Rap, Cinnamon, Video Cassettes, College, and Ziggy

The Elderberries by Corey Pandolph:

The Elderberries have decided to trot out a joke that wasn't funny when it emerged in popular culture in the mid-1980s (or 25 to 30 years ago, to drive home the point).  Since there are readers who probably weren't alive in 1985, a bit of history is necessary to understand just how unfunny this strip is to anyone under the age of 65.  See, in the early 80s, there was this music style called "rap" which consisted of urban minorities--much like with R&B, early rock'n'roll, and the blues--expressed their frustration of living in Ronald Reagan's America by expressing their frustration, anger, and insecurities in a spoken word style with a rhythmic background. As with all things involving minorities in those dark days, the privileged, financial kingpins were scared and confused by this lyric style and, after unsuccessfully trying to squash the movement, realized it could be exploited to make money. Now two rappers of note of the 1980's for their aggressive lyrics and striking fear into the establishment, Ice Cube and Ice-T, of them Ice Cube makes horrible family movies and lame beer commercials, and Ice-T stars in network police dramas and reality shows about his wife, just as an example. The music of an oppressed minority became a way for the establishment to make more money by exploiting stupid kids who think the music gives them some kind of credibility or makes them appear more dangerous.  That's why the horrible music that populates the radio station apps today is decried as terrible by anyone over 35 who actually remembers N.W.A., Public Enemy, the Fat Boys and Young MC. (OK, just because I lived through the time, doesn't mean I was cool enough to be involved in any way. I was rocking out to glam rock, commercial big hair radio ballads, and classic rock in the 1980's.)

So in the 1980's, it was considered high humor for about six minutes for elderly and non-minority people with no understanding of the music to write rhyming unfunny couplets and say they were a "rap group". Yes, this stopped being funny or humorous or sly in any way over 25 years ago.  


Frazz by Jef Mallett:

I wonder if the first draft of this comic had the boy in the final panel saying "I stood near a white person and didn't get jailed" and the editors sent it back for revision.  Because, really, it should have.  Also, my kids spill cinnamon all over the counter all the time. They make peanut butter, cinnamon, and honey sandwiches. I don't think I've ever put cinnamon on anything I've ever willingly made for myself (I liked my french toast plain back when I ate it--no cinnamon, no syrup, maybe a little butter). 

But, anyway, I'm hoping Frazz was struck down by censorship and didn't just wuss out from the start.


Grand Avenue by Steve Breen and Mike Thompson:

A video rental store?  Seriously? In 2013? Draw Red Box or something. Pretend this takes place in the 21st century, please.  Draw the kids sitting on the couch holding blu-rays or dvds, or have NetFlix. It can be done creatively with the art work as well: Purple Box instead of Red Box (hah, a visual gag as well as the predictable, unfunny gag) or some play on words with NetFlix.  This is another lazy concept.  May as well draw the kids sitting in front of a giant, 1950s black and white TV with a 6 inch screen and argue about watching Mr. Ed and the Lone Ranger for all the cultural significance of a video rental store in 2013. Grrrrrrrrr.


Luann by Greg Evans:

Yes, remember this lesson, teens: Your parents are horrible creatures who will force their ideologies and views upon you and deny your wants as an adult in order to please themselves.  Of course, she does not see option three: go to college, work and pay your way through without burdening your parents with insane debt, land a job, get married, and raise children.  Why is this an either/or?  Why does her degree say PhD? That's not "a degree" that's three degrees: B.A. or B.S; M.A. or M.S.; and PhD.  So she is going to sponge off her loser parents until her 30s or marry a tool and have kids and not work or go to school or training? This comic is really starting to tick me off today. 


Ziggy by Tom Wilson & Tom II

Why does Ziggy have so many zucchini? He's not eating them apparently, so there must be a reason.  Also, he put on pants for when the pest control guy showed up, which is kind of out-of-character for Ziggy, showing an awareness and shame.  Does he feel shame over all these zucchini all over his house?  Why would there be such shame? Do you think Ziggy uses the zucchini for...GROSS!  Ziggy has no computer so he has to randomly invite blue collar workers to try and entice them into his sick and twisted sex life (just use the internet and go on Craigslist like everyone else, Zig!). Poor, Ziggy, look at that look as he gets rejected again. 

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Volcanoes Wearing Ties? It Must Be Tuesday

Three quickies today (hey, I'm on vacation, cut me some slack!):

Brevity by Dan Thompson:

They're volcanoes. Ha-ha.  If they were guns (or Tom Selleck) it'd be Magnum Cum Laude.  Personally, I'd say go all comic book geek joke and reference the New Mutants character, Magma.  Then you'd have her getting her diploma from Charles Xavier, have Wolverine and Cyclops standing behind them. However, I do have to say I like the volcano people with glasses, ties, and a pearl necklace. Of course, the magma they have is like hair, except the father volcano, who is just dripping down his own face presumably in excitement at the graduation honors. Uggh, this is getting creepy now. Time to move on.

Ben by Daniel Shelton:

OK, so these two do not know how to plan? Babysitter maybe? Sleepover at Aunties? I think the guy here just has no desire to be with giant-1970's glasses here.  He's got these hideous kids ann the d is  not making this mistake again.  He could have set-up an anniversary dinner and evening, but he's waiting for menopause to make his wife barren so he doesn't have to unleash any more of these kids.  This isn't funny, this is a sad discourse on the tragedy of this balding man's loss of intimacy.  An American tragedy played out in the funny pages. 

Grand Avenue by Steve Breen and Mike Thompson:

The newspaper was replaced by television news?  I thought television news was dying out due to people getting news online? Heck, I get most news through Twitter these days. I get more local news through Facebook and Twitter than I ever got from a newspaper or TV news show.  Sports news is EVERYWHERE online, as I read so much sports news through websites and stalking following sportswriters on Twitter.  The dog should be fetching a smartphone, not a remote.  

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DNROTFLBCMMWVMOML*

It's Wednesday again, which means it's time for some more comics review. (Scroll to the bottom of the post to read what the title is supposed to mean.) Also, if you're unemployed or hate your job be sure to check out my webcomic.

Candorville

It's unusual seeing Lemont alone in his house in his Star Trek pajamas late at night. Normally, the characters in this strip are found talking to each other in person outside on rooftops, park benches, or while strolling down the street. (Which is quite commendable; lots of strips tend to center all the action around one indoor location. I'm looking at you Get Fuzzy!) So it's understandable that the author has no idea how to depict an online conversation. Proper spelling? Only nerds have time for that. Correct punctuation and capitalization? This isn't a freakin' essay! Ellipses? Okay, now that's just crazy.

On the other hand, reading a bunch of truncated text speak in a daily comic strip is quite annoying, as evidenced by the final panel with its lame punchline. ROTFLMAOBIJKSDTIS? Ug, am I supposed to spend 10 minutes trying to figure out what all those letters stand for? Okay, fine then. 10 minute pause. Alright, I'm fairly certain it's, "Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off But I'm Just Kidding So Don't Take It Seriously." Bleh, I don't feel any better for having done that.

Grand Avenue

I'm pretty sure that kid is too young to be familiar with the expression, "eating crow." Also, why the hell is he wearing the same shirt as his teacher? This can only mean one thing: Michael is the teacher's younger self, a hallucination created by his brain to deal with some repressed trauma that occurred in that very school some 35 years ago.

Adam@Home

Not so, Clayton, it's your 30s when you're too old to have any fun. Sigh.

The Buckets

Basically, the dad is saying his son is going to be in school forever. That sucks. At least Clayton got a loose deadline.

The Duplex

Whoa. Rare appearance from the female side of the duplex. I remember getting excited about growing taller, not so much about gaining weight. Most kids don't give a shit about how much they weigh.

Herb and Jamaal

Driver's License Bureau: Photo Division? Huh? Is the writer aware of the real place people go to get their driver's license pictures taken? It's called the Department of Motor Vehicles.

*Definitely Not Rolling On The Floor Laughing Because Candorville Made Me Waste Valuable Minutes Of My Life.

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Camp Stories

Hi there! My name is Cara and I'm here for your Thursdays. I don't have a webcomic or anything, just a simple Twitter account. I'm an animation and webcomic buff, mostly due to my love for newspaper comics as a child.
I'm only going to talk about a couple of comics today as I'm new and all. So lets get this party started:


I'm gonna nickpick here. If the fish is getting pierced by the hooks wouldnt he actually get pierced by the hook part? Maybe the artist thought the joke wouldn't work if the fish was pierced right but it bothers me.


This joke is kind of clever but as a whole it falls flat do to the delivery. The speech bubble is fine but the thought bubble ruins the whole thing. I don't understand what is gained from having the Eskimo complain about tech support guys.



I liked both of these because they reminded me of my own camp experiences as a child.
The first one has me puzzled though. I remember the top bunk being the bad one because of its lack of guard rails and closeness to the spider-filled ceiling. So I swindled my way into getting the bottom bunk in a similar fashion., by making up excuses for why it would be bad for me on the top.

In the second one the little girl acts exactly how I used to back then. I was too much of a know-it-all to scare with stories. It makes me wonder though how the story will play out because even know-it-alls can get scared from ghost stories given the proper circumstances. I hope they don't end up scaring her though as it will be a nice subversion of the trope.


Did they just sneak a joke about hash brownies in there? That's pretty gutsy. I love how many jokes they can fit into this strip though and still make it funny.

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