David Kronke was appointed Mayor of Television after a bloodless coup in 2000. Since then, he has improved infrastructure, championed greater educational opportunities and fought for reforms that have utterly erased corruption and incompetence from the television industry. Since Mr. Kronke has ascended to power, Television is a far better place. It's Garry Trudeau's Show
To hear Garry Trudeau tell it, there’s a very simple reason “Doonesbury� has lived to celebrate today, the 37th anniversary of its first appearance in print (oddly enough, the comic strip’s website shows the vanity of an aging starlet, copping only to a 35th anniversary): Aging, old-school newspaper publishers - who disliked or simply didn't get Trudeau's sensibility - dropping dead in droves through the ’70s.
“These guys said, ‘“Doonesbury� will run in my paper over my dead body,’ and sure enough, they got their wish,� Trudeau deadpanned in a Wednesday evening UCLA Live event at Royce Hall. Incoming, younger publishers were anxious to add his strip, he added.
Given how notoriously press-shy Trudeau is (he once had to cancel an interview with Time magazine after the prospect of it made him literally sick to his stomach), it’s sort of amazing he took to the stage, alone – and then spoke for 90 self-deprecating minutes – at all. (He did sit for a recent Washington Post interview, however.)
But he’s a fine, engaging and amusing public speaker. He began with a few potshots at Madonna and the crucifix routine from her latest concert tour, which given how big and easy the target was were pretty funny nonetheless. Next in line for potshots was his own generation: He noted a recent survey of Baby Boomers found that for them, “old� meant age 80, two years older than the average life expectancy; “So,� he concluded, “‘dead’ is the new ‘old.’�
From there, he spoke about the early days and evolution of the strip, showing clips from extracurricular activities he’s participated in such as the ’70s NBC special and the seminal ’80s HBO series “Tanner ’88.� And he spoke at length and poignantly about the inspiration for his ongoing, controversial-in-some-circles storyline featuring series regular B.D.’s losing his leg in the war in Iraq (he admitted to briefly considering killing B.D. off), and about his own visits to VA hospitals and how surprisingly upbeat they have been. Trudeau recently started a blog, “The Sandbox,� in which American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are invited to share their experiences. The soldiers’ email addresses are included should you wish to correspond (or commiserate) with them.
He then took questions, and I am grateful to report that there was only one audience member bold enough to reveal how egregiously stupid and self-involved she was.
Here, however, is the strange thing: Yes, “Doonesbury� is 37, but it’s still a comic strip and, last I checked, comic strips were supposed to be read by younger audiences. Your Mayor is no spring chicken, but he was actually one of the younger people in attendance, with what seemed to be a vast majority of attendees old enough to be his parents. At an event on a college campus.
So: Either young people don’t read newspapers (OK, we all knew that one) or the comic strip once aimed at ’70s hipsters now has a fan base comprised of septuagenarians. What a long, strange trip it’s been, indeed.
Comments
I put it to you, Your Honor, that '70s hipsters are now at least sexagenarians. What I love about the strip is that, being a kid in the '70s, it taught me a shockingly large percentage of what I know about Watergate and Vietnam. And yet it's still funny.
Posted by: MoroccoMole | October 26, 2006 9:57 AM
Regardless of what Garry Trudeau may think Obama is NOT
a black Kennedy. He is MIXED RACE. Infact as a black women
I resent the fact that he calls himself black when he is
mixed race.
Posted by: Michelle | February 7, 2008 8:29 AM