I guess I’m a sucker for incongruous-name humor, especially Jewish-name humor.
The dialogue between the two guys isn’t that sharply written, but the sheer magnitude of the “Made in … Israel?” credits made me laugh.
I’ve gotta go along with this–it’s as if the strip is in a timewarp from the 40s or 50s. The suggestion that the Jews (boogey boogey boogey) are responsible for the “Christ out of Christmas” mentality in modern movies seems to ignore the entire modern media landscape. The fact that the characters don’t acknowledge this (though the “evidence” is right there on the screen) also suggests it’s the comic strip’s author making a commentary on this assertion.
This may not be the intention, but it’s certainly how it reads. Not being familiar with the strip, I assumed from this one example that it was from the Mallard Fillmore school of humor (i.e. not funny, politically boneheaded). I’m glad the author traced the hits back and found time to post, as I suspect my reading isn’t what he tried to convey (though I’ll argue it’s the most reasonable reading given what we’re presented).
Since the cartoonist has already explained his strip, my take on it doesn’t mean much. Let me just say that I didn’t find it anti-Semitic. I thought it was sympathizing with Jewish filmmakers who feel compelled by the current political-economic necessity (to play to the heartland), to produce films with vapid Christian references. I’m not Jewish myself, but as an academic-ACLU-supporting type living in Kansas, I often roll my eyes when encountering such drivel.
First one I thought of was White Christmas.
Ironically, Irving Berlin also wrote **Easter Parade ** – so he managed to write the most popular songs for both Christian holidays.
Of course it ignores the entire modern media landscape! That’s (part of) the joke!
This is not the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
No, it doesn’t suggest that at all.
Yeah, but what do you know, you just wrote it. 
Welcome to the Dope. I have read about half your archive today. It is a pretty funny strip.
Jim
See, that’s the thing about art…it means and/or suggests different things to different people. As noted above, I read this particular strip as anti-semetic. Several other posters seem to agree. You’ve explained that was not your intent, and I have no reason to doubt your word. Unfortunately, whether you intended anti-semitism or not, this strip can reasonably be interpeted that way.
Welcome to the Dope and thanks for the explanation. 
As you know, humour can be misinterpreted.
Unfortunately I thought this particular strip was aimed at Jews - perhaps because of the repetition of the names.
BWAH-HA-HA! The interaction between Franklin and Jason in these strips …
http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/022.php
http://www.multiplexcomic.com/strips/101.php
… reminds me of a couple guys on my dorm floor back in college. One was, I believe, the biggest black guy on the football team, and the other was a short Japanese guy. The two of them got to be really good friends, and they would constantly exchange racial insults. It actually got to be a spectator sport - they’d sit in chairs, facing each other, and trade insults back and forth while the rest of us gathered around to watch.
Sure, this strip can be reasonably interpreted any number of ways, particularly if you read it with no knowledge of the rest of the series, or of my background. Why settle on that one?
I’d never heard of you before clicking this thread. When I read the strip, that was the impression I got. Not trying to insult ya, but after reading that, I had no desire to read any more of the series.
Not all ethnic comments or jokes are racist. The strip is saying that Jews might not have interest in making authentic Christmas movies. That could well be true, and the idea is kind of funny. I did not find the strip at all offensive. Myself, I’m half Jewish but 100% Canadian. I must say that I often find American attitudes towards race and religion very strange.
While I also want to welcome you to the Dope, Gord (if I may call you Gord), I do have to say that ArchiveGuy pretty much summed it up for me. My verbalized response to the strip was, “Whoaaa.” And it wasn’t a chortly kind of ‘whoa.’ It was a “whoa, that guy is seriously dissing Jews” whoa. I’ve only seen one or two other of your strips, and I thought they were entertaining, but this one really did seem to head into Mallard Filmore/B.C. territory. To me.
Which is totally not to discount your statement of authorial intent, which I hear and understand. I’m just saying that the interpretation of this particular strip as anti-Semitic does not strike me as at all off-the-wall. In fact, it’s the first way I read it. And the Leopold Loeb credit is probably what cemented it for me, amusing as it was… in a way.
All due respect, Gordon: I have little doubt that your intention, in writing this strip, was as you’ve stated.
However. You have not succeeded in fulfilling your original intention. (As an artist and writer myself, I know that’s not a rare occurrence.) What you have, in fact, succeeded in communicating, is that it’s the Jews’ fault that Christmas has become a secular, commercial holiday.
Sorry your intended message has gone awry, but it has. All the explication of your original intention won’t change that: your strip is a misfire, and–unintentional as it may be–communicates an explicit anti-Semitic message.
Hmmm, I don’t see how this strip could be called anti-semetic. The joke is that the guys in the audience are complaining that although the movie is about “Christmas”, it has nothing to do with Christ. Just like every Hollywood Christmas movie. Except it turns out that Jews just aren’t into making movies about Jesus. I thought it was pretty funny. “Dreidel” indeed.
I’m American, and I’m with you on that.
And I think a few people read waaaaaaaaay more into this strip than is actually in the strip.
“And I think a few people read waaaaaaaaay more into this strip than [del]is actually in the strip[/del] [the author intended to convey with the strip].”
Fixed that for you.
A tip: if a decent percentage of readers are “reading into” the strip a message that you did not intend to convey, you should consider the possibility that you unintentionally did, in fact, write it in such a way as to suggest that impression. I don’t think anyone here is pushing the position that you are, in fact, anti-Semitic; only that the unintended consequence of a slightly sloppily written strip conveys an anti-Semitic message to more than one reader.
The artist is never the definitive source for what his art actually says; he’s only the final word on what he meant. These are not always the same thing. With some artists there is content or subtext included in a work that he was not conscious of including, but that is there nonetheless; John Ford’s denials of the artistic complexity of his films does not, in fact, negate the fact that his films are artistically complex.
Then there’s the simple unintended message of a poorly executed piece.
You seem to be confusing two things, Gordon: you seem busy denying that you’re an anti-Semite, when the only “accusation” on the table is no such thing: it’s only that your strip gives the impression of an anti-Semitic message. That’s not “reading too much into it,” which implies the fault is entirely on the reader’s part. Unless you are the greatest cartoonist ever, with an absolute alignement between the art you have in your head and the art that ends up “on paper”–the Mozart of cartooning–then you must acknowledge the possibility that your intent, noble as it may or may not be, has not been perfectly realized.
Is that possible?
Me too. I can see where some people might have briefly considered being offended by it, but then they probably should have extracted the stick pretty quickly. shrug
Art’s funny, ain’t it?
Hello, Gordon, pleasure to meet you all that stuff. I’ve been reading your strip for a few months now, and for the most part I’ve enjoyed it. Especially since I work in a theater.
I agree, with no context, a person reading the strip for the first time, it could and probably would come off as uncomfortably anti-semetic. (Given this strip, appearing two weeks prior, I believe you when you say it wasn’t your intent.
The first time I read it, however, I didn’t scrutinize the credits all that much, and assumed they were the cast and crew of a different Christmas movie with an identical plot.
I don’t see how its antisemetic to insinuate that jews have no interest in making movies about the christian aspects of christmas.
What I don’t get is the insinuation that jews don’t have anything substantial to say about “real life” either.
I am pretty much impossible to insult with racism if it’s in entertainment. Any comment about stereotypes is fine with me, for instance. But that jews are not connected to real life, I haven’t heard about this stereotype. Can you explain the comment for me Gordon?