I’ve been watching BBC Four’s Comics Britannia season and enjoying it very much.
I just caught the end of a show narrated by Ewan McGregor about The Broons, you’re unlikely to have heard of them (or Oor Wullie for that matter) if you’re not somehow connected to Scotland. But they’re both magic. They’re comic strips that have existed for over 60 years and somehow have managed to exist in an odd timeless bubble…
But there was one thing from last night’s program about the Beano and Dandy that really struck home with me. They were talking about the escapism of reading those comics as kids. And for me it brought back fond memories of camping out in a tent the back garden with a huge box of Beanos and being able to read them over and over again, and being totally engrossed.
But I never laughed.
Someone on the show pointed this out. And I’d never really considered it, although comics were really funny, entertaining and enjoyable, I don’t think they ever made me laugh either.
Between the age of 8 and 12 I actually thought that I had no sense of humour as I never laughed at anything in comics, on TV, nothing. It was supposed to be funny but I never laughed. I was petrified, sure I had a laugh with my friends but I never laughed at things that were supposed to be funny.
Asking around about this I’ve found out two things. I wasn’t alone in my thinking and that I don’t actually have a sense of humour.
You might be interested in this talk at the Dulwich Picture Gallery next month about just this
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/whats_on/articles/311007.aspx
Totally. The comics from the IPC stable (Buster, Whizzer and Chips etc) had more laugh-out-loud moments than DC Thompson’s, but you could never expect them.
I guess it proves that children just want to be engaged and interested, and that there are other ways of doing it than the wacky humour that is often offered to them.
Saying that, Oink Comic was my eventual favourite, and that was piss funny.
I can’rt remember laughing either: maybe whu Oor Wullie kept having to say “ho ho readers” as a cue.
It was more smile-in-the mind than laugh out loud funny
I was a member of both the Dennis the Menac fan club and teh desperate dan pie-eaters club yet never chuckled once.
Charlie Brooker used to write and draw for Oink, And i can still remember the pink flexi-disk that came with issue one
“I sing Poo-poo tinkle, tinkle parp parp oink,
And things don’t seem so bad,
Poo-poo tinkle, tinkle parp parp oink,
And Charlie’s Brooker’s screen burn, now that does mak me laugh out loud.
I can'rt remember laughing either: maybe whu Oor Wullie kept having to say “ho ho readers” as a cue.
It was more smile-in-the mind than laugh out loud funny
I was a member of both the Dennis the Menac fan club and teh desperate dan pie-eaters club yet never chuckled once.
Charlie Brooker used to write and draw for Oink, And i can still remember the pink flexi-disk that came with issue one
“I sing Poo-poo tinkle, tinkle parp parp oink,
And things don't seem so bad,
Poo-poo tinkle, tinkle parp parp oink,
And Charlie's Brooker's screen burn, now that does mak me laugh out loud.