CSotD: Hot Topics
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The traditional "How We Know It's Canadian" example in cartooning is the red mailboxes in "For Better or For Worse," one of the ways in which Lynn Johnston famously declined to strip FBOFW of its roots or, if you like, its Roots.
Today's Ben also betrays the fact that the strip is Canadian and, even moreso, Canadien, and I think it's cruel to run it during the Olympics when access to non-American coverage makes such a difference.
In Canada, the Olympics are a sporting event and the networks don't focus on pre-packaged profiles of pre-chosen celebrity athletes and the antics of their own on-air talent.
They actually show the events, if you can imagine such a thing.
There's nothing about the Olympics in today's Ben, but that's hardly the only difference, and the gag works much better in a country where smooching on TV might conceiveably lead to something more adult.
When I lived near the border, I'd check out the TV listings and, if there were a good movie being shown, I'd look to see if it was on an American or Canadian channel, because, if the Canadians said they were showing a movie, they would by-god show the movie, all of it. Even the naughty bits.
As for the Canadian/Canadien issue, Ben is, in fact, a Quebecois strip, which adds an additional layer of laissez faire to broadcast standards, because, at least when I used to watch them, French Canadian TV was less straitlaced than the English.
In fact, back in the late 80s, there was a TV series called either "He Shoots, He Scores" or "Lance et Compte," depending on whether you watched it on CBC or RCT.
It was a Dallas-style primetime soap that followed the adventures of a Canadian hockey team in which they shot everything twice: Once in English, once in French.
Well, nearly everything. Mac never quite caught on to the whole bilingual thing. Everybody in Quebec knew a Mac.
But more relevant to today's Ben, if you wanted scenes with significant nudity, you needed to watch the French version.
Though I only watched en francais because, as a business reporter in a cross-border market, I owed it to my employer to polish my language skills.
And if comics were Canadian television …
… you wouldn't want to see the French version of today's Bizarro.
However, I got a laff out of it, because, for all the shortcomings of the gig economy, working at home gets you out of those thermostat wars, not to mention the whole "wearing pants" thing.
As noted here before, I worked at a paper for several years in which advertising and circ were in one building and news and production were next door. Given the normal gender distribution in those departments, it meant that one building was roasting hot and the other was freezing cold, and, unfortunately for me, I was one of the few males in the circ/ad building.
Not that I didn't have sympathy for the women in news/production, but it was more acceptable for them to keep a space heater under their desk than it was for me to show up for work as seen in today's cartoon.
New mascot alert
Scott Stantis continues to despair over the coming election at Prickly City, but he does a lovely job of assigning avatars, and I like the idea that Hunny Bunny's running mate is a big, friendly dog while the skunk has chosen a (presumably cold) fish.
Rod Blagojevitch came to Stantis's rescue over on the editorial page, giving him a solid local story to riff on there, since commenting on the national scene is becoming harder and harder, at least for conservatives. For all the jokes about how the actual campaign is funnier than any cartoon could be, it's not really a very funny situation.
How do you exaggerate something that is completely out of control and off the charts to begin with?
As for the latest outrage, Trump may well be correct that he could shoot someone on the street without losing any votes, but he sure seems intent on testing the theory.
Ann Telnaes notes on her Twitterfeed that Michael Ramirez — not, I would note, a liberal — got a visit from the Secret Service when he used an assassination reference a few years back, though it was presented as a defense of, not an attack on, the president.
Meanwhile, in the on-line lynch mob on social media, the rightwingers have added ministers who advocate social justice among those who need to be investigated, since stripping Martin Luther King Jr of his church's tax-exemption might have prevented the loss of those good old days Clint Eastwood so fondly remembers.
But assassination can also be effective, and advocating it is apparently no longer considered off-limits.
There's always room for cellos
On a lighter note, Mike Lynch notes with delight and surprise that Yitzhak Perlman tweeted one of his old cartoons.
I would have been more surprised a few months ago, but I arranged for one of my young reporters — a 13-year-old musical genius who not only plays several instruments but has composed and scored some string quartets — to interview Perlman.
I was a little afraid that they would get into some obscure, technical conversation about musical notation or some such, but no worries: They had a serious conversation about Perlman's advocacy for the disabled, but then launched into a discussion of his technique for playing music on blenders.
You'll note that, as a musical genius, he doesn't just play some $27 blender from Wal-Mart. It takes a finally tuned instrument to properly convey such an inspired performance:
One to watch
Finally, here's another new comic strip over at GoComics, which includes this blurb:
Widdershins is a series of light-hearted adventure stories, set in a magical version of Victorian-era Yorkshire, featuring grumpy treasure hunters, accidental thieves, failed wizards, and more
It's only been up for a couple of days but looks promising,and, at this stage, you can quickly click through and become up-to-date.
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