We try to provide a chuckle for every sensibility

Newspaper readers are sensitive about their comic strips. That’s a lesson we’ve learned more than once at The Enterprise. That doesn’t mean that we don’t tinker with them occasionally, but we do so very judiciously and with great consideration.

So, before you panic, no, we’re not doing anything major and there WON’T be an advertisement replacing any of your Sunday comics this week.

In fact, the subject of this column has already happened. It was the use of a four-letter word (actually five-letter, because of the structure of the scene) in a daily comic strip. We were warned in advance about it. We explored our options and discussed it, via e-mail, only slightly, then gave it a thumb’s up.

The word was “sucks.” The comic was “Zits,” a humorous glimpse into the life of a teenage boy and his friends and family, and the strip appeared in our Tuesday, Nov. 27 edition.

Not a single reader complained through the Reader Representative e-mail address or telephone line (409-880-0748). We take that as an indication that we were correct in assuming that most readers weren’t overly offended by the feature.

The syndicate that provides the comic justified use of the word as being the realistic vocabulary of a teenage boy.

They’re right. It kind of “sucks” that they are right, but it’s true. I know that because I have a teen-age girl at home, and as appalled as I am by the concept, I’ve heard it come out of her mouth (over my protests) as well.

So we picked realism over caution and our readers survived the test.
We’ve got another red-alert comic coming up in the next couple of weeks – a different author, a different subject and less realism – but still worth a chuckle.

Stay tuned for updates and I’ll let you know how this one is received.