(Of course others, like Don Imus, Mel Gibson, and Michael Richards, go so far over that "kinda, maybe racist" line that there is no going back.)
But it is unusual to see things that make your eyebrows go up ... on the funny pages.
This was the Family Circus cartoon in today's Trib. Someone--someone at the Keane's home, at Universal Syndicate, someone somewhere--should have looked at this cartoon and suggested that they re-do it.
It's not a racist cartoon exactly, but it is very very dumb to toss the phrase Uncle Tom--even if it's describing an uncle named Tom--into a short 13 word caption. First it kills the funny (not like there was any here to begin with). But it's hard to be funny when you're wondering if the creator is that dumb or that racist.
It reminds me of when John McCain used the phrase Tar Baby. It's not actually a racist phrase, despite what a lot of people think. Here's a good description of its origins on Wikipedia. But it's a sensitive word and people trying to be President probably shouldn't use it. Just like they shouldn't use "niggard," a Norse word that has nothing to do with the other word it sounds like, but imagine trying to explain why you used it.
Someone at their syndicate should have called up the cartoonists and said, "Bill and Jeff, we've got to change the name of Dolly's Uncle. It's not that it's bad, but there's no reason to have the words Uncle Tom in the comics. Let's just change it a bit so it wont' surprise people over their morning coffee."
Although I would have preferred that they also add, "Please stop showing kids confusing words for other words. It's funny when your grand children do it, but it's God awful when it's published in the paper. You must stop."
Posts
1 comments:
they do that on purpose.
Why? because when you're a ghost writer for vapid strips like family circus you live off creating subversive things to try and slip past the sleeping masses.
Post a Comment