CSotD: Tails of the South Pacific

It's based on a true story, which, since "based on a true story" generally means "We only made up 85 percent of it," one could reasonably assume means that, in the actual story, it was an elephant and not a dolphin and the prosthetic tail fell off after a week. And no cute kids were involved whatsoever.

But there really is a dolphin with a prosthetic tail. That dolphin, who plays herself in the movie, lives at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida, where she is the star attraction and probably just about the only dolphin in captivity who actually needs to live in captivity.

The movie stars Morgan Freeman, whom I like, but then I like Michael Caine and James Earl Jones, too, and the three of them seem like they're in a contest to see who can say "Yes" the most times. It's getting hard to find a movie that doesn't have at least one of them in it, and it has long since stopped being any indicator of whether the movie's any good. But it also stars Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr., so there you go.

(It's worth noting that, when the Academy gets to the category "Best Feel-Good Movie Based On A True Story of Marine Amputation" this year, there will be competition for the Oscar.)

Anyway, Sherman will not be a mohel for this dolphin, though he often serves as a fohel for the other characters. And Fillmore's quick, deadpan, "Not a problem" is an example of how well Jim Toomey plays straight lines off punchlines.

Regular readers are probably tired of my comparing the setups and deliveries in "Sherman's Lagoon" to those on the (real) "Bob Newhart Show," so I won't even allude to it.

Much less mention it outright.

Today's Burning Question

The Knight Life is always funny, but Keith Knight, in all of his many strips, is also a constant font of odd trivia. So the question is, did he know about this when he wrote that???