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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American comic strip by Bil Keane}}<br />
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2013}}<br />
{{Infobox Comic strip<br />
|title=Channel Chuckles<br />
|image= <br />
|caption=<br />
|creator=[[Bil Keane]]<br />
|current=<br />
|status= Concluded<br />
|syndicate=[[Register and Tribune Syndicate]]<br />
<br />
|genre=Television, Humor<br />
|first=February 15, 1954<ref name=Holtz>{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=100}}</ref><br />
|last=1976<br />
}}<br />
'''''Channel Chuckles''''' is a television-themed [[comic panel]] created by [[Bil Keane]] which appeared in newspapers from 1954 through 1976.<ref>Strickler, Dave. ''Syndicated Comic Strips and Artists, 1924–1995: The Complete Index.'' Cambria, California: Comics Access, 1995. {{ISBN|0-9700077-0-1}}</ref> Keane received the [[National Cartoonists Society]]'s 1976 Special Features Award for his work on the strip.<ref>[http://www.reuben.org/divisions.html#gags Special Features], Discontinued Categories, Awards, National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved September 12, 2009.</ref><br />
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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 strip|Sunday version]] of ''Channel Chuckles'' consists of several unrelated spot gags in color.<br />
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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 ''[[Love on a Rooftop]]'', the one underneath blared ''[[Hey, Landlord]]!''.<br />
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One ''Channel Chuckles'' gag is a caricature of Mr. Spock from ''[[Star Trek]]'' receiving letters requesting advice on child-rearing (a reference to Doctor [[Benjamin Spock]]). 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]] commercial while his father says, "And progress is ''our'' most important product. Do your homework!"<br />
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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#TV series|The Man Who Never Was]]''.<br />
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Some gags feature "Aunt Tenna", a matronly woman with her hair done in the form of a TV [[Antenna (electronics)|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.<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*[http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/k/keane_b.htm Bil Keane Cartoons 1954–1966 at Syracuse University: original ''Channel Chuckles'' artwork]<br />
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[[Category:American comic strips]]<br />
[[Category:1954 comics debuts]]<br />
[[Category:1976 comics endings]]<br />
[[Category:Gag cartoon comics]]<br />
[[Category:Parody comics]]<br />
[[Category:Satirical comics]]<br />
[[Category:Comics set in the 1950s]]<br />
[[Category:Comics set in the 1960s]]<br />
[[Category:Comics set in the 1970s]]<br />
[[Category:Comics based on television series]]<br />
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