Emotional support animal II

If anybody has trouble accessing our website, I apologize. I’ve been postponing that revamp of our site for years now, and apparently there seems to be some kind of defect that takes up way too many resources on the server. I’ve tried all the suggested fixes by our server hosting provider, but nothing seems to work, so they’re throttling down our server time to the point where the website is barely up.

It’s so, so very frustrating that I never find the time to finally get this over with, but if you have two little children and are chasing every cent to somehow pay the bills at the end of the month, it seems impossible to scrape out a couple of weeks to do “unpaid” work like this.

I’ve promised myself to redo our website this year, but now it’s already the end of summer and I haven’t even started. Sigh!

So, anyway, sorry if you encounter any error messages around here!

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12 comments on “Emotional support animal II
  1. Leia says:

    Ick.

    An unusually tone deaf strip, guys. Playing mental health and disabilities for a laugh is… ick.

  2. Franck Mée says:

    @Leia: I felt it was a nice, humorous way to draw attention on support pets, which are indeed very useful for a wide range of serious disabilities and are often disregarded by many officials (cops, safety agents, air stewards and so one are usually aware of guide dogs for the blind, but they have a dramatical lack of awareness when it comes to support pets for other disabilities).
    I mean, I understand your point, but I guess there are to sides to a coin.

  3. mike says:

    If you follow this series from the beginning and read my blog last week, you might see that it is about people abusing a great system intended to help people who actually need it, which happens in many areas in our modern lives unfortunately. We have been in situations with, for example, a Great Dane comfortable resting his testicles on our lap while taking up 2 additional seats and more or less blocking half the isle and the emergency exit. It is not ok to inconvenience a bunch of travelers and even aviation safety in order to get your way. These are my true feelings as commercial aircraft captain.
    In no way, shape or form do we intend to get laughs on the backs of disabled. Long time readers will take note that Chicken Wings is about aviation safety, lighting enthusiasm about aviation with the next generation, keeping as much general aviation operating by fighting to keep airfields from closing and helping small aviation businesses often at great financial investment on our side.

    In this comic strip we see a chicken abusing the system and the other chicken calling him on it, giving him a hard time. It appears his joke might have been a bit harsh and cynical and hopefully didn’t offend too many readers since he only intended to make fun of Chuck. Maybe they have some human tendencies after all….

  4. stef says:

    We apologize if we hurt anyone’s feelings with this strip! I promise that wasn’t our intention. Sometimes we hit, sometimes we miss, sometimes we’re way off the mark, it seems.

  5. Bernd says:

    In your defense, I’d like to quote one of the German grandmasters of satire, Kurt Tucholsky: “Was darf die Satire? – Alles.”

    The full text of his short treatise is here: https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Was_darf_die_Satire%3F_(Tucholsky)
    And here is an English translation: http://kurttucholsky.blogspot.com/2006/02/was-darf-die-satire.html

    Your strip clearly exaggerates the misuse of the support-animal idea in the way satire does and should to make its point. It is unfortunate that sometimes people may be offended by it, but that cannot always be avoided, or the whole point would be lost.

  6. Jan Olieslagers says:

    There’s not the slightest need for apologies. Do not give in to the narrow-minded!

    And BTW I never experienced any problem or issue accessing this blessed website, either.

    Keep up the good work!

  7. joshua says:

    Don’t apologize for satire. An opinion is always offensive to someone, and to quote Stephen Fry “so **** what?”

  8. Leia says:

    Me again. For clarity, the first strip in the ‘set’ WAS funny – and clearly making fun of people abusing the system, by comparing them to Chuck, who is clearly and consistently portrayed as a bit of a fool.

    This one though… It makes fun of Chuck by comparing him to a person with a mental illness and/or disability. That’s what’s offends me. Chuck is clearly and consistently portrayed as a fool, That association of mental illness and disability with being a fool is problematic.

  9. Fbs says:

    Wow. The politically correct frenzy has gained even more ground than I thought…Poor world

    A well known French humorist once said : « one can make a joke with anything , but not with anyone » (free home-brewed translation)

  10. stef says:

    Thanks for everyone chiming in and keeping this civil!

    Leia, you had every right to feel offended, just like everybody is entitled to their own feelings and opinions. The strip was not meant to be insulting or demeaning, but I see how it can be read that way and I apologize (again) to you and anyone who felt offended.

    However, while I see where you’re coming from, I also think you’re applying a bit too harsh a standard on a comic strip.

    I’ve been at the receiving end of outrage a few times in my career, and it’s never a good feeling. When I read a comment like yours, it makes my stomach sink, because I don’t know if it’s just friendly advice or the little trickling beginning of a shitstorm. In today’s communication culture, you never know when the outrage mob will descend upon you and try to ruin your life over one stupid tweet or comment.

    And I hate that feeling of having to walk on eggshells. It stifles creativity and sucks the joy out of trying to be funny. You have no idea what amount of ideas we already trashed for the sake of not being religiously offensive, triggering a political discussion or being misinterpreted as sexist or racist. And even though we try, we STILL get it wrong every now and then.

    Maybe one day we’ll go full South Park on you guys and instead of trying not to offend, just try to offend everyone equally!

  11. Good Canadian Kid says:

    Where was mental health and disabilities being played for a laugh? All I saw was a comic strip of someone abusing a system designed to help people with mental health and disabilities.

  12. Leia says:

    Once more for further clarity.

    Mocking Chuck by stating he’s mental ill or mentally disabled automatically and avoidably puts mental illness and disability in a “something worth mocking” category.

    That’s the offensive bit. By using it as an insult you automatically demean it.

    I’m not looking to start “a shitstorm”. I’m just pointing out that what looks harmless to a comic strip writer does not look harmless to someone who has had their illness or disabilty used to mock them.

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