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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

That damned vacation

What's Mallard raving about today?

Supermodels, Bulimia.

Seriously, I'm on vacation. Move along.

8 comments:

BillyWitchDoctor said...

Awwww, c'mon, DaveyK, this is the big payoff strip!

Conservation (Begley), civil rights (Sarandon), and that horrible, horrible blasphemy, "giving back to the community," all take their bitter lumps from Mr. Truth-To-Power.

(If there's one thing neocons loathe more than anything or anyone, it's the very concept of "community." The world is there to serve the almighty ME, dammit. Like religion, patriotism, and "the right to life," neocons only pretend to believe in society to suit the cause of their propaganda.)

Tinny was apparently afraid his loyal mouthbreathers wouldn't get his HAW HAW!! bulimia joke, so he drops the model's name ("intrepid"--a woman?!? HAW HAW!!) in favor of a punchline about binging and purging.

Bravo, Tinny. Bra. Vo.

Waiting for the swipe at Michael Moore now...

Matt Ramone said...

Wow, a nonsensical vomit joke. Bra-VO Tinman.

Yanno, Sith Cheney met last week with a scary conservative cabal in order to plan THEIR agenda for OUR country, and supermodels being bulemic is the best you could think of? It's a tired, hackneyed joke on par with jokes about airline food or your mother-in-law.

Anonymous said...

It's not just neocons who hate the idea of community. The idea that there is any meaningful social unit greater than the individual is antithetical to the libertarian philosophy.

What I love about this strip is not the vomit joke, funny as that is, but the artificially manufactured continuity: Our intrepid model "continues" something that is mentioned here for the first time, proving once again that Tinsley doesn't understand that words mean things.

Anonymous said...

The sad thing is, "Save the Toast" has the potential to be funny -- say, in Berke Breathed's work, where absurdist humor is the norm.

Here, though, it's just more snide, drunken mean-spiritedness from a hack who can't draw.

Anonymous said...

Hey, billywitchdoctor, you can't spell "communism" without "community"! Or at least the first seven letters, anyway.

Also, shouldn't your screen name be billywitchdoctordotcom?

"Arise, chick-en!"

Kaitlyn said...

No, what makes this comic is the look on her face the second time she appears - full of contempt, just like Mallard.

That look pisses me off more than anything.

Anonymous said...

Check this out this letter to the editor from the 'Fargo Forum' (My hometown paper in North Dakota):


Other views: Best option for offensive ‘comic’ would be for Forum to dump it
By Connie Santwire,

Published Wednesday, October 03, 2007
My blood started boiling as I read the “Comics” section of The Forum on Sept. 30. Once again it was “Mallard Fillmore” that caused that effect on me. As a longtime educator in Fargo and Bismarck I have felt upset and offended by the way that writer Bruce Tinsley often takes unfair swipes at teachers and education in the United States. (Many times I avoid reading this “comic” because I don’t want to raise my blood pressure.) For some reason he seems to have an ax to grind against teachers and the National Education Association.

His implication on Sunday was that an education degree is a sign of mediocrity. What a slap in the face to hardworking, dedicated teachers throughout our country! I’m sure that my former professors from both Minnesota State University Moorhead, where I got my undergraduate degree in elementary education, and Minot State University, where I got my master’s degree in education, would beg to differ with this derogatory message. I know that our Fargo School District administrators and school board members would also disagree.

My experience has shown that citizens of Fargo hold teachers in high regard and value the work they do with all children regardless of their abilities or disabilities. Many of these children will one day lead this and other communities. The Forum’s own editorial page editor, Jack Zaleski, wrote a recent commentary in support of teachers and couldn’t have said it better.

During my one-year tenure on The Forum Readers’ Board, “Mallard Fillmore” came up more than once. Editor Matt Von Pinnon heard my opinion in no uncertain terms. One Forum staffer indicated that many newspapers in the country run it on the opinion page. I think that comics are meant to be funny and entertaining, sometimes with a subtle message.

This strip is not. I believe many educators would agree with me in asking that if The Forum chooses to continue running the offensive “Mallard Fillmore” it be placed with “Opinions,” not with “Comics.” If I had my way, it would be gone. Educators don’t deserve these insults from the pages of The Forum.



Santwire, Fargo, is a reading teacher at Lewis and Clark School, a member of the Fargo Education Association and former member of The Forum’s Readers’ Board.

Anonymous said...

Tinsley's idiocy truly transcends ideological labels such as neo-con or libertarian, librul or communist. He's just plain dumb.