Instead of giving people the shirt off their backs, several comic strips encouraged people to take off their trousers and donate to charity.
Twenty-nine strips highlighted “No Pants Day,” the first Friday in May. The event began as a lark by college students at the University of Texas, but the comics purveyors found a way to make it more meaningful. As reported by The Associated Press, Tea Fougner, the comics editor at King Features Syndicate, said, “This was a great way to help bring communities together but also have a little bit of a laugh. Just the idea of No Pants Day, I think, is something that everybody can feel a little bit closer to this year than in previous years.”
Tribune Content Agency, Andrews McMeel Universal, Tribune Content Agency and Washington Post Writers Group joined King Features in the effort.
Participating strips included Dennis the Menace, Dick Tracy, Rhymes with Orange and Zippy. Some made a direct appeal to readers, like Rae the Doe and Arctic Circle, which included a caption reading, “Donate pants to your local thrift store and help those who need them.”
Others, like Hi and Lois, The Lockhorns and Blondie, put in the sight gag of characters in boxer shorts at the workplace. A few, like Shoe and Mallard Fillmore, note that their characters don’t wear pants as a matter of course. In Sally Forth, she and her husband Ted are in a storyline where they come inside their house after witnessing their neighbors arguing. Ted notes, “You know, this was the first time I wore actual pants in months. Back to sweats or just clutching a towel around my waist from now on.”
Source: The Associated Press
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