Blondie tries to keep up with 20-year-old technology, fails

Oh good lord. Another legacy strip pointing out 20-year-old technology as if it's new and the joke is "this new technology does what it was designed to do, isn't that a hoot!" 

The joke here is Dagwood's neighbors are keeping up with what's going on in the neighborhood with its Facebook neighborhood page.

That's the joke. That's it.

That's what's supposed to happen.

Isn't there an editor at King Features whose job it is to call cartoonists and say, "Hey, yeah, that strip you turned in about how it's funny that Dagwood's neighbors are keeping up with what's going on in the neighborhood by reading a Facebook neighborhood page? Yeah, how is this funny?"

Until then, apparently it's my job.

And speaking of Blondie's pastry maker ...  OK, Blondie introduces a new character, and it's been a year and ... what has she brought to the strip? Anything? Anything at all?

I hate to be negative, and they should be commended for trying. Would it kill them to be a little subversive. If you want to keep up with the times, read "Pearls Before Swine."

I've given up on Beetle Bailey, it will never be funny. But I have hope for Blondie. C'mon, Dagwood was the slacker-at-work 60 years before Homer Simpson, and every once in a while he'll surprise me. 

Keeping up with the times ... or not

I was impressed by Blondie on Sunday because Dagwood was working from home, and I thought, wow, Blondie's going to acknowledge and satirize the current pandemic. Pretty brave for a strip from 1930. Then the following week's dailies ignored the whole thing until Thursday when Dagwood made a "Social Distancing" joke, which actually, isn't bad. But, if they're all in the office are they not quarantining Dagwood? They seem to want it both ways.

To Dean Young I say: Sin boldly! Keep the Bumsteads home like the rest of us. Let Dagwood slowly drive Blondie mad until she's plotting his murder! Let Dagwood show up at an office Zoom meeting while in the bath tub, eating a sandwich!

Blondie's been slowly keeping up with the times and not doing a half bad job. This isn't a crisis, it's an opportunity.

Not everyone can grapple with changing times....

Which leads me to today's Beetle Bailey. Another strip where a character participates in a technological activity and that is the sum of the joke.

Here Gen. Halftrack says he hasn't had any complaints since he took down the suggestion box, and he's pleased with himself until Gizmo tells him that people complain on Twitter.

Yep, that's the joke, people complain about things on Twitter.

That's all they got.

Let's look at others in this astonishingly out-of-touch vein: Here and here.

I imagine the next jokes will involve people using their iPhones to call their friends, and people using TikTok to post videos.

Dagwood in Quarantine

Some props must go out to  Stephen Pastis' "Pearls Before Swine" for being the first or among the first comic strips to acknowledge, and satirize the Covid-19 pandemic. I kind of expect a strip as subversive as "Pearls" to tackle  a pandemic, but most cartoonists could be forgiven for pretending it's not going on for the sake of keeping things light on the comics page.

So the Blondie team should be doubly congratulated for keeping the strip's characters home. Think about it, a beloved strip that has kept one foot firmly in 1930 should be given a free pass during a global crisis, but no, Dean Young managed to wring humor out of a crisis without even mentioning the crisis!

They didn't have to do it, but I'm glad they did.

(Addendum: Life is back to normal in the dailies that followed this strip, so I'm hoping they had been done well in advance, but once they've run, the Bumsteads will be in quarantine every day of the week, we'll see.)

Dagwood saves the day

I've been pointing out the disastrous results when Beetle Bailey tries to be hip to what the kids are doing nowadays (mostly technology.) The problem is the creative team doesn't know enough about a new technology to make fun of it; they think that simply mentioning it will be hilarious.

This made today's Blondie doubly hilarious. Dagwood takes his first Uber ride; this could have been a mess if the Beetle Bailey team had done this, but Dagwood saves the day by (literally) pulling the punch line out of his back pocket. I didn't see it coming, yet it's totally in his character.

And I laughed.

A good Blondie

A bad Blondie is when they try to combine modern technology and Dagwood's eating. Dagwood finds an app that shows him where the best hamburgers are, or whatever. It always feels forced and is never funny.

Every once in a while though,  it goes back to basics, throws a curve, catches me off guard, and I laugh out loud. This is one of those strips.

Blondie still a hottie

I'm of the belief that once a comic strip's creator dies, the syndicate should pull the plug on the strip. The strip becomes a lifeless zombie otherwise (I'm looking at you Hagar the Horrible). The one exception I'd make though is Blondie. Though not consistently funny, every once in a while it will blindside me and make me laugh out loud.

The writer has been working at keeping up on the times, Dagwood has an iMac, his kids use cell phones. They've made Facebook jokes. Sometimes this seems forced and sometimes it works just right.

I like that Dithers hasn't changed in 80 years. Dagwood still has that universal, timeless appeal of being a slouch. And Blondie has a great rack.