Not sure if it's me or the prog...

[dweezil2]

The 'summer offensive' was for men (and women) who should know better.

And these guys:

[dweezil2]

Do you think Married With Children is still funny, viewed all these years later?

Married with Children was NEVER funny.

It was funny.Thou that was a different time,and it wouldnt fly in todays PC world.

Way raunchier shows get made today. Im saying Married with Children was the Big Bang Theory of its time. A one-note joke stretched over a decade.

Probably more the Family Guy of its time.

[TordelBack]

Kelly Cuoco is no Christina Applegate, though. Nor a Katey Sagal for that matter.

[Smith]

Today,tumblr would be on warpath over fat shaming and all that...

[dweezil2]

Kelly Cuoco is no Christina Applegate, though. Nor a Katey Sagal for that matter.

Ohh, Christina Applegate, Katey Sagal! Swoon!

[Frank]

Big Dave ... is how I imagine today's GamerGaters would attempt to pen social satire.

As for the other elephant, Dredd's 'rejuve', I've just parked that as "didn't happen" ... (it was) a question that didn't really need answering

I suppose Tharg can chalk it up as a limited success, since at least nobody asks how he's going to address the question of Dredd's age anymore.

Big Dave wasn't social satire. Page 3 model single mums and closeted Tory ministers weren't the object of ridicule; the fantasy world of UK tabloids was.

I'm not making a case for the Offensive as great Art, but the strips were a welcome burst of obnoxious energy in an era largely characterised by polite mediocrity:


Strips running prior to and immediately after the Offensive:

Dredd: Judge Tyrannosaur
Kelly's Eye
Dredd: The Chieftain (interminable)
Firekind
Kano  (the one where everyone's a ghost)
Dredd: The Great Brain Robbery
Rogue Trooper (Fleisher)
Dredd: War Games (set-up for Sino-Cit epic)
Ennis Stront (Gronk and Feral)
Luke Kirby 4
Dredd: Muzak Killer 2
Tyranny Rex (the one where she's a nun)
Mean Arena
The Clown
Sláine: Jealousy Of Niamh (Staples)
Robohunter (Hogan)
Armoured Gideon (not the one with Bill Savage)

[Richard]

Firekind was brilliant.

[sheridan]

99% of 2000ad readers* agree that Big Dave was hilarious

I ... did not think Big Dave was hilarious

One percent elite. Big Dave was for the many, not the few.

Just what are you accusing me of?  You don't know anything about me, or where I was in 1993 (I noticed you edited out the bit where I said I was a teenager) so I don't see why you're accusing me of being part of the one percent elite, just because I didn't think the clumsy satire of Big Dave was funny.

[The Adventurer]

He's joking.

[CalHab]

Big Dave was an attempt to turn 2000AD into Viz, but it wasn't up to their standards. Nice Parkhouse art, though.

[TordelBack]

Big Dave was an attempt to turn 2000AD into Viz...

Shifting well over a million copies at that point, can you blame them? Interesting to wonder where we would be if it had worked even a little bit.  FWIW I'm ambivalent about Big Dave - I find it funnier now than I did then, but oh brother was it a bad fit for 2000AD.

[Skullmo]

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

Whereas I really didn't want the aging problem sorted at all, in fact that was one of the Dredd strips most interesting attributes. I understand why they felt the need to do it, but it was to the detriment of that great building aspect of the strip since question of judgement.

Completely agree with this. Dredd's mortality was part of what made him interesting.

[Fungus]

Hold on. Dredd's shifting and developing outlook is what makes him interesting (caveat: Dredd isn't interesting, the megacity is?). No-one reset his brain as far as I know. You give him a paint job, you keep him on the streets longer, surely.

[TordelBack]

It's also worth remembering that not so long ago there was a thread on this very forum calling for the issue of Dredd's ageing to be resolved somehow. MC was only giving us what we'd been clamouring for for a while.

Whereas I really didn't want the aging problem sorted at all, in fact that was one of the Dredd strips most interesting attributes. I understand why they felt the need to do it, but it was to the detriment of that great building aspect of the strip since question of judgement.

Completely agree with this. Dredd's mortality was part of what made him interesting.

One of the positive aspects of the quick-fix is that it's easily reversible at any point: as with Face Change machines there could be a limit to many times Carousel will be effective.

[Colin YNWA]

Hold on. Dredd's shifting and developing outlook is what makes him interesting (caveat: Dredd isn't interesting, the megacity is?). No-one reset his brain as far as I know. You give him a paint job, you keep him on the streets longer, surely.

And Fungus has nailed it. If you ask me (and someone might have done you never know) the aging Dredd had been done to death and was getting tired in itself and the story (and character) needed to move on from it. While Carosual hasn't done that entirelyh hopefully its parked it until there's something else to say in the matter.