''Channel Chuckles'' is a television-themed

comic panel A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book, as well as a graphic novel. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment. When multiple panels are present, they ar ...

created by Bil Keane which appeared in newspapers from 1954 through 1976. Keane received the

National Cartoonists Society The National Cartoonists Society (NCS) is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the ...

's 1976 Special Features Award for his work on the strip.Special Features
Discontinued Categories, Awards, National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved September 12, 2009. In its daily form, ''Channel Chuckles'' is a single-panel gag on the general theme of television, or specifically relating to a popular television series or TV commercial. The Sunday version of ''Channel Chuckles'' consists of several unrelated spot gags in color. Most of the ''Channel Chuckles'' gags are simple wordplay references to the titles of contemporary television programs. For example, one gag shows a small TV set on top of a larger TV set, each of them displaying on its screen the title of a current TV sitcom. While the upper TV set showed ''

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'', the one underneath blared '' Hey, Landlord!''. One ''Channel Chuckles'' gag is a caricature of Mr. Spock from ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vario ...

'' receiving letters requesting advice on child-rearing (a reference to Doctor

Benjamin Spock Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copies ...

). Another ''Channel Chuckles'' gag depicts a mad scientist working in his laboratory while a nearby television intones the slogan of a current DuPont ad campaign: " Better Living Through Chemistry". Another familiar slogan is lampooned in a panel showing a little boy watching a

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

commercial while his father says, "And progress is ''our'' most important product. Do your homework!" Keane would sometimes subdivide the narrow space allotted to his ''Channel Chuckles'' feature in order to squeeze in two panels. One two-panel gag is based on the titles of two then-current TV series. In the first panel, a man asks his wife "Why can't you be more like that show?" while pointing to a TV set as it displays the title '' Occasional Wife''. In the second panel, the wife points to the same TV while asking her husband "And why can't you be more like ''that'' show?". Her TV screen showed the title '' The Man Who Never Was''. Some gags feature "Aunt Tenna", a matronly woman with her hair done in the form of a TV antenna, who spends all of her time watching television or engaged in TV-related activities. The other recurring character in ''Channel Chuckles'' is "Dim Viewer", a grumpy old man who always has something negative to say about television programming, commercials or reception. Other gags poke fun at the genre of mother-daughter look-alikes television commercials of the late 1960s, such as the Grape-Nuts look-alikes, Mrs. Burke and her daughter Dale.

References

External links

Bil Keane Cartoons 1954–1966 at Syracuse University: original ''Channel Chuckles'' artwork
American comic strips 1954 comics debuts 1976 comics endings Gag cartoon comics Parody comics Satirical comics Comics set in the 1950s Comics set in the 1960s Comics set in the 1970s Comics based on television series {{comic-strip-stub