Saturday, August 11, 2007

Sloppy Eaters

Something I have never quite understood about the female Pattersons of For Better or For Worse, is why Lynn Johnston often portrays them as sloppy eaters. Their mouths are open, or they have food dribbling out the sides of their mouths. In our strip today, Elly Patterson has shrimp in her mouth as she passes them out, and then we get to see possibly the most disgusting watermelon-eating scene in modern day comics, with a veritable waterfall of pink-coloured liquid coming off Elly’s watermelon as she consumes it. The punch line of today’s strip depends on those disgusting eating habits. Little Robin thinks Gramma Elly is going to explode when she eats one more piece of food, which is an impression he would not have gotten if he not just seen Elly voraciously gorging herself.

To be perfectly honest, I rarely ever see women who are sloppy eaters like the female Pattersons. When my son was little enough for a high chair, he used to shove food into his mouth so vigorously, he would cover his head and body and the wall behind him with the food. When I see these Patterson women eating like this, it reminds me of my boy in a high chair.

2 Comments:

Blogger April Patterson said...

You've got such an eye for detail--at first reading, I missed the waterfall of watermelon juice. Ick. I don't understand why Lynn finds this a funny way to depict eating, but for some reason she does.

Maybe Robin's seen some Monty Python movies? ;)

5:43 AM  
Blogger howard said...

I love the Mr. Creosote scene from The Meaning of Life, and it is actually my favourite of the Monty Python pictures. However, my wife has told me that after she saw that movie once, she would never see it again.

As for me, the idea that Lynn Johnston had seen the movie and decided to adapt it for her strip, provides me quite a bit of amusement.

6:14 AM  

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