What's Your Favorite Comic Strip?

Foxtrot, a very funny and clever strip

As an English major you're constantly being dubbed a "literary scholar," which makes me proud to admit that when I was younger, every morning I would open up the newspaper and head straight for the comic strips. Although they very rarely made me laugh out loud, I was always intrigued at the stories these artists and writers could come up with while limited to a handful of panels.  Here are some of my favorites:

Foxtrot, by Bill Amend: Hands down my favorite childhood comic.  It's as simple a premise as any: a family of five interact with each other and react to situations that happen to them.  As tired as this conceit gets, Amend presents very distinct characters with clear personalities to compliment the pop culture references and family matters that support the humor.  The best part of the strip is that after the main punchline for the day, there's usually an off-hand comment by another character that adds to it.  Foxtrot probably made me laugh out loud the most, but sadly it no longer appears daily and only exists in color on the weekends.

Pearls Before Swine, by Stephan Pastis: If you like your comedy dark, then Pearls Before Swine is right up your alley. In many of the strips, the megalomaniacal Rat pledges to murder the strip's writer and artist, Pastis (who includes himself as the butt of jokes quite often).  While much of the humor in PBS is self-referential and tongue-in-cheek satire, not all of it is so psuedo-intellectual or political.  There's also the crocodile with a speech impediment, who also happens to be inept at killing and devouring his zebra neighbor ("Hullo Zeeba Neighba!").  If it seems as ridiculous as it sounds, you're right.  Hilarity ensues though, and it's definitely worth checking out. Bonus: The strip has been brought to life via several short videos online. There's something a little disturbing yet satisfying about listening to these characters speak after only reading their words for years.

Zits, by Jerry Scott: Another family strip, centering around the never aging 15 year old Jeremy and his embarrassing parents.  Jeremy deals with the basic problems of teenage life, such as being a supportive boyfriend to the kind-hearted Sara, a good friend to his slightly overweight pal Hector, and interacting with his oddball classmates and teachers at school.  Some recurring storylines find Jeremy investing in a 1962 Volkswagen van with Hector, attempting to keep his parents up to date with the latest trends, and trying to . The strip is light hearted but heartfelt, and captures the essence of growing up fairly well.

Cyanide and Happiness, by various strange men: You've most likely seen this strip posted on your friends' facebooks, as it only exists online (the content of it is so outrageous it could never be published in a newspaper).  No connecting premise here, just your average crudely drawn stick figures getting into as many raunchy, politically incorrect situations as possible.  C&H has provided readers with "Depressing Comic Week," Charles the negligent and sexist boyfriend, and a variety of hilarious animated shorts.  The very dark humor manifests itself from fantastic misdirects, witty banter, and sometimes, just plain raunch. Check out explosm.net for more!

Cyanide and Happiness isn't afraid to cross moral boundaries

So what's your favorite comic?

Is There a Moral to Disney's "The Little Mermaid"?

At the risk of sounding completely creepy discussing a Disney princess movie that’s older than I am, this has really bothered me for the past couple of years: What exactly is the moral of “The Little Mermaid”?

I was born in the very beginning of the Disney Renaissance, and I grew up watching and rewatching and watching again classics such as “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” and later installment “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”  Hell, even “Beauty and the Beast” is pretty awesome since its male protagonist is a werewolf, and Detective Lenny Briscow from beloved crime drama “Law and Order” sings the best musical number as a CANDLE (RIP Jerry Orbach).  But I’m sorry, everything about “The Little Mermaid” makes no sense to me, for several reasons:

What Can Your 21 Minute Comedy Do for You?

Chevy Chase geeking out on NBC's "Community"

The half hour comedy is probably the hardest endeavor for modern day television.   With only 21 minutes (can’t forget about those commercials now, can we), writers have to have some solid character development, great storylines, and most importantly, some really funny ideas to keep audiences even somewhat interested.  In the even larger scheme of things, seasons of these comedies need to stay fresh so that viewers don’t feel like they’re watching the same thing every time.  You’ve got sitcoms with laugh tracks, screwball workplace comedies, and of course, the animated raunch-fest.  There are millions of different kinds of comedies, while only a few really succeed long-term. Putting aside the classics like MASH and Happy Days, let’s look for a second at two shows that are on right now: How I Met Your Mother and Community.  They represent vastly different stages in a comedy’s life and how show creators can either completely fail or brilliantly prevail.

Are 30 Second TV Spots Enough?

There were plenty of summer blockbuster spots during the broadcast of the Super Bowl on Fox, but which ones were the best? Perhaps even more importantly, was there enough time in the teasers to make a valid judgment call?

These questions also play into the recent overwhelming trend of reboots, sequels and superhero movies.  About half of the trailers fit into one of those categories, and most of them, in my opinion, looked pretty weak.  While not even dignifying Justin Bieber with commentary on his “movie,” there were some spots that looked just as bad.  For instance, it seems like children will have slim pickings for decent animated movies this year.  I really wasn’t impressed with the first Kung Fu Panda anyway, so having them come back for another is a perfect example of a studio milking a somewhat successful film for all its worth (also, it has possibly the worst subtitle for a movie ever— “The Kaboom of Doom”? Really Dreamworks?).  Rio looks equally as bad; it’s sad to see Jesse Eisenberg come off The Social Network to have this probable dud being one of his next projects.  And I’m tired of seeing George Lopez try and be funny during commercials when I’m trying to watch Conan, so I don’t think listening to his voice for an hour and a half will change my opinion of him.