The Dysfunctional Family Circus
Of course, the granddaddy of all Family Circus parodies is the Dysfunctional Family Circus. It went for 500 panels back in the 1990s, before being shut down by the lawyers. Lucky for us, the whole shebang is archived here. Here are just three examples from that site.
“…and please allow Daddy to continue to use his unfunny comic strip to impose his Christianity on America.”
“OK, Mom. Take the RU-486, squat on this jar, and we’re off to the pro-life rally.”
“Son, if God had wanted you to catch that ball, you would have. It’s that simple. So the question is not ‘Why did I botch that pop fly’, but ‘What have I done to make God angry?’ You haven’t been touching yourself again, have you?”
May 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I disagree with the first one. The guy who writes these comics is in no way imposing Christianity on any one. He has every right to write what he pleases, and if newspapers want to run the strips he can. Imposing would be forcing people to be Christian, not just doing his own thing. You don’t have to agree with his views, but don’t claim that he’s doing something he’s not. There are plenty of nuts trying to force their religion on people, we don’t need to make up new ones.
May 25th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Maybe impose is too strong a word, but the strip is unfunny, and he does load it up with Christianity.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I agree impose is a bit strong. It’s more the distribution chain that’s “imposing.” The local paper doesn’t have to run it. It sucks. FC is never, ever funny. I repeat: NEVER FUNNY. Okay, humor is subjective. I give you that. But despite that, it’s still NEVER FUNNY. I swear, how many times can you run the dotted-line kid running around schtick? Or the “not me” schtick?
May 26th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
It’s sad that at age 85 he’s still working on the basic setup/punchline thing. I think someone should do him a favor and take him to a Lisa Lampanelli performance to understand what humor actually is (note to Ron: you *have* to check her out. she’s a riot.)
May 27th, 2008 at 7:12 am
The strip is unfunny though, I’ll certainly give you that. Frankly, most of the comics in the newspaper suck these days. Especially Garfield. I hate Garfield.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:20 am
My family doesn’t always agree, but I think my dad put it best when he once said, “The one thing that brings this family together is our universal hatred of The Family Circus.” I believe we were enjoying a Mother’s Day brunch some years back, and while waiting for our food, we were trying to come up with what the Family Circus would do for Mother’s Day. We decided that the family would be on their way to church, and someone would say, “I wish Grandpa could be here to see us!” but then Grandpa’s ghost would be sitting to the side. And we could all go, “AWWWWW!!!!”
If I recall correctly, we were wrong, but it was still horribly unfunny.
PS: I like Garfield.
May 27th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Sorry, Watcher. I have to agree with Paradox. Garfield is awful. (The early ones were actually funny. I have the first few books.)
You ought to send you FC idea to Bil Keane. He’d think it’s brilliant.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
I think it’s worth mentioning (if anybody cares) that although 99% of the time the Garfield strip is no longer funny, it was hillarious in most of its other incarnations (such as Saturday morning cartoons that I have very fond memories of). Some people who have not seen the strip recently may not realize how Garfield now no longer just hates Mondays, but now apparently also hates being funny.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Would you like it more if it had parrots in it?
May 27th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Possibly…
May 27th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
So why does Garfield hate Mondays? He doesn’t have a job!
May 27th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Maybe Garfield hates Mondays because Jon hates Mondays and wakes up grouchy!
May 28th, 2008 at 12:35 am
Jon doesn’t have a job either!
May 28th, 2008 at 8:44 am
No wonder he wakes up grouchy!
May 28th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
This guy’s work may be completely trite but I’d still prefer to read a Family Circus anthology to just one frame of a Jack Chick tract … seriously, that guy makes me want to bend over and vomit up my own arsehole to diguise the stench of his ignorant, vile bigotry…and completely effing pedestrain artwork!
May 29th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Chick’s world is full of demons around every corner and angels disguised as grandmothers. Why so harsh on such an obvious work of fiction?