There Oughta Be a Law!
| There Oughta Be a Law! | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Harry Shorten (1944–1970) Frank Borth (1970–1983) Mort Gerberg (1983–1985) |
| Illustrator(s) | Al Fagaly (1944–1963) Warren Whipple (1963–1981) Mort Gerberg (1981–1985) |
| Current status/schedule | Concluded daily gag panel |
| Launch date | 1944 |
| End date | April 13, 1985 |
| Alternate name(s) | Bitter Laff (1944–1945) TOBAL! |
| Syndicate(s) | McClure Newspaper Syndicate / Bell-McClure Syndicate (1944–c. 1972) United Feature Syndicate (c. 1972–1985) |
| Publisher(s) | Midwood Books Belmont Books |
| Genre(s) | gag-a-day, humor, adults |
There Oughta Be a Law!, or TOBAL!, was a single-panel newspaper comic strip, created by Harry Shorten and Al Fagaly, which was syndicated for four decades from 1944 to 1985. The gags illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life, displayed in a single-panel or two-panel format. There Oughta Be a Law! was similar to Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time. TOBAL! was initially syndicated by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate; eventually it moved over to United Feature Syndicate.