We all love reading the comics in
the newspaper. It’s the best part next to completely failing at completing the
crossword puzzle. Everyone has their favorite comics, and the ones that they
completely skip over, my own favorites being The Peanuts, Zits, Agnes, and Baby
Blues. The great thing about newspaper comic strips is that they have ones for
all ages. They have the funny little kid humor such as Garfield, Red and Rover
and Marmaduke all the way to more adult humor like Zits and Baby Blues where
they interest parents. No matter what the comic strip is the best part for
comic strip artists is that they are able to put any twist they want to in
them. It may seem strange but a comic
artist is in a great situation to share their views without coming straight out
with it. To us the reader, it’s more like the view is coming from the character
in the comic, not necessarily from the cartoonist him or herself. It’s sort of
like subliminal messaging, through their characters humor and story plot they
are able to sneak in their views let it be over the economy, current events, or
even politics. One comic strip in particular is The Boondocks. In case you are
unfamiliar with The Boondocks, it’s a comic strip that started out being
published in a college Newspaper, so the material is more mature, and it slowly
made its way from the college newspaper to a Hip Hop magazine called the
Source, and soon after The Boondocks had reached a nationally known status in
newspapers in America. The Boondocks is a comic, which in my opinion has some
dark, dry humor and mostly comments on the African American culture and/or
politics, all from the perspective of the comic’s main character who is a
little boy.
Now I personally find the Boondocks
to be a great example of freedom of speech and how to utilize it. Is it
controversial? Yes. Has it been withheld from different newspapers various
amounts of times? Yes. Do they let these facts stop them from amplifying their
opinions and views to America? Of course not, and this is a good lesson to
learn from the creators of this comic strip. One of the best features of the
comic is that you don’t have to agree. It brings up many controversial topics
and pushes the limits of its readers, but it must have been doing something
right, because you can now find The Boondocks as a tv series on Adult Swim. A
Cartoon Network late night channel that also hosts other controversial shows
such as Family Guy and American Dad, both created by Seth McFarland. These
shows work because viewers like controversy, they like to be able to take sides
when approached with these controversies, and in fact should be inspired by
these shows and comic strips to take their turn in amplifying their views right
back out there, which is why I am writing this post right now.
While perusing the internet one
fine evening as I rushed to find information for a former English paper, I came
across a Boondocks comic strip about Condoleezza Rice. Now being as young as I
am, I will admit that I don’t really remember much about Condoleezza Rice. The
most I know about her is that she was the former secretary of state before
Hillary Clinton. I will also admit that I hadn’t accidentally come across the
comic strip I was in fact looking for evidence of sexism in politics, but my
google search must have worked because I had stumbled across this strip. It
shows the main character of the comic, Huey, with his little friend Michael.
The two boys are talking and Michael comes up with a plan, he comments “Maybe
if there was a man in the world who Condoleezza truly loved then she wouldn’t
be so hell bent on destroying it”. There is a panel of silence where Huey
stands and ponders the words his friend just uttered and then suddenly replies
“it’s brilliant. Let’s get to work”. This is a perfect example of the controversial
things that have been said in the comic and the tv series, and like in all
controversial topics people take sides, and I have taken mine.
I can sum up this one strip in one
word: sexist. Truthfully it seems really minimal compared to other things the
Boondocks have talked about. I mean the creator of the series Aaron McGruder
has been called the “angriest black man in America”. In his show the Boondocks,
created from his comic had an episode where Martin Luther King came back from
the dead. He did an episode over the R. Kelly trials, and before the death of Rosa
Parks, had originally depicted her with being affiliated with the alleged child
pornographer R. Kelly. Of course after the death of the civil rights icon, he
ended up deleting that little tid bit from the sketch. Bottom line is, compared
to all the controversy that McGruder creates within his show and comic I can
see how this four panel comic strip about Condoleezza finding a man can be seen
as trivial, but why?
I do find the humor in this.
Probably if I had known more about politics back when Condoleezza was actually
in office I would find it even more hilarious, but I know enough to understand
that what they are trying to portray is Condoleezza as this woman who is
probably much like a ball buster and their solution to her not being this way
is if she had a man. I do find the humor in that, and the fact that I do is
what I find sad. Even I, a female, can laugh at this comic, but why? I mean
maybe America is just still in that mindset. I like to think of myself as a
modern woman. One who breaks away from the small mindedness of racism and
sexism, and is pro-gay rights and pro-choice and life should just be sweet and
happy like a piece of apple pie, and yet…I can still laugh at a sexist joke. This
makes me wonder, by laughing at this joke am I approving of sexist remarks, or
does it show that we live during a time when we are comfortable enough with
each other to be able to laugh at topics like this? If you think about this
then you may also think about other jokes you’ve heard, maybe a dumb blonde
joke, or a racist joke, is it wrong to laugh at these jokes too, or are we just
in a point in time in our nation where we are comfortable enough to be okay
with joking about these controversial topics? The way I see it, it’s wrong, and
we shouldn’t be joking around about it.
The fact that there are even jokes
out there about sexism, or racism or about women being blonde or slutty, or
stupid just proves how there is still stereotype. The fact that someone can be
offended by these jokes proves even more how horrible it is to laugh at these jokes,
let alone say them in the first place, but it’s hard not to. I understand, we
have grown up learning these different stereotypes, therefore it’s hard not to
laugh at these sometimes harmless jokes. In McGruder’s case he wasn’t
necessarily trying to be funny, but get his political view across. Which is
fine and dandy with me, but if his political view is stating that women need a
man in their lives, and without a man the world will be destroyed, then maybe I
should be rethinking what I find funny, and perhaps a few of you should be
rethinking that too.
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