I’m Thinking of Good Vibrations
The theme for the day was “sense the vibe” from the odd punchline of Mike Patterson in the final panel of today’s For Better or For Worse strip. I tried to incorporate it in most of the posts I did today.
Things notable: Jeremy, Alexandra, Vicki Simone and her boyfriend Gordie went to a seminar adrianne_p dreamt up based on the daily strip. Snarking the daily strip is proving to be a forte of adrianne_p. The choice of the characters meant that I had to go back and remind myself of Gordie’s history. I find that I remember pretty well the history of the characters who interplay with my characters, but not as much the ones that don’t. Gordie’s interplay with Jeremy had been minimal, and some of it was while I was off on vacation. I hope I did justice to the character and gave greytail088 the opportunity to add his / her own snark to the story as Vicki and ellcee to add snark from the Deanna Patterthon perthpective. Of course, I must also credit aprilp_katje for her suggestion of seminar teacher Oksana Baiul, which was a totally off-the-wall suggestion.
Howard also got visited by Brad Luggsworth in drag, trying to investigate the legitimacy of the shamp-Ohs. No love for that one at all. I guess the thought of Officer Luggsworth in drag is not as funny as I thought. Oh well, can’t win them all.
Howard took advantage of his relationship with Everett Callahan to snark the monthly letters of John rather viciously. It also included snarking Eugene Lee the mysteriously missing first attempt at an associate for Dr. John Patterson from the monthly letters of John. Everything referenced in that post came from the monthly letters except for the Dr. Everett Callahan dialogue traits, which are borrowed liberally from the strip and Dr. Patterson’s salacious remarks about teenage girls’ figures, which were taken from the strip’s Dr. P’s own bizarre and perverted comments about his daughter April’s figure. aprilp_katje followed my post up with 2 extremely funny posts coming from Drs. Eugene Lee and Elliot Everett.
Lastly, qnjones put Howard with Becky as she is invaded by junk food-seeking Gerald Forsythe. I wrote up a short ditty on how Howard and Becky get him back home, lured by a chocolate bar. It wasn’t very funny, but it is late and I am tired. I have done a lot of snarking today.
Tomorrow’s strip. Wilfred Sobinski suddenly develops a personality and we find, much to our surprise, that the rich and wealthy Wilfred has suddenly turned into Melville Kelpfroth. I guess Lynn decided that Wilf could not actually have a unique personality of his own. Unfortunately, Lynn chose 2 boring shows to watch to garner our sympathy with Mike. I say unfortunately, because it would have been a lot funnier, if Wilf had picked some legitimately good shows. Then we could see that Mike is so completely absorbed in his work, it doesn’t matter what Wilf watched. As it is, we are supposed to sympathize with Mike because of Wilf’s choice of television programs. Imagine Wilf saying, “New episodes of Lost and Arrested Development We’re in luck”. Or even, “Maple Leafs vs. Canadiens. We’re in luck.” Either of those choices would be funnier than the choices given.
Things notable: Jeremy, Alexandra, Vicki Simone and her boyfriend Gordie went to a seminar adrianne_p dreamt up based on the daily strip. Snarking the daily strip is proving to be a forte of adrianne_p. The choice of the characters meant that I had to go back and remind myself of Gordie’s history. I find that I remember pretty well the history of the characters who interplay with my characters, but not as much the ones that don’t. Gordie’s interplay with Jeremy had been minimal, and some of it was while I was off on vacation. I hope I did justice to the character and gave greytail088 the opportunity to add his / her own snark to the story as Vicki and ellcee to add snark from the Deanna Patterthon perthpective. Of course, I must also credit aprilp_katje for her suggestion of seminar teacher Oksana Baiul, which was a totally off-the-wall suggestion.
Howard also got visited by Brad Luggsworth in drag, trying to investigate the legitimacy of the shamp-Ohs. No love for that one at all. I guess the thought of Officer Luggsworth in drag is not as funny as I thought. Oh well, can’t win them all.
Howard took advantage of his relationship with Everett Callahan to snark the monthly letters of John rather viciously. It also included snarking Eugene Lee the mysteriously missing first attempt at an associate for Dr. John Patterson from the monthly letters of John. Everything referenced in that post came from the monthly letters except for the Dr. Everett Callahan dialogue traits, which are borrowed liberally from the strip and Dr. Patterson’s salacious remarks about teenage girls’ figures, which were taken from the strip’s Dr. P’s own bizarre and perverted comments about his daughter April’s figure. aprilp_katje followed my post up with 2 extremely funny posts coming from Drs. Eugene Lee and Elliot Everett.
Lastly, qnjones put Howard with Becky as she is invaded by junk food-seeking Gerald Forsythe. I wrote up a short ditty on how Howard and Becky get him back home, lured by a chocolate bar. It wasn’t very funny, but it is late and I am tired. I have done a lot of snarking today.
Tomorrow’s strip. Wilfred Sobinski suddenly develops a personality and we find, much to our surprise, that the rich and wealthy Wilfred has suddenly turned into Melville Kelpfroth. I guess Lynn decided that Wilf could not actually have a unique personality of his own. Unfortunately, Lynn chose 2 boring shows to watch to garner our sympathy with Mike. I say unfortunately, because it would have been a lot funnier, if Wilf had picked some legitimately good shows. Then we could see that Mike is so completely absorbed in his work, it doesn’t matter what Wilf watched. As it is, we are supposed to sympathize with Mike because of Wilf’s choice of television programs. Imagine Wilf saying, “New episodes of Lost and Arrested Development We’re in luck”. Or even, “Maple Leafs vs. Canadiens. We’re in luck.” Either of those choices would be funnier than the choices given.
posted by howard at 11:00 PM
5 Comments:
Aw, I did think Luggy in drag was funny--sorry for overlooking it! You give us so much to love, some things fall through the cracks! (That's no excuse, though. :( )
I hate that we're supposed to sympathize with Mike. How can I sympathize with someone who is so self-absorbed and unworthy?
aprilp_katje,
I don't need love for everything I write. I wouldn't mind it. However, I use the reception of love as a critical indication of the quality of the writing. Therefore, the likelihood of my pursuing Brad Luggsworth snark stories is remote.
The fine folks at
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.strips
would be more than happy to give you some tips on Mike sympathy. But let me outline a few of them:
1. He is providing for his family. He is not some slug who can't keep a job.
2. He served as sole provider for his family when Deanna intentionally got pregnant with Merrie before he was financially secure in his career enough to have children. Moreover, we have never seen him get mad at Deanna for doing this, when he was deserving of at least a little anger.
3. He took the humiliating loan from his parents, when he couldn't make ends meet. By humiliating I mean the huge deal that Elly made when Mike finally paid her back.
4. He is attentive to and respectful of his parents and to a lesser degree, his siblings. He takes his children to see his parents often (since apparently Elly and John are too afraid of Toronto to go there.)
5. In his freelance work, he apparently takes every single thing that comes he way, without question (movie scripts, dissertations).
6. He listens to his wife and does what she asks him to do. Many of our complaints about Mike have to do with him not spending time with his kids or doing housework. However, in the strip, virtually every time Deanna asks Mike to do something, he does it. He may complain, but he still does it. Based on that, it is my opinion that if she were to just ask him to help around the house and spend more time with the kids, then there is a good chance he would probably do it. Of course, the fact that he doesn't do it without being asked, does mean he is self-absorbed.
Being a guy, I can sympathize. My wife is regularly miffed at my not doing things that she expected me to do without telling me she expected me to do them. It's part of the male / female dynamic I think. You must speak in simple declarative sentences to the poor hapless male, who cannot read shrugs, sighs, or passive language. Although I am trying to learn those languages.
Does that help you sympathize with the self-absorbed Mike?
Does that help you sympathize with the self-absorbed Mike?
Nope. But a big part of my lack of sympathy is a need I feel to go against the grain. I sense Lynn wants me to side with him today. But no, Lynn, I won't! ;)
Ah, failure. But I sense that Lynn vibe too.
The only failure is Lynn's! :)
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