The Blog Pound

Not funny

I feel sort of silly for getting upset about a comic strip, but here I go anyway.

Our local “prize” of a newspaper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, recently dumped a comic strip I enjoyed, Sherman’s Lagoon, and replaced it with a new strip called, Over the Hedge. It’s apparently hot stuff right now as Dreamworks (makers of “Shrek”) has made a movie based on the strip which will be released in May. Thes strip itself is described as “freshly skewed look at suburban living from the perspective of the animals who lived there first”, and while that sounds fine, something about the comic seemed “off” to me when I first read it. The animals in the strip keep referring to their human neighbours as “tree huggers”, especially the humans who seemed concerned about habitat issues. The “tree huggers” are of course fat and slovenly and protrayed as rather stupid. The animals—a couple of raccoons, turtles, and a squirrel—are constantly complaining about the interference of humans in their lives. Rather than protesting their loss of habitat from urban sprawl, though, these animals are angry because “the tree huggers” are trying to deny them things like plasma television and gas barbeques. I understand how the premise is supposed to be funny, and sure, I agree that raccoons probably do love having access to the dumpsters at McDonalds. However, I think it’s pretty creepy that there’s an entire comic strip devoted to trying to convince us that wild animals just LOVE habitat loss, and that they hate the humans who are concerned for the environment. I’ve seen three strips now and haven’t found anything funny about them, I just think they’re offensive to those of us who do feel saddened and responsible when we see a dead rabbit at the side of the road, or a turtle crushed when trying to cross a freeway. Normally I love a good sarcastic comic strip, but something about “Over the Hedge” bothered me from the first moment I saw it, and then I found this notation on their website: “Over the Hedge won the Religious Communicators Council𠏋 1998 Wilbur Award for 婫xcellence in the communication of religious issues, values and themes.� Well, I guess that reinforces my suspicions. I know there’s a small group of evangelicals who are actively working to protect the environment, but for the most part I think the religious-right feels the earth is here for them to take from and use up as they please. A comic strip like “Over the Hedge” just reinforces that idea, and tries to tell readers not to feel guilty about environmental changes—the animals just *love* what we’re doing to them! I can’t wait for the “Over the Hedge” strip which portrays a wild duck being roasted on a spit while smiling and proclaiming how toasty warm he feels and how he loves working on his tan.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/09 at 01:08 PM