So, where do the “editorial cartoons” belong, then?
Yes, the program’s still runninng.
Editorial cartoons belong on the op-ed pages, of course! But “Doonesbury” and “Mallard Filmore” are “editorial cartoons” only to spineless editors who haven’t the balls to stand up to readers and tell them, “Fuck you if you can’t take a joke.” When I edited my hometown newspaper, I put 'em both on the comics page and told irritated readers that if that was their biggest worry, they had a lot nicer life than I had. People quit calling after a few weeks, and we never lost a subscriber over it.
The reason publishers put comic strips on the classified pages is the misguided belief that if people are tricked into opening the classifieds, they’ll accidentally find something they can’t live without, buy it, and make the classified pages more successful (thus worth more money) than before. This is complete bunk, of course, because the classifieds are a “destination page,” unlike Sports and Op-Ed – people peruse it for a specific reason, not just to see what’s there. During the brief time I edited the Coos Bay, OR, newspaper, I proved that classified use did not go up or down depending on whether a comic strip was on it. Shortly after that, I was fired.
No, no, no. First, we have to determine their ethnic origin…
I’ve never understood those. Even if they managed to have the most dramatic, most original, most creative plot ever… I still wouldn’t care. I am sorry but you can’t really be expected to read a ten minute scene over four months. There are reasons that movies aren’t forty hours long.
Humor definitely belongs on the comics page. Even the soap opera strips. But Mallard Filmore or Doonesbury stopped being funny long ago. They’re just straight political commentary. Mallard is just a stream of potshots at left-wingers and Doonesbury is a stream of potshots at right-wingers. I read 'em both, but it’s rare that either one is actually humorous.
It’s actually smaller on our editorial page than it was when it was on the comics page. I think Trudeau likes it on the op-ed page because the “serious” readers are more likely to find it there.