Who the hell is enjoying Hagar the Horrible?

Cafe Society
1

Somehow a few weeks ago it came up betwene my better half than I that “Family Circus” is stupid and unfunny. Later she texted me a picture of the day’s Family Circus with some ironic comment like “Jeffy is SOOO FUNNY!!!1!” which was actually quite funny.

Today just for yuks I went to see how unfunny Family Circus was and indeed, it wasn’t very funny. (Today’s isn’t as bad as most of them, but it’s still not good.) But what caught my eye, really, was that they’re still running “Hagar the Horrible.”

“Family Circus” is kind of the go-to yuk for joking about bland, unfunny comic strips, but “Hagar” is rather unquestionably even less funny. I was stupefied by how unfunny it was. I went to the archive and none of them are funny. And, really, almost none of the comic strips in the paper are funny. I didn’t laugh once.

Someone MUST be reading this crap, right? “Hagar” is still being run, as is the related “Hi and Lois,” “Family Circus,” “B.C.,” “Dennis the Menace” and I’d assume “Blondie” or whatever. There were other strips too, not as long running or famous, and not one made me crack a smile.

Now, comics CAN be funny, and they can be poignant and amusing and identifiable and artistically interesting. “Calvin and Hobbes” was wonderful, “The Far Side” hilarious, “Dilbert” is very funny, “Bloom County” was funny back in the day, “Sherman’s Lagoon,” etc. etc., anmd of course “Peanuts” wasn’t exactly hilarious but it was interesting and said things. So I don’t hate comics.

But honestly, how does stuff like “Hagar the Horrible” continue? Why is it there?

2

Because old people read newspapers (and thus newspaper comics) and bitch when things they’ve been comfortable with for 20+ years are removed.

Edit: Also, reported for forum change

3

The Comics Curmudgeon?
You mentioned Bloom County. I tried the new incarnation of it for like a month. All of the attempted gags all fell flat. Not sure why Breathed even bothered.

4

Interesting. I’ve been enjoying the new Bloom County a lot, much more than I enjoyed Outland or Opus (Breathed’s previous attempts to resurrect BCish strips). I think it has much more of the old BC flavor than those others did.

5

This.

I suppose the real question is whether these tired old comics are still funny and/or enjoyable to older folks who have older tastes or whether it’s pure momentum at this point.

6

Hagar was great with Dik Browne.lousy when Chris took over.

7

Every once in a while one of the old chestnuts gets a smile from me. (Actually, I was startled to be almost amused by Family Circus not too long ago). But overall, I don’t think Hagar is any less funny than the rest of them.

It’s hard to be humorous every day for decades.

Oh, and my Dad still deeply enjoys all the terrible puns in Shoe.

8

What, you think it’s call “The Horrible” ironically? No, it’s horrible.

9

Most of the time, Hagar is extremely predictable.

I have to admit, however, that in this strip which ran on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I did not see the last panel coming.

And, it made my mind start reeling with porn possibilities. So, there’s that.

10

Breathed’s entire career has been a steady downhill slide. The first year of Bloom County was comic gold, up with some of the best strips ever. But Breathed kept getting sloppy – instead of hitting the joke, he sort of got near to it. And it got worse and worse. Bill the Cat was funny for a few strips, but dull, thereafter. He was even reduced in the end to having to break the fourth wall to insist to the reader that this is really funny.

The revival is as bad as ever – the same characters going through the motions with the idea that seeing our favorites (all of whom are just going through the motions) is enough.

11

For Better or For Worse is still running re-runs in our paper. They changed all the dates and updated a few things so it’s supposed to seem present-day but the attitudes of the characters are straight out the 70’s.
In one last cash grab they created this present-day world where women don’t work and only raise children and men don’t help out around the house and constantly patronize the women in their lives, and then they make jokes about it. It’s so bad it makes me cringe.

12

??? Someone’s doing Shoe? I thought it had ended when Jeff MacNelly passed away. (Quick Google search.) Wow! Son of a gun! I’m super happy to discover this!

I loved the originals; I’ve got all the collections.

Thank you!

13

Too bad this wasn’t a Ziggy… It would have been a perfect real-life J. Peterman moment.

14

Who reads this stuff?

“Not Me!”

15

I like “Hi and Lois”. The kids’ antics remind me of things my sibs and I did when we were kids, and having two teenage nieces, the oldest son, Chip, makes me think of them.

16

My dad, who died this past March, always opened the paper saying “wonder what Beetle Bailey’s up to?”

Slow clap to gatopescado.

17

I remember long ago when my mom cut out a Hagar strip and taped it to the fridge, as a hint to my dad. In the first panel, Hagar asks his wife “When do we eat?” She wails, “You mean when do you EAT and EAT and EAT and EAT???” In the second panel, Hagar looks at the audience while the wife is grousing and slaving away at the stove and says “I always thought they *liked *to cook!”

18

Homer: Who cut out Beetle Bailey? I need my Miss Buxley fix.
Marge: I don’t like you ogling her! Why don’t you read Cathy? She’s hilarious.
Homer: Eh. Too much baggage.

19

Capt. Easy - Griffindor
Buzz Sawyer - Ravenclaw
Joe Palooka - Hufflepuff
Skeezix Wallet - Slytherin

20

I wonder how many people know Beetle was actually a college student when the strip launched, but later enlisted and has been stuck in the army ever since.