# Just me, or is this syndicated newspaper comic tacitly racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 2, 2007, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277 "2007-03-02T05:41:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/1 "2007-03-02T05:41:05Z")
I was reading [The Comics Curmudgeon](http://www.joshreads.com/) just now. In the March 1 entry he features yesterday’s [They’ll Do It Every Time](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/tdiet.asp?date=20070228), a nationally syndicated newspaper comic (hereafter referred to as TDIET). Is it just me, or is the husband of the daughter simply a racist caricature of a Chinese man? Like, Mr. Magoo’s butler, Cholly, or Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-At-Tiffany’s level of just tacit offensiveness, complete with buck teeth and Coolie queue? The fact that a “legitimate” print comic could pass the syndicate’s censors by so easily with something so obviously meant to portray something that would have been considered beyond the pale even several decades ago amazes me… ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/2 "2007-03-02T05:51:56Z")
I don’t think he’s Chinese - I think he’s a [Twit.](http://www.jumpstation.ca/recroom/comedy/python/twit.html) ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/3 "2007-03-02T05:53:36Z")
I don’t follow this comic, but my first thought upon seeing the husband is that he resembles the bucktoothed ninnies from Monty Python’s “Upperclass Twit of the Year” skit. Has it been established in previous strips that the husband is Chinese? Edit: I’ll be darned. Some other twit-admiring person (with faster fingers) agrees with me! ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/4 "2007-03-02T05:59:07Z")
I dunno; my first reaction was more or less along the lines of **lawootand** and **pinkfreud** , but the braided pig tail (is that what you mean by Coolie queue?) would be a bit out of place with a standard twit caricature – more typical either of a stereotyped Chinese, or an 18th century Englishman… ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/5 "2007-03-02T06:04:40Z")
Dude’s a balding boomer, of the fashion circa 1995. TDIET is… well, the rest of the harpies in it have haircuts circa 1950. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/6 "2007-03-02T14:45:42Z")
The guy doesn’t look Asian to me; definitely looks like a twit. Also, he’s apparently named “Ragmop”. That ain’t an Asian name; that’s one of yer twit names. ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/7 "2007-03-02T14:59:32Z")
What kills me about “They’ll Do It Every Time” is that the topics are apparently sent in by real people. It’s a really horrible venue for self-righteousness and rabid anti-elitism, and yeah, I’d say there’s a [racist](http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/tdiet.asp?date=20070221) bent to it. Unless I just don’t understand “real” America. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/8 "2007-03-02T15:11:44Z")
“They’ll Do It Every Time” sounds like the title of something that’d be racist. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/9 "2007-03-02T15:30:20Z")
I dunno if it’s racist, but this is one lameass strip. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/10 "2007-03-02T15:46:45Z")
I had no idea that strip was still around. (Wasn’t the author of the thing named “Hatlo”? This strip seem to be signed by “M Sladino” or some such. Perhaps Hatlo is dead?) I last saw TDIET in the Valdosta GA paper (_Daily Times_?) circa 1973. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/11 "2007-03-02T15:53:25Z")
Wow, what a terrible, unfunny strip. I’m leaning toward twit, but it almost seems like it’s trying not to be racist, but actually wants to be. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/12 "2007-03-02T16:08:54Z")
I gotta’ agree with \*\*lawoot \*\* – he’s not Chinese, he’s just not very bright. He’s grinning stupidly, which makes the eyes squint. No racism here. Holy Cow, TDIET is still in syndication!? ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/13 "2007-03-02T16:24:53Z")
[QUOTE=AHunter3] I had no idea that strip was still around. (Wasn’t the author of the thing named “Hatlo”? This strip seem to be signed by “M Sladino” or some such. Perhaps Hatlo is dead?) [/QUOTE] Hatlo’s been dead since 1963. He would thank the submitters of the gags with a “tip of the Hatlo hat.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/14 "2007-03-02T16:35:27Z")
If this cartoonist thinks that first pic represents a teenage girl, they’re out of their mind. Not surprising their representation of the doofus husband is so crappy. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/15 "2007-03-02T16:56:59Z")
I don’t think it’s racist, but the artwork is ugly and it uses terms like “teener” and “howcum” and should therefore never see the light of day again. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-me-or-is-this-syndicated-newspaper-comic-tacitly-racist/394277/16 "2007-03-02T19:47:02Z")
I always got that strip confused [with](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_comic_strips_M-Z#T) . . . > [@](#): > > _There Oughta Be a Law_ (1944-1984) by Al Fagaly and Harry Shorten, and later Frank Booth, Warren Whipple and Mort Goldberg (USA)