TheAgitator.com
Droll by Droll
Thursday, October 30th, 2003Instapundit links to this Tech Central piece about Chris Muir’s comic strip, Day by Day, which has won raves across the blogosphere.
Yes, I agree that it’d be nice to see more comics in the paper that are topical, political, and don’t toe the leftist Doonesbury line.
But here’s my problem with Day by Day:
It isn’t funny. It suffers from the same malady that afflicts the lefty strip Boondocks (see Jesse Walker’s post here) — it’s not enough to be topical and edgy and of the correct kind of politics. You then have to do something with “topical” and “edgy.”
A comic strip should amuse, before it does anything else. A good one will occasionally elicit an out-loud chuckle. Day by Day just restates the things its fans were already thinking. Granted, humor is subjective. But for all the plaudits Day by Day gets, they’re most always for its politics, not its wit.
It just isn’t funny. And so it’s not a great comic strip.
This sentence pretty much explains its popularity: “Day by Day just restates the things its fans were already thinking.”
That’s ok, but does not comedy make.
The one I read was pretty funny. It was ironic and satiric. I’ll have to look at it more long term, but first impression is: funny.
I’ll stick with Non Sequitur…not overtly political (usually), but subtly libertarian, and always funny.
My favorite: “The beginning of government.” A man sets up a table. Posts a sign. Sits down and waits.
The sign reads: “Pay half your money. Expect Nothing. Get what you expect.”
Also I like Pearls Before Swine…that little pig is cute.
Damn, I was hoping to say “At least it isn’t Mallard Fillmore”, but today’s comic is about as bad. “MoveOn.org thinks Bush is a nazi!” Really cutting edge social commentary there. Echo chamber all the way. The only funny conservative cartoonist I’ve ever read is John Bergstrom’s Attack Cartoons. His mocking Libertarian Man series is definitely worth reading.
But this Day to Day strip reminds me of the rancid comic User Friendly and its pandering to the Slashdot bunch. Pander to a large enough group’s prejudices and sit back and bask in the accolades.
Have to agree. Reviewed a few of these strips, and it just isn’t funny. At least the liberal leaning strips tend to be funny (sometimes unintentionally, of course).
Oh, and Non Sequitur . . . “Obvious Man” kills me.
I read an interview with (I’m pretty sure it was) Norm MacDonald and he was talking about when he anchored Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. He talked about how he loved getting laughs from the audience, but he absolutely hated getting applause.
Applause means you’ve said something that the audience approves of. Laughter means you’ve actually said something funny.
You right it isn’t funny, but then neither is Bloom County.
I think Boondocks is funny. Here’s one of my favorites.
OK, that one’s funny.
Eh, I think Boondocks is at least sometimes funny, even when I disagree with it. Day by Day has never provoked so much as a grin; it’s a dumb harangue with drawings. If you want funny cartoons from the right, there’s no beating John Bergstrom’s “Attack Cartoons”:
http://attackcartoons.com/
Comic strips should be funny - I totally agree with that - except, perhaps, “For Better or Worse.” But then I don’t think the writer expects us to find them funny.
Some Non Sequitur strips with a libertarian bent:
http://www.essex1.com/people/thompsn/pics/ns/
Some of the nonpolitical strips can be wickedly funny.
Taste is individual, but I usually get a grin out of Day by Day, often chuckles, and every week or so a belly-laugh. That puts it measurably above average for daily strips, for me. And Muir can actually make non-partisan jokes (the ones I share with my politics-averse friends), unlike almost every partisan cartoonist out there: 10/19, 10/3, and my favorite this month, 10/16.
…And I like his style of drawing.
The comparison to Boondocks is on point. You might also mention Mallard Fillmore (and Tom Tomorrow, too, to keep things bipartisan).
What Doonesbury has and Bloom County had, and these strips don’t is, are real characters and really inventive humor.
I liked Doonesbury and Bloom County before I knew much anything about politics–it would be impossible for that to happen with a strip like Day by Day or Boondocks. There’s just not enough comic meat there.
Day By Day
Glenn Reynolds notes that Chris Muir’s Day By Day “is starting to get the attention it deserves” and points to…
I just noticed that we both had the same reaction to Reynolds’s post. Day By Day is the Doonesbury of the Right, and just as insufferably unfunny.