I read BC every Sunday morning and every Sunday morning it affects me in the same way: I get irritated, so I become surly, lashing out at my wife or, if he's closer, the cat. Not only is BC not funny, but it cheats with it's premise. As far as I can tell, BC takes place during "caveman times," when that new-fangled invention the wheel was still made of stone and pun-spouting dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Though somehow the characters in BC are familiar with baseball (?) and every Easter (?) Wiley writes a poem about Jesus(?):
Baseball was invented some time in the 18th century and Jesus...well, c'mon, do I have explain that one?
Obviously these are not shocking revelations to anyone who reads the comics in their local newspaper. What is shocking though is that some people put more thought into this bullshit than I do. I think mentioning baseball, Jesus, and current events is just lazy cartooning, but according to Wikipedia, Washington Post comics critic Gene Weingarten theorizes that BC takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which contemporary figures and issues are remembered and therefore commented upon by the characters. Well, that certainly explains why Wiley's Dictionary is always so horrible inaccurate, I mean, society has given the task of reproducing the dictionary to a surly-looking, one-legged, conservative, Jesus-freak. What it doesn't explain is the reemergence of dinosaurs. Nuclear holocaust was not necessary to bring back the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Actually maybe all the radiation from the atomic bombs dropped all over the place made lizards grow bigger and gave clams and ants the ability to talk. I mean, toxic ooze created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so why not. And how the hell does someone become a comics critic? Do you have to write an article or essay about a comic strip? If so, congratulations to me on becoming America's newest comics critic!
Why not have the cavemen play "rockball?" It could be just like baseball, only rocks and clubs would be the appropriate equipment. Then you could satarize the baseball stories of today using rockball. Or have a female clam and a black clam running for president of the ocean. I don't know! It still wouldn't be funny, but it wouldn't be lazy.
The real point is this: Johnny Hart died, and while I would never celebrate anyone's demise, I didn't find the idea of an end to BC (not to mention The Wizard of Id) a sad proposition. But unfortunately Mr. Hart's daughter, Perri, and grandson, Mason Mastroianni, had to keep this painfully unfunny strip chugging along. BC isn't funny or likable or relevant and I think they need to...
STOP ALREADY!
