Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 28, 2012

Finally! Gunther is showing possessiveness and aggression! Let’s see more!

chicken

“Greaseball”? Oh my.

So Gunther actually grows a spine when he is jealous. Thankfully Rosa doesn’t look too pleased with Mr Greasy Hair either, so Gunther still has a chance.

Oh please, please Gunther GO AFTER HER or one more GoComics commentor will call you gutless

What a place to pick up girls…the trash can!

Like I said…

It’s like throwing a switch…

How accommodating of the greaseball to stand at his name tent.

as I said long ago………………… in past comics it has been shown that Gunther has a very hot temper, and get a little possesive

Oh Boy!

Yes Yes Yes

so rosa doesn’t get to choose which guy she wants? It’s whoever “claims” her?

No,No Gunther.

Elwood’s the “Greaseball”. The Guy Rosa is talkin’ to is a Slimeball.

But THIS is Good!

Gunther is about to go all “Billy the Bookworm” on Mr. Slimeball’s Ass.

(Don’t worry, Gunth. I got the paramedics standing by and will NOTIFY your Next of Kin, if need be)

I think Rosa is more than capable of blunting Mister Pointy Nose’s snout for him with her pocketbook if she feels all that bothered. Or even just walk away, which would be more her style.

Well, Gunther is right about one thing: Rosa’s not his girl. And if she decides that she likes the slick “Greaseball,” she may never be. Your testosterone rush is awfully late, Gunther!

Rosa is probably ready to walk away, but Gunther will step in an show some jealousy – if he has the brains he is reputed to have.

No I think he’s an ethnic sir.

Remember the words of Roger Daltrey, Gunth – “I’ll take on anyone; ain’t scared of a bloody nose.”

Shaddup Gunther! You lost her when you hesitated!

You folks are giving up on Gunther too soon. There’s still time to win OR lose the game. Remember Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over till it’s over”

I loudly and vehemently stated a few days ago that his strength of character has nothing to do with undescended testes.However, I must admit that it sure looks like the reason why he suddenly doesn’t sit as far down as could a minute ago.

@SueBee1863: I had the same reaction. “Greaser” is an ethnic slur. I don’t know about the word “Greaseball,” but considering the storyline involves a Latina student, and the nationality of the interloper is unclear, any word using the word “grease” is an unfortunate choice.

Yeah, Gunther! Go get her, son!

Nice to begin the day by reading a longtime offensive slur in a cartoon strip.

From the dictionary: " Noun 1.greaseball – (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Italian descent." Of course, it has also been used for decades against Hispanics. What was the cartoonist thinking—unless the strip has Rosa dump him for using such language? A nerd is fine to date; a thoughtless bigot is not.

To be fair to Greg, I have never heard the term “greaseball” to refer to anyone other than someone with greasy hair.

tegm – I agree with the sentiment, but Rosa has already made it clear to Gunther that she’d like to see more of him. And yeah, mostly Gunther is a wimp, but then so are a lot of HS guys. Mostly they improve with age.

Consider Greg’s age. Back in the 50s & early 60s “greasers” was not an ethnic slur. There were the greasers and the “frats”. One group looked like Elvis and the other group looked like Pat Boone. We were not even aware of such things as “politically correct” or ethnic hyper-sensitivity. We didn’t have to walk on egg shells and nobody had a problem.

What is the theme music for today’s cartoon? “Jim Dandy To the Rescue.”?? And wasn’t it Bo Diddley who sang it?

enuff. letś get back to ann & tj. this is pap.

Looking at the guy with the goatee, I just realized that none of the male teens in our cast of favorites has any facial hair. No beards, moustaches or even a shadow at the end of the day. I was shaving every other day by the time I was 13. Must be because of that hormone inhibitor in Pittsville. But right now, Gunth and the greaseball are having a little surge.

This won’t play out well. If he gets jealous about Rosa talking to another guy, he will loose her soooo fast. He needs some positive backbone, not negative.

Probably Rosa’s Brother

Different time, different world, but you will always have Archie Bunkers. In my world, we were taught to respect people just because it was the right thing to do.

And in the context that you are speaking a rather popular bit of entertainment called “Grease” was created.

how appropriate that the guy is standing over something marked “trash”…label, maybe?

Well do something before you spend you life wondering what if..

Get a backbone and move.

Kind of…. I guess….. but not really. He just couldn’t really define his feelings until boom, you have no chance. (except Rosa is so not interested in Greaseball)

Go get’r, Gunther. And the look on Rosa’s face is pretty dry and uninterested.

People don’t “get offended at anything these days.” Had the word used been “slimeball” none of us would have thought twice about it. But look up the word “greaseball” (not “greaser”) in any slang dictionary and you will see that it is an ethnic slur.

“Greaseball”.

Haha!<3

I can’t believe it! Gunther is having a…Luann Moment!

You nailed that one!

You people are too politically correct. Peope get offended for any reason these days.

Unless you’re Hispanic, it’s really not up to you to say which “you people” are being too touchy about the terms others sling around. You say “too touchy”, I say “too lazy to think before you speak”.

WOW! not PC at all! that is a deragatory term “greaseball” i’m very disappointed!

Hair as slick as a polished bowling ball… face fuzz … black sweater or sweatshirt …

Looks like a “greaseball” to me. That must be how much grease is in his hair.

AND: You know what? If “greaseball” is an epithet, then so is “nerd.” Didn’t think about that? Well maybe you should.

Yes, it is just another derogatoy term and There were others back in the 50s such as the DA hair style that the trashier bunch wore. I don’t like calling names but I also dislike when people are “politically correct” because I prefer that everyone speak their mind. I remember the drapy outfits worn by those with a DA and I had friends among all groups (partly because I escaped from “study halls” to the juke joint across the street by forging signatures ;-)

With the little goatee, the guy chatting up Rosa looks like the kind of hippie from coffee houses, and as someone said, she is showing no interest so far.

I agree totally. Until now I had no idea the term “greaseball” had any ethnic connotation. It was just a derogatory term for anyone with over greased hair. (Usually a man.)

Maybe Gunther could have used the term “dirtbag”, then everyone would be happy. Note, Moji, I did not defend the term greaseball, I defended the term greaser, and the door didn’t slam on the 50s on 12/31/59. It took Viet Nam to change everything forever. High school in the late 50s…military during the Nam era. One was fun, the other wasn’t. Greaseball..ha, I was called worse than that by drill sergeants. Too petty to argue.

I think it’s way out of line to print the pejorative ethnic slur greasball in a comic strip.

night gaunt: The correct term for a Mexican cowboy is vaquero – literally someone who works cattle (from vaca). Anglos, with their typical inability to handle more than one language, corrupted it to buckaroo. How? Beats me.

You snooze, you loose dude!

Is today a Doonesbury crossover strip?

Same in my parts. Greaseball applied to anyone who was too “slick”, which applied to “smoothies” who applied too much hair oil/grease. I always interpreted Grease as being about greasy hair, not about fixing cars.

Final word from me: In this part of the world, we didn’t HAVE a Hispanic community, or any Hispanics, period, so use of that word, not uncommon here, was aimed at a group more akin (but much less violent) to modern gangs.

Well, now you know differently. Sorry, but just because it isn’t an ethnic slur in your part of the country and you, personally, didn’t realize it was one all this time, doesn’t mean it isn’t, and hasn’t, been used as one for centuries. Someone should have caught it, and Greg’s ignorance or his lack of thought doesn’t magically mean that all of a sudden it isn’t one any more, either. .And there is a world of difference between a garden variety pejorative and an ethnic or racial slur, unless you’re seriously going to argue that calling someone “slacker” or “jock” is on a par with calling someone a “spick” or a “nigger”. If you can’t see the difference, consider the fact that the legal system sure as hell recognizes there is one.

Yawn…….are we surprised this happened? Greg is just stringing you guys along.

I doubt the term was used with the idea of praising the one addressed. (Can’t see it on this phone. ) Even so it would be silly to ban any word which is ever used by anybody against anybody as an insult. Mama slick oreo crack republican infidel hoe queer canuk kinky liberal burr honking pig jew fat dog kaffir goose nut quack libertarian and those are randomly thrown out. There really does need to be some sort of context, not somebody yelling the word is an insult in BOLIVIA

first appearance of Les.