Friday, September 19, 2008

Everything Old is Old Again

In today’s For Better or For Worse, Lynn Johnston has opted to go for a very routine kid’s comedy moment, i.e. baby feeding daddy. I remember when my kids got to the age where they thought it was hysterical to feed their father. Of course, when they got to that stage, they were at the age where they could feed themselves, unlike little Lizzie in today's strip.

Today’s For Better or For Worse is a little off from that. For one thing, Lizzie has her own spoon and is not taking the one John has. Plus she puts it into John’s mouth without having anything on it, which seems to miss the point about why she would want to do it in the first place. The way the strip comes off is that Lizzie puts her spoon in John’s mouth in order to get him to stop talking to her in baby talk, or because his mouth is open and she wants to put something in there. However, it loses that element of cuteness with the daughter trying to feed the father.

Now we are 3 weeks into them, the new-runs seems to be an odd mix of (a) jokes involving kids which have been done to death in comic strips and (b) Lynn Johnston rambling about her own thoughts using the mouths of Elly, Connie and Annie without respect to their personalities. Actually, Lynn’s ramblings are stronger material than the kid jokes because, while they may be hopelessly old-fashioned, they are more interesting than a recycled joke. Lynn’s forté is to pull from her own life, even if her own life is a whacked out, 61-year-old woman, raging over her divorce.

I thought she had learned this lesson back in 1979, but apparently not. In her earliest days it was the same way. When she did strips lifted almost directly off of Peanuts, or Dennis the Menace, or Cathy; they stank. But when she did strips taken from her own life, even if they made her look like a terrible mother, they still worked from a realism standpoint. When Elly shrieked at her kids, I could believe she would think she was a bad mom for doing it. I may not like the bad mothering, but at least I could believe it. I guess is going to have to learn this all over again.

As for those persons who wanted Lynn to portray Elly in her old age, they have it, but don’t know it. Elly in the new-runs is Elly in her old age. She just looks young and has small children. Everything coming out of her mouth is old.

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

howard,

Actually, Lynn’s ramblings are stronger material than the kid jokes because, while they may be hopelessly old-fashioned, they are more interesting than a recycled joke. Lynn’s forté is to pull from her own life, even if her own life is a whacked out, 61-year-old woman, raging over her divorce.

This is where the hybridization of personalities we're seeing makes the new-runs more enjoyable. Watching RevisedElly pontificate and patronize is loads of fun because she's the same smug, ignorant boob that married off Liz to Awfulny.

2:39 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

Exactly. It's easy to react to RevisedElly as opposed to reacting to Klassic Kids Komedy routine #141.15-2.

7:17 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

You'll have lots of fun tomorrow then. She says something amazingly stupid that leaves RetJohn almost gobsmacked.

8:42 AM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

All right. Something to look forward to.

12:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This strip is also part of Lynn's post-divorce pattern. Notice how the punchline is how funny it is that Lizzie hurts John. Have any of you been whacked in the teeth, hard, with a utensil? I was recently, in a different situation. It is an extremely unpleasant kind of pain. I want to clutch my jaw just thinking about it. I guess John is going to continue to be a stand-in punching bag for Lynn's rage against her ex.

4:26 PM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

Notice how the punchline is how funny it is that Lizzie hurts John.

Exactly. It's not that Lizzie is cute feeding John, when he wants to feed her; but that she is attacking his open mouth.

I guess John is going to continue to be a stand-in punching bag for Lynn's rage against her ex.

Yes. Well he probably parks his car far away from Lynn and her rake, and so the strip is her only option left. Aside from humiliating him in the national news.

5:34 PM  

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