Y2k in "The Boondocks" comic strip

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"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

Answers

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.


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