A bunch of funny stuff, today and in the past several days, and well-timed given the level of not-funny stuff we’ve all been dealing with.
My definition of funny has less to do with pies in the face than with things that make you laugh because you can relate to them. (My sympathies to those who can relate to pies in the face.)
Case in point being Deflocked (AMS), which this morning presents a cartoon I’d have likely run with political gags another day, since Mamet personifies the people who fail to acknowledge complexities in favor of finding scapegoats.
Whether it’s because they have nasty personalities or simple minds doesn’t matter and it’s likely a combination of the two anyway, but given the current state of the economy, this is wonderfully relevant humor and thank goodness I don’t have to go on about all this serious stuff.
Instead, let’s go back a couple of days to this one, which happens to fit in with a conversation I had about how there’s nothing new about how men should relate to women and that there have always been good guys around. Politics and the economy are complex, but social behavior is a better place to seek humor.
Though the crossovers are everywhere, as seen in this
Juxtaposition of the Day
The Fed’s interest rate drop will, as Dave Granlund notes in this political cartoon, bring about lower payments on carried balances, though this assumes credit card companies are competitive enough to lower rates and might require shifting where those debts are being carried.
There is also the question of whether businesses will begin dropping prices, and the naysayers are sure they won’t, though I’ve seen, for instance, fast-food places offering $5 bargain meals and also a lot of companies begging former customers to return, offering them cut rates and freebies.
It’s all very fraught, but then Willie and Ethel remind us that life has always been tough at the bottom of the ladder, and if you can’t remember times when you had to decide which bills you had to pay and which you could maybe put off, well, don’t complain with your mouth full.
Meanwhile, Pearls Before Swine (AMS), which often addresses major issues of great social significance, takes a whack at a minor issue to remind us that we don’t even address matters that we could resolve in about three minutes.
And Adam@Home (AMS) goes the “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” route, offering compulsive busy people a reminder that it’s okay to tend to yourself instead of to your chores. And it is, though I suppose the message is wasted on the truly compulsive.
I got a laugh out of this Lynn Hsu cartoon because, non-working pens aside, I am constantly aware that I should sit down and get rid of a whole lot of things which sorta matter to me but which my poor children will have to puzzle over and discard when I’m gone.
The joke here being that few of us are this compulsive, but, then again, much of what we horde will seem just as pointless when we shuffle off the coil. I’m down to a three-room apartment with a walk-in closet and I’m well aware that what my kids will actually want is gonna fit in a banker’s box.
Maybe a shoe box.
Juxtaposition of Changing Times
I don’t know how old Tauhid Bondia is, but this Crabgrass surprised me because one of the oddities I’ve picked up on is that young people no longer match their socks and I think at least some of them make a conscious effort to avoid it.
It reminds me of not always being able to tell navy blue from black and being genuinely embarrassed when I realized my socks were mismatched. It also reminds me of when athletic socks had a pair of colored bands at the top which simply made it harder to pair them up in the morning, though wearing white socks was a faux pas anyway.
But I suspect it’s like trying to explain to young people why the operator keeps asking for more money in “Sylvia’s Mother.”
The other changing times thing is that, while I rarely laugh at yet another ascent of man gag, the Flying McCoys reminded me how we used to see videos on line of people with cellphones walking into poles and tripping into fountains, but I haven’t seen one in years.
Have people become like chameleons, with independent eyes so they can watch where they’re going while they gaze upon their phones? Or has walking into stuff become so common that it’s no longer a source of humor?
And why do we keep all those dried up pens, now that there’s no such place as “by the phone”?
Loose Parts (AMS) today got a chuckle because I’m a great-grandfather, so I’ve gotten to see the ever-changing world of how babies should be put to bed, one element of our dynamic effort to prove that kids grow up despite our efforts rather than because of them.
Though I had one son who would have been easier to deal with if he were a bug and helpless on his back, because the little chimp could climb out of any crib. We didn’t know about swaddling in those days, but we did contemplate putting him to bed in a strait jacket.
The other day, I mentioned how playgrounds have removed fun in favor of safety in connection with a Red and Rover (AMS) strip, and they’re back today with a wooden swing suspended on ropes, like God intended.
We had chains, which were fine if they were heavy enough to be permanent but light enough that you could twist them like this, but canvas sling swings made twisting painful and they also made it hard to bail out of a P-51 Mustang that had been hit by enemy fire.
Finally today, Wallace the Brave (AMS) reminds us that kids are still kids, and confirms that Will Henry knows how to make the most of a large Sunday panel.
Such that, if you read your comics on a phone, well, SX2BU.
But why does that operator keep asking Shel Silverstein for more money?
A good collection of strips today, thanks!
Will Henry knows how to use a Sunday page right. I confess to a moment of eye-rolling irritation when I see cartoonists waste their Sunday space on a one-panel gag that could have been done any weekday. Not that the Sunday real estate is as expansive as it once was, but c’mon . . . make an effort.
When our daughters started kindergarten, their teacher told us to keep all their school work, art work, and everything they ever brought home because someday we and they would appreciate it. That turned out to be spectacularly bad advice that filled the rafters of our garage with boxes of stuff nobody wanted to look through nor ever would. It’s all gone now and nobody’s missed it yet.
Finally, I’m so grateful you spelled “straitjacket” right that I won’t even fight you over whether it’s one word or two. The wrong way is so common I wonder if it’s becoming an acceptable alternative, the same way “literally” doesn’t mean “literally” anymore.