My body tells me I need to laugh like a hyena but my mind can’t do it. There have been way too many awful things happening – politics, weather, climate. In a word, call it life.
That’s when I fall back and reach for the comic section in the newspaper. Any comic section will do in a pinch, though a few of the sophomoric ones make me groan sooner than smile.
Cartoonists were created by the Divine to pluck out the heart of any matter and drive a nail through it, just like Dracula. They may add a little script to the pane but in the end it’s their sublime art that shows, doesn’t tell (like all good journalists know).
They hit the nail on the head. Sure, they get punished for the spot- on delivery of the human condition. People get mad and cancel their subscriptions, but they are usually those who don’t see the humor in anything. Or see themselves, for that matter.
Or in the case of “Doonesbury,” which proves that history repeats itself. The Dallas News cancelled it because some readers got miffed, but darn it. The strip reprints are still proving that any political administration deserves getting skewered for their bad decisions because the same things keep happening over and over again.
Reading the daily comics are almost like getting a visual dose of Bible wisdom. Or “Pluggers” as the psalmist. Or the old Art Linkletter joke of “kids say the darndest things.” And “B.C.” which frequently features God, sin and offers a new take on Scripture.
Oh, don’t you know who Art Linkletter was? Not a cartoonist, but one of the early television laugh tracks, before bad home movies were put on television.
One of my favorites is “Curtis.” Awhile ago he was begging his mom for some ink and she replied that tattoos meant a photo was that of a gang member. Curtis popped off that it didn’t, any more than wearing a cross made someone a Christian.
True that.
“Pearls Before Swine” takes time to sink in, but one strip I noted looked like cartoonists’ therapy. Pig was telling Rat about being careful of criticizing others because those were probably things you dislike about yourself. Rat asked Pig if he meant him, but Pig shrugged. “Yeah but everyone else, too,” he said.
“Crankshaft”, “Shoe” and “Get Fuzzy” also hit on the human condition, especially Geezers in the former and animals in the latter. Both remind us of others who had been in our lives or the dogs and cats that still run our roosts. Bucky the mean Siamese cat with a broken tooth and sweet Satchel, the dog from Canada that wears a watch--you have to love ‘em.
Families take up the most space on the comic pages, and for good reason. If you don’t read to your kids when they’re young, how are they going to know a good funny paper when they see it?
All ages are covered, from “Baby Blues,” “One Big Happy” and “For Better or Worse,” to remind senior adults how glad they are to be past the age of diapers, to “Zits” for teenage Jeremy and “Baldo” whose car still won’t run.
“Dennis the Menace,” “Blondie” and “Peanuts” are the old favorites; even if they don’t make you laugh, it’s nice knowing they’re still mainstays of the funnies. Something kids understand.
To be really honest, there are only a few strips that I just skip, mostly the newer ones entertainment editors have substituted for controversial cartoons that made everyone laugh. The new ones don’t!
Reading the funnies takes the edge off the day’s bad news, which overpowers everything. But I consider them a win if I get at least one smile, one laugh and one to clip for the refrigerator.
Sort of like reading the daily horoscope. You ignore it if it’s a downer, do a fist bump if it sounds good and if it says “play the lottery today,” you check your wallet for how much cash you have to lose!
Everyone has a system to cope with the hot summer blues, or in this year’s case, the wet and wild unseasonable weather.
These are two of mine. Now smile!
Shelly has worn more hats in the communications field than Carter had pills but forgot to retire when she closed her promotions business. She earned a BA in Journalism at NTSU (before it became UNT) and has never lost her love of words.