Take That/Newspaper Comics: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[The Boondocks]]''. [[Zero Context Example|Just The Boondocks]]. It would probably be easier to list the strips that weren't Take Thats against something or someone than the ones that were.
* Bill Watterson has used ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' to mock modern art, art criticism, and superhero comic books. Either Calvin uses phrases copied verbatim from art journals to describe his snow men, or his breathless praises of comic books as an art form are interrupted by comments like, "Oh no, Captain Steroid's getting his kidneys punched out with an I-beam!" Take note that Watterson's career peaked during the [[Dark Age]] of western comics, which likely influenced his opinions quite a bit, but as to why he didn't seek out fellow "comics can be art" proponents such as Dave Sim and Scott McCloud and join up with the Graphic Novel movement is a complete mystery.
** Watterson directed a few Take Thats at ''[[Garfield]]'' creator Jim Davis over the years. In a rare 1987 interview, he harshly condemned Davis' comic strip ''[[
** Bill Watterson's foreword to Bill Amend's first ''[[FoxTrot]]'' book is basically an extended take that against Jim Davis. For example, Watterson champions Quincy the Iguana for not thinking "the cute thoughts that quickly get most comic strip animals in the greeting card business."
*** Of course, one could also make the case that there are no Quincy the Iguana cards because the average person thinks [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]].
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** Watterson made several strips with subtle jabs at his editors and the syndication people.
** There is a Take That related to Calvin and Hobbes, although not in the strip itself. For strips in [[Bloom County]] that parodied cartoon cats that featured characters such as [[Garfield]] and Hobbes, Bill Watterson retaliated hilariously with [http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cimages/cbreathedsketch.jpg this comic]. In response Berke Breathed said this:
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** In one comic Calvin talks about wanting to be a talk radio host. It ends with him saying "Imagine getting to act like a six-year-old and getting paid for it!"
* A mutual [[Take That]] between ''[[Dilbert]]'' and ''[[Zippy the Pinhead]]:'' Bill Griffith used his daily strip ''Zippy the Pinhead'' as a forum to criticize Adams' artwork as simplistic. Adams responded on 5/18/1998, by having Dogbert create a comic strip called "Pippy the Ziphead," "cramming as much artwork in as possible so no one will notice there's only one joke [and] it's on the reader." Dilbert notes that the strip is "nothing but a clown with a small head who says random things" and Dogbert responds that he is "maintaining his artistic integrity by creating a comic that no one will enjoy."
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* ''[[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.
** Several years earlier, he ran a plot critical of intelligent design that he used to take shots at a fellow comic author. When one of the teachers is forced to teach intelligent design alongside evolution against his will, two of the main characters discuss making a comic about it. One of the boys remarks [https://web.archive.org/web/20080123083205/http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/funky.asp?date=20040831 that people might accuse of them of being "the anti-Johnny Hart,"] and then proceed to draw a very crude parody of ''B.C.'' with a pro-evolution slant.
** [[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.
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*** 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.
** ''Family Circus'' itself [https://web.archive.org/web/20140204051319/http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/ive-already-contacted-a-lawyer/ responded] to ''Pearls Before Swine'''s Take Thats with a strip where the kids are read a book called ''Pig and Rat Get Lost'', which causes them to leave the room to watch TV.
** On the announcement of the retirement of the comic strip [[Cathy]], Stephan posted some [https://web.archive.org/web/20130724144709/http://stephanpastis.wordpress.com/2010/08/13/on-the-retirement-of-the-comic-strip-cathy/ ruminations] on how the many Take Thats he had made early in his career, and how Cathy Guisewite responded. Mildly heart-warming.
* ''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."
** Of course, he takes jabs at ''Sally Forth'' [http://mediumlarge.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/thursday-april-8-2010/ too].
* Mark Tatulli's ''Lio'' is known as much for its morbid sense of humor as it is for its parodies of other comics. He got a lot of interweb hits when he took a few shots at ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'', but it may seem strange that he frequently shows his main character tormenting the kids from ''[[Peanuts]]''. Not so much when you discover that he received a torrent of hatemail when a newspaper used ''Lio'' as a replacement for ''Peanuts'' reruns.
* Al Capp frequently used ''[[
** 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.
* After ''[[
* 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.
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** 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]]'').
** [[FoxTrot]] also shows how vampires everywhere have been [[Ruined FOREVER]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20130730073133/http://www.foxtrot.com/2009/10/10252009/ here].
*** It made a similar [[Take That]] at girls who watched [[The Lord of the Rings]] only because of [[Orlando Bloom]] and not because of a nerdy devotion to the book.
* 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.
** Another [[Take That]] showed up in one of a series of strips from the 1950s in which Snoopy was going about doing impressions (or "imitations," as Charlie Brown referred to them) of kids, animals, and celebrities. One of these acts had him [[Rule of Funny|(inexplicably)]] blacking out his eyes and curling his ears into round disks to impersonate Mickey Mouse. (When Charlie Brown quietly informs Schroeder of this, all we see him say is "Msssp Msss.") Initially it appears to be merely a [[Shout
** A 1973 sequence has Charlie Brown horrified to learn that the neighborhood adults had created "snow leagues" for kids, where teams competed with each other to build snowmen, including playoffs and the chance to play teams from other countries. Y'know like how sandlot baseball and other activities kids used to do for fun ended up becoming the basis for organized, hyper-competitive Little Leagues.
* [[Small Name, Big Ego|Brooke McEldowney]], author of ''[[
* One edition of ''[[Rocky (
* ''[[Stone Soup (
** Their current story arc is full of reactions to the Trayvon Martin murder and [[Straw Misogynist|misogynistic]] [[Strawman Political|politicians]]. Who knows what other Take Thats it will have as it goes on.
* [http://joshreads.com/?p=13534 This] ''Crock'' strip has a particularly vicious one against ''[[The Comics Curmudgeon]]''. Naturally, this is mocked by Josh
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