Our Life on the Funny Pages

Tuesday's strip reminded me that I wanted to discuss how we amuse ourselves at the (cartoon) syndicates. First off, let’s take care of business and look at today’s strip.

This is another Garfield joke where two of the three panels are padding. Ok, Jon is doing a “slow burn” in the first two panels. Fine, I understand that. However, it works as well if you just look at the final panel. Compare that to today’s “Pearls Before Swine.” PBS has a silly joke, but it also has a setup. Actually, PBS works as well with just the first wo panels, the third panel is an extra bonus. That’s the difference between a craftsman (PBS) and cranking out the ol strip to make tee-time (Garfield).

To return to the question at hand, what do we do to stay amused when we’re not on stage? We do keep busy, and NOT giving haircuts. There is always a poker game going somewhere. Most are temporary; a bunch of characters (and I mean that in several meanings of the word) get together with some snacks, a deck of card, some poker chips and play. There is one permanent game, however, that has been going on the back lot of King Features for decades. No one knows exactly when it started. Legend says that it was started by the cast of “Krazy Kat” one evening and never stopped. Apparently it didn’t even stop the morning of December 7, 1941; Pearl Harbor. They just brought a radio into the room to listen and kept going. It’s usually a fairly low stakes game so even the most minor of supporting characters can join, but larger pots have been known to exchange hands when it’s just the heavy hitters playing. Trust me, when it’s Dagwood, Linus, and Hi (from Hi and Lois) at the table, nickel bets are out. They all have royalties to spare so expensive sports cars and beachfront property have been won or lost at their games! I am strictly a nickel and dime player. Apparently I have a “tell.” I wag my tail ever so slightly when I try to bluff, so large stakes games are off limits for me.

There is also a bowling league that’s been going for decades. Steve Canyon founded it for those characters serving in World War II (or “the Big One” as he ALWAYS called it!). It expanded in the 1950s to the non-military strips, and is still going. Teams tend to be organized by friendships, rather than by employer. For example, the powerhouse team the past few years has been the “Galloping Geezers” (not their real name, just a nickname.) It has the grandfathers from Boondocks, Pickles, One Big Happy, and Gran, the grandmother from 9 Chickweed Lane. My God, those guys are sharks! The grandfather from Boondocks averages well over 200 and the guy from Pickles can pick up a 7-10 split without working up a sweat. Gran only averages about 120, but she is a master at playing mind games on the opposing team. When you’re playing against her by the 6th frame you’re wondering if you should run out to call your mother to tell her you love her and your mind isn’t on the game. In contrast to the Geezers, Zippy is on a team with 3 cows retired from the “Far Side” and they’re perpetually in the basement, to a large degree because 1. it’s hard to bowl with hooves and 2. Zippy keeps wandering off to talk to the ball washer. What a pinhead!

That’s all I have time for today. I am meeting my book group in an hour. Zebra from PBS is leading us through Veblen’s “The Theory of the Leisure Class.” I think Veblen placed too much emphasis on a rigid demarcation of gender roles in his analysis of overt status symbols and neglected to consider the dynamics of same-gendered interpersonal family relations, but I’m sure Vern from “Over the Hedge” will disagree, again. Besides, if I am late the Dad from “Zits” will hog all the pizza.

Yours,

Odie

# posted by Odie @ 5:12 PM