Comics Blogging
Mary Worth’s Bob Keeshan-esque stalker, Aldo Kelrast, seems to have turned into a zombie or some other form of undead, judging by the dark shadows under his eyes. And can’t you hear the ominous music, and maybe a little thunder as he intones “I’ve been waiting for you.”
Contrary to what you might expect, the next panel doesn’t read “I’m going to torture, kill, and eat you, even the bones”, which is unfortunate.
Mallard Fillmore is never funny. It’s not that Tinsley is conservative that’s the problem, it’s that he just. isn’t. funny.
Seriously. can ANYONE tell me what is funny about this single panel?
That the singer-songwriter on the radio is singing her rags-to-riches story? How is that funny? Singers sing songs like that ALL the time. It’s a staple of everything from blues performers to hip-hop.
That her last name is Whiner, and singer-songwriters whine a lot? That’s not a joke,that’s just a statement of fact.
Does the song have a bad melody? If so, that’s not conveyed especially well.
Am I supposed to sing along with a funny accent? Is that what makes it funny? What kind of accent? Are regional and ethnic accents funny?
Or maybe it’s supposed to be funny that the bald guy grew up on this stuff? It’s funny that he likes music the talking duck thinks is bad?
Or maybe it’s the talking duck that’s funny, but that can’t be true because there’s no punchline.
And all of Tinsley’s strips are like this. He’s literally devoid of a sense of humor. This in itself is funny in a meta kind of way, because his main character Mallard’s biography reads that the duck “thinks we average, hardworking Americans need a break instead of a lecture”. But really, all the strip does is lecture. Last week’s series on why public schools and teachers are bad (and this last strip takes the fucking cake after this litany of cheap shots, objectively false statements, and shitty comments) was NOTHING but a lecture. And it’s NOT. EVEN. FUNNY. At least BC is funny sometimes, and Hart’s a total fundamentalist!
Zombie Aldo knows what Tinsley needs:
3 Responses to “Comics Blogging”
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August 18th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
I’m right there with you on the Mallard Fillmore. This cycle of rants about QUOTEsinger-songwritersUNQUOTE seems to be irritating me more than Tinsley’s usual crap.
The strip that follows the one you show here has the bald liberal guy giving duck-singer-songwriter crap about his song about the Three Stooges. Well, Tinsley, if the bald liberal guy is supposed to represent me, a more or less liberal with an appreciation for artistic expression that may or may not include writing songs and the singing thereof, then I for one would welcome a song about the Three Stooges if it was a good song. If it happened to be a parody of some old hippie, liberal anthem (which I think is where Tinsley is going here) I wouldn’t automatically condemn it. But that’s just me, a real person who likes all kinds of music, not a caricature liberal bald guy with a bow tie who has no sense of humor and no patience for a earnestly unfunny duck.
August 18th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
And don’t tinsley’s “punchline” today either, with the bald guy saying “If my generation ebelieved in hell, that’s where you’d go.”
Get it? the bald guy is a liberal, therefore he doesn’t believe in God. See, because it’s not possible to be left-wing and faithful. Perish the thought.
That’s Tinsley’s whole “joke” in a nutshell, “aren’t liberals silly”, which isn’t a joke, it’s an opinion.
What’s bizarre is his seeming belief that liberals are more likely than other to like singer-songwriters. Huh??
August 20th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
You end up feeling sorry for Aldo- just another fly for Mary’s saccharine web….
And you really nailed it on Tinsley- the funny thing is he’s just not funny….he’s never even funny by accident. It’s like a deadpan thing gone horribly wrong.
But for a really bad cartoonist, check out Eric Devereaux at the the Seattle Times. He’s been the rightwing editorial pet for years, and cannot for the life of him learn how to draw. Probably married to one of the Blethens girls.