Mallard, We Hardly Miss Ye
By Brian Lambert
In its latest assault on real American values, the "Red Star" Tribune has dumped Mallard Fillmore, the Hillary-hating, right-of-center duck, from its comic pages. I suspected as much when it occurred to me that I hadn't seen it for about a week. ("Maybe," I thought, "the artist had a breakdown? Probably a nasty meth habit that finally got the worst of him.")
The trigger-puller on this decision was apparently Christine Ledbetter, the Strib's new features editor. (She came up from the Chicago Sun-Times last summer.) When I first called, Ledbetter was in one of those almost all-day, fuzzy-slippers-and-catered-lunch retreats newspaper "top editors" love to slink off to a couple times a year. (It is there where they paint their faces, mix blood, and drink the ceremonial Kool-Aid that reassures them "local, local" is the only way to go because we readers are all dying to know more about the new CVS drugstore in Eagan.)
It turns out that Kristin Tillotson, one of Ledbetter's capos, was well aware of Mallard's departure, "a couple weeks ago."
Tillotson (yet another Strib-er with whom I have multiple interlocking conflicts), says she took "less than twenty calls" complaining about Mallard's deletion, "all of whom I think used the phrase 'Red Star,'" referring of course to the paper's much over-hyped reputation for, let me see, embracing socialism, hating freedom, not supporting the troops, coddling Clinton, being nothing but a mouthpiece for Michael Moore, yadda, yadda. Ledbetter would have taken more calls.
The problem, says Tillotson, was that Mallard, which I found irresistible probably for all the wrong reasons, was not popular with what she presumes was the other end of the spectrum. "We got a lot of complaints about it," she says. "And, just my opinion, but I thought the artist [Bruce Tinsley] was getting meaner and less funny." Not that her opinion mattered as much as the reader complaints, probably from—she doesn't know and either do I, but I'm guessing here—lefties annoyed by Mallard's "ripped from Laura Ingraham" comic riffs.
Ledbetter, back from her retreat ("and I'm not saying anything about that", she said), explained that she and other Strib-ers, who ran a basic poll asking readers to vote on four possible new comics, were stunned by the "unsolicited" vituperation aimed at Mallard.
"We didn't ask anything about Mallard, but, as I say, completely unsolicited we got this reaction from readers, and it was huge for something like this."
My view is not that I thought Mallard was particularly funny, at least no more than the drunk ranting on the street corner, but I just liked the idea of it being there every day.
So, too, does Ledbetter, who says the current plan has the Strib replacing Doonesbury while Garry Trudeau goes on a three-month vacation (nice . . . ) with a brand new "very conservative" strip to be titled Prickly City, a daily venture from widely syndicated editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis of The Birmingham News.
But what, I asked, is the tipping point here? I mean if enough righties complain about Doonesbury or, I don't know, Beetle Bailey, do they get whacked? Ledbetter's reply was that there isn't any hard and fast rule only that when the reaction "is a big as it was here," she figured it was time to make a call.
"Sometimes we drop syndicated pieces because we don't think they're any good anymore. That's what we're supposed to do. I mean, we dropped Ann Landers because we decided it just wasn't as good a column as it used to be. But the response to Mallard was something you couldn't miss."
© 2008 MSP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved
The "Ann Landers" column hasn't existed since sometime in 2002 when Ann died. I didn't realize the Strib had dropped "Dear Abby", which has been written by the original Abby's daughter for several years now.
LAMBERT: She may have meant Dear Abby, or said Abby and I wrote Ann Landers. Point is, it's gone. (Not that I noticed.)
Posted by: M. Crawley on March 19, 2008 at 4:34 PM
I imagine the Powerline guys will have a reaction to this...
But seriously, who knew? I haven't read the funnies since I was 18 (its only been 21 years). Political strips are not generally funny.
LAMBERT: I find Duke funny ...
Posted by: 108 on March 19, 2008 at 5:50 PM
Nice scoop, Lambert. And I read the comix every day.
LAMBERT: Even a lame dog finds a bone from time to time.
Posted by: David Brauer on March 19, 2008 at 6:03 PM
Fewer than twenty calls.
LAMBERT: Complaining about its absence.
Posted by: Frogman of Grant on March 19, 2008 at 10:17 PM
"getting meaner and less funny." I think Doonesbury would have flunked that smell test about 20-25 years ago.
LAMBERT: What about "The Family Circle"?
Posted by: Jed Leyland on March 20, 2008 at 8:38 AM
Trudeau is going "on vacation" (with Jane Pauley, no less) and the Strib is calling in a *temp*???
I can assure you that never happened with homeboy Sparky (Charles) Schulz. When he took a break, they just did reruns.
You can't convince me that there aren't Trudeau strips that could easily be rerun -- and even updated by simply having Duke substitute "Iraq" for "Vietnam".
It's a conspiracy...
LAMBERT: No question about it. Officially, Ledbetter says there will be another reader vote after Trudeau returns. Not on whether to keep Doonesbury, but on four other new possibilities.
Posted by: Anonymous on March 20, 2008 at 9:50 AM
They better not mess with Mark Trail.
LAMBERT: I hear he believes in the global warming "hoax".
Posted by: bertam jr on March 20, 2008 at 10:19 AM
Regarding the editors' retreat, the buzz among more than a few Strib worker bees is that there was mucho talk about plummeting revenues among the bosses. As a result, there is new fear within the ranks that more massive cuts in budget and staff are coming. But then, you're the reporter, Brian, so you'd be the one to find out the truth here.
LAMBERT: Don't touch the dial.
Posted by: Ethics 101 on March 20, 2008 at 10:52 AM
Although my WI edition of the PP seems to have 6-paged A sections twice a week anymore, its comics (and sports) still beat the crap out of newly-homogenized-I-like-white-bread-Norm-ColemanandEdenPrairieRock Strib. Shooter embarrasses Sid (and seems to like to point out that he does), they take time to at least rewrite Ron Carey's press releases, and the Strib would never have the guts to run Candorville. I wonder how they'll react to the Doonesbury hiatus, though.
LAMBERT: "At least take time to rewrite Ron Carey's press releases." That's funny.
Posted by: Pierce County Politician on March 20, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Without Mallard, how are we to keep up with cutting edge right wing humor?
LAMBERT: That's one of my favorite cocktail party conversations. Who are "right wing comedians"? Larry the Cable Guy, Dennis Miller ... and ... and ... anyone ... Beuler?
Posted by: Homeboymike on March 20, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Wait a second. You mean Dennis Miller the game show host is a comedian, too? Has he ever toured with Alex Trebek?
LAMBERT: I thinking he's opening for him this weekend at Turtle Lake.
Posted by: A Son of Mississippi on March 20, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Thats right, you lefties have Bill Maher and Rosie Odonell. Hilarious...
LAMBERT: Rosie ... not so much. But Bill Maher? Yes. Very funny. Perhaps too well-informed for certain corners of the common mind.
Posted by: 108 on March 20, 2008 at 5:34 PM
I tried Googling "right wing comedian" and my computer almost crashed, but then this turned up:
http://www.timslagle.com/
So may, Virginia, there *is* a Santa Claus.
LAMBERT: So that's a start ...
Posted by: Tuned In on Washington on March 20, 2008 at 5:37 PM
There's still a "Star Tribune"? And they have a "funnies page"? WTF.
I thought the former died last year and the latter died when I turned 16.
Either way, the "Newspaper of the Twin Cities" needs to stop trying so hard to appeal to what they think their readers want, and start delivering news that matters. I, for example, would love to know why there are so many strip malls in "Bloomington."
Oh. Wait. Forget it. They have it covered. Thank god.
LAMBERT: You obviously are not one of "our" "hyper-local" readers. If you're not conversant in north metro high school wrestling how can you function in modern society?
Posted by: Norman Paperman's younger brother on March 20, 2008 at 9:14 PM
I actually went through an embarrassingly long stretch where I looked at the Mallard comic strip every day in the same way I looked at Kersten and in that way that you slow to look at a car crash -- morbid curiosity at the sight of someone else's pain. You, know, the cartoon page is ostensibly for kids; why the paper felt that "balance" required repeated cartoons that made professors and teachers look like buffoons just showed how demented the "debate" has become. I eventually made it one of my New Year's resolutions to stop looking at Mallard Fillmore -- yes, I clearly aim high when it comes to personal transformation -- because it was making me feel just awful.
LAMBERT: My fascination was quite similar. Tinsley (the artist) seemed to be spiraling out of rational orbit. I'm sure it has to be frustrating wearing the various millstones of neo-conservative policy around your neck these days.
Posted by: Paul Scott on March 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM
I commented yesterday about cutting edge right wing humor. I wasn't referring to individual comedians but right wing humor itself. Mallard was/is a perfect example; nothing more than mean spirited junior high name calling. I'll miss Mallard because I always read it after Doonesbury (the strip that Mallard was supposed to balance I assume) and Tinsley/Mallard never failed in making me appreciate Trudeau that much more.
LAMBERT: Which I guess is why I liked having him around.
Posted by: Homeboymike on March 21, 2008 at 11:57 AM
Tinsley would appear to be a pretty sad case. Two DUIs in a six-month period? That's a taxing lifestyle. Leaves a guy filled with a great deal of self loathing that ends up in the strip. There's either treatment, or, find a way to project the demons onto others. Seems he's gone the latter route. As I said, pitiably sad.
LAMBERT: Did he ever rage against "trial lawyers"?
Posted by: Jim Leinfelder on March 21, 2008 at 12:15 PM
I'll bite. Who are these cutting edge left wing humorists, by whose virtue you are able to scoff at the absence of right wing humorists? I'll only accept answers where poltics are part of their act, and they're actually funny.
There is universal truth, Brian, and Bill Maher isn't funny. He's got an act, but it aint funny. I give him credit for being able to make a nice living with a rectum for a face.
We've got David Mamet now, by the way.
LAMBERT: Mamet's funny and Maher isn't? There may be no ground for conversation here.
Posted by: 108 on March 21, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Oh, come on, Brian, who didn't spend half of "Glenn Gary Glenn Ross" laughing 'til they peed themselves? Hilarious, that Mamet.
Actually, Mamet's 2007 book on the movie biz, "Bambi v. Godzilla" (he's Bambi, poor thing) sounds pretty funny unless you're a Hollywood macher. But he's not exactly known as one of America's humorists, much less a comedian.
108 commits the classic philosophic sin of dropping the object and treats us merely to his unapologetic lack of a sense of humor. Other than, David Mamet, Live at Caroline's, nobody's funny from where 108 sits. I can see it. Noted. Not exactly a surprise.
How about Jerry Seinfeld? He's always struck me as politically inert and not all that funny when not yoked to Larry David. Maybe 108 can claim The Sein...
LAMBERT: But then what do I know? I thought "The Shining" was a comedy.
Posted by: jim leinfelder on March 22, 2008 at 6:13 PM
BTW, Here is some of Mamet's right wing hilarity from "Bambi vs. Godzilla":
Also, we know of Pharaoh that he taxed the Israelites with harsh and unremitting labor, having them make bricks to build his palaces. He then decreed that they must gather their own straw. As did the Reagan administration when it killed the American labor movement.
The guilds and unions in the American film industry retain some strength and have the clout (at least in theory) to protect their workers against the depredations of management in that constant calculus of terror: Management: Submit or I will make all films in Hungary. Labor: Submit or we shall strike.
For any business folk in any business would be glad to take the workers' work for nothing—they, in fact, consider it their right. They would, in American films, as in hard industry, be right chuffed to see the workers race each other to the bottom, and then, having impoverished them, take the work out of the country. (As, in fact, the studios do now, shooting, I believe, the majority of American films elsewhere.)
The unions, in addition to protecting their membership against the money, must also protect them against their own love of the job. For in the practice of the movie crafts, we see the rampant American love of workmanship—and just as the true actor loves to act, the true carpenter or seamstress loves that perfect corner.
The American icon, for me, is Rosie the Riveter. Norman Rockwell's wartime masterpiece shows a young aircraft worker in her coveralls eating lunch. Her scuffed penny loafers rest on a copy of Mein Kampf.
Rosie the Riveter beat Hitler. Or, to be a little less high-flown—and in deference to the British, who were, as everyone knows, also involved in that late unpleasantness—there is a true and admirable American instinct of "getting it right."
As I was musing on the same, pondering the star, paid twenty million dollars and ruining the roof of a car, and the prop master, paid twenty thousand and giving up his one day off for the beauty of the thing, I believe I actually began to understand Marx's theory of surplus value: Q. Whom is the film "by"? Spend a day on the set and you learn. It is by everyone who worked on it.
Excerpted from Bambi vs. Godzilla by David Mamet Copyright © 2007 by David Mamet. Excerpted by permission of Pantheon, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
LAMBERT: Must have been his Marxist period.
Posted by: Jim Leinfelder on March 22, 2008 at 6:20 PM
#1, Maher is very funny.
Paul Scott has it right...it really was a fascination; I love the comics, particularly the Strib's, I follow Luann, Sally Forth, and several others weekly...including Doonesbury. Speaking of Doonesbury, the difference has always been there's an ever-evolving STORY involved, all the time and has been for 30+ years, for the most part, whether its the individual characters' or political shenanigans or outrage put in a humorous context. Whether it has a left-wing bias or not is not the point; I always thought Trudeau skewered current events as much as he skewers any particular crooked/corrupt/paranoid/hypocritical right-wingers. Witness the recent story line about getting into the teaching Obama class.
That said, did even the the most ardent right-winger ever REALLY think Mallard was funny? Because - and this isn't opinion but fact - it wasn't. There were times when you read it you weren't sure he was re-running strips from 1998. Just lame humor.
LAMBERT: While I'm at it; Glenn Beck ... funny? I get the geniality of his act. But funny? As in "clever" or "witty"? Not so much.
Posted by: essar1 on March 23, 2008 at 6:16 PM
Nah, my sense of humor is as good as anyones. I just think half the stuff we're supposed to believe is funny is not. Theres very little funny TV. I'm on rock solid ground there.
And Maher isn't funny. If you believe he is, you're playing an affirmation game where you think liking Maher says something good about your taste. He isn't funny, this is indisputable. The only evidence required is that he hosted the most ridiculously stupid TV show of all time - Politically Incorrect.
I didn't say Mamet was a humorist.
Glenn Beck is definetly not funny. I only get him on radio, I have no idea why hes supposedly popular. Hes a mishmash of doomsaying and conspiracy theories, playing some populist angle.
Now, bring on the left wing humorists!
LAMBERT: You're red-lining Garrison Keillor, I'm guessing.
Posted by: 108 on March 24, 2008 at 6:24 PM
No, Keillor is a genius for sure. His political speech doesn't flatter him though.
LAMBERT: But you're still pushing David Mamet, right?
Posted by: 108 on March 25, 2008 at 6:52 AM
Mamet's best line: "I'm no longer a clueless liberal".
Would that we would see similiar under this blog's banner...
Imagine the clarity Mamet is feeling, and how thrilled he must be.
Welcome, Dave.
LAMBERT: Dave, (or was it 108?), you may embrace your new pal.
Posted by: bertram jr on March 25, 2008 at 1:21 PM