# Who the hell is enjoying Hagar the Horrible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comic-strips\ **Created:** [December 7, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720 "2015-12-07T17:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/21 "2015-12-07T23:53:06Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > 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. “Beetle” was a spin-off of “Hi and Lois”. He’s Lois’ brother. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/22 "2015-12-08T00:04:53Z")
> [@sitchensis](#): > > 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. My mother-in-law loved this strip and used to send clippings to my wife. Given that they got divorced in real life we can read it for the subtle digs. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/23 "2015-12-08T00:15:09Z")
The list of comic strips that wore out their welcome and became horribly repetitive and unfunny includes Overboard, Garfield, Get Fuzzy and Sherman’s Lagoon. Blondie is one of the few strips I will glance at, because it’s still at least mildly amusing at times. Of all the ongoing strips, the biggest WTF goes to Funky Winkerbean, home of the truly pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/24 "2015-12-08T00:33:04Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **nearwildheaven** : > > “Beetle” was a spin-off of “Hi and Lois”. He’s Lois’ brother. I thought it was the other way around, that we first met Hi and Lois when Beetle visited them on leave. And seriously, complaining about Hagar but then holding up Dilbert as an example of a funny strip? Dilbert was funny once, but it used up all of its material over a decade ago. Hagar might be a bit stale, but it’s at least better than Dilbert is, now. Garfield actually managed to successfully jump the shark some years ago, when Liz finally started going out with Jon: It added new potential to the strip. I think they’ve now managed to run that well dry, though, too. And I think the worst offender for not-funny strips is Mutts. It’s got at most one joke a week, that gets repeated six times, and it’s usually not even a very good joke. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/25 "2015-12-08T00:47:45Z")
Zombie strips, they’re called. The walking dead. Young artists try occasionally to bring new blood to the dead tree funny pages, but they never catch on with the (old) readership, and they eventually give up and either do web-comics or get a job at the gas station. This is why I spend more time over at the Comics Curmudgeon than here anymore. Those people know what’s really important in life. Sneering at Judge Parker and Mary Worth and Beetle Bailey. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/26 "2015-12-08T01:11:07Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > 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. Ah, Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/27 "2015-12-08T01:23:06Z")
Mallard Fillmore is so unfunny that it’s pathetic. Do any of the Dope’s resident conservatives actually think it _is_ funny? Doonsbury was funny for a long time, but not anymore. I miss “Brewster Rocket, Space Guy”. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/28 "2015-12-08T01:57:50Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Mallard Fillmore is so unfunny that it’s pathetic. Do any of the Dope’s resident conservatives actually think it _is_ funny? > > Doonsbury was funny for a long time, but not anymore. > > I miss “Brewster Rocket, Space Guy”. Our local paper actually dropped Mallard Fillmore a while back. They’d added it as a kind of “counterbalance” to the radically socialist, anti-American rantings of Doonesbury, but when Trudeau stopped making new daily strips, the paper dropped them both. Until about a month ago. The old, crusty, half-senile Fox News watchers demanded that Mallard be returned to the “funny” pages, so back he came. As mentioned above, it’s really tough to get any new strips added to newspapers. Our paper has had several votes and surveys about strips to keep or new strips to add, and the readers keep asking to keep the same old Blondie, Hagar, Wizard of Id, Familt Circus, Garfield, etc., etc. Heck, they’re running old Peanuts strips now, for Snoopy’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/29 "2015-12-08T02:23:31Z")
**Mallard Fillmore** has been a national disgrace for years. The artist is a wife-beating alcoholic, which I would say could explain the consistent anger, execrable art, and awful writing, but I have a feeling that a lot of comic strip creators were probably wife-beating alcoholics back in the days when wife-beating alcoholics were not frowned upon socially, and THEY managed to turn out good comics. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/30 "2015-12-08T02:27:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > 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 That’s the main thing. I’m 54 and people more than a few years younger than me just don’t read newspapers, period. Newspaper readers skew old. And Grandma likes her old favorites. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/31 "2015-12-08T03:25:42Z")
My local paper also carries “Pearls Before Swine”, and I would wager a bet that lots of Dopers would enjoy this one. No, I’m not being snarky. I would imagine a lot of us also like “Get Fuzzy” even if we aren’t owned by pets. When I was in my early 30s, “Rhymes With Orange” went nationwide, and I was in a book club with mostly women who were a generation older than me. One evening, one of them said, “I do not get ‘Rhymes With Orange’” and the others agreed, and I piped up that I loved it, because it was by, for, and about my generation. I’ve seen it more recently, and it was meh. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/32 "2015-12-08T03:31:38Z")
Get Fuzzy is still better than average, but it’s definitely going downhill. I think my current favorites are Frazz, Zits, and Non Sequitur. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/33 "2015-12-08T03:55:38Z")
Did anyone notice that the artwork and lettering in Hagar the Horrible look different today than usual? There must be a substitute artist. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/34 "2015-12-08T03:57:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Get Fuzzy is still better than average, but it’s definitely going downhill. > > I think my current favorites are Frazz, Zits, and Non Sequitur. I like “Frazz” too. Anyone else think Caulfield is an unidentified G&T? ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/35 "2015-12-08T04:28:00Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > My local paper also carries “Pearls Before Swine”, and I would wager a bet that lots of Dopers would enjoy this one. > > No, I’m not being snarky. > ☹ Until I saw that second line I was sure you were being snarky. My newspaper (which I no longer read) added it a few years ago. I saw very little funny about it, and got really tired of the succession of strips that boiled down to “elaborate setup for not very funny or interesting pun followed by the breaking of the fourth wall via threats to the cartoonist”…once would have been more than sufficient! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/36 "2015-12-08T04:57:09Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Ah, Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk. Hold on, I did remember when I was little that it looked that Andy was the one getting the funny beatings from his wife. Ah, I found the reason, it was early that Andy was the abuser, but the wife gradually got the upper hand. > **[Andy Capp | Reg Smythe](http://www.planetslade.com/andy-capp-reg-smythe-v3.html)** > > Andy Capp is the comic strip by British cartoonist Reg Smythe for the Daily Mirror in 1957, the cartoons feature working class belligerent work shy Andy and his long-suffering wife Flo. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/37 "2015-12-08T05:16:10Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > Most of the time, Hagar is extremely predictable. > > I have to admit, however, that in this strip [which ran on the Friday after Thanksgiving](http://hagarthehorrible.com/comics/november-27-2015/), I did not see the last panel coming. > > And, it made my mind start reeling with porn possibilities. So, there’s that. [Been done.](http://oglaf.com/heterogeneous/) ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/38 "2015-12-08T08:29:46Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#): > > Hagar was great with Dik Browne.lousy when Chris took over. This sounds about right. It used to make me laugh out loud; now, it gets a grudging smirk. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/39 "2015-12-08T12:56:21Z")
It’s been ages since I’ve read a comic strip. It’s been ages since I’ve read a real newspaper. Plus I don’t go wandering around online trying to find a specific strip. In the greater scheme of things they’re not important. Besides, I have all the Bloom County and Calvin and Hobbes books 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2015, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720/40 "2015-12-08T13:11:06Z")
It may not seem like much now, but when it first came out, Hagar the Horrible was a comics phenomenon – at least within the industry. Its circulation grew at an astounding rate, faster than any other strip at the time. That may not mean much – it could be that Dik Browne’s strip appealed to comics page editors more than other strips did. Certainly the strip was never the megahit with the public that “Peanuts” was. I agree that it was better when Browne was doing it, but it was never one of my favorites. By the way, the strip started after the originally beardless Browne grew facial hair. He really did look like Hagar when he was drawing it: [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=AwrBTzzi1mZWUQUA1SlXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Dik+Browne&fr=yfp-t-901#id=1&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fth02.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2FPRE%2Ff%2F2014%2F076%2Fb%2F6%2Fdik\_browne\_by\_morteneng21-d7ala9i.jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBTzzi1mZWUQUA1SlXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Dik+Browne&fr=yfp-t-901#id=1&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fth02.deviantart.net%2Ffs70%2FPRE%2Ff%2F2014%2F076%2Fb%2F6%2Fdik_browne_by_morteneng21-d7ala9i.jpg&action=click) [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=AwrBTzzi1mZWUQUA1SlXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Dik+Browne&fr=yfp-t-901#id=92&iurl=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-6G7rUojw6Zs%2FURaU0wh3t\_I%2FAAAAAAAASDA%2FhhOzCHy0Rf0%2Fs1600%2FDik%2BBrowne%2Band%2Bsons%2BChris%2B(l)%2Band%2BBob%2B(r).jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBTzzi1mZWUQUA1SlXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Dik+Browne&fr=yfp-t-901#id=92&iurl=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-6G7rUojw6Zs%2FURaU0wh3t_I%2FAAAAAAAASDA%2FhhOzCHy0Rf0%2Fs1600%2FDik%2BBrowne%2Band%2Bsons%2BChris%2B(l)%2Band%2BBob%2B(r).jpg&action=click) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-the-hell-is-enjoying-hagar-the-horrible/739720.md?page=3)