New makeover for Dennis......UPDATED

[felneymike]

I was looking through the 1998 annual recently to find something mentioned on these boards (the 98 annual being primarily reprints of strips from 1985), ans noticed several strips where Walter does actually fight back in malicious ways, for instance dropping drawing pins all over the place as Dennis charges about on a bike. So even over 20 years ago they were on a more equal footing than the big bully picking on the wimp.

Though thinking about it, making Dennis an "honourable" character who gets into trouble by bad luck, accident or "for the greater good", whilst making his nemesis a "sneak" has more than a few shades of the Magnet, Gem and the like. Though without the canes!

[Phoenix]

I didn't learn to laugh at teachers by seeing Old Ma Murphy's senses get mangled when she was struck forcibly on the head by the school's globe, nor did I become a glutton after reading episodes involving Hungry Horace, and I was certainly never persuaded by Keyhole Kate's obsession to go looking through my neighbours' keyholes or letter boxes. I was probably less worldly wise at seven or eight than children of the same age today, but I was no less impressionable, and yet I knew that those cartoon characters were not giving me examples to copy, still less teaching me how to behave. I did come across a few bullies as a child but at no time were there any hints that they were copying any fictional characters. They just seemed to enjoy bullying people. I firmly believe that no aspect of today's children's behaviour has been influenced or directed by comic characters in The Dandy or The Beano either. Children these days don't become bullies because they've been reading Dennis The Menace. Those that do bully other children are innately bullies, just as they were when I was a lad. I will accept that violence in films and computer games may lead sometimes to copycat behaviour, but most youngsters who watch the films and play the games are not affected. They know it isn't real life they are looking at, they are simply playing games on the PS3, for example. In my day a bully would have been clipped round the ear by the local copper and then taken home. His dad would have then given him a right good hiding into the bargain. Parents can't do that these days because there are laws preventing it. Primary school teachers are extremely reluctant even to console a crying child for fear of being sued for assault. It is against this background that we should assess Dennis's makeover. Thomsons are simply being pragmatic and covering their backs. The last thing they want is adults complaining that the strips are giving their children objectionable, aggressive and even nasty attitudes or turning them into bullies. The problem lies somewhere within the area of namby-pambyism and the Court of Human Rights. But, whichever way you look at it, and in whatever time period, Dennis is not to blame, with or without his catapult.