Vulgar Language and Non Sequitur

As of Sunday afternoon, at least forty newspapers across the United States have dropped the long running comic, Non Sequitur, from its comic pages. The reason behind the loss in popularity is that the comic “betrayed (its reader base’s) trust with profanity.” The comic in question ran sometime last week and had a small scribbled message directed toward the US President to “go (expletive) yourself”.

The decision to drop the comic has a political reason behind it, but how about comic strips such as Doonesbury or political cartoons in the Editorial page that blatantly ridicule politicians? It appears that the message was not in context with the comic’s punchline on the page and was really a message breaking the fourth wall between Wiley Miller and his readers. There are also more stringent rules relating to profanity on syndicated newspaper comics due to the exposure to a much younger audience. The same rules on profanity are a lot less strict for webcomics.

It is just hard to imagine that a comic that has been running in American newspapers since 1992 can be pulled overnight because of the f-word.

Be careful when using vulgar language!


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