With more laughter than meanness, cartoonist Garretson Beekman Trudeau (1948) sold his Yale newspaper strip Bull Tales in 1970 to Universal Press Syndication and, to avoid offensiveness, renamed it after major character Mike Doonesbury. (“Doone” meant a good-natured fool in Yale slang.) As history would show, however, the name change did not stop controversy.

For decades, Doonesbury has appeared at both the top and bottom of opinion polls. With biting wit, Trudeau’s parallel universe tackled politics with what humorist Art Buchwald called “some of the best satire to come along in a long time.”

“Everyone has time for the comics,” Trudeau said about his popularity. “They get under people’s skins.” Two of those with punctured epidermis were former President Bush, who once told a reporter that he’d like to “kick the hell out of Trudeau,” and Barbara Bush, who in defense of her son George W. in 1999 called Trudeau “spoiled, derisive, ugly, and nasty.”

Ouch.

Stretched, juggled, and juxtaposed, Trudeau let the criticism slide off and suggested that the Bushes ignore what they couldn’t laugh off. “With me, it’s never personal,” he explained. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1975, he once told Newsweek, “Criticizing a political satirist for being unfair is like criticizing a nose guard for being physical.”

About his way of looking at life, he added, “It cannot be considered sanity to hide the imperfections from our children so they will grow blind to them. Is it not better to tell the truth, even in hyperbole, and hope they will do something about it?”