# This week's For Better or For Worse: any outrage yet
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 28, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869 "2007-03-28T17:59:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/41 "2007-03-29T20:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir]
Well yeah but that makes my point. The funnies were frequently not funny.
[/QUOTE]
Sorry for the confusion. My post was meant to amplify your point, not contradict it.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/42 "2007-03-29T20:37:19Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader]
I remain convinced that the Female Orgasm is just a clever plot on the part of the female half of the human race to trick us men into forgetting that it is in fact THEIR turn to do the dishes. đ
[/QUOTE]
Humph. I think men forgetting about womanâs orgasmâs is just there because of hoping theyâll get up and do the dishes out of fustration while they role over and go to sleep!
Well go ahead. Iâll be patroling the shore for sailors. Most sailors know how to wash dishes.
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/43 "2007-03-29T20:37:57Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader]
According to Garfield and Friends, Wisconsin is merely a placeholder on the map, because there was nothing there and they had to fill it in with SOMETHINGâŚ
[/QUOTE]
Ah, like England: a conspiracy of cartographers.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/44 "2007-03-29T20:38:06Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir]
đ Wait. I thought it was Delawear that didnât exists.
[/QUOTE]
Wouldnât that be âDelawhereâ?
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### Author:  [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/45 "2007-03-29T20:40:09Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader]
According to Garfield and Friends, Wisconsin is merely a placeholder on the map, because there was nothing there and they had to fill it in with SOMETHING.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, that was Wyoming. Mostly based on the fact that itâs very rectangular, like a little piece plunked down to fill a hole. This is a random and useless bit of trivia from that cartoon that for God only knows why has been filling up valuable space in my head for something like fifteen years.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [March 29, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/46 "2007-03-29T20:45:27Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu]
Sorry for the confusion. My post was meant to amplify your point, not contradict it.
[/QUOTE]
Well it was directed more at GuanoLad and Ruby. They donât seem to find them funny enough.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/47 "2007-03-30T01:57:43Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
April turns 16 this Sunday according to the chronology of the strip.
[/QUOTE]
That means itâs time to see if [my earlier prediction](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7763849&postcount=16) will come true.
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### Author:  [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/48 "2007-03-30T02:01:31Z")
So far, scot-free, but Iâm sure itâs just a matter of time before the parents discover the alcoholâŚ
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/49 "2007-03-30T04:23:21Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir]
Well it was directed more at GuanoLad and Ruby. They donât seem to find them funny enough.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe itâs my faulty 47-year-old memory but I really donât remember the funny papers being a sounding board for social issues. They were either funny (think Beetle Bailey), dramatic (think Mary Worth, like anyone ever read that one) or adventure (think SuperMan). There werenât issues like teenage drinking or sex that I recall.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/50 "2007-03-30T04:33:34Z")
[QUOTE=Ruby]
Maybe itâs my faulty 47-year-old memory but I really donât remember the funny papers being a sounding board for social issues. They were either funny (think Beetle Bailey), dramatic (think Mary Worth, like anyone ever read that one) or adventure (think SuperMan). There werenât issues like teenage drinking or sex that I recall.
[/QUOTE]
Was there ever a time when Beetle Bailey was funny
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/51 "2007-03-30T04:37:55Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho]
Was there ever a time when Beetle Bailey was funny
[/QUOTE]
There was one I really liked where one guy invented a Swiss Army Bayonet or something like that.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/52 "2007-03-30T06:07:13Z")
Yeah, and Sarge Snorkel hanginâ onto that tree branch never failed to elicit a guffaw.
Oh, wait. It was the other thing. A yawn.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/53 "2007-03-30T06:09:59Z")
[QUOTE=betenoir]
Well it was directed more at GuanoLad and Ruby. They donât seem to find them funny enough.
[/QUOTE]
Calvin and Hobbes, though it seems to be unique in its achievements, managed to be heartwarming, topical, incisive, and also funny, every week. And it had great artwork. Far Side was bizarrely funny but also nailed the right level of nerdiness to not be over non-nerdâs heads.
That was a golden age. Or perhaps a platinum age.
Though there are many comic strips, both online and off, that are amusing, or profound, finding the balance seems to elude them. ANd most of them arenât great art on top of that.
Of course, a lot of you will say âHey now, comic X is great art, and comic Y is still funny, sometimes, and donât forget the dry political wit of comic Dâ but those are minor exceptions that still only have a single aspect that works (for some). The combination just doesnât seem to be there, in the current crop.
Not that thereâs any real answer to this drought - finding the next Watterson or Larson is not an easy task. I know it ainât gonna be me đ
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/54 "2007-03-30T16:51:37Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader]
There was one I really liked where one guy invented a Swiss Army Bayonet or something like that.
[/QUOTE]
I remember one in which Sarge sweet talked a vending machine into giving him a bunch of sodas after Beetle lost some change in it.
Also one in which Sarge & Beetle were driving a Jeep back to camp, get lost in a fog bank, and end up breaking into the generalâs home.
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/55 "2007-03-30T18:11:35Z")
[QUOTE=Ruby]
Maybe itâs my faulty 47-year-old memory but I really donât remember the funny papers being a sounding board for social issues. They were either funny (think Beetle Bailey), dramatic (think Mary Worth, like anyone ever read that one) or adventure (think SuperMan). There werenât issues like teenage drinking or sex that I recall.
[/QUOTE]
Do you remember Pogo? Pretty politicalâbut also weirdly amusing.
Even Liâl Abner satirized current events. And many of Al Cappâs female characters were bombshells.
I didnât read Mary Worthâshe wasnât funny enough! ButâŚ
> [@](#):
>
> In this pioneering soap opera-style comic strip, Mary Worth serves as an observer of and advice dispenser for her fellow residents, tackling issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, infidelity, and teen pregnancy.
> **[Mary Worth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Worth_%28comic%29)**
>
> Mary Worth is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and artist Dale Connor, and initially appeared under the pseudonym "Dale Allen". Ken Ernst succeeded Connor as artist in 1942. Mary Worth is associated with an older comic strip, Apple Mary, sometimes subtitled Mary Worth's Family, which dates from 1934 and feature...
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/56 "2007-03-30T21:11:36Z")
[QUOTE=Ruby]
Maybe itâs my faulty 47-year-old memory but I really donât remember the funny papers being a sounding board for social issues. They were either funny (think Beetle Bailey), dramatic (think Mary Worth, like anyone ever read that one) or adventure (think SuperMan). There werenât issues like teenage drinking or sex that I recall.
[/QUOTE]
ErâŚwait a minute. I think your not to far from the Doonsbury era. Which I recall had a few things to say about social issues.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/57 "2007-03-30T21:17:21Z")
I dunno, I think the FBoBW storyline works better and more realistically if the parents _donât_ find out. Teenagers pull crap like this all the time and getting caught is only a certainty in formulaic after-school specials and similar lesson-teaching fare.
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/58 "2007-03-30T21:30:15Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
I dunno, I think the FBoBW storyline works better and more realistically if the parents _donât_ find out. Teenagers pull crap like this all the time and getting caught is only a certainty in formulaic after-school specials and similar lesson-teaching fare.
[/QUOTE]
And how do you know this isnât formulaic? đ
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### Author:  [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-weeks-for-better-or-for-worse-any-outrage-yet/397869/59 "2007-03-31T02:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=Ruby]
The âfunny papersâ arenât so funny anymore. Iâve often wonderedâŚwhat DO dadâs read to their little girls on Sunday morning anyway? Dear Penthouse?
[/QUOTE]
Although my six-and-a-half-year-old is starting to read them herself now, we read
Peanuts, Garfield, Hi and Lois, Family Circus, Fox Trot, Dennis the Menace, Rose is Rose, and Slylock Fox.
We were reading For Better or Worse, but she wasnât laughing enough at Grandpaâs stroke. . .
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