CSotD: Funny Friday
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I remember when ringtones were a thing, but mostly because I’ve got a good memory. Back when I used to visit schools regularly, my ringtone was R2D2’s set of burbles, and my phone went off while I was addressing a room full of juniors and seniors, who all broke up laughing.
I think if it happened today, they’d look at me as if I were a dork. Which, if it happened today, I would be.
Times change, and clever ringtones no longer are.
Anyway, I’ve got a lot of strips left over from last Sunday, such as this one, and I need to clean things out before the weekend. So laugh.
The Buckets pops up here often, largely because it’s one of the most clever and funny strips, albeit on a kind of quiet level: It just consistently delivers.
Which is one benefit of a GoComics subscription, now that we’re getting more and more reruns in print papers. My local paper runs 12 strips, and now, with Zits and Baby Blues going into reruns, it brings the total of reruns to five. Six other strips are zombies. Only one strip — Pearls Before Swine — offers fresh material by the original artist.
I don’t know how many papers carry the Buckets, or, for that matter, any of the strips on my GoComics page. I do know it’s hard for new, inventive strips to break into the market when the available space is being taken up by reruns and zombies. And it’s not as if newspapers get a discount for reruns, which they certainly should. I wouldn’t pay full price for a used car, would you?
Rant mode off.
Nice twist, and I like that the strip varies the idiot-of-the-day assignment. Pam is almost always smart and more or less in control, but she deals with a variety of dimwits, which keeps the surprises coming.
And this particular piece is a very good commentary on AI, which is environmentally problematic but has a lot of potential benefits, though it’s more often used to create images of people riding dinosaurs, or to direct attacks against outdated targets.
Some of it is Garbage In, Garbage Out, but there is also a significant PEBCAK problem involved.
We had a running joke in college, “One, two, three: Spontaneous!” that applied to people who felt compelled to seem spontaneous but, like the woman in this Free Range, couldn’t put aside their need to be in control at all times.
I’ll confess that I’ve never kept a Daily Planner or an Assignment Notebook or any of those things that are supposed to keep you organized, which probably made me laugh harder at this cartoon than someone else might have.
Whitehead scores again with this one, and, again, maybe I took it too personally, having worked from home for my last decade of employment. We’ve got several people in my dog park crowd that work from home, which gives them the opportunity to take the dog out during the work day.
However, I only retired partially, given that I put in between 35 and 42 hours a week on this. One of the women can’t come on Wednesday because of regular Zoom meetings with her staff, while another’s baby has been showing up with a sitter, which suggests that Mom is tied up on some major project.
Working from home has many advantages over going into the office, but it does make some substantial demands in terms of self-discipline, even if you don’t keep a Daily Planner.
Mind you, one potential benefit of ADD is the potential for hyperfocus, which bailed me out of several potential disasters. Which is to say that, while I can’t possibly keep a Daily Planner, I could write a term paper overnight and pull at least a B, even if I had to buy the text and read it before I began writing.
You find a lot of people with ADD working as reporters, because the job is all about unexpected assignments and tight deadlines, and also as first-responders. As one firefighter said, “When all hell is breaking loose, the world is finally moving at my pace.”
“Panic Brain” is an excellent term for it.
I often comment on great accidental timing when a cartoon, likely drawn two weeks or longer ago, matches up with the news. Not sure quite what to say about this one, given the conservative slant of the McCoy brothers and the way insider trading has exploded across columns and cartoons as seen here yesterday, and will likely hit the mainstream media soon.
But it’s a whole lot more than a penny and the synchronicity is worth commenting on.
Or maybe the McCoys are psychic. Here’s another case of odd timing: A driver in Georgia got a ticket because the Flock license plate reader happened to catch him at an angle where his phone was visible and it was plain he was texting.
The Big Brother aspect of that is kinda scary, but it is dangerous. I remember when I was in Maine and a woman was stopped for going over 100 mph on the highway. She had her laptop open on the passenger seat and was watching the Gilmore Girls.
Juxtaposition of the Day
I suppose I could get offended by Blockhead Husband humor, but when it’s carried out at this level, it’s hard not to laugh and even harder to consider it a universal slam on men.
It’s similar to Gracie Allen, who played a complete nitwit, but was (A) over the top and (B) surrounded by better grounded women. It made her a clown personally, rather than a symbol of how foolish women were. And I loved the twist in Green Acres, where Oliver had been competent in the city and Lisa had been a fool, but their roles switched when they got to Hooterville and he became the fool.
Playing it halfway gets you in trouble. You’ve got to swing for the fences.
Here’s a different kind of blockhead. Just shoot him.
Here’s a guy who isn’t a blockhead. Search for other parts.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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