At Hamcation last January, I renewed my ARRL membership for three years. One of the reasons that I chose three years is that they were offering two premiums for doing so: the book Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur and an ARRL coffee mug. When neither the book nor the mug showed up in a couple of months, I emailed the ARRL. Shortly thereafter, the book appeared in my mailbox, but not he mug.
It took three more emails and several more months to finally get the mug. It arrived on Saturday, six months after I renewed my membership.
The mug features a cartoon by Philip “Gil” Gildersleeve, W1CJD, who contributed over 1500 cartoons and drawings to QST and the ARRL for almost 40 years. This cartoon features a haggard ham in front of his radio. To the left is his attractive wife who comments, “What a relaxing hobby, dear.”
Just by conincidence, I got a message from a new ham this morning, who wrote:
I got my letter to renew my ARRL membership, and they advertise that if you get a 3-year membership you get a “Gil Cartoon Coffee Mug.” The mug is an image of a woman saying “what a relaxing hobby, dear” to a shlubby looking man operating a radio. Could someone explain the joke or context? Is this a famous ham cartoon series or an inside joke that I’m unaware of?
I need to understand the joke before I can use the mug!
I replied:
Gil’s cartoons used to appear regularly in QST. Some of them are still funny, but most of them have seen better days. I certainly think that they could have made a better choice for this particular giveaway. In fact, it probably would have been better to skip the cartoon and just put the ARRL logo on the mug.
Having said that, the joke is similar to the joke that they used to make about computer programmers staying up through the night to use the computer. In this case, it’s the amateur radio operator staying up through the night to either take advantage of night-time propagation (shortwave signals on some frequencies propagate better at night) or to operate all 24 hours of a contest.
To which, she replied:
I think that’s good feedback for them! You can tell them I like the retro cartoon idea, but the tone of the cartoon is a little off putting – the joke is that the woman “doesn’t get it” and then I literally didn’t get it, so that’s not so great from a marketing perspective for attracting newbies/women.
I’m all for tradition—when it’s appropriate. Heck, I’m still a CW operator. But, as a friend of mine put it, “It is important to remember the past, but not get stuck in it.” I think it might be time to move on from Gil cartoons, especially for situations like this. Gil tells the story of a ham radio that used to be, but maybe not what we want it to be.
Along the same lines, QCWA should update its anachronistic logo. But they have no interest in doing so.
I didn’t take it as the wife “doesn’t get it”. I took it as sarcasm on her part.
I didn’t. And I’ma female ham
Spot on. My cup didn’t come for months either. Had to ask repeatedly for it. Cup finally came and is disappointing. Arrl logo would have been good. Book never came. Loved the printed QST, but not sure now ill spring for that now. Kind of getting like IEEE got… unfortunate.
Hoo boy, fraught waters to wade in these days. But I agree, the humor and probable sarcasm are too dated and too subtle for today’s audience, and I can see how that cartoon could come off all wrong.
Anything else in Gil’s portfolio that might play better with current hams? Or just move on to another cartoonist?
Gil, as important to the past as he was and is, is past for a reason.
And he has been for as long as I’ve been a radio amateur.
And I will qualify for QCWA membership this year.
Brennan, I disagree, in part for obvious reasons. :) Read my longer comment below. As I said elsewhere, the cartoon needed context for it to work. (BTW, I remember you from your time here in Atlanta. I hope you’re doing well.)
I’m surprised with all of the content ARRL could have used, they picked this. Honestly I can think of several better things: a band chart, sketches of types of antennas, a Field Day scene, a picture of Hiram, a digital waterfall… I could go on and on.
We need a new cartoonist. Gil’s stuff was probably good back in the day, but it just doesn’t really resonate with people today. I’d argue that today it’s low effort humor from a very different time. We need someone to bridge the new and the old. Someone who can be mildly snarky, but in a cool way that doesn’t offend.
“It is important to remember the past, but not get stuck in it.” I like that sentence. Too many OMs are stuck in the old age. I like the cartoons but indeed many are not understood today by new hamradio operators. Luckely there are plenty of new cool experiments you can do with hamradio. Besides that there is still a large social aspect with this hobby. 73, Bas
Yeah, it’s like the American flag. That thing is old and dated last being updated in 1959. We need something new and hip to match these times…
73 de Jeff KE9V
You’re comparing Gil cartoons to the American flag? Really?
It is old, and well-known, like a Gil cartoon. And I’ve no doubt it offends some people, like a Gil cartoon. And we can’t get young people into the hobby without shedding all the old and taking on new – things like Gil cartoons. Right?
Sorry, man, but you lost me. Aside from being old–I’d argue that Gil cartoons aren’t all that well-known, even in the ham community–there’s no comparison to the American flag.
Just trying to deduce if this is click-bait or are you actually offended by a 75 year-old cartoon with a ham radio reference? The cultural wars to eliminate everything that might possibly offend anyone is a tough battle given we live in a new age of perpetually hurt feelings.
I assumed this post was written tongue-in-cheek given that there is almost nothing less offensive than a Gildersleeve ham radio cartoon. Perhaps we need to whitewash Charlie Brown since he does make his dog sleep outdoors in all kinds of weather…?
I’m not offended by it personally, nor do I think that the woman who contacted me was offended, per se. All I’m pointing out is that if you have to explain the joke, it’s probably not a very good joke, and probably not a great incentive to someone to fork over nearly 50 more bucks for ARRL membership.
The sarcasm should be obvious, but it sounds like it isn’t. Further, it’s ok to have “inside jokes” – the individual who commented that they didn’t get it might not want to use the mug, but that doesn’t mean that no one should use it.
The belief that any idea or concept should be immediately obvious to everyone is faulty, and the resulting race to the bottom eliminates ideas and concepts that require work and knowledge to use.
I’m all for making things more accessible, and I don’t fully buy in to the eternal september problem (ie, I think having new users is generally a good thing for most communities), however there’s no reason to throw things out simply because they are not immediately accessible to all without any knowledge, experience, or expertise.
And the comment regarding the american flag is also obviously sarcasm, but it really sounds like society is trending towards elimination of sarcasm altogether. It makes a point, though, that just because something is hated by some, misunderstood by some, and old doesn’t mean it should be replaced merely for those reasons.
Lastly, it’s not inherently sexist. Swap one or more of the genders and the joke still works – it doesn’t depend on, nor rise from biases or stereotypes. For that matter you could eliminate the speaker altogether and have the operator saying “What a relaxing hobby…” and it would still work.
Hi, “young” (by ham demographics) female ham here. I saw the renewal gift offer in the mail and couldn’t tell what the comic actually was/said from the print ad. I went to search it up and landed on this article showing more clearly what the comic was.
I have to say, I’m now disinclined to renew presently, which also means no renewal for my child ham who is on a family membership with me.
I thought the black and white design was really nice looking and would have been proud to have an ARRL mug in my cabinet, but this comic is dated and does not represent me or any younger or certainly female hams. To dismiss that and say it doesn’t matter because you could reverse the roles…. you could… but that’s not what this shows, is it?
This is a 50s era depiction of the housewife who doesn’t understand amateur radio. That’s a huge gaffe on ARRL’s part.
When ARRL and the hobby need to be appealing to underrepresented groups and bringing in new members…. this is not the way. Disappointing to say the least.
I’m not saying that Gil cartoons should all be removed from ham radio. All I’m saying is that I don’t think that this was a good choice for a membership premium, unless the only members you want are over the age of 60. It’s bad marketing.
I don’t find the cartoon to be offensive, and I think most others don’t find it offensive, either. I think it’s just a lousy choice for a mug graphic. The humor is really dull and low effort, much like newspaper cartoons these days (do paper newspaper still carry cartoons?). I have a gazillion mugs. If you really want the mug to be an incentive to subscribe, at least make it somewhat remarkable or useful beyond just holding a hot beverage. It’s not that hard.
I agree with K3NG.
Forget the “wokeness” arguments.
This particular cartoon is not that funny and is way out of date.
(There are other Gil cartoons that might work.)
Thanks Dan! I got the mug promptly after my membership renewal, but I just don’t care about that cartoon. It’s not a conversation starter about amateur radio. I can think of lots of alternatives that would be cooler.
You know, that’s a good point. They should have put something on the mug that would have been a conversation starter.
I couldn’t disagree with you more, Dan. Gil’s cartoons have a long history with the League, and many of the hams likely to sign up for three-year memberships have been licensed long enough to remember them. Besides, think of this: One of the most powerful media companies in the world uses a cartoon mouse created in 1928 as its corporate mascot. (That company and mouse are so well known, obviously, I don’t even have to tell you which company it is.) The problem here, I think, is context — who IS Gil, anyway? — and selecting a cartoon that hasn’t aged particularly well. In my experience, the League seems to have a love-hate relationship with its legacy, furthered more and more by an editorial staff so indifferent it doesn’t even see the need to hold ham-radio licenses.
My own experience with Gil cartoons and the League has been, well, fraught. A few years ago, in time for the League’s anniversary, Eric, KL7AJ, came up with the idea of rebooting Gil’s Jeeves character as Rip Van Winkle — in other words, the hobby had changed, but Jeeves hadn’t. I created a cartoon in that spirit and very much in Gil’s style, and we submitted it with high hopes — and it was shot down so quickly (a perfunctory email about 30 minutes later) that it made my head spin. I later blogged about the experience on my own website: https://hamtoons.net/the-return-of-jeeves/ Within the last year or so, we submitted again and were again summarily rejected, this time because QST had instituted a “no cartoons” policy (their words, not mine). Given that QST regularly reprints context-free portions of old issues as filler, I’m perplexed as to why new Jeeves cartoons wouldn’t make the cut.
(I had posted these comments previously on LinkedIn. I’ve since deleted my comments there, as responding directly to your blog post seems more appropriate.)
Jim, I think we’re actually in agreement here. You write, “The problem here, I think, is context — who IS Gil, anyway? — and selecting a cartoon that hasn’t aged particularly well. In my experience,” I agree 100% with this. I”m not anti-Gil cartoons. I think some of them are kind of funny. But if someone has to ask, “What the heck is this?” then it probably isn’t a good incentive for someone to renew their membership. That’s all I’m saying.
Yes, I think we agree on that point. It’s a shame the League doesn’t currently have editors or writers that can provide context.
I have to laugh at all the male hams saying “it’s not sexist/offensive”. With all respect, people who benefit from bias aren’t usually good at spotting it.
This cartoon clearly plays off of the 1950s trope about the housewife who has no idea about her husband’s (very technical) hobby. Could you remove her from this and have it not be sexist? Sure! Would it still make sense? You bet! But the fact that she IS there, and given the history of amateur radio (and tech hobbies in general), it’s tasteless and leaves me rolling my eyes at yet another “joke” that plays on a sexist stereotype.
Hard agree.
I’m primarily a contester, and I certainly get this Gil cartoon!
Of course you get it. Like me, you’re a long-time amateur radio operator. I get the joke, too.
The question is, however, how many younger hams and women hams get the joke, and then whether or not it’s really an incentive for those hams to sign up for ARRL membership. At the very least, the ARRL could have chosen something that had more widespread appeal and, therefore, would be more of an incentive for more people.
I’ve been licensed since 1957 so that makes me an old-timer, I guess. I agree that, while it was probably good sarcasm and appropriate thirty years ago, it’s out of touch now. There are lost of other Ham-related cartoons. Time for a new Gil?
I agree that a classy mug with simply the ARRL logo would have been preferable.
I’ve been licensed since the mid 1960’s and a League member. I’ve thought, even back then , that the Gil cartoons looked dated and not all that funny. To say nothing of the reverence for Hiram Percy Maxim and the Wouff-Hong. Just makes amateur radio look like a stuffy old men’s club.
I appreciated receiving the mug but at same time cringed at the idea of my non-ham friends asking “What’s up with the cartoon?”.
I think the cartoon is funny and just right. I am a woman Ham and I got the joke.
As a ham for 40 years , I have always enjoyed his humor and art. Unfortunately today’s hams just don’t get it. Ham radio has changed a lot, and I do miss the old days. I’m not sure why everyone is so critical about the mugs and the art work.
Just enjoy Ham Radio and have fun …
73
I’ve been a ham for 54 years, and I can certainly appreciate Gil’s humor, too. Unfortunately, this particular Gil cartoon has not aged well. It comes off as outdated and sexist.
I found this thread as a reseller of coffee cups. I too wanted to understand the joke, and hoped it wasn’t the typical sexist “humor” that I was privileged to grow up in. Disappointed to find that it’s exactly what I thought. And to note that the cup was donated to Goodwill because whoever the member is: they felt the cup held zero value. I liked the feel of the cup, the slightly glossy exterior and black interior. The worst part is the dumb cartoon.
It doesn’t surprise me that the cup was donated to Goodwill. The black-and-white design is kinda cool, but the message is just short of disgusting. What’s even more disgusting is that more than three years later, they’re still giving out this mug when people renew their ARRL memberships for three years.