Here’s one on censorship and the culture wars for Jeff Jarvis…
There are two main reasons we still take the LA Times (as opposed to just reading it online); coupons and the funnies. I read the papers we get cover to cover, but when pressed for timeI tend to just read the funnies and the editorials, confident that breaking news will be better covered online.
Because we get a bunch of papers, I tend to skip the comics that overlap – the strips that appear both in the Breeze and the Times. [Update: TG explains that this wasn’t how she found it; she just read it and thought it worth remarking about – note to authors: when your wife suggests a correction, do it.] TG doesn’t, which is how she discovered that the Times had bowdlerized a strip today.
If you go to the comics.com site for Get Fuzzy you can see the edited strip as well.
See the panel where Bucky lists the traditional holiday meals?
Christmas turkey, Thanksgiving turkey, Valentine’s Day Marmot, Easter Bunny…
In the Breeze, the list reads
Christmas turkey, Thanksgiving turkey, Valentine’s Day beaver, Easter Bunny…
…which makes Rob’s reaction in the last panel
No, No n- Hold on…Valentine’s day WHAT?
a lot funnier.
I’d love to know about the internal politics of this one…personally, I’m conflicted as usual. I’m glad I only had to explain to Littlest Guy what a ‘Marmot’ was…
Wow. That is *so* lame. Doesn’t it seem unlikely that someone would be familiar enough with that usage of “beaver” to get the joke and still be offended by it?
Wow. That is *so* lame. Doesn’t it seem unlikely that someone would be familiar enough with that usage of “beaver” to get the joke and still be offended by it?
Remeber “Beaver Cleaver”?
Remeber “Beaver Cleaver”?
Remember the bumper sticker “Eat a beaver and save a tree”
Remember the bumper sticker “Eat a beaver and save a tree”
Hmmm. ‘Marmot’ is in the CoCoTimes this morning. It’s also in the online version at
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/
Hmmm. ‘Marmot’ is in the CoCoTimes this morning. It’s also in the online version at
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed the cartoon with the “Valentine’s Day beaver” phrase intact. It’s a sad day when a left-of-center paper like the LA Times believes it has to censor that kind of mild sexual innuendo. The St. Louis PD is left-of-center, also, so this isn’t a traditional left vs. right split on freedom of expression.
BTW, the Bucky Katt character in Get Fuzzy is politically incorrect most of the time. Readers who follow the strip will know his statement was completely in character.
Regards,
Jim
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch printed the cartoon with the “Valentine’s Day beaver” phrase intact. It’s a sad day when a left-of-center paper like the LA Times believes it has to censor that kind of mild sexual innuendo. The St. Louis PD is left-of-center, also, so this isn’t a traditional left vs. right split on freedom of expression.
BTW, the Bucky Katt character in Get Fuzzy is politically incorrect most of the time. Readers who follow the strip will know his statement was completely in character.
Regards,
Jim
Uncensored version:
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/comics/archive/showComic.mpl?date=2005/4/2&name=Fuzzy
The Author of Get Fuzzy has a friend who is an alum of Oregon State University (OSU Beavers.) A few months ago, he featured beaver jokes for an entire week on his strip. This is probably just more of the same; although you can bet he meant the double meaning.
The LA Times only for comics and coupon?
Did ya miss all the Pulitzers? Wow.
Actually, the well-deserved Pulitzer was for their (late) series on King-Drew, which was deep, well-researched, important, and about five years too late.
The LAT is a very important newspaper, but it’s not what it was or should be in this region.
A.L.
comics.com has “marmot” and aren’t they the distributor? Maybe they cleaned it up after the initial relase?
http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/index.html
As an addendum to my #11 comment:
My favorite Beaver headline was from several years ago in the Seattle P.I. sports page; “Husky Women Lick Beavers”
The small town of Butler, Pa has it uncut in Living Color!
But we never met a beaver we didn’t like.
http://ads.butlereagle.com/Comics/05/04/04/fuzzy040405.jpg
I got off work today and what did I see as a headline on today’s Oregon State student newspaper?
*Playboy eyes the Beavers*
You just can’t make this stuff up 🙂
The Toronto Star went with ‘marmot’. So, it’s not just the US…
The Toledo Blade in Ohio printed the “beaver” version. I love my liberal town!
Thanks Nosmo for the Butler, Pa link! Some friends of mine missed this strip when told about it & wanted to see it, and when I tried to find it online tonight, I found it had been censored! It came out in the original beaver-version in the Wichita Eagle (Kansas), at least in the issue I got, but I can’t get to any archives on their site to see if they changed it later. It was a scream to anyone that caught the reason it was sensored for, but if someone didn’t get it, or didn’t read it, what’s the big deal? Get over it & use it to start your barbecue grill fire or something if you’re that upset. There’s always a new paper tomorrow….
While I realize that the comic was very funny and people don’t like their stuff censored, the criticism that if you are in the know enough to get the joke that you are old enough to not be harmed by it is a bit off. The reason being in the final panel clear reference is being made to the fact that the punchline is in the beaver – Valentine’s day pairing.
Would you like your 8 year old to come up to you while you’re talking to some friends and ask you why people eat beaver on valentine’s day? Lol, how would *you* respond? Would you be all that grateful to the paper for running a joke that bawdy?
While I realize that the comic was very funny and people don’t like their stuff censored, the criticism that if you are in the know enough to get the joke that you are old enough to not be harmed by it is a bit off. The reason being in the final panel clear reference is being made to the fact that the punchline is in the beaver – Valentine’s day pairing.
Would you like your 8 year old to come up to you while you’re talking to some friends and ask you why people eat beaver on valentine’s day? Lol, how would *you* respond? Would you be all that grateful to the paper for running a joke that bawdy?
Today’s (Aug 31st 2005) Get Fuzzy looks like it’s been censored too. There is a huge speech bubble for Bucky in the last panel with only a little text. I have no idea what would fit that would warrant censorship but who knows.
The day before valentines day my paper accidently printed the uncensored page (the entire page was the wrong day, just that page) and then on valentines day they printed the censored version. Probably one of the funniest Get Fuzzies there is.
Really late response but whatever..
Are you serious???? I’m a big ol’ Lesbian and I didn’t even get the reference. And I totally LOVE Satchmo and Scrum Bum and…well Rob’s okay. Guess I should hop off my ignorance horse and open my eyes a little wider…Actually, nevermind, life is okay as I see it. Y’all go ahead and continue to read more into things (whether they’re true or not) and I’ll just sit back at laugh at what I see. But thanks for the enlightment. TLVH.
Even at the Mormon run Ultra-Conservative Brigham Young University ran it with ‘beaver’