CSotD: Groundhog Day in the Committee Room

There is humor to be found in any crisis, and Jeff Stahler taps into one of the better TV commercials to come along in awhile.

That elevates a so-what gag about people working from home in their undies into a much better piece, because, first of all, it ties into something not just familiar but well-liked, and, second, by riffing on a large and real business, it also elevates it above a generic working-at-home piece.

And, of course, while State Farm doesn’t insist on the button-down blazer image, their signature red polo shirts are supposed to be in good condition and the agent inside well-groomed. And wearing pants.

Hell, State Farm wrote half the gag — Stahler just had the sense to jump in and hang on.

(That’s how it works.)

And on a related note, our

Juxtaposition of the Day

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(Candorville)

I suppose it’s an element of age, Donna Lewis and Darrin Bell being roughly the ages of my kids and me likely the age of their parents, but I don’t get the whole FaceTiming/Skyping obsession.

I don’t expect to see the faces of people I’m talking to on the phone and it’s not like they’re doing anything more interesting than, y’know, talking on the phone. And if they are, they should make a goddam decision: You want to do that, or do you want to talk to me?

Had a girlfriend bust me once for multitasking while I was supposed to be talking … and listening … to her. And she didn’t have to see me; she could hear it.

Not faulting people who want to see who they’re talking to. Just scratchin’ my head.

And as long as I’m being a crabby old man, I want to see if I can find a phone dock that would connect my Smartphone to an old fashioned handset.

I miss the ergonomic shaping, for hands, for ears, for mouth. That was a damn well-designed instrument and far better than holding a very thin brick to the side of your head.

Yes, something exactly like this.

Though not exactly. Lose the cord. That’s not the part I’m nostalgic for.

Though I do have warm memories of the cord stretched from the wall phone in the kitchen out across the hall and into the closed door of the furnace room.

 

Dept. of Unintentional Humor

I assume Walt Handelsman is talking about Mardi Gras and such, and this probably works really well in his local market.

Elsewhere, we make other instant connections between New Orleans and covered faces.

(Editor’s note: Drew Brees ended those “masks” entirely and, by the way, just donated $5 million to help get rid of the surgical ones as well. But I laft at Walt’s cartoon for the wrong reason anyway.)

And on a note that doesn’t make me laugh, kicker Tom Dempsey did a lot to ease the pain of the Saints’ hard-luck years, and he just died of Covid-19.

Nothing funny there, but it brings up another possible plus:

Up in Albany, NY, Jeff Boyer offers the suggestion that denial isn’t going to provide protection. Note that he doesn’t add a fourth panel, and simply presents the scenario.

Good choice.

Not only is schadenfreude ugly under these circumstances, but the potential good is that, when famous people like Tom Dempsey and John Prine fall victim to the disease, and when cousins and parents and siblings and neighbors begin to become victims, it’s going to become more and more difficult to fool all the people all the time.

 

Despite any sociopathic need, as Joel Pett explains it, to cover your ass instead of serving your people.

As noted the other day, it is both discouraging and astounding to realize how many gullible people there are in the world, but after awhile you stop being surprised that yet another con artist has been picked up for pulling the pigeon drop — probably several times successfully before the cops stepped in.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, an excellent choice!

You can indeed fool some of the people all of the time, and the question before us is how many people will wake up and turn against the grifters as the reality comes closer to their own lives?

 

Bill Bramhall suggests that the aforementioned grifters are becoming nervous.

 

Fortunately for them, Tom Toles reports, the part of their scam that involved keeping Merrick Garland on the sidelines and packing the court with their own choices, Constitution be damned, has paid off, at least for the moment.

But five hour lines suggest an electorate that is wising up, and here are two voices from the scene of the (attempted) crime:

 

Phil Hands, in Madison, acknowledges the price to be paid.

 

While up in Green Bay, Joe Heller raises a defiant voice, behind a defiant mask.

There’s a sort of “Battle of Britain” mood rising, and it will be interesting to see whether the Republicans can stop dragging their heels and get out in front of the parade.

 

Steve Greenberg sees them gaining too much benefit to change directions and work for the common good, and I’m inclined to agree.

It’s interesting that conservatives complained about “pork” in the bill to save our economy when what they really meant was too much money going to relief and not enough going to industry.

And the GOP sought “relief,” as he notes, by adding riders to restrict social benefits while granting greater freedoms to exploiters and robber barons.

Meanwhile, Tom Tomorrow nails it, and the only pity is that his cartoons are mostly seen by people who were already hip to the scam.

Then again, Mauldin’s cartoons were mostly seen by the people who were already in the fight.

They were popular, and the right side won.

Though the next generation of dumb fascisti thought these guys were on their side: