As some of you know, I determined last year that I would read the comics every day in a personal quest to discover why the funnies are funny. Over the years I've read a comic strip or two on occasion and never laughed. Some of my immediate family members have been long-term readers of the comics and I would actually hear them chuckling and wonder why.
You see, the way my psyche works, I believe that if something is identified comics then it should be comical, which, according to the dictionary, means humorous, which most comic strips are not. (Blogger's opinion) What the funnies are, it seems to me, is more of a back-door mode of social commentary than laugh-out-loud, knee-slapping funny. I find more societal opinions in the comics section than in the op-ed section of my daily newspaper.
Which brings me to my proposal.
I think the comics section should be re-named the op-ed section and the op-ed section re-named the funnies. Why? Because so many op-ed columns and letters-to-the-editors are laughable and devoid of reality. I laugh out loud and shake my head in disbelief more reading the syndicated columnists and letters from citizens than I ever have or will from reading the comic strips.
On the other hand, I have observed that most comic strips are really a vehicle for the cartoonist to express his or her opinions on a number of issues confronting us as a people, nation, parent, spouse, employee, pet-owner, or tax payer. The comic creators cram more pithy views and comments into a four-or-five-frame strip than op-ed pieces of two hundred words or more try to and never manage successfully.
I really think I'm on to a novel approach to newspaper editing. What do you think?
Ancora imparo
