Take That/Newspaper Comics: Difference between revisions

* ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'' took a subtle shot at some of his critics and readers with a Sunday strip that saw [http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20070930&name=Funky_Winkerbean Les Moore reading the Sunday comics] to his bedridden wife Lisa, remarking "They always made you laugh. I guess that's why they're called the funnies." This was Tom Batiuk's response to critics' complaints about the recent lack of humor in ''Winkerbean'', especially because of the "Lisa's cancer" storyline. He wasn't too pleased that people didn't like him slowly [[True Art Is Angsty|torturing one his characters to death]] in what used to be a gag strip.

** Batiuk had already done something similar in its spinoff strip ''Crankshaft'', talking of [http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20070523&name=Crankshaft humoring plants by covering them with the comics]. This one was a lot less subtle and a lot more bitter.

** [[Funky Winkerbean]] ''loves'' this trope. The most recent comics of this writing (9/14/2009) on for a couple of days, are basically one big [[Take That]] at all the people who complained about the whole [[True Art Is Angsty|"dying of cancer" arc.]] The local school is putting on a production of ''Wit'', a play about a woman who, surprise surprise, dies of cancer, which gets the parents up in arms and complaining how they came to the theater to be entertained, not depressed. The author basically writes them all into a strawgroup of his critics and then has his avatars talk "reason" to them (The reason being that plays about cancer are "[[True Art Is Angsty|true art]]" and ''Spam-a-lot'' isn't).

*** ''[[My Cage]]'' took a [http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/mycage.asp?date=20091023 shameless swipe] at this storyline showing Jeff's kid dressed as the ''[[Funky Winkerbean]]'' grim reaper for his own school player about cancer and death, as Jeff wonders what kind of "thoughtful" comic-strip could have inspired it. One week later, [http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/mycage.asp?date=20091030 two] [http://www.seattlepi.com/fun/mycage.asp?date=20091031 more] strips on the subject revealed that the play was based on a comic called "Groovy Blinkerlegume", and Jeff and Max try to ponder why anyone would take funny strip and try to make it serious. At which point new character Sam the Sacrificial Lamb is killed on camera for a punchline.

*** And, at least if Pastis' directors commentary is to be believed, Bil Keane actually liked those strips.

*** At a comics convention, Pastis was giving a talk, and mentioned strips using each others' characters, adding that it was all done in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Jeff Keane (now doing the strip) stood up and yelled "Go to Hell, Pastis!" and stormed out. It was all staged, of course.

* ''Liberty Meadows'' has often parodied other newspaper comics. While some of these parodies are affectionate, others are clearly take-thats. For example, one arc had Frank on a date with "Debbie the Psycho," a thinly-veiled ''Cathy'' stand-in who constantly babbled about swimsuits and her weight, nearly [[Driven to Suicide|driving him suicidal]]. Other strips mocked the sentimental banality of late-period [[Peanuts]].

* While ''Sally Forth'' is known for being rather safe material, the current author Francesco Marciuliano tends to take repeated jabs at his competition using his own webcomic ''[http://www.medium-large.com/ Medium Large]''. He usually does this by portraying well-loved icons in disturbing scenarios, but he once did a more pointed strip referring to ''Momma'' as "starring some squiggles and what may be a nose."

* Al Capp frequently used ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' to deliver Take Thats to pretty much anything that bothered him. Within his own medium, his "Fearless Fosdick" character, a [[Show Within a Show|strip within a strip]] parodying ''Dick Tracy'', stands out. Fosdick is portrayed as an idiot with a penchant for violence that [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now|just can't die]]. Eventually the in-universe creator of the strip is revealed to be completely insane and the strip a result of his violent fantasies.

** Capp famously depicted a parody ''Mary Worth'', who took a vacation from her strip (to her author's relief) to meddle in Abner and Daisy Mae's affairs. That strip then reciprocated, depicting Capp as a drunken lout.

* Berkely Breathed's ''[[Bloom County]]'', and its offshoots ''Outland'' and ''Opus'', pretty much live for this trope, taking shots at both politics (''Bloom County'' had Oliver's attempt to protest apartheid by turning the South African ambassador to the U.S. black) and pop culture (one story arc in ''Outland'' involved Mickey Mouse's sleazy cousin Mortimer getting fed up with the changes Michael Eisner was making at Disney, and beating the crap out of him).

* It was inevitable that someone would do this regarding the [[Wii]]. According to [[FoxTrot]], "Soon kids across the world will be rushing home from school so they can Wii." Then again, this is arguably funny enough to merit a pass.

** This is a much lighter Take That than many of the other examples on the page, in that Amend is willing to admit that they ''were'' funny. You'd never hear Watterson say that.

*** And he usually refrains from taking shots at specific comics in general, although he will give them some good-natured ribbing on occasion (like a strip poking fun at the political commentary in ''[[The Boondocks]]'').

* Make of this what you will, but toward the end of ''[[Peanuts]]'', Charles Schulz produced an arc in which Charlie Brown goes to renew Snoopy's dog license, and a few strips with other licenses sent to him. In the last strip, Charlie Brown was told that Snoopy didn't need a license for 'that', shown in the last panel: an assault rifle.

** If anything, that was a "Take That" against the National Rifle Association.