I don't think DOONESBURY is all that funny these days, at least not since Trudeau took his infamous "vacation" back in the 1980's (thereby giving Berke Brethed -- who I always regarded as a "second-rate Trudeau" -- a chance to move in on Garry's territory). It's light years ahead of MALLARD FILLMORE,
Hope you enjoyed my latest batch of sketches. And now, on to
THE NIT-PICNIC.
See you in 60!
but that's due to a very old rule of comedy: DOONESBURY's humor derives mainly from its characters. The strips people remember usually aren't the political "zingers," but the ones involving Zonker, Uncle Duke, D.B., Trixie, and the gang. (My personal favorite is one that has Duke at a state dinner in China, where a chinese diplomat scolds his son who won't eat his dinner by telling him that, "There are starving children in Appalachia who'd give anything to have your jellied duck's web!") MALLARD, on the other hand, is just a polemic; occasionally witty, but almost never funny.
