I'm not saying that anyone old enough to be able to read the newspaper will have heard this word quite a number of times and probably have used it once or twice.
I'm not saying that I've seen far worse things in the comic pages even without using this word, such as the plain mean-spiritedness of Mallard Fillmore.
I'm not saying any of these things. I'll just show you and let you draw your own conclusion.
Replies: 4 comments
This censorship was news to me too. I guess they figured no one would notice and they would save themselves the letters from readers who write in and complain every time they use that scary, scary word... What they didn't consider is that they actually ruin that strip.. Are they really allowed to do that???
Posted by hanna @ 12/13/2003 07:34 AM CST
That really does ruin the strip. Maybe they should have written it out as "Aitch-Eee-Double Hockey Sticks" instead. That would be just as obscure (and more in keeping with Satchel's character). I wonder now how often any kind of censorship happens and whether the cartoonists are informed when it happens.
Posted by Tricia @ 12/13/2003 08:10 AM CST
Not to stick up for the Real-Estatesman, but I wonder if this really is their doing. I think sometimes the syndicate may provide an alternate if they think that day's strip may cause a problem.
Posted by chip @ 12/13/2003 10:33 AM CST
Whoever edited it, it was a stupid edit. I mean, it would have been smarter to come up with a synonym for Hell itself, like Hades or The Pit of Evil or whatever. But then I guess it's easier to change a couple of letters in a comic strip than to have to make a longer word/phrase fit and match. Still. Laaaaaaame.
Posted by Jette @ 12/13/2003 01:46 PM CST
