Mallard Fillmore
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| Mallard Fillmore | |
|---|---|
 Title panel for Mallard Fillmore Sunday strips. |
|
| Author(s) | Bruce Tinsley |
| Current status / schedule | Running |
| Launch date | May 30, 1994 |
| Syndicate(s) | King Features Syndicate |
| Genre(s) | Drunk Driving |
Mallard Fillmore is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bruce Tinsley. The strip follows the exploits of its title character, a politically conservative anthropomorphic green-feathered duck who works as a reporter at fictional television station WFDR in Washington, D.C., USA. Syndicated by King Features Syndicate since May 30, 1994, Mallard Fillmore appears in approximately 400-450 newspapers across the United States.[citation needed]
During the 1980s, the name "Mallard Fillmore" was used by DC Comics's Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew as the name of the U.S. President of "Earth-C," also a green-feathered duck.
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[edit] History
In 1991, Bruce Tinsley, who was an editorial cartoonist for Charlottesville, Virginia The Daily Progress, was asked to create a cartoon character as a mascot for the newspaper's entertainment page. After several rejects, a duck, which Bruce named "Mallard Fillmore," was accepted, and made his debut in the paper.
Soon after, Tinsley, despite warnings from the editor, started using Mallard Fillmore to express his conservative views in his cartoons. Tinsley was fired from his cartooning position.
Tinsley started sending samples of Mallard Fillmore, then known as The Fillmore File, to newspapers across the country and was eventually picked up by The Washington Times, who began running it in 1992. The strip was soon later picked up for national syndication by King Features Syndicate, who began distributing it in May 1994.
[edit] Characters
- Mallard Fillmore is the main character in the comic strip. He is a seasoned conservative reporter for fictional television station WFDR-TV in Washington, D.C., which hired him in order to fill its quota for "Amphibious Americans," despite the fact that he is not an amphibian. To date, Mallard has made no effort to correct this oversight.
- Mallard's name is a pun on the name of the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore. Although Mallard is, as his name suggests, a mallard duck, he is only occasionally shown with a mallard's coloring. Even when the daily strip is printed in color, Mallard generally appears as solid black. He does not exhibit any ducklike behaviour, and the other characters (who are all human) never comment on his being a duck, except for in the strip posted right next to this statement.
- Mallard yearns for the "good old days," and views himself as a victimized underdog in a world that is being overrun with political correctness, religious secularism, and hypocrisy. He is often in a state of outrage over the news item of the day, usually involving liberals.
- Mallard's politics are very close, if not one and the same, to cartoonist Bruce Tinsley's - in fact, Tinsley told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that "Mallard really is about as close to me as you can get," in an October 2005 interview.
- Although WFDR appears to be a small, local channel, Mallard is still capable of interviewing famous politicians such as Al Gore. Occasionally, he will mention a study done by the "Fillmore Foundation," a think tank which may or may not actually exist in the comic strip, which he presumably heads. Mallard seems to be conscious of the fact that he is a fictional cartoon character, and is capable of "feeling poorly drawn." Mallard is also a bachelor, though in 2002 he had a date with a human woman he met in line at the post office. The date did not go well because he did not agree with her politics. He appears to be quite fond of Ann Coulter. Mallard did not attend journalism school, a fact repeatedly commented on in the comic, usually as an explanation as to why Mallard does not understand something about the WFDR news priorities.
- Mr. Noseworthy is Mallard's boss at WFDR. He is a parody of political correctness in America, afraid of offending anyone or anything. He is also a parody of the mainstream media, which is portrayed in the strip as having a liberal bias. Noseworthy's catchphrase is, "If you'd gone to journalism school, you'd know this stuff." He has a daughter in college who "came out" as a conservative.
- Chet is a co-worker of Mallard's at WFDR. He is an arrogant, vain, superficial, Botox-injecting, clothes-obsessed Caucasian male. In a series of strips in late 2003, he discovered he is a "metrosexual."
- Chantel, an African-American woman reporter, is a co-worker of Mallard's at WFDR. She is described as "smart, aggressive, and liberal." Unlike most liberals depicted in "Mallard Fillmore," she is presented as an intelligent, competent person. She is usually used whenever a scene calls for a minority or a minority perspective – although she is offended when her colleagues assume she speaks on behalf of all African-Americans. On average, she appears about once or twice a year.
- Dave Quat, a conservative Vietnamese man, is Mallard's best friend, who generally agrees with Mallard's politics. He is the owner of his own diner, aptly named "Dave's Diner." His wife has never been seen.
- Rush Quat is Dave's young son. He is named after conservative talk radio personality Rush Limbaugh. Rush is in the fourth grade and hopes to someday become a professional basketball player; he sometimes plays basketball with Mallard. Unlike most of the kids in his class, he does not take Ritalin (his immigrant family cannot afford it).
- Eddie is Mallard's pet fish. Unlike Mallard, he does not speak but only comments in thought balloons.
- Congressman Pinkford Veneer is a fictional Washington, D.C. Democratic Congressman. He is a spineless, hypocritical, out-of-touch politician who enjoys tax hikes and opposes school vouchers, even though he sends his own children to a private school. In April 2000, he authored a bill that would require criminals to "give their victims a 30-second waiting period to unlock their trigger-locks" on their guns.
- "Bruce Tinsley," the cartoonist, sometimes appears in the comic strip, represented by a giant hand holding a pencil over the scene. The other characters are capable of interacting with him, and presumably are aware that they are fictional comic strip characters. "Bruce Tinsley" usually comments on how things are depicted in an editorial cartoon. For example, a series of strips from June 1999 deals with Mr. Noseworthy arguing with "Bruce Tinsley" over how the cartoonist should depict a mugger.
- OSHA-Boy is a guardian of workplace safety and safe working conditions who is authorized to "annoy virtually anyone suspected of violating a regulation." He appears to be a flying, glasses-wearing dwarf (or other creature) with a superhero-like costume, and a clipboard in hand. He appears to be a physical manifestation of OSHA.
- Dr. Dilton Twinkley, an education expert, often appears as a guest on WFDR to talk about education issues. He appears to be an exaggerated parody of the NEA and U.S. public school system officials.
- Larry, a co-worker of Mallard's who gets agitated whenever Mallard does not purchase candy from his son for his school's annual fundraisers.
- Mr. or Ms. P.C. Person, a superhero-like physical manifestation of political correctness who prides hirself on being gender-neutral.
- Eddie Fillmore, Mallard's unseen father, a World War II veteran. According to Mallard, he spent three years in the Navy aboard the San Jacinto.
[edit] Controversies
[edit] Parody in America (The Book)
In the 2004 book America (The Book), written by the staff of The Daily Show, a parody of Mallard Fillmore appears in a section about political cartoons (which also included parodies of Peanuts and Doonesbury strips):
- Panel 1 - Mallard: Liberals want to tie the hands of industry with more environmental legislation.
- Panel 2 - Mallard: Why must we punish our most productive citizens with an income tax?
- Panel 3 - Mallard: Ooops! I forgot to tell a joke!
In the strip's July 5-July 8, 2005, editions, Tinsley responded to the America (The Book) parody, claiming that Jon Stewart "tried to deceive people into thinking it was a real [Mallard Fillmore strip]" by using the comic's name and a fictitious date.[1]
The 2006 paperback "Teacher's Edition" of America (The Book) further addresses this controversy. On the page with the Mallard strip, notes from an "editor" remark that "This does not appear to be an authentic 'Fillmore' cartoon, although the authors of this book have captured accurately the strip's level of humor."
[edit] The war in Iraq
From a January 2003 article in Editor & Publisher about columnists and cartoonists commenting about the situation in Iraq:
| “ | Bruce Tinsley has used his Mallard Fillmore comic to tweak the media for covering Bush in a negative way. "They portray any military position taken by a Republican president as warmongering," said Tinsley. "But I'm not personally sold on this war. I'm disappointed that the administration hasn't been more forthcoming on the reasons for a war."
Tinsley, however, has not expressed his doubts in Mallard -- with one reason being that he feels those doubts are already finding expression in many editorial cartoons and other media commentary (despite the "mainstream media's" copious other faults in his eyes). In fact, an examination of the strips indicates that Mallard has, from 2001 to the present, actually mocked President Bill Clinton, who left office in January of 2001, more times than it has mocked President George W. Bush.[citation needed] |
” |
[edit] Jewish stereotypes
On January 4, 2005 a Mallard Fillmore strip was published featuring a television executive whom bloggers accused of being a Jewish caricature that promoted the anti-Semitic stereotype that "Hollywood is run by Jews."[2] The strip did not run in some of its normal venues, such as the Boston Globe[citation needed]. While the main "Mallard" page only shows a week's worth of cartoons at a time[3], this cartoon is available on Jewish World Review's web site.[4]
The strip's caricature of Jon Stewart, with a long, downwardly pointed nose, was criticized by satirist Stephen Colbert, who, during a December 14, 2006 show, joked that the caricature may have been "clip art from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
[edit] Endorsement of Tom Coburn
A series of strips from March 2006 featured an outright political endorsement of Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), certainly a rarity for a nationally syndicated comic strip.[5] Addressing the audience directly, Mallard urged fellow conservatives to "take a long look at freshman senator Tom Coburn for the Republican presidential nomination," citing his anti-pork barrel stance.
Coburn has caused controversy over his views on homosexuality (he is quoted as saying "The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power. .. That agenda is the greatest threat to our freedom that we face today") and abortion (he favors "the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life").[6]
[edit] "Draft Walter Williams" '08 campaign
In a series of strips beginning January 29, 2007, Mallard mounted a campaign to draft Walter E. Williams, a syndicated columnist and professor of economics at George Mason University, as the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. [7]
[edit] Recurring themes of Mallard Fillmore
- The Liberal Lexicon — Satiric definitions of liberal “buzzwords” or phrases.
- Liberals, the Early Years — Liberal stereotypes during the Stone Age.
- Caligula
- Mallard's Gift Ideas
- Circus Music
- Mallentines
- Bangkok Ladyboys
- The Use of the Piledriver in Professional Wrestling
- Eating Sandwiches
- A Mallard Issue Brief
- Wetland Conservation
- Freshwater Fish
- Perpetual Motion Machines
- Mallard's New Year's Predictions/Resolutions
- The Invincible Laughing Dog
- Mallard's Back-to-School Predictions/Facts
- Muscle Cars
- Dear Mallard — Mallard responds to supposed reader mail.
- Migratory Bird Protection
- Chappaquiddick
- Massapequa Park
[edit] Book collections
| Title | Publication Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Mallard Fillmore | October 1, 1995 | ISBN 0-8362-0778-5 |
| Mallard Fillmore. ...on the Stump | May 1, 1996 | ISBN 0-8362-1311-4 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Mallard Fillmore
- ^ If It Walks Like an Anti-Semite, and Quacks Like an Anti-Semite.... Gawker (January 6, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ King Features Syndicate - Comics
- ^ http://jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/MFT50104.jpg
- ^ Mallard Fillmore
- ^ Medicine man - Salon.com
- ^ Williams can't duck campaign pushes, Washington Times, February 8, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Mallard Fillmore Archives at Jewish World Review
- Mallard Fillmore at King Features Syndicate
- Mallard Fillmore at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
