Mutt & Jeff by Bud Fisher for October 03, 2015

Wow — this is the first M&J strip I’ve seen on this site with a “colored man” in it!:Something tells me this strip won’t be repeated very often here.

Let’s just hope this doesn’t cause a problem.

This is 2015, not 1940

I’m surprised this one got past the PC police, historical or not!

I turn 80 this week and remember when strips like this were common. It’s a reminder of the past, but strips like this belong in cultural museums, just like pickaninny figurines, Stepan Fetchit, and the confederate flag.

Wonder how many here are old enough to remember Amos and Andy on radio, and later on tv. Yes, that show perpetuated stereotypes. On the other hand I remember the Kingfish, on the tv, as being a scream, and most importantly, an obvious caricature(like Sam, and Mutt and Jeff too, for that matter). The fact that he was a comic figure, unlike his pal, Andy, who I believe drove a cab, was an upstanding member of society, and played straightman to the exaggerated Kingfish wasn’t that bad a thing. It was easy for me, a young boy in rural Ohio to be able to “get” that part of the show, just like I “got,” a few years later, that Ralph Kramden was just a character played for comic effect. I hope our African American friends aren’t too offended by this piece of Americana. It’s a part of us all. When you acknowledge and embrace something, you gain control over it and it loses its power.

Politically incorrect yet funny.

Political correctness is no less of a danger to the fabric of our culture than racism.

Please, no one tell “The View” that this was here.

A local grocery store once decorated with an African theme-ie Nile River, Mt. Kilaminjaro, Zambezi River, Victoria Falls,etc – but Niger River was accidentally spelled with 2 gs!I pointed this out to one of the associates and presume this was corrected.(The area is now a parking lot)

Actually, there are quite often black characters in Mutt & Jeff, but the current colorist makes everyone white. Sam’s features here are stereotypical of how blacks used to be drawn, and it’s fairly obvious a lot of these old M&J strips were intended to have black characters the way they’re drawn.

I don’t think it is fair to suggest that anyone is being “politically correct” just for being concerned about the antiquated and offensive stereotype shown here. This strip was (I hope) created a long time ago. Why run it today? I’m surprised that any editor today would pass this along to be printed in a newspaper or posted to this website. Yes, we should be aware that such depictions existed, and we should be able to talk freely about them, but they need to be put in their appropriate historical context, as in a museum exhibit or a history book. To publish such a strip in this venue is to suggest that such depictions are still acceptable.

I won’t rehash the history of Mutt and Jeff as discussed above, but I think that having the original publication year included on classic strips would aid in any possible misunderstandings concerning the outmoded content. Obviously, “1991” was not when this first appeared. o.O As alluded to above, it was what it was and it’s a part of our history. But in the interest of historic “P.C.” a disclaimer might be wise. But yeah, the gag was funny. :3

Isn’t it possible to indicate the year that these M&J strips were drawn? They are windows into the slang, humor, dress, economic life, marital relationships, and friendship codes of other generations. Dating them all “1991”, etc. makes them less interesting than they could be. In fact it diminishes their value a lot.

For the uneducated or congenitally stupid, colored is not insulting and was always the way to refer to somebody of Sam’s race with respect. However being called Sam the colored man, makes it seem he was the only black man in the state or country.

Being Politically Correct is what allows the words of yesterday to be spoken of in whispers or in the dark where they can secretly breed more of the hate they represent. Only people like Norman Lear and Mel Brooks knew how to ‘defuse’ them and render them harmless.I would think crime movies and shows do more damage .than being politically incorrect

Bull! This strip is being presented as it was at a certain time in history, and should be left as it was originally written, as it is shown here today. “Correcting” of “defusing” is a crock. Doing that is simply telling lies for the propagation of a certain viewpoint. Would you rewrite the Constitution or the Declaration of In dependence because you think some of the language is doesn’t fit your philosophy? Leave it alone!

The only caricatures on A & A ,the TV show, were George “Kingfish” Stevens, and “Lightning” the custodian at the lodge hall “The Mystic Knights of the Sea”. All of the other people were doctors, lawyers professors etc. The NAACP had them takin’ of the air, but they won’t talk about Rap music or what passes for comedy today. I have the complete set of A &A on dvd. I’m Black and live in South Central