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THE DOONESBONUS

30 years of cartoons, 60 minutes of trivia

The early years

  1. The first Doonesbury strip was published on October 26, 1970. Who was the first character readers encountered?

  2. Before syndication by UPI, a "proto-Doonesbury" strip by Gary Trudeau appeared in the Yale daily paper. What was it called?
The early Doonesbury books were titled with a quote from one of the characters in the book. For the following books, who is being quoted, and to whom (if anyone) are they speaking?

  1. Ask For May, Settle For June

  2. Wouldn't A Gremlin Have Been More Sensible?

  3. We're Eating More Beets!

  4. Call Me When You Find America

  5. In Search Of Reagan's Brain

Character Basics

Identify the following characters:

  8. Doonesbury charcters are generally human, with a few notable exceptions. Who and what are the non-human characters in the strip?

Character Details

Doonesbury characters tend to have held a multitude of careers over the years. Below we give sets of jobs that a character has held (not comprehensive). You have to name the character.

  1. Drug dealer, US House candidate, Cookie mogul

  2. Preschool teacher, DA (that's District Attorney, not Daily Advisor)

  3. Professional tanner, Lt. Governor of Samoa, Nanny

  4. Computer Programmer, Construction Worker, Activist

  5. Speaking of multiple careers, Duke's had a lot of careers, more than we care to count. Circle the jobs he really has had (in the strip), cross out the fakes:

  6. Duke ran for president in 2000 on a platform of Compassionate Fascism. Who was his running mate, and who did he favor for secretary of housing?

  7. What's Zonker's real first name?

  8. Two major characters have died in the 30 years of the strip. Name them and their causes of death.

  9. We meet Kim much earlier than Mike does. When do we meet her and why is she important?

  10. Who does Boopsie primarily channel for?

  11. We never get to see BD without a helmet on. (He claims he has bad hair.) Over the course of the strip we've seen him in seven different helmets: But not in this order. Put (label) BD's helmets in the proper chronological order.

Icons Of Our Times

Several prominent politicians have appeared in Doonesbury represented by icons. For each world leader, describe, or draw, the icon by which they are represented in the strip:

  1. George Bush

  2. Pat Buchanan

  3. Bill Clinton

  4. Dan Quayle

  5. Newt Gingrich

  6. George W. Bush

  7. Before the Clinton icon was finalized, readers were given a chance to vote on two possibilities. What icon for Clinton didn't make the cut?

  8. In a series on the NRA, Gingrich is portrayed with a slight change to his icon. What does the changed icon represent?

Plotlines

  1. Mike and Kim start a dot.com business together when Mike leaves Bernie's Byte Shack. What's the name of the business, and why does it fail so catastrophically?

  2. Give a concise business plan for myVulture.com, Mike and Kim's new venture.

    BONUS: What is the origin of the business plan?

  3. How does Zonker become Lord Zonker?

    BONUS: What is his complete title?

Doonesbury is, at heart, a strip about relationships. What's the connection between the following pairs of characters - i.e., how/where did they meet?:

  1. Mike and B.D.

  2. Joanie and Ginny

  3. JJ and Jeff

  4. Zonker and Alex

  5. Mark and Neil

  6. Duke and Alice

Doonesbury and Real Life

  1. Who's Barry Svigals?

  2. What real-life celebrity is Uncle Duke based on? Describe the relationship between this celeb and Trudeau.

  3. Gary Trudeau won a Pulitzer in 1975 for cartooning. What was his reaction to the award?

  4. What was "The Doonesbury Bill", passed in Palm Beach in the mid-eighties?

  5. Gary Trudeau took a sabbatical from the strip in 1983 until late 1984. The Wisconsin state legislature declared a state of emergency and issued a public appeal for people to remain calm in the face of this emergency. What project did he take on during this time off?

  6. GBT got into an awful lot of trouble for publishing a phone number, which character Ron Headrest recommended kids call for safe sex information. For what was this actually the number?

    BONUS: GBT once published another phone number, which resulted in his being sued for campaign finance law violations. To whom did this number belong?

  7. What's the connection between character Jimmy Thudpucker and guitarist Steve "The Colonel" Cropper?

  8. GBT satirized Al Gore during his first presidential campaign, calling him "The Prince", a reference to his upbringing as a Senator's son. How did Gore react?

  9. Which character has appeared on Larry King Live?

  10. Which character received a law degree from Berkeley's Boalt Hall?

The Contemporary Doonesbury

What is the current career/situation for the following characters?

  1. Mike Doonesbury

  2. Roland Hedly

  3. Barbara Ann Boopstein (Boopsie)

  4. B.D.

  5. JJ
Fill in the punchlines:

  3. Describe the final panel of this famous comic (which many newspapers refused to run.)