Letter: Mallard Fillmore negative and not funny

Kill the duck!

I’m speaking of Mallard Fillmore.

The strip does not belong in the comic section.

It is not satirical, it is not art, it is not amusing and evokes nothing but negativity.

It is insipid, vicious, mean-spirited tripe.

It does not even belong in the op-ed section.

It is disrespectful, mean, neo-Nazi hate literature.

The Mr. Tinsley that produces such garbage must be a bitter, angry man whose political philosophy is in serious descent and reflects his obvious fear, no, terror at its decline. Have mercy on us all and especially Mr. Tinsley himself and kill the duck!

Gary Thomas

retired civil servant

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by InPVille - 28/02/2013

@Bighug: If what bothers you enough to write to the Advocate is something as unimportant as Mallard Fillmore strip or Doonesbury, you possibly either have nothing of any significance to complain about or are the sort of person who complains about any and everything. . . the sort of person who doesn't respect other people's free speech rights. Certainly Gary Thomas has the right to set down what he wrote. We are free to criticize his priorities, thin skin, and etc.

2) Comment by Bighug - 28/02/2013

The comments to "just don't read it" miss the point. Are we supposed to make no comments about something in the paper we don't like? Sure would shorten the list.

3) Comment by billynurse - 25/02/2013

Mr. Thomas , really??...I suppose you think that "Doonesbury" is light, funny , and not the least bit negative or bitter? (being left-wing)

4) Comment by wobonin - 25/02/2013

Save the duck! Methinks Mr. Thomas and his supporters are Obama followers and don't like to see the duck lampooning him with those big ears. I always find it strange that when liberals disagree this something, they don't discuss the substance of the disagreement. they want it removed! I'm a conservative, but I read E.J. Dionne and Robinson to get the thinking of the other side. Dictatorships allow people to see one side of things. Is that what you people want? Come on out into the light. Be daring for a change. Watch Fox news if you really want to see your man for what he is. Go to you-tube and see the video of him saying on TV last year that if Congress tried to amend or veto the sequester bill, he would veto that action. Now he says it will be the end of the world. Cover your eyes. the duck may reveal this to the world. God knows. the media won't. You people have a nice day. William O. Bonin

5) Comment by Attila - 25/02/2013

Nimby, the problem now is that MF has a large following and it gets the collective liberal panty is a wad.

6) Comment by nimby? - 25/02/2013

the strip has been around for some time , why the problem now ?

7) Comment by bourbon-soda - 25/02/2013

@Ian D - good point. I now wonder whether Mr. Thomas is parodist, mimicking a polemical liberal in order to draw attention to the strip and increase its readership. The letter also makes it difficult for the _Advocate_ to drop the strip because that would be seen as kowtowing to a bull-in-china-shop liberal.

8) Comment by Ian D - 25/02/2013

Oh thank you Gary. I was unaware that we had such a point of view represented right there in the "funny pages". I thought today's was especially funny, pointing out the inane question from CNN whether the meteor was caused by "global warming". HA HA HA. I'll never miss Mallard again, in fact I'm going back through the archives to read more. What a service you have rendered mr. Gary, for bringing this overlooked gem to the attention of me and many others!!

9) Comment by SuzanneMS - 25/02/2013

As I tell my husband, "Don't read it." I agree with every word that Thomas has written -- so I just don't read it. It is a bit irritating to know that my subscription dollars are paying for it, but that is balanced by the knowledge that rgeraldwallace is helping to pay for Doonesbury.

10) Comment by [e-mail] - 25/02/2013

Mallard Filmore does not "duck" reality; he's not a "fly-by-night" type, and is a dependable albeit feathered advocate for common sense by highlighting the hubris and absurdity that's offered to us by the media, whom I suspect views us as something quite less than they are themselves.

11) Comment by bourbon-soda - 25/02/2013

@postcript56 - I do not know who "folks like" me are or what they do, but I did not "demand equal time."

12) Comment by InPVille - 25/02/2013

As has been pointed out by postscript56 we have on the one hand Doonesbury and on the other Mallard Filmore. Had Gary Thomas advocated for moving Mallard Filmore to the Opinion Pages as was advocated for Doonesbury in the past, he would have had a fair and appropriate point. Mallard is a political cartoon. As such being funny all of the time isn't expected. I don't suppose it would have occurred to Mr. Thomas that he is not required to read Mallard if he finds it abrasive to his thin skin. He probably also never stopped to consider before he wrote his ad hominem letter the delicious irony that like the Nazi he wants to get rid of the ideas he doesn't agree with. The common refrain used to be "I may disagree with what you say. But I will defend to the death your right to say it." Now it is "Shut up or I'll seek to shut you up".

13) Comment by chem - 25/02/2013

Wow!!! "The Mr. Tinsley that produces such garbage must be a bitter, angry man whose political philosophy is in serious descent and reflects his obvious fear, no, terror at its decline. Have mercy on us all and especially Mr. Tinsley himself and kill the duck!" It seems that this Thomas individual has a few problems of his own to pen such a diatribe over a cartoon. I think Thomas is a bitter, angry man whose political philosophy is in serious descent and reflects obvious fear and terror.

14) Comment by postscript56 - 25/02/2013

The Advocate runs Mallard Filmore because it also runs Doonesbury. Folks like bouron-soda (see "free speech" commment) demand equal time. They think Doonesbury is political even though Doonesbury has dozens of characters and storylines that don't have anything to do with politics. Just carrying that strip is proof the Advocate is a liberal rag. So the Advocate, in an attempt to appease those folks, runs Filmore. They surely don't run it because it's funny or clever.

15) Comment by dday198 - 25/02/2013

don't read it.

16) Comment by bourbon-soda - 25/02/2013

Oh the horror the horror. Be sure not to search yahoo for "mallard filmore" and click on hits << http://www.mercurynews.com/mallard- fillmore >> or << http://jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/mallard011213.p hp3#.USsXfa6vdc8 >> lest thine eyes be affronted by Mallard. Instead search "free speech for me but not for thee".

17) Comment by Bighug - 25/02/2013

I agree with Gary. Mallard is seldom funny, even on the few times when I agree with his politics.