No, seriously, Doonesbury hasn't been funny since the days of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. The main reason is because he didn't retire while he was ahead like the other guys.Durandal wrote:What exactly does this have to do with the Doonesberry strip?
You need a check-up on your sense of humor.Joe wrote:Piss off. I like Al Franken. I like the Daily Show. I even thought TV Nation was funny. But Doonesbury is just painfully unfunny, or at least it has been for the last half-decade or so.
Now, overly political cartoons are one thing. They are annoying, in-your-face (not in the good way) and preachy, and usually expect everyone to find humor in what is essentially a poorly-formed argument. Read some Newsweek if you want to see what I mean.
But Doonesbury has another fatal flaw: unoriginality. Almost every single strip I have read recently bases it's punchline on a variation of jokes that have already been done to death. Not only is it presented in an unfunny, overpoliticized manner, but the material is so old that it wouldn't be funny anyway. That's a recipe for NOT FUNNY.
Oh, and Shep--Mallard Fillmore sucks too. Same problems as Doonesbury, but the artwork is even less original. Maybe if the cartoonist were ripping off a current comic, instead of Shoe, it would actually count as parody.
That said, Get Funny is probably the best comic out right now with obvious leftist sensibilities. Very, very funny. Character-based humor which will always stay frest, great artwork, and some really funny ideas.
Less funny but more leftist is Boondocks, which at least maintains some originality and interesting characters. I also enjoy Lemont Brown, but maybe that's because I knew the guy from Berkeley.
Non Sequitor has its shining moments but I think it's currently in its death throes with all of its preachiness and lack of funny.
Dilbert and Zits are old but still going strong. Maybe these other cartoonists could learn from them.