Cruelty in the Comics
The comics page in a recent local urban newspaper has Sgt. Snorkel choking Beetle Bailey and Lucy is frequently seen grabbing Linus' security blanket much to his consternation. In both cases cruelty is represented as something funny. It isn't. Cruelty in a "comic" strip is cruelty. Of course that must make me a poor sport, but the point is this. Cruelty in a serious news story or in a movie is unlikely to make a reader or viewer cruel. They see it for what it is. If they have that bent they are probably at least somewhat that way already. Children, however, can be impressed with anything which is supposedly funny and they are likely to think that anything funny is OK. When 'Abbot and Costello' had a movie series some decades ago they or their adversaries were constantly doing 'funny' things that killed or maimed people. In an animated cartoon Bugs Bunny (and I am a Bugs Bunny fan) fiddled until some snaggle-toothed mountaineers, not paying attention to where they were stepping, stepped off a cliff.
I am also a 'Peanuts' fan, but I do not like to see Charlie Brown sitting by himself on a playground bench bemoaning the fact that 'nobody likes' him. (In fact they do. They tease him, which is not the same thing). A lonely little boy or girl suffering feelings of rejection can hit too close to home for a lot of people. It isn't funny. And more recently, the bases are loaded and Charlie Brown steps up to bat and strikes out, thereby frustrating what must have been his passionate ambition to hit a grand slam home run. What on earth is funny about that? Again, I am a Peanuts fan and have been for decades. But folks can be treated a little nicer, even in the comics.
I am also a 'Peanuts' fan, but I do not like to see Charlie Brown sitting by himself on a playground bench bemoaning the fact that 'nobody likes' him. (In fact they do. They tease him, which is not the same thing). A lonely little boy or girl suffering feelings of rejection can hit too close to home for a lot of people. It isn't funny. And more recently, the bases are loaded and Charlie Brown steps up to bat and strikes out, thereby frustrating what must have been his passionate ambition to hit a grand slam home run. What on earth is funny about that? Again, I am a Peanuts fan and have been for decades. But folks can be treated a little nicer, even in the comics.
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