Doonesburied, The decline of Garry Trudeau

reasononline | July 2002 | Jesse Walker

[Temple Owl]

There is a big difference between Al Capp and Gary Trudeau. Al Capp was funny. He pegged the Clintons long before they were born.

All I can say is goodbye to left-wing, liberal Gary Trudeau. I hope the door hits him in the balls.

[Post Toasties]

Good article which puts into words the problems I've had with Doonesbury's humor quotient tailspin for the last decade and a half.

[Thebaddog]

How many papers still carry that old socialist?

[EricT.]

We are watching fossilization in action. I quit reading Doonesbury back in the 80's as a high school student. Old hippies annoyed me back then, and they are just sad to look at now.

[Denver Ditdat]

Gary Trudeau is still alive? Wow. His strip has been flat, predictable, and totally devoid of fresh ideas for the last twenty years. It would be easy to think that ol' Gar had been taking a dirt nap, and that his "comic" was being churned out by a bunch of boiler room hacks referring to the Doonesbury originals of the 70s.

Give it up, Gary. Your 15 minutes of fame expired at approximately the time Mr. Peanut left the White House and headed back to Plains.

[Kay]

I always thought that Trudeau was the one person who had a bonafide reason to take Prozac.

[john in missouri]

Not sure why I just wasted several minutes of my life reading an article on doonesbury...

[Retiredforever]

Good post! I don't look at Gary Trudeau's comic strip very offen, so I'm not an expert on his ramblings. I have noticed that he never pokes fun at - or criticizes any Democrats. I couldn't look at his stuff long enough to find out if he ever criticized a Democrat.

[shadowman99]

I feel much the same about the decline of Burke Breathed and his comic "Bloom County". Once very funny and engaging, it peaked in the mid-eighties when it became mainstream. Breathed sold-out and he cut back to doing his comic once a week, with mostly new characters. He would have been better off just quiting.

Not long ago I tried reading some of my old "Bloom Couty" books. Not as funny as they used to be. I suppose I'm reading them out of context, since the political environment has changed so much since they were written. I also know it's because I have changed.

Back when I was a teen reading BC for the first time I didn't realize I was one of the conservatives that Breathed often lampooned. I now know different. Breathed was never as vicious to the right as Trudeau, but I still feel a bit like the target of the joke. It sits wrong.

[nothingnew]

Not sure why I just wasted several minutes of my life reading an article on doonesbury...

Ditto here...sometimes I black out I guess.

FMCDH

[mole]

"A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators."

- Berkeley Breathed-

[jrherreid]

bump

[Rev DMV]

Good quote, I miss Calvin and Hobbs. But maybe he did the right thing and left on the uphill side.

[Temple Owl]

How many papers still carry that old socialist?

Too many. It is still the lead ( upper right hand page ) in the Philadelphia Inquirer whose circulation keeps plunging.

[cmak9]

Correct me if I'm wrong somebody, but I think Berkely Breathed was the author of "Bloom County", which I still think was funny, though I do relate to the "target" comment above. I forget who wrote "Calvin and Hobbes", but I don't think it was B.B.

[cmak9]

okay, that should probably be "Burke" not Berkeley.

[kellynla]

Who cares about "Dumbsbury"...want to read some outrageously funny comics check out "Ballard Street" and "Herman"...my two favs...

[r9etb]

"A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators."

- Berkeley Breathed-

Including Breathed's own Bloom County. I recently read through a collection of old strips -- at the time it was about as funny as one of the old Steve Martin comedy albums. It's still about as funny -- which means, it's not all that funny anymore.

Calvin and Hobbes, OTOH, is as funny today as when it was new. Probably the reason is because it didn't rely on current events, but instead on how people really are. (It doesn't hurt that everybody knows a "Calvin.")

[redhead]

"Not sure why I just wasted several minutes of my life reading an article on doonesbury..."

Yah...I just caught myself in time. Close call.