Letters to the Editor
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Bill the Cat vs. Bill o'really
As usual, a funny and nice piece of work.
Expect the usual whining to come from people wanting rage and hate in everything, including their cartoons.
Although if BB could go back to a daily strip and give us a Faux news storyline (Bill the Cat vs. Bill O'Reilly) I would applaud!
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There's a license for that?
Surely singing Celine Dion should be Illegal regardless.
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This cartoon is not funny.
I dislike this cartoon. I don't demand hate or whatever in my cartoons, I just demand humor.
Let's get some Get Fuzzy in here, that strip is hilarious.
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Don't get it
Well, I do, I just don't find it funny. I don't need rage and hate in comics either, but from what I've seen of Opus so far it's the sort of comedy that wants me to think it's just hilarious how the cutesy, preening, self-absorbed main character gets his knickers in a knot once again this week. For that I prefer the old Roseanne show, a truly funny piece of work (and sans the cutesy, preening part) that worked humor, family drama, and trenchant social commentary into a single package.
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On second thought...
I don't even get it. I guess it's supposed to be saying it's silly to cram people into limited categories, but it seems kind of muddled. Opus wants to be black so he can... tell black jokes?... feel like he has a heritage of overcoming?... or what? And it's odd, at best, seeing images of genuine human struggle being claimed by a silly, self-absorbed penguin character. (Feels odd even to write a sentence describing it.)
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This is actually good...
What if you could get an 'I'm With the Environment' license - if you turn in your SUV and your air miles? Or an 'Enlightened Male' badge - but you have to trade your wages and status for those of the average woman?
Not too many folks I know would want to trade in their White license for anything!
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a missed opportunity for meaningful satire
What should've been a good joke about how a multiracial person find neither race accepting of them, instead it's a throwaway joke.
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Moral licenses
Ralph, I see what you mean, but that's not the way the strip was going (I thought it was too.) I hope we see more on this topic, and see the Moral Licenses office more often. But one of the things this was riffing on involved the way an in-group claims the right to use certain words to each other that non-members aren't allowed (which came up with Don Imus recently.)
This is actually one SERIOUSLY annoying aspect of our society. Not even talking about the n-word, I dislike women referring to each other as "bitch" and then being offended my men using it. Yes, I can see it's different, but don't we have several affectionate words for women friends without worrying about that one? Maybe some words should just disappear from the langauge (by consensus, not by banning.)
Anyway, I guess I traveled some there, but the idea of getting a moral license and proving your cred just to be able to use racially-charged words...made sense to me, and trivialized the self-categorization that does indeed cause problems in modern society. Then the inane reason he wanted to keep his White license hammered the message home.
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Car Wreck
I have been reading Berke's strips since I was a youngster and have reread my Bloom County collection many times. It has been fascinating to watch Opus go from Binkley's pointy-nosed pet in his father's pickup truck to the character he is today; the protagonist of his own strip. Reading Opus online here in Salon is indeed different, but I cannot define why. This letters section has something to do with it, I suppose.
And what of these letters? I feel like screaming sometimes that IT IS A CARTOON, fun artwork with pretty colors and silly characters.
But it is clearly more than that.
A strip may take the administration or particular politician to task (the marsupial on the head of Cheney is a personal favorite). Some weeks it is only silly, not really trying to rub our noses in the mess we have ourselves in. This is not one of those weeks.
What do I read in this week's cartoon? (And I word that carefully...I speak for myself and nobody else, in particular not the cartoonist.)
None of us are blameless.
Since Opus is 51% black (can you picture the family tree to end up 51% anything?) he gets to throw around the word nigger willy-nilly, a (debatable) right won after a legitimate and horrific struggle pictured in the center frame. What would those people getting beaten in the picture say about the use of that language today? Is that what those folk fought for? (I know I am not spouting earth shattering or original thoughts here.)
And what about the white moral license holders? I'll admit I haven't had to struggle much in my life. White, male, middle class and walking forward on a fortunate path. What have I done? Have I done a whole lot to feel righteous about? Have I really helped anyone who is in a struggle like the one in the center frame? I read and think about important issues and vote and tell my friends to vote and try to convince them to vote for the "right" people and causes, but that is not reason to celebrate.
I am not a bad person, nor am I a hero. Most of us are in between. But being in between doesn't give much credence to a moral license. And after our "struggle" we end up signing Celine Dion in the shower.
Just because I haven't didn't cause the car accident doesn't mean it isn't my obligation to pull over and help the strangers who are injured.
What have I done?
None of us are blameless.
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Don't take jokes too seriously
It's just a joke. I'm tired of people trying to put way too much "meaning" in a joke. (aka, Stick-Up-The-Rear-Liberals) Don't take things so seriously! Sometimes you just have to sit back and laugh.
Patti
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Chefcoleman gets it!
Great cartoon!
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I misunderstood the punchline
I thought his Gay License gave him the right to sing Celine Dion in the shower.