Mark Steyn: An Open-and-Shut Case of Hypocrisy

The Telegraph ^ | November 25, 2003 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

The other day, a producer called me up and asked if I wanted to take part in a discussion about an American cartoon strip — to whit, B.C. by Johnny Hart, which has been running in a gazillion newspapers around the world for as long as I can remember.

I usually check in with it a couple of times a decade while waiting at the gate for a delayed flight, and am happy to find it refreshingly unchanged. It's set in a modified caveman era, which is to say that, like The Flintstones, its characters enjoy certain accoutrements not necessarily consistent with the time period.

On this particular day's strip, Johnny Hart shows us the caveman walking up a hill at night — there is a crescent moon in the sky — and heading for a wooden outhouse, with a crescent moon on the door, as outhouses traditionally have, at least in America. My own outhouse in New Hampshire certainly did, before it was dashed to smithereens in a hurricane (don't worry, I wasn't inside at the time).

Anyway, we next see a sound effect — "SLAM" — to indicate, presumably, the closing of the outhouse door. The final frame shows a speech bubble coming from within the outhouse with the words: "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?" The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) decided this was not an outhouse joke, but an Islamophobic slur disguised as an outhouse joke.

A reader in the Washington Post had noticed the six crescent moons in the strip, and suggested this indicated the real target of the gag. Cair drew attention to the fact that the sound effect of the alleged door slamming was stacked vertically, in a pillar-like shape, and thus could reasonably be read as "SLAM" contained within the overall shape of the letter "I" — or "ISLAM".

"Hmm," I said, thoughtfully, to the producer. "It's true that it's very hard to slam an outhouse door from the inside, what with the lack of space and so forth. Difficult to get back far enough to give it a loud enough slam to justify a sound effect. Unless there's a strong wind to whip it shut," I added, recalling my hurricane. "And even then, one would be more concerned to latch it carefully lest another gust blow it open again."

"That's Marshall Blonsky's line," said the producer, a little impatiently. Blonsky is professor of semiotics at the New School in New York and had apparently got to my penetrating insight ahead of me: "You don't slam an outhouse door." Professor Blonsky argues that the cartoon is indisputably constructed "in a polysemic fashion".

"I hadn't thought of that," I said.

-snip-

[gcruse]

Thanks for posting the whole article, rudeboy.
Chopshop quidnunc threw out the punchline.

"European Jews menaced by anti-Semites get less attention than American Muslims menaced by polysemites."

[Uncle Miltie]

"Meanwhile, Gary Trudeau portrays the Governor of California as a Nazi sex fiend with no evidence."

Wow! I didn't realize anybody read him anymore.

[Pharmboy]

Hey CAIR! As Dr. Evil says:

"Boo frickity hoo!"

[Cicero]

Outhouses have always had crescent moons on their doors. They were always portrayed that way in Li'l Abner, and I seriously doubt that any slight was intended to Islam.

Yesterday we were walking in Vermont and happened to pass an outhouse with a crescent moon in the door. I mentioned the fuss over the B.C. cartoon and everybody had a good laugh.

[Pharmboy]

My vote for quote of the week.

[FormerACLUmember]

Ii ithink ii ihave ibroken ithe isecret icode iof Ichristian ineo-crusaders ipoly-semites! Iit iis iso iclever!!

Ilet ius ihope ithe isecret IChristian icode iis ikept ia ideep isecret ifrom ithe IIslamogeniuses!

[DeFault User]

Polysemic is something that has many meanings or something to which multiple meanings can be ascribed. Now be sure to try using it in a sentence tomorrow!

Mmmmm, let's see. Howard Dean's polysemic statement concerning the Confederate flag landed him in a polyscatalogical Scheißehaus.

[Toskrin]

I think it's polysemic also. It's too cleverly constructed not to be.

Kudos to Johnny Hart.

[irv]

LOOK AT THE STRIP!

Johnny Hart is not that devious.

And the people who take complaints about a strip like this seriously aren't that bright.

[Mike Darancette]

I didn't know ISLAM worshiped idols or symbols let alone privy doors.

Or did we piss of the Moon Goddess?

[RightWingAtheist]

What does CAIR think about this very Jewish superhero?:

[RightWingAtheist]

As in "Bill Klintoon argued that the word 'sex' is polysemic"

[Savage Beast]

"I definitely think it's a jab at islam."

What's the alternative interpretation?

[Grig]

Hmmmmmmmm....

How long before some freeper photoshops a few stars and an I onto this?

[Calvin Locke]

Could it be that CAIR is jealous that cavemen had outhouses?

Steyn's worried about securing the door. I remember that old guy that fell through the rotted floor and survived a few
days down in the muck. Either a mailman or delivery guy noticed the buildup of mail and went looking.

[Britton J Wingfield]

Alternative interpretation would be a joke that makes no sense.

[Tymesup]

Agree with your interpretation. Not the first time a BC strip fell flat, although it's usually pretty good.

Mutts, on the other hand, I just don't get.

[ontos-on]

Why, oh Why, did they put crescent moons on the outhouse doors? I think the answer to that pressing question will be fertile.

[ontos-on]

No, the evil BC [as opposed to Johnny Hart's] said that the term "is" was polyseimic.

[DeFault User]

Many of the Muslim countries use the outhouse symbol for their flags. ;>)