Not So Funny

Comic strips like Doonesbury, The Boondocks and La Cucaracha are expected to be controversial, so it was surprising when Get Fuzzy-an ordinarily non-controversial comic strip that features talking animals-dealt with a human character losing a leg in Iraq.

More recently, Get Fuzzy presented a series of "Rejected Get Fuzzy Storylines." One was, "Get Fuzzy attempts to outdo the South Park episode where they said 'fuck' 162 times by saying 'fuck' 162 [sic] times." Although each use of the word 'fuck' had been blacked out by the artist, Darby Conley, the Los Angeles Times substituted a year-old Get Fuzzy.

In another non-controversial strip, Zits, Jeremy, a lazy, would-be rebellious teenager, asks a friend to hold his backpack while he changes into a T-shirt that says "Question Authority." Jeremy explains, "I'm not allowed to wear this at home." His friend responds, "Weak convictions are better than none, I guess."

That same theme popped up in a sometimes controversial strip, Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller, venting via his alter-ego, Joe. Little Danae asks him, "Why are you so grumpy lately, Daddy?" Looking up from his paper-which has a front-page headline, "Nothing to See Here, Folks, Move Along"-he replies, "I'm just peeved about our wimpy news media. They're nothing but corporate lap dogs now." "Oh, I see," says Danae, "questioning authority isn't just a good thing, it's patriotic!" Her father, reading another page-headlined "Nothin' Here Either"-replies, "Absolu...I mean, it depends on the authority." Danae says, "Too late, Daddy...if that's your real name."

In another strip, Miller reveals his disgust with how little attention American media was paying to reports of voting irregularities. A waitress with a New England accent is serving coffee to a customer at Offshore Flo's Diner. She asks, "What'r ya readin' theah, Joe?" He replies, "The Ukrainian Times." Waitress: "Uh... how come?" Now we can see that the headline reads, "Election Fraud!" Joe: "Oh, I'm just curious what an independent press questioning its government looks like." Waitress: "Why don't we have one of those?" Joe: "I think it has something to do with values."

Miller told Editor & Publisher that he's upset by "the laziness and lack of guts by our entire 'news' media-both print and electronic. They should all be embarrassed by what happened in the Ukraine. But that would take integrity, wouldn't it? At least they're providing me with material, so maybe I shouldn't complain."

He added that he would've liked to have seen American media "pursue the election results and the many questions surrounding its legitimacy with the same fervor and interest they showed in the all-important story of steroid use by baseball players. But I guess that in itself shows what's really important to corporate wonks posing as editors today."

Ironically, Non Sequitur is syndicated to more than 700 newspapers, none of which rejected his Ukranian-election strip.