So for the last week or so The Boondocks has been in reruns. Such things happen.
Now the Washington Post has an announcement up that they’ve elected to not run this weeks strips.
Irritated, I head for yahoo to see what’s up. Maybe MacGruder has Huey eviscerating GWB with a knife or something.
No, it’s about …
…acheiving world peace by getting Condileeza Rice a boy friend.
That seems pretty harmless compared to other things that have run.
Anyone have any idea what’s up with this?
An e-mail to the Post’s main online address just states that they chose not to run it because of the subject of this week’s strips. I have an e-mail and phone call in to the Comics Editor, though, and if I hear from him, will let you know.
I assume that the later strips in this week’s sequence are more risque than the early ones, and it’s better to not run any than to run the first few and not run the “big finish.”
I can definitely imagine an off-color (no pun intended) joke or two on this subject matter.
You can see them on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer page: http://www.uclick.com/client/spi/bo/2003/10/13/index.html
So far, it looks pretty tame.
“Oh my god! It’s a comic strip that dares to be topical and potentially offensive!”
“Quick, man, ban it!”
Personally, I read The Boondocks via the web, and I’m enjoying this week so far…
Maybe the reruns week reminded them how interesting MacGruder’s work once was. Seeing things go back to normal – that is, seeing the same copy-and-pasted doodle of Huey tell the exact same bad joke over and over again for a full week until it’s replaced by another week-long bad joke that has absolutely nothing to do with the established characters – well, suffice to say, reruns don’t exactly make The Boondocks of today look so great.
(sigh) I actually liked those kids, once upon a time . . .
I really liked the Boondocks but for some reason I just don’t find it funny anymore. I don’t know if it’s whether the author is too concerned about being political, or if the humor wears out easily. When I read his strips earlier, I don’t think every single one was about how much bush sucked or the media’s stupid (though I don’t disagree) but as I recall the subject matter was more varied. Anyone notice this or am I crazy?
In his introduction to his latest treasury, MacGruder says this was a conscious choice on his part. He explains that he dropped many of the supporting characters and settings so that he could focus more on topics of interest to him, which are complaining about Bush, the Bush administration, Bush’s policies, and Bush.
He says that he dropped the continuing storylines in favor of mostly one shot or short run stories because it’s very difficult to write stories in such a way as to come up with a punch line in every strip, while it’s relatively easy to be funny and again, address topics of interest (Bush) with shorter stories and one shots.
Well, three days in and I still don’t see anything controversial enough for the Washington Post to pull the week’s strips.
Huey condescending to Caesar’s wacky idea, and Caesar not paying attention, nothing new or shocking there. He even draws attention to how chauvanistic the very idea is.
It’s a shame MacGruder has gone to shorter stories and fewer characters, I’d like to see the boys trying to find a suitable suitor for Condi playing out over a number of weeks. If anything it seems like there are lots of avenues for humor in an extended storyline.
Doonesbury has lost some of its edge and humor over the years, but Trudeau has managed to still do extended stories with laughs. I usually prefer them to his one-shot strips and one week plots.
its been running on ucomics.com. pretty inoffensive. the one strip leading up to it where Caesar wont tell Huey his plan until he calls him the man was the funniest its been for a while, along with riley renaming the streets.
“props will be withheld until said plan is implemented and proved to bring world peace”
Does anyone know if MacGruder still has a contract with Showtime to put “The Boondocks” on the air?
Ok, the comics desk at the Washington Post just called. The woman I spoke to said that the Post has certain standards regarding commenting on the personal lives of public figures. This week’s strips don’t meet that standard, and therefore, the Post is running old strips.
Somebody set me straight. I’ve only been reading Boondocks for about the last six months, so I’m not really familiar with all the characters, but up until this week, ummm…
I thought Caesar was a girl.
So did I, originally. He’s not. His hair is rather misleading.
Macgruder was on npr yesterday talking about his strip(not sure which segment, it was run again around 7 pm). His strip does seem to anger lots of people. I don’t see why at times though…
These comic strips don’t meet the Post’s standard about commenting on the personal lives of public figures?
Did they ever run an editorial, editorial cartoon, or comic strip mentioning the infamous “Blue dress”?
I guess they have their reasons, but it still seems inconsistent to me. Especially considering how mild these strips have been.
Funny, I don’t recall Condileeza Rice lying under oath about her dating practices.
Boondocks hasn’t been funny for a couple years now. Except the occasional appearance by the grandfather.
I was an avid reader of the Boondocks since it appeared on the web (I am sure I have read it since the start), but I stopped checking on it ever since the story just degraded into a one-liner contest between Huey and Caesar about Bush (or whatever). It’s too bad, I loved the comic. I mean I hate Bush as much as the next Looney lefty, but come on. The comic was A LOT better when there was a backdrop of supporting characters to mix it up and continuing storylines to keep it rooted and developing.
The comic was about the Freeman’s adjusting to life in the suburbs (Riley stealing food from kind old ladies, Huey’s civil disobedience at school, and so on). Now there is no character development and no story outside the household at all (What happen to their neighbors the interracial couple with the girl who liked Huey). Which is a shame, it used to be my favorite strip.
Just chiming in again to say I, too, thought Caesar was a girl until a strip came along that explicitly stated otherwise.
