Y2k in "The Boondocks" comic stripgreenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread |
"The Boondocks" is a relatively new comic strip. I'm not sure that it is carried by many newspapers (my paper just started carrying it about 2 months ago). It centers on a rather precocious, rather radical 12 year-old (or so) boy named Huey, who has inner city roots, but now lives with extended family in the 'burbs.I don't follow the strip closely (I usually only have time to read the Sunday comics these days), but today's strip was dynamite. Here's the dialogue between Huey and a Mr. DuBois (sorry, I don't know DuBois' relationship with Huey):
Panel 1:
Huey: Where are you running off to, Mr. DuBois?
DuBois: Shopping! Oh I hope I make it there before all the good stuff's gone!
Huey: SHOPPING?! At this late date?!
Panel 2:
DuBois: Please, don't remind me. I'm panicked enough already!
Huey: Well, just don't forget the bottled water and the generators -- those are the most important things.
Panel 3:
DuBois: What the heck kind of Christmas gifts are those?!
Huey: CHRISTMAS?! Who cares about Christmas?! I'm talking about Y2K shopping! Emergency supplies for the coming calamity! How can you worry about Christmas with global catastrophe so imminent?
Panel 4:
DuBois: You want CATASTROPHE?! If I screw up my wife's gift this year like I did last year, I will DIE!! Do you UNDERSTAND?! I will not LIVE to see Y2K!!! I gotta get to BLOOMINGDALE'S!!
Huey: Take is easy, man!
Panel 5:
Huey: So basically what you're saying is that the approaching shut-down of the world's enonomic and power systems is ...
DuBois: Nothing compared to the wrath of an unsatisfied wife on Christmas. Yes.
Panel 6:
Huey: (Sigh) I guess there are just some things I'm not meant to understand.
DuBois: Look, I think we all get frustrated with the commercialization of Christmas, but --
Huey: Nope, I was talkin' about marriage, but this whole Christmas thing is pretty messed up too, I guess...
-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), December 19, 1999
Sorry about the formatting. Bold off.
-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), December 20, 1999.
This same strip had a Sunday one maybe a month ago where the grandfather (I believe) purchased a whole bunch of stuff via credit card, hoping that his balance would be wiped out with Y2K - and his fail-back was to save the receipts (if he had to return them later.) Sounds like the cartoonist is at least somewhat GI.
-- Ford Prefect (bring@your.towel), December 20, 1999.
Today's "The Boondocks" also had a Y2k theme, this time a dialog between Huey and his friend Jazmine:Panel 1: (Picture of Jazmine with eyes closed and a big grin). Narrative box: The day after Christmas... Another box: ...A happy Jazmine... Third box: ...A very happy Jazmine. Quote bubble from out of frame: Hey Jazmine!!
Panel 2: Huey: Here. I got this for you. Hold onto it until after the New Year.
Jazmine: A gift for me?! Huey that's so sweet! What is it?
Huey: It's not a gift. It's a walkie-talkie...
Panel 3: Huey: Let's say, for example, that on New Year's Day, the panic of the new millennium coupled with massive economic crashes cause a total breakdown of societal order, which quickly degrades into rioting, looting, global chaos, and ultimately the declaration of a state of emergency and the indefinite suspension of the Constitution under an oppressive martial law imposed by FEMA. THEN let's say the whole state of California is leveled by a massive earthquake, while the rest of the planet is covered in rain, hail, snow, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and typhoons. All while man- eating predator tribes of extraterrestrials have landed on the White House lawn and laid claim to the planet Earth...
Panel 4: Huey: ...Plus, your phone doesn't work 'cause of Y2k. You can use the walkie-talkie to contact me for help. OK?
Jazmine (eyes wide open in look of horror and sadness): Is all that stuff really going to happen?!
Panel 5: Huey: Who know? But with Armageddon it's better to be safe than sorry.
Jazmine: Oh. Well, thank you for the thingie.
Huey: No problem. Have a nice day.
Panel 6: Narrative box: The day after Christmas... Another box: An unhappy Jazmine... Third box: ...A very, very unhappy Jazmine...
Jazmine: (Same look in her eyes, slumped posture, in a moving tribute to our own Diane): (SIGH)
-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), December 26, 1999.