Recent FAQS

FAQs

Beta-fresh answers, uploaded occasionally

Lets face it, our favorite comic strip is often obscure or inconsistent, and key characters are sometimes left stranded for years. Long-suffering readers are within their rights to demand some clarification. Use the "Ask GBT" form to email us your questions, and we will answer those we can on the Blowback page, and also archive the answers here.

Q: Did Obama really sink eight out of ten from downtown?
-- Mark G. Smith, Chapel Hill, NC | Storyline | October 27, 2008
A:Indeed he did. GBT and Newsweek's Jonathan Alter were chatting with Sen. Obama in a hotel lobby in Berlin about the widely-seen video of the candidate sinking a three-pointer in front of a gym full of troops. Obama explained that in fact he'd gone on to sink seven more during two games of Horse. He was justly proud of his performance, and GBT got the clear sense that he wouldn't mind if the full story got out -- hence Rick's big break, as "Jon" leaked him the hot item for his fledgling blog.
Q: Thanks to Bill O'Reilly's criticism of the 10-12-08 "family values" strip, the DTH received an outpouring of unusually acerbic email. Rather than overload BLOWBACK with a surfeit of posts on one topic, we are providing a generous sampling of the reaction on this dedicated page.
Storyline | October 16, 2008
A:

How can you portray Governor Palin the way you did in your boring cartoon and live with yourself? Your crap is something I don't read and after this latest BS I know why. (I only know about it due to press coverage not because I have read your cartoon crap.) Cartoons should be humorous. Yours are not. No laugh from me. And how about Osama Obama -- how many colleges did he go to? And how did he pay for college? Drug dealing or radical Muslim support? Did he ever actually work? Oh yes, it must have been his white grandparents that supported him, not the black grandparents. Who are they anyway? Maybe they were building his radical Muslim funds in Africa.

-- Pam Mrjenovich, Aurora, CO

I just read your smear of Sarah Palin and her family. If anyone had said anything remotely as vicious about Saints Barack and Michelle Obama, you and every other goddamn liberal would be screaming "racism, racism, racism - mean-spirited, mean-spirited!" All you leftist liberals are assholes.
-- Leon McKinney, St. Louis, MO

How does anyone call this funny? Your comic strip has sucked since the beginning. The end of your commentary would make this country a better place.
-- T. M.

Trudeau is an idiot for his latest work against Palin. He makes all of us liberals look bad.
-- L.N., Pittsburgh, PA

How do you pass yourself off as being funny? You are just spreading hate. But then, I think you stopped being funny when you started your political agenda. My voice will now be heard by the papers that print your radical prejudiced pictures (can't call them "comic strips").
-- Cindy, CA

Talk about a herd mentality. You just couldn't resist attacking the most honorable female candidate we've had on a national basis, could you. Cheap. Damn cheap-ass. You want a little credibility? Try attacking Dems. Then maybe you will be taken seriously.
-- Charlie Springer, Louisville, KY

Dude, you are so far off base with running down Mrs. Palin. Grow up, lose the self righteousness, and change your diaper, k?
-- Mickey, Greenville, SC

Have you ever thought about the likelihood of your parents aborting you? If your parents are anything like you, and found out that you may have some sort of deformity, we would not have to worry about your thoughtless so-called art, because there is no doubt your mind is warped.
-- Michael Crowley, NY

How lame! Is this the best you can do? I would expect better satire than cheap crap than this. If this is the attitude and what passes for humor back in the States from the left, I am so glad I decided to bring my family back to Europe.
-- Michel, Toulon, FRANCE

I respect your First Amendment rights, and I respect your opinions. However that does not give you the right to bash Sarah Palin in your comic strip. It is one thing to criticize her policies, but you should not be going after her personal life. If you want to go after someone's personal life why not go after Tim Mahoney, the Florida Congressman who had the affair, or why not John Edwards, who cheated on his wife when she was fighting for her life against cancer. I have read and often enjoyed your comics, however I will refuse to read your comics until you apologize. All I ask you is for you to not involve personal lives in your comic strip.
-- Will Parker, CO

It's easy to take cheap shots at Palin when you know that you can shade any aspect the way that you want to and have no fear of being shown as a biased political hack.
-- David, Richmond, VA

I've enjoyed your comic strip for so many years I can't remember, but I'm determined to wean myself off of it, at all cost! Your Palin rant went off the deep end, and while I like poking fun at others in a fun manner, this is just hypocrisy of the left, screaming out at the world "Do what I say not as I do!" You should be ashamed to have printed this, as an American and as a professional. I'll find other entertainment to read.
-- John Quintero, Houston, TX

Most of the time I enjoy Doonesbury comics. But the Oct 12th strip made me angry. This was a low. All you can do is print cheap shots at the candidates, like a couple of kids getting together to insult each other's mothers.
--Iran Cooper, Lebanon, OR

Character assassination of Sarah Plain is not funny. I am tired of court jesters like Trudeau trying to influence the people. Doonesbury no longer will be read by me and I will share my influence on all that I come in contact with. Good riddance.
-- Joel G.
Q: I've noticed that for several years now, conservative commentators and bloggers have used the Condi Rice/Brown Sugar strip as evidence of Trudeau's contempt for black conservatives. Any reaction?
-- Stanley M., Santa Cruz, CA | Storyline | October 16, 2008
A:

That criticism only makes sense if you strip the Rice cartoon of all context. It appeared as part of THIS WEEK of dailies commenting on George W. Bush's life-long practice of assigning demeaning or diminishing nicknames to those around him. For instance, he dubbed Karl Rove "Boy Genius" (notice the "boy") and "Turd Blossom" (as apt as it is vulgar). Giving out nicknames is both cocky and controlling -- and a revealing signifier of character. The Rice strip, shown below, simply depicts Bush, who feels he's being patronized, reining in his advisor in trademark fashion. To isolate Bush's fictional words and reassign them to Trudeau himself is to deliberately miss the whole point of the strip, if not satire generally.



To read an essay that GBT wrote for Time magazine about Bush's use of nicknames, click HERE .
Q: I've noticed that for several years now, conservative commentators and bloggers have used the Condi Rice/Brown Sugar strip as evidence of Trudeau's contempt for black conservatives. Any reaction?
-- Stanley M., Santa Cruz, CA | Storyline | September 30, 2008
A:

That criticism only makes sense if you strip the Rice cartoon of all context. It appeared as part of THIS WEEK of dailies commenting on George W. Bush's life-long practice of assigning demeaning or diminishing nicknames to those around him. For instance, he dubbed Karl Rove "Boy Genius" (notice the "boy") and "Turd Blossom" (as apt as it is vulgar). Giving out nicknames is both cocky and controlling -- and a revealing signifier of character. The Rice strip, shown below, simply depicts Bush, who feels he's being patronized, reining in his advisor in trademark fashion. To isolate Bush's fictional words and reassign them to Trudeau himself is to deliberately miss the whole point of the strip, if not satire generally.


To read an essay that GBT wrote for Time magazine about Bush's use of nicknames, click HERE .
Q: The Sunday 9/21/08 strip mentions a GOPAC document written by Newt Gingrich. Can you direct me to it somewhere on the web? Thanks.
-- Bruce V., Olympia, WA | Storyline | September 22, 2008
A:Certainly. The full document referred to is somewhat longer, but you can find the relevant page here.
Q: Given the Olympic ascendance of Michael Phelps, will we ever see Zonker have another Mark Spitz nightmare?
-- Josh, Chicago, IL | Characters | September 22, 2008
A:While it's impossible to predict the future nocturnal wanderings of Z's sun-blown mind, we are pleased to re-visit the disturbing 1972 dream to which you refer.
Q: Duke and Honey have just met up again in Beijing. I suspect that, like me, many other readers have forgotten when/why/how they last parted company. I remember them together post-Katrina, but when/how did they part ways?
-- William Tompson, Paris, FRANCE | Characters | August 13, 2008
A:Ms. Huan ended her long run as executive assistant to the former Ambassador in February, 2006. We are pleased to re-post this milestone sequence, in all its Mardi-Gras glory.
Q: I seem to recall that when Joanie Caucus married Rick Redfern, the wedding invitations contained several errors. For rather embarrassing personal reasons, I would love to see that series of strips again.
-- Jennifer, Boulder, CO | Characters | August 07, 2008
A:Despite the typographical problems you mention, the Rick-Joanie nuptials in the summer of 1981 went off without a hitch. Twenty-seven years later we appreciate your giving us an opportunity to revisit the happy occasion.
Q: When did Honey Huan enter Duke's life? Did her appearance have anything to do with improved Sino-American ties following Nixon's 1973 tour of The People's Republic?
-- Vasu, San Francisco, CA | Characters | July 28, 2008
A:The remarkable and long-lived relationship of Honey and Duke began three years after Nixon's historic visit, when Duke, then the Governor of American Samoa, was appointed U.S. Ambassador to China. Immediately upon his arrival in Peking the plucky and resourceful Ms. Huan was appointed his translator, an assignment which proved fortuitous for both parties, as this sampling of 1976 strips shows.
Q: I saw the reference to Benjy in the strip recently, so I take it he gave up his punk name "Sal Putrid." What ever happened to him?
-- Mark, Greenville, NY | Characters | June 19, 2008
A:During the late 80s Mike's younger brother adopted a new nom de employ, and embarked on a remarkably successful career as a condom salesman. For those who missed it, here are the strips chronicling the glory days of "Dr. Whoopee."