Posted on 03/17/2008 9:29:50 AM PDT by Between the Lines
NEW YORK Many e-mailers praised or criticized this week's "Dilbert" sequence featuring an office worker named Jesus (pronounced Hay-Soos).
The series "caused quite a stir," cartoonist Scott Adams wrote in his blog today. "I drew those strips a few months ago, and in my typical careless way I didn't realize they would be running around Easter time. Oops."
Adams -- whose comic runs in more than 2,000 newspapers via United Media -- reported that e-mails "were about evenly divided between people who are deeply offended and people who think it was my best work yet....
"My favorite rhetorical question, which I received an alarming number of times, was 'Why don't you mock Mohammed next? Huh? Why not?' Well, aside from the blindingly obvious reason that I prefer life over death, I didn't realize I was making fun of Christianity this week...."
Then Adams posted an e-mail he had received from a pastor. The cartoonist's response: "Thank you for taking time out from feeding the poor to complain about comic strips. I know Jesus would have played it the same way."
His response made me lose a lot of respect for the guy.
He is like, so last century.
Personally, I think people need to lighten up a bit. That said, you’ll notice that Christians who may be offended won’t be threatening to kill Mr. Adams.
See, I can be offensive, too....
I thought the series was pretty funny.
I kind of liked the first part of this one:
“Why don’t you mock Mohammed next? Huh? Why not?’ Well, aside from the blindingly obvious reason that I prefer life over death, I didn’t realize I was making fun of Christianity this week....”
Personaly, I think Jesus had a great sense of humor and would have smiled at such things.
You know, I firmly beleive that my lord and savior can withstand any insult thrown his way. That insults are more of a validation of existance rather than a a grade school attempt at demonization.
Unlike the islamic cannon of beheading someone for whatever happens to be the insult of the day...I think they are so insecure about the divinity of Muhammad, they have to kill off anyone that insults him...because the thin veil of myth might removed and show him for what he really was.
I’m a Christian, and I thought they were funny. If anything, I would think the Hispanic lobby would be cheesed off instead.
Mild mocking here. Not really bad. However, since the “artist” would never have mocked the religious figure highly revered in the middle east, I have to object to his mocking of Jesus.
No Christians are going to riot in the streets and cut his head off. So this “artist” feels it is OK to mock Christianity.
That’s why I object.
I too found it funny. We should really start mocking the persons who find insult in every conceivable place and time because this PC crap is really destroying the fabric of this country.
Hay-soos is a very comon name in the Spanish speaking world.
I am a Christian and not offended. We have seen worse cases of mocking.
That being said, I think other recent Dilbert strips have just not been funny at all. Sometimes they are LOL funny but lately they do nothing for me. I almost wonder if he isn’t playing some kind of trick on readers by deliberately using punch lines that make no sense.
Mr Adams seems to be getting in a dig at radical Islam with that remark, don’t you think? When he says he prefers life over death doesn’t he mean that if he mocks that other religion in some way that its followers will be threatening him? That comment in itself says a lot.
“I almost wonder if he isn’t playing some kind of trick on readers by deliberately using punch lines that make no sense.”
You must obviously have never had the joy of working in a process dominated development enviroment. ;-)
Because most days, it absolutely makes no sense.
Hm. It didn't really seem "mocking" to me -- more of a transposition of the Gospel story into today's corporate life. I think I can see Adams' thinking on the matter: "I'll bet that if Jesus Christ Himself came down and took over a project, the management would still find something to bitch about, and then see him as a threat."
You'll note, for example, that "pronounced Hey-soos" was presented pretty much as you'd want him to be, and not a buffoon.
The idea of management as Pharisees has a great deal of truth....
We must have a million of them just in this state. And a large percentage of them are carpenters.
I do work in an office, and sadly much of what happens in Dilbert DOES apply to work life sometimes. ;)
But check out the March 15 strip. Maybe I am just getting more dense in my old age but I don’t get it. I need someone to explain it to me. (grin)
I work for a major mid western university. I feel like I’m trapped in a Dilbert cartoon every day.
I’m a Latina and I found it funny. Then again, what passes for the “Hispanic” lobby these days doesn’t really speak for me.
Of course one could look at it another way, that he was mocking atheists. hahaha “don’t spill your wine”.
See? I can be a comedy writer too.
Scott Adams doesn’t write his own strip, and hasn’t for many years. He’s just illustrating his email.
I want the old Wally back. Near sighted, lazy and irreverent is what I’ve come to expect from him.
Good grief! Why all the hoop-la? There ARE men named Jesus (pronounced Hay-Soos). I suspect they get ribbed about it all the time, and likely come back with humorous lines about it. This is a situation based on something like that. I wasn’t offended by it, and I daresay most Christians who read it weren’t, because it’s not derisive to either Jesus OR Christians.
The cartoon above is the only one of the series I have seen. It’s innocent in my opinion. But then I believe it is impossible to insult Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord is beyond any petty attempts at insult from man. When I was young and attending Catholic school (1955-1967), such humor was common and considered very funny among Catholics. Priests were very prone to use similar jokes.
Beheading begin in 5...4...3...2...!
I call for the beheading of all involved in this cartoon IMMDEDIATELY!
Oh yeah...the self important HR/Marketing weenie is upset that her words of wisdom have actually *gasp* been forgotten? BLASPHEMY!
I understand. The Danish cartoonist didn't realize he was making fun of Islam, either.
Since it appears that you and others won't stop mocking Christianity until violence is threatened, maybe we Christians should initiate the Tenth Crusade against the heretics. Get the boys together and pay you a visit.
This will probably play out like Ned Flanders...I know Christians who walk off in a huff because they think he is a slam at Christians, completely overlooking the fact that he is the nicest, kindest person in town, with the most loving family and the best outlook.
My favorite Jesus joke....
Jesus came upon a small crowd who had surrounded a young woman they believed to be an adulteress. They were preparing to stone her to death.
To calm the situation, Jesus said: “Whoever is without sin among you, let them cast the first stone.”
Suddenly, an old lady at the back of the crowd picked up a huge rock and lobbed it at the young woman, scoring a direct hit on her head. The unfortunate young lady collapsed dead on the spot.
Jesus looked over towards the old lady and said: “Do you know, Mother, sometimes you really piss me off.”
When did this stupidity start anyway? It is like some make-work parasites latched on to the vapid minds of legacy-hire higher-ups or mentally deficient corporate heirs, convincing them of the utility of this BS. A critical mass of stupidity is reached within the nepotic realm, causing emulation elsewhere. Now, like a freak infection, it has taken over the host.
Self-important weenies assume that everybody is out to get them, and no explanation to the contrary is accepted, whether proven or not. She's assuming that Dilbert was trying to embarrass her, and the idea that he just forgot the answer and needed it repeated is unthinkable.
I blame Carnegie Mellon and the development of the CMM and CMMI...NOt to mention the TQM and ISO nonsense.
Now, a DOD contractor has to prove they are a process driven organization based on one of these models(Or all of them in our case) just to be in the running for Defense contracts.
Thus, the insanity is required in order to get the business. It’s an evil cycle...akin to having a consultant remora attached to your budget. Every so often, it disattaches and eats your profit. ;)
A hispanic guy named Jesus is one thing. A guy named Jesus who is performing miracles in the workplace is a definite reference to the Son of God. His explaination is lame. Now there are NO cartoons I can enjoy in the media. Thanks Scott.
People who take offense at this have faaaar too much thin skin.
Of course explaining a joke usually kills it, so you probably still won't find it funny, but you asked.
The entire Elbonia concept in Dilbert is a mocking of Islam.
He even went out of his way to use it in his short lived Dilbert tv show.
Nothing personal, you understand, but rules are rules.
I want the old Wally back. Near sighted, lazy and irreverent is what I’ve come to expect from him.
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Wally is the messiah, I once followed his spectacular leadership and had a six month in-cube sabbatical...
He is, and always has been, a class a Pr__k. I read the forward to the one and only book of his I bought when I was still a real big fan of his, around 1998 or so. The whole forward was one big screed about what morons his readers were and how he needed more money so he wrote another book he knew the morons would buy.
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