This is what happens when a cartoonist has the vague sense that a phrase has a familiar ring to it, but doesn’t remember that’s because it’s currently a very popular rallying cry of white supremacist groups…
Andréa, I was referring to the fact that Johnny Hart, at least in his later years… wasn’t very enlightened. So honestly, if he were still writing the strip, I wouldn’t be shocked if he deliberately worked in a racist chant.
But I’m assuming that whoever’s running the show now simply didn’t realize what he or she was actually saying.
This seems to be a deliberate reference, not a misfire. The thing saying the phrase is also holding up a sign specifically praising their ethnic group (well, species). If it’s not a reference to recent events, it’s an amazingly precise misfire.
1) The people who replaced Johnny Hart are trying to imitate him and have imitated his views (religious) a few times in ways that seemed like they cant *really* be the new persons view, can they?
2) Just because the clam is saying it, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s supposed to be sympathetic to the clam. Is slipping in a joke upon a white supremist phrase for the purpose of a joke that surprising? That surprising for B.C.? I mean is it *pro* sentiment to have a clam repeating a phrase about being replaced as currency or is it *mocking* the sentiment because it’s absurd in this situation? I’m honestly not sure.
However, It could be stated that this is not an appropriate subject of a joke. But do we expect anyone in the B.C. factory to think so?
I think it’s going a little to far to call Hart’s evangelism “unenlightened”. He wasn’t stupid, although he certainly was massively insensitive with a few infamous strips. Luckily, I had quit reading B.C. on a regular basis before that happened.
P.S. The “factory” currently responsible for B.C. is made up entirely of Hart’s descendents, making it a “legacy” strip (in contrast to a syndicated “zombie”). Unfortunately, the distinction is close to meaningless: I’ve read a few of “Mason’s” strips from time to time, but nothing I’ve seen has indicated that it would be worth following every day.
However, clams do seem to have been replaced as currency – so despite the plaintive cry on the placard, whatever its political resonance, unintended or ununintended, the tide of history has washed them away to redundancy and oblivion. (On the other hand, CLAMS are now a form of digital money… https://www.clamcoin.org/ )
Hart became a bit of a religion bigot late, but I don’t really recall much in way of racism or white power sentiment. I doubt Mason is trying for anything along those lines. I wasn’t familiar with the phrase, so I think it credible that he and his editors missed it.
The clams in B.C. are notorious for being mobile (“Clams got legs!”), so I don’t think they were ever a good choice for a medium of exchange. Who wants a wallet full of dollar bills that can get up and walk out whenver they feel like it? (Admittedly, that WOULD explain some times when I found myself amazed at how quickly my money seems to have vanished too quickly.)
Also, I don’t think I’d want to collect dollar-bill-equivalents that, when I DO realize they “got legs,” decide that “Now we’ll have to kill him.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
But maybe he DOES remember and that’s his political view. You never know!
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Johnny Hart’s dead.
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This is a rerun, then, not one drawn by someone else?
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Andréa, I was referring to the fact that Johnny Hart, at least in his later years… wasn’t very enlightened. So honestly, if he were still writing the strip, I wouldn’t be shocked if he deliberately worked in a racist chant.
But I’m assuming that whoever’s running the show now simply didn’t realize what he or she was actually saying.
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This seems to be a deliberate reference, not a misfire. The thing saying the phrase is also holding up a sign specifically praising their ethnic group (well, species). If it’s not a reference to recent events, it’s an amazingly precise misfire.
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1) The people who replaced Johnny Hart are trying to imitate him and have imitated his views (religious) a few times in ways that seemed like they cant *really* be the new persons view, can they?
2) Just because the clam is saying it, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s supposed to be sympathetic to the clam. Is slipping in a joke upon a white supremist phrase for the purpose of a joke that surprising? That surprising for B.C.? I mean is it *pro* sentiment to have a clam repeating a phrase about being replaced as currency or is it *mocking* the sentiment because it’s absurd in this situation? I’m honestly not sure.
However, It could be stated that this is not an appropriate subject of a joke. But do we expect anyone in the B.C. factory to think so?
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It would be a lot easier to consider the possibility that they were mocking the use of the phrase if the strip hadn’t been created by Johnny Hart.
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I think it’s going a little to far to call Hart’s evangelism “unenlightened”. He wasn’t stupid, although he certainly was massively insensitive with a few infamous strips. Luckily, I had quit reading B.C. on a regular basis before that happened.
P.S. The “factory” currently responsible for B.C. is made up entirely of Hart’s descendents, making it a “legacy” strip (in contrast to a syndicated “zombie”). Unfortunately, the distinction is close to meaningless: I’ve read a few of “Mason’s” strips from time to time, but nothing I’ve seen has indicated that it would be worth following every day.
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However, clams do seem to have been replaced as currency – so despite the plaintive cry on the placard, whatever its political resonance, unintended or ununintended, the tide of history has washed them away to redundancy and oblivion. (On the other hand, CLAMS are now a form of digital money… https://www.clamcoin.org/ )
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Perhaps a commentary on Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill?
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Hart became a bit of a religion bigot late, but I don’t really recall much in way of racism or white power sentiment. I doubt Mason is trying for anything along those lines. I wasn’t familiar with the phrase, so I think it credible that he and his editors missed it.
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The clams in B.C. are notorious for being mobile (“Clams got legs!”), so I don’t think they were ever a good choice for a medium of exchange. Who wants a wallet full of dollar bills that can get up and walk out whenver they feel like it? (Admittedly, that WOULD explain some times when I found myself amazed at how quickly my money seems to have vanished too quickly.)
Also, I don’t think I’d want to collect dollar-bill-equivalents that, when I DO realize they “got legs,” decide that “Now we’ll have to kill him.”
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