No Point Losing Our Heads
Today in Doonesbury, one of the characters, Boopsie, loses her job as Athletic Director at Walden College and is talking to her old friend Joanie, now a high-powered attorney. As it becomes clear that Boopsie was the victim of possibly gender-based job discrimination, Joanie fumes about the revenge she plans to exact, presumably in the courtroom, against the college president. In the last panel, we see Joanie handing the president his head on a plate. "What's this?" asks the headless administrator. "A good start," quips a very pissed-off Joanie. Hah hah, very funny. If you follow Doonesbury, you can relate to the characterization and the humor here very well.
Unfortunately, because an unlucky American was notoriously beheaded a couple of weeks ago in Iraq (the video clip of which has become one of the hottest downloads on the Web), there is much hand-wringing over the timing of this strip. Gary Trudeau, Doonesbury's author, aware of the possible backlash, offered this comment:
"Most Sunday sections are prepared five to six weeks in advance, and today's strip was unfortunately overtaken by events. To 'hand someone his head' is a common expression, not normally associated with actual violence. I regret the poor timing, and apologize to anyone who was offended by an image that is now clearly inappropriate."
Now I have to ask, who in their right mind would see this comic strip, which makes perfect sense in its own context, as related in any way to the Nick Berg beheading? Trudeau is obviously trying to "head off" (pardon the pun) the righteous howls of mindless twits who will find some way to offended by what is clearly a coincidence, and suggest that for some reason Trudeau is making fun of a gruesome crime. Since the strip ran in many papers anyway, there is sure to be some kind of uproar, not least because Doonesbury is notoriously liberal in its general politics. I hope all the conservative PC-haters out there will take note of the ridiculousness of the situation and restrain themelves from sniping. What do you think are the odds?
1:20:48 PM 
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