The Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn for January 30, 2013

And her brother’s in touble next, he’s in the other room rearranging the furniture.

Good one.

She understands this, but doesn’t get why she’s punished every time before she eat.

Not sure if this cartoon is in good taste. From Wikipedia: Keller was frustrated, at first, because she did not understand that every object had a word uniquely identifying it. In fact, when Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for “mug”, Keller became so frustrated she broke the doll.13 Keller’s big breakthrough in communication came the next month, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of “water”; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.

“You hug your Mom with those hands?”

Uh-oh, the culture police.

Anne Sullivan is the strictest teacher, hands down.

Does every strip have to have a deep analysis? Take it at face value; if you speak profanity you get your mouth washed with soap. But Helen signs, so she gets her hands washed . Very simple.

Watch your language or it’s mittens for you.

If Helen Keller fell down in the woods, would she make a sound? Ah, I miss the 70s.

I vote funny.

We should be washing our hands too every time we give some one the bird

I do believe Miss Keller would find this humorous.

I always heard they made her read the waffle iron.

Personally, I never liked the ethnic or the Helen Keller-type jokes. But this one is pretty mild. Do you doubt that blind people have humor among themselves in this vein? Or people with other infirmities? It’s a way they have to pre-empt the scorn of “normals.” The “handicapped” have self-respect these days, and the secret knowledge that they use more of the capabilities they have. Maybe everybody should experience an “infirmity” for a while..Of course, it’s bad taste – this is the era of bad taste, or at least no taste, or even anti-taste. Open vulgarity is the flavor of our humor these days. Look at all the Simpson-type cartoon shows these days. Years ago they would have appeared only in underground comics. .This comes and goes. Read some of the plays from Restoration Period England. They are, to say the least, extremely bawdy. Ridicule of cuckolds was a common theme. .I cringe at the rough and vulgar humor today that broadcasts even in primetime. But this is not my era, anymore — I’m increasingly the old man on the park bench, shaking his head at “such goings-on.” Eventually there will be a show called, “America’s Funniest (fill in the blank)”. With the ability to take videos that everyone potentially has, I shudder to think what will be shown.

It is in poor taste because it is insensitive and stupid. It tries to be funny by suggesting that Helen Keller had to communicate in sign language because she was deaf. That’s stupid. Deaf people can talk; they just can’t hear. It is hard for deaf people to learn how to pronounce words correctly, but Keller could do that. The cartoon is also in poor taste to show Helen Keller was made to wash her hands as punishment. In fact, this was precisely how Keller came to understand what her teacher was doing. Her teacher put one of Keller’s hands under the water from a pump and in the other hand made the symbol for water. This was her breakthrough moment.

The Chicago Tribune did it again! It didn’t carry this January 30, 2013 Argyle Sweater comic strip and replaced it with a 2009 Argyle Sweater comic strip which mentions Clay Aiken (But from what 2009 date?).

Hey Scott, I can’t agree with the comment above mine by Magnolia42… hahaha.. One of my best friends is a deaf mute, and occasionally we get in a disagreement, and I’ll just end it by saying; “Why don’t you just shut your hands man!!” We both end up laughing every time! Life is TOO serious to take TOO seriously. Keep up the hard work Scott! 8) JFD

Oops, just noticed a grammatical error in my previous comment there about magnolia’s comment… I meant to say; “I couldn’t agree more!” 8) JFD

It is a from a socialist political track called “The happy ending”.

Her punishments taught her how to balance on top of park soapboxes.

I found the humor in this and enjoyed it. And as @emptc12 said and @John DeAngelis pointed out people with afflictions of any kind still have a sense of humor. I’m not sure about some of the people here, though. Lighten up.

Speaking of poor taste…Why did Helen Keller have yellow socks?

Her dog was blind too.A lot of funny jokes growing up in the ’50s

Just a minute..Where did she learn this profanity from? I blame her teacher and society in general. No child left behind..the Palm edition.

Back in my college days, there was a person who had a tendency to run off at the hands…

I know a 1 finger sign for mom she can use