > Why? > > “Because it’s the truth. What purpose would I serve if I had the answer to the mystery of life only I did not tell it for the sake of what other people believe?” > > That little [Jewish] girl, he says, needs his message: “If I drew a cartoon that said, okay, you worship your God, and you can go to Heaven, too, then I am lying to her. I am sending her to Hell!” > … > Hart stops. Laughs. “It sounds cold, I know. I sound like I know all the answers. I do. This is the truth.” Wow. Can you say “arrogant”? No? Well “wacko” will do just fine. If heaven is full of people like Hart, then I won’t be crying outside the gates when they don’t let me in. :rolleyes: In any case, I thought Jews worshipped the same god as Christians? So what is he blithering about “your God”? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/49 "2004-07-06T16:13:28Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > In any case, I thought Jews worshipped the same god as Christians? So what is he blithering about “your God”? I suppose it could be argued that the Christian God is the trinity, which Jews obviously don’t believe in. But then Hart would think Jews only worship 1/3 or 2/3 of God, so maybe that’s not it. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/50 "2004-07-06T16:23:21Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > In any case, I thought Jews worshipped the same god as Christians? So what is he blithering about “your God”? First, trying to get serious theology out of Hart and his buffoons is like trying to get serious science out of the Old Testament. Second, Hart’s god got nailed to a tree 2k years ago. Like Dionysus, but without quite as many wine and orgies. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/51 "2004-07-06T19:58:44Z")
> [@](#): > > From the _Washington Post_ article: > > Still, something bothers him: His mother was a good person, he says, but he suspects that she was not a devout enough Christian. He worries that when he arrives in Heaven, she will not be there. > > Hart pauses. Starts to say something, then stops. Ten seconds pass. > > It probably won’t matter, he decides. If she’s not there, he says, God will probably erase all memory of her from his mind. “Heaven,” he says, “is a blissful, pain-free eternity. How much happiness can you have if you know that people you loved on Earth are not there?” Wow. It’s God as Joseph Stalin. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371/52 "2004-07-07T02:42:30Z")
> [@](#): > > From the Washington Post article: > > Still, something bothers him: His mother was a good person, he says, but he suspects that she was not a devout enough Christian. He worries that when he arrives in Heaven, she will not be there. > > Hart pauses. Starts to say something, then stops. Ten seconds pass. > > It probably won’t matter, he decides. If she’s not there, he says, God will probably erase all memory of her from his mind. “Heaven,” he says, “is a blissful, pain-free eternity. How much happiness can you have if you know that people you loved on Earth are not there?” I have to say that this is just about the oddest religious belief that I can recall ever hearing about. “Yes, God may choose, in his infinite benevolence and wisdom, to condemn my dear mother to Hell for not worshiping him properly…but that’s okay, because God will alter my mind so that I don’t remember her, so I won’t care that she’s damned for eternity.” I can’t even begin to imagine how a person could manage to comfort themselves with that notion. (Presumably God would also have to excise the portions of your mind that might eventually wonder why other people in Heaven have two parents, but you only seem to have the one…) I once spent three hours conversing with a guy who claimed he could detonate atomic bombs inside the Hollow Earth using only the power of his mind, and nothing he had to say seemed as warped as Hart’s apparent take on the Afterlife. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddammit-johnny-hart-b-c-cartoonist/253371.md?page=2)