BYU student newspaper defends censoring its comics
by Eric Millikin
The BYU student newspaper has an editorial explaining that they run some extremely cutting edge, controversial comics:
Currently, The Daily Universe includes six comic strips: Zits, Garfield, Get Fuzzy, Peanuts, Frank & Ernest and Dilbert, and two one-panel comics: Ziggy and Non Sequitur.
Which of course means they have to protect their readers from the dangerous ideas contained within:
Judgment calls are made every day here at the paper and sometimes the strip for the day needs to be pulled for content, usually for “taking the Lord’s name in vain, sexual content and bathroom humor,” said Nicole Smith, advertising production supervisor for The Daily Universe. When this happens, a comic strip, usually from the previous Saturday, is inserted, sometimes causing a sequence problem in the story line. To prevent this from happening so often, several of the current comics will be replaced with less objectionable ones.
And of course this censorship of Garfield’s sexy sacrilegious toilet humor is justified by insulting and trivializing the views of its readers and the entire comics medium:
Whatever The Daily Universe decides to run instead of the current comics, let’s just all get along. Before you get your socks in a knot about the issue, remember – they’re just comics. And of course, there’s always Sudoku and the crossword.
Hey, what’s a seven-letter word for “fuckoff”?
Update: OK, I think I found the panel that probably started this:
June 7th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
Hoo boy, JD has got to vet his faceless art-slaves better.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Also: “Some comics are just veiled opinion columns, most noticeably Mallard Fillmore and Doonesbury.”
No, they’re political cartoons, jackass. That’s like saying Zits is a veiled situation comedy. And what “veil” is he talking about? As if Garry Trudeau or Bruce Tinsley were trying to “sneak in” their opinions under the “guise” of cartoons. They have always been quite open about it, which is part of their appeal.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Yeah, it’s as if the only way to actually express an opinion in a comic would require veiling it, because comics shouldn’t express opinions. “remember – they’re just comics”
June 7th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I think all the above strips (excluding Peanuts for obvious reasons) should run a week of Mormon-tastic humour in honor of this. It wouldn’t be hate mongering, it’s just comics!
June 7th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
The wikipedia has a funny fact about The Daily Universe:
“One of the paper’s most popular features are the letters to the editor, which routinely become a forum for campus issues or ideas. Some issues will be argued back and forth for weeks. Some (in)famous topics are parking on campus, Right v. Left politics, dating, the wearing of socks with sandals, and various mistakes stemming from the student editors’ collective inexperience.”
Socks with sandals is a heated debate? No wonder the Chinese are kicking our asses.