I think even most conservatives would agree, they deserve better than "Fillmore." Even "Prickly City," the L.A. Times' other right-leaning strip, has its moments and is at least character-driven. "Fillmore" claims to have characters, but in reality contains no hearty cast of characters and no ongoing storylines (and very, very rarely transcends politics). "Mallard" simply has a rant of the day, either tweaking a headline in the news or going for a cheap "liberals are stupid" joke. Yawn.
This week's batch of strips is the last straw, however -- and proves that "Mallard" creator Bruce Tinsley doesn't have a clue about humor or satire.
Jon Stewart's recent book "America" is a lampoon of civics textbooks, and with tongue firmly planted in cheek, roasts everything and everybody -- including figures from the left and right.
In one section, the book also parodies political cartoons -- mocking "Doonesbury" and "Mallard Fillmore," among others -- teasing "Doonesbury" for being too dry and "Mallard" for, well, not being funny.
Now -- almost a year after the book was released -- creator Tinsley and "Mallard Fillmore" have spent all of this week outraged that Stewart would attempt to decieve the comic's readers into thinking it was a real "Mallard" strip. (He even adds, for good measure, a tired and irrelevant Dan Rather quip.)
Uh, Tinsley? It's called satire. You may want to brush up. (P.S. The book's pictures of naked Supreme Court justices aren't real either.)
No comments:
Post a Comment