In the comic strip "Pluggers," replace the phrase "a Plugger" with "a White Man".

Fred Basset is much funnier if you know that, in fact, Fred Basset is God.

Never count on Spider-Man to ever make any sense. Always count on some bully to come along every month or so to pick on Peter, only to get his ass whupped.

I'm in complete disagreement here. "Pluggers" is about people who live below a certain income level, period. (This is my take, in any case). I've been reading that one-panel since its inception, and have never once sensed a racial bias in any direction. If you can provide examples to back up your statement, I remain open-minded-- but I would have leaned more toward "Plugger"="Redneck" or even "White Trash." (Okay, so maybe there is a bit of a socio-economic, and perhaps racist, bias here, but I don't see the "white men only" thing at all.

I've never understood the concept of "Pluggers". Anyone care to explain?

Just try decoding the thickly-veiled sexual phobia connoted herein:

It struck me upon reading the example from August 6, 2007:

http://www.comicspage.com/comicspage/main....dir=%2Fpluggers

It's basically about a cartoonist who congratulates his reader for being an ordinary quotidien chump.

Krafft-Ebbing wrote about this very thing in Psychopathia Sexualis:
http://books.google.com/books?id=oFoAAAAAM...lCMBud6tMjQGM2I

Also see:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/w183q54132q34211/

Sorry, man, but I still don't see it (and we'll ignore the fact that it's a "high four" in that cartoon). Also keep in mind that Pluggers are sent in by random members of the public (presumably all of whom consider themselves to be Pluggers).

Yeah I have always thought of it as Rednecks or simpletons.

Who do you ultimately prefer, the quotidien (whatever that means) chumps in "Pluggers" or the holier than thou/uber Canadian p.c. of "For Better or For Worse"?? What's it gonna be??

the great irony of "pluggers" is that "pluggers" don't read the fuckin' Globe.

(although maybe i should take that back, an inordinate # of fan contributions are from MA.)

A plugger is somebody who supports his family, working the same mindless job every day for his whole life.

Vanishing breed, really.

Oh, those revolting peasants...

A plague on both of their houses. Those comic strips epitomize everything that is anal, banal and dead about the medium.

PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS: FULL TEXT
http://books.google.com/books?id=ARsiScIQ8...pathia+sexualis

Andy Capp is a mouth breather, wife beater, and hopeless alcoholic. As is "Thirsty" from Hi and Lois; Hagar from "Hagar the Horrible," and probably the Dads from The Family Circus and Dennis the Menace.

What compelled you to bump this week old thread?

Talking Squirrels


Alcohol abuse


Insanely corny dialogue


Retrograde politics


Angry Dads about to whip their sons to within an inch of their lives

Decode this, Dimenno:

I was entertained.

It makes perfect sense...it's a table of different kinds of humor, by some English guy with not enough to do. I don't know if the table covers all humor. But I'll be damned if I'm going to read the original article. Could you post a summary?

I didn't read the original article either.

The chart is OK as a taxonomy.

As for the "Telling a joke" strip, what the author implies but neglcts to mention is that joketelling is a profoundly hostile act....

Awesome. The best part is, the porn filters at work don't block this.

"Under the mask of humor, our society allows
infinite aggressions, by everyone and against everyone. In the
culminating laugh by the listener or observer--whose position is
really that of the victim or butt--the teller of the joke betrays his
hidden hostility and signals his victory by being, theoretically at
least, the one person present who does not laugh. Compulsive
storytellers and joke-tellers express almost openly the hostile
components of their need, by forcing their jokes upon frankly
unwilling audiences among their friends and loved ones, and upon every
new person they meet. Often they proffer this openly as their only
social grace. The listener's expected laughter is, therefore, in a
most important but unspoken way, a shriving of the teller, a
reassurance that he has not been caught, that the listener has
partaken with him, willy-nilly, in the hostility or sexuality of the
joke, or has even acceded in being its victim or butt....This is
particularly clear in the type of rambling or pointless anecdote,
nowadays known as the...'shaggy dog' story....in [which] the avowed
butt of the joke is simply the person who has been tricked into listening."
--Gershon Legman, , RATIONALE OF THE DIRTY JOKE, 1st Series, first page.

AIEEEE! Wonder what Krafft-Ebbing would say about this? Polymorphous perversity?

Just as no one in recorded history has ever washed a rental car, no one in the past 30 years has ever read the Spider-Man strip and said, "Gee--what a great strip!"

latly, maybe, but in 30 years?
sorry, wrong.
remember when the globe dropped it outta the blue years ago?
pretty big outrage.
fuck, or was that the hulk?
i don't think so.

Well, the character is popular, but nobody seems to be in any great hurry to market compilations of the comic strip version....

"Pluggers" was conceived in 1993 by a group of five middle-aged men, none of whom seems to have much in common with the proletariat they seek to depict.

http://www.salon.com/media/media960710.html

If you look throughout the Disney universe you will find - as Ariel Dorfmann did 30 years ago when he wrote "How to Read Mickey Mouse" - that "Disneyfication" involves the promotion of a very right-wing FantasyLand.

And if you look over the years at ABC, you will see that once Disney purchased Capitol Cities in the late 80s, you will see that the news "slant" changed from "slightly-conservative/centrist" to what is now out-and-out "Republican/right." Coincidence? Not.

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:nrPCr...;cd=1&gl=us

Sorry to bump my own thread, but I've just discovered a treasure-trove of material here:

http://www.ep.tc/problems/
http://www.ep.tc/intro-page4.html

YET ANOTHER TREASURE-TROVE:
http://www.carpsplace.com/spire/spire.htm

OK, I was saving these, but someone in another thread mentioned how much they liked these links, so here's a whole passel of 'em:

I briefly corresponded with Mark Evanier in the mid-80s. His stuff is always interesting:
http://povonline.com/IAQ.htm

Ferro Lad was supposed to be black:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2...ds-revealed-30/

Gorgeous Steranko art:
http://snarkfree.blogspot.com/

Mad did not become a magazine to elude the code:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2...ds-revealed-45/

PRO-CHOICE AND ANTI-ABORTION COMIC BOOKS
http://www.ep.tc/junior/

OUT AND BI COMICS CHARACTERS
http://www.gayleague.com/gay/characters/index.php

CIA SABOTAGE MANUAL IN COMIC BOOK FORM
http://www.geocities.com/eco-action/crapaganda/xcia.htm

365 REASONS TO LOVE COMICS
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/c...to-love-comics/

Wow. Just...wow.



http://www.pbfcomics.com/

On a related note:



http://smbc-comics.com

Holy cow.

Some great stuff in those links. Thanks.

Maybe my favorite:

Umm...




http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/369/

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/calvinhobbes.htm

"The Little Raccoon."

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....

The Raccoon is easily the greatest example of what Watterson was able to do with Calvin and Hobbes. Thanks for the reminder.

My cruel roommates and I used to make sarcastic jokes about it....

who's that extra Metal Man in that bottom frame?

Gold, Platinum, Lead, Iron, Mercury, Tin....and who??

Nameless.

Tin's girlfriend.

He constructed her from a "build a robot" kit.

Why?

Because Bob Kanigher, that's why.

See:
http://the-isb.blogspot.com/2006/07/crank-...al-men-3-5.html

"Because Bob Kanigher, that's why."

Also see:
http://www.the-isb.com/?p=125