Feiffer: The Collected Works, Vol.4: Passionella

Rating:
Summary: Jules Feiffer makes you think as well as laugh.
Review: Jules Feiffer is a comedy genius, one of a kind. I will never figure out why he was never syndicated. Why did his comics only appear in the Village Voice? Maybe he is syndicated, but not in any papers that I've ever seen. There's no reason why his cartoons wouldn't be appropriate in a mainstream newspaper (which the Village Voice certainly is not). If Doonsbury could make it into widespread (to say the least) syndication, then why can't Jules Feiffer. Maybe he chose not to, for some reason or other. All I know is that millions of Americans have been deprived for years of the comedic genius of Feiffer. Sure, he's intellectual, but certainly not out of reach of an average I.Q. Oh, well. Anyway, I will tell you that he is deep, in a way that is reminiscent of the Peanuts cartoons of the fifties to the sixties: funny, but fragile and touching as well. He can put a political edge to his material, or he can just make a statement about the human condition. Actually, the latter is what he does best. To enjoy Jules Feiffer, one need not be a genius, but just a thinker. But the main thing is he has an uncanny ability to hit the nail right on the head, and not shove the point he's making down your throat. It's satirical and pointed comedy that goes down as easy as Budweiser, the king of beers.