B.C. in the Doghouse
Published November 24, 2003
Johnny Hart, the creator of "B.C.," one of the "most widely read cartoonists on Earth," is taking flak for a recent cartoon strip that many suggest defamed Islam.
The cartoon, which appeared Nov. 10 in more than 1,200 newspapers worldwide — including The Washington Post — shows a caveman entering an outhouse at night, and then saying, from inside, "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?"The first public questioning of this cartoon arose in a washingtonpost.com chat Tuesday, when a reader noted that the cartoon seemed to make no sense, except metaphorically. The reader noted that the cartoon contained six crescent moons — three in the sky, and three on the outhouse door — and wondered if this might have been a veiled slur on the world's 1 billion practicing Muslims.
The CAIR e-mail mentioned the moons, and also noted that Hart had drawn a prominent sound effect — "SLAM" — between two frames to accompany the closing of the outhouse door. The SLAM was stacked vertically, in the shape of an I, and could be seen to signify "Islam." The cartoon appeared on the 15th day of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Hart claims it was a silly bathroom joke, although others aren't so sure:
"Why is the door slamming? You don't slam an outhouse door."This is Marshall Blonsky, professor of semiotics at the New School in New York. Blonsky is an expert in the interpretation of signs and symbols. The first thing he said, on seeing the cartoon, is that he didn't get the joke. The second thing he said was that the outhouse is clearly serving some metaphoric purpose: "It represents something that stinks in the world." And the third thing he said was that there was something very puzzling about that SLAM.
"It's inappropriate," he said. "You gently close an outhouse door." One does not ordinarily enter an outhouse in anger or with a melodramatic flourish, he said. One utilizes this particular convenience in as unobtrusive a way as possible.
Blonsky said the cartoon seemed in some way manipulative — constructed in "a polysemic fashion, to supply multiple meanings that would deliberately evade interpretation." When told of the religious interpretation, he said that in this light, the cartoon suddenly made logical sense. The coincidences were simply too great to ignore, he said.
Even a group of other cartoonists weren't sure what the joke in the strip was supposed to be, although personally I have to say that I've never found B.C. either (a) particularly funny or (b) particularly clear. The cartoon does seem incomprehensible without this type of interpretation, though: otherwise, there's no point.
That said, I remain troubled by this observation about literary or artistic criticism:
In analyzing this cartoon, semiotician Blonsky cautions against succumbing to the Intentional Fallacy: In criticism, he says, it is a mistake to give much weight at all to the artist's stated intention. For one thing, it discounts the strength and influence of the unconscious mind, he said. All that matters in artistic criticism, he said, is the effect of the art on its viewers: the way people interpret it. In other words, even if Hart intended no offense, the offense is there.
- B.C. in the Doghouse
- Published: November 24, 2003
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- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Comics and Graphic Novels
- Writer: W.E. Wallo
- W.E. Wallo's BC Writer page
- W.E. Wallo's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
If Hart really did intend this, he is brilliant. I would never, ever have gathered the anti-Islam meaning if I hadn't been told. I think it's a real stretch, but I have no problem with the message: Islam is in a horrendous state of disrepair, it is rotting from within, corrupted by fascist terrorists and their fellow travelers. It reeks to the highest heavens in there, and will do so until it is cleaned up from within. I had no idea Hart had it in him.
I keep going back and forth on it, to be honest. I think: what else COULD it mean? But then again, I'm very leery of super-sensitive overinterpretation, which I hate. Besides which, even if that was his opinion, it's just a cartoon.
So I guess I look at it like this: if that's what he meant, he should say so. If not, then he probably shouldn't be tarred and feathered over it.
GO HERE to see the cartoon that has apparently defamed the poopie religion.
Ooh, note the subtle use of the gutter between the first panel and the second to create the "I" for the "SLAM"? Either way, it points out the interesting things you can do with comics. :)
Bill, I become skeptical when people have to reach that hard to find a meaning in something. Whenever one of those 'Christ's face in a taco,' stories turn up I am annoyed for the same reason.
If Johnny Hart's subconscious is that much cleverer than his conscious, he probably ought to take up drinking or drugs.
or drinking drugs
I think the problem with Hart is that he hasn't been funny in years and hasn't be regularly funny in decades.
While the vast majority of Hart's work is tedious, cliche-ridden crap ("the fat broad is touchy about her weight!"), sometimes it's not even clear what the so-called joke is supposed to be. People expect meaning and often (in a 'Deus ex TacoBell' way) find patterns where none were intended.
While Hart is no stranger to religious controversy (it was about 2.5 years ago that he was accused of being insensitive to Jews for his Easter transformation of a menorah into a cross), I don't think he meant to be offensive.
Given that the two competing explanations are that Hart used his strip to make a cryptic attack on Islam or that Hart published another unfunny, meaningless strip, I find the latter to be much more likely.
What annoys me about Hart is not that he's insulting to any particular religion, but that he's insulting to everyone's intelligence. That the comics pages have been shrinking so that we can keep the crap on them is a shame.
no kidding, i'll take Zippy The Pinhead any 'old day.
For some reason, their archive doesn't go there anymore. Put this in your browser's URL box to see the strip in question:
http://www.creators.com/1109/bc/bc1110g.
gif
Oops, the "gif" needs to be on the same line, of course:
http://www.creators.com/1109/bc/bc1110g.gif
Clicking here might even work...
I'd try the "img src=" thing, but they might remove it or block it if they see direct links from the outside world...
it appears to be gone - the evidence has been eaten.
thanks Dave!
Okay, I gotta go with the cryptic attack on Islam. Good for him.
Regarding MC's comment #9 it is a crack up about Hart insulting everyone's intelligence. MC, you are just making a joke of your own intelligence by taking such a 'moron snob' attitude. The joke is on you. Hart is smarter than you think. Ha-Ha...
Moving on to Islamic insults. Talk about out-thinking the question! Sounds like a typical Islam terrorist, looking for any cheap reason to kill.
Yeah, threaten Hart like Salman Rushdie.
peaceloveguidance
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BC is defaming Islam? Islam has been doing a fine job of defaming itself. The fruits of Islam have been pretty stinky in modern history, regardless of the intentions behind some silly American cartoon.