The Return of the Pun
I went back through the reprint strips of the last year to see how many of them resorted to the final panel pun. There was one on June 28. John walks in and say, “Elly, it’s a jungle out there.” To which Elly responds, “I’ll trade you for the zoo in here.” That’s as close as it gets.
When the new-runs began, the artwork was a questionable imitation of Lynn Johnston’s older style, but the storylines seemed to be doing a fairly decent job of imitating the style of the stories as they were told 29 years ago, in which a child-like statement of understanding was often the source of the humour. Little Michael, the hellion was back, and ready to inflict childlike pain and suffering on Fred the fish; but little Michael did not pun.
Then we have this week and I think Lynn has hit her roadblock. In the old strips, John and Elly had most of the conversation, and Lynn Johnston is faced with the same dilemma which has plagued her all last year, i.e. she does not want to put John and Elly together. Her modern day alternative to John was Connie Poirier and it appears that Lynn is going to resort to this same alternative with the new-run strips.
The problem with Connie is that either Lynn doesn’t remember her or she does and wants to change her. And with Connie, the mindset changed. Lynn is no longer imitating the old style of storytelling. Modern Connie’s interests appear, and we see the reintroduction of the final panel pun used on multiple meanings of the word “market”.
You can almost see it happening. When Lynn did her video interview, she was shown drawing the strip from Monday with the “BONK”. It makes me wonder if, after the interview was done, Lynn Johnston said, “Whew! Glad that’s over with. Now I can go back to awful puns.”
When the new-runs began, the artwork was a questionable imitation of Lynn Johnston’s older style, but the storylines seemed to be doing a fairly decent job of imitating the style of the stories as they were told 29 years ago, in which a child-like statement of understanding was often the source of the humour. Little Michael, the hellion was back, and ready to inflict childlike pain and suffering on Fred the fish; but little Michael did not pun.
Then we have this week and I think Lynn has hit her roadblock. In the old strips, John and Elly had most of the conversation, and Lynn Johnston is faced with the same dilemma which has plagued her all last year, i.e. she does not want to put John and Elly together. Her modern day alternative to John was Connie Poirier and it appears that Lynn is going to resort to this same alternative with the new-run strips.
The problem with Connie is that either Lynn doesn’t remember her or she does and wants to change her. And with Connie, the mindset changed. Lynn is no longer imitating the old style of storytelling. Modern Connie’s interests appear, and we see the reintroduction of the final panel pun used on multiple meanings of the word “market”.
You can almost see it happening. When Lynn did her video interview, she was shown drawing the strip from Monday with the “BONK”. It makes me wonder if, after the interview was done, Lynn Johnston said, “Whew! Glad that’s over with. Now I can go back to awful puns.”
posted by howard at 11:01 PM
12 Comments:
I found this strip interesting. IIRC, back in the old-old strips, Connie was regularly going on dates with various men, including Phil and Ted. It always seemed to me that it was strongly implied that Connie was fairly sexually "liberated" and slept around a bit.
But this strip paints Connie as a lot more demure than that. It makes it sound like she can't even find a loser guy to go on a date with. Whereas in the old-old strips, Connie complained about dating losers all the time.
I suspect that Lynn is retconning Connie in light of the more conservative sexual mores of today's popular culture. Just as screeching, cup-throwing harridans get criticized today, so do single mothers who date constantly and bring home men they barely know for fleeting sexual encounters.
howard,
The problem with Connie is that either Lynn doesn’t remember her or she does and wants to change her.
I think more the latter. qnjones is bang on right about Lynn's need to adapt to the new mores. Connie the Swinger is dead and gone; long live Retconnie the wallflower.
One of the first-year strips had Connie writing up a personal ad (on a typewriter--so there's Lynn's excuse to leave it out) and trying not to sound too desperate. What's Retconnie going to do instead? Attend bingo games at the church?
qnjones said...
I suspect that Lynn is retconning Connie in light of the more conservative sexual mores of today's popular culture. Just as screeching, cup-throwing harridans get criticized today, so do single mothers who date constantly and bring home men they barely know for fleeting sexual encounters.
In the beginning, Connie was supposed to be the woman whose freedom Elly admired for dating, but who admired Elly for having landed a doctor husband, a house and kids. She and Elly were supposed to butt heads over these differences, but instead they ended up as the best of friends. Connie's change could be viewed as eliminating the Connie who slept around, but it could also be another manifestation of Lynn writing Connie as if she were modern Connie, who remembers her past just exactly like Elly does.
DreadedCandiru2,
I think more the latter. qnjones is bang on right about Lynn's need to adapt to the new mores. Connie the Swinger is dead and gone; long live Retconnie the wallflower.
No more key parties for Connie. She can try match.com. (If Lynn Johnston knew what that was.)
aprilp_katje,
One of the first-year strips had Connie writing up a personal ad (on a typewriter--so there's Lynn's excuse to leave it out) and trying not to sound too desperate.
So, that was typewriter strip to which Lynn referred in the interview. It may be in her efforts to modernize the strip, she felt she needed a replacement.
What's Retconnie going to do instead? Attend bingo games at the church?
Actually, as a single woman in the medical field, she is already in a great spot at her work. There are a lot of single men in the medical field. As for bingo at the church, a lot of women do try to find men in church, on the premise that a man found there is likely to share her religious beliefs; but churches are usually far better places for men to find women, as the men are often outnumbered there.
Eh. My sister's a doctor. She says real life is nothing like Grey's Anatomy. She says there is virtually no dating in hospitals because everyone is married/domestically partnered.
So...are the new-old strips taking place in the 1970s? The present? Some nebulous time?
qnjones,
She says there is virtually no dating in hospitals because everyone is married/domestically partnered.
Maybe so where she is, but I have known a lot of doctors who married someone else in the medical field.
So...are the new-old strips taking place in the 1970s? The present? Some nebulous time?
This part I have not been able to figure. I submitted the question to the Coffee Talk and it did not get posted nor did I get an answer. When Lynn mentioned in her interviews about removing strips with typewriters, there is definitely a sense of trying to modernize the strip. Then she has Connie mention going to the gym to meet men, which became popular where I was later in the 1980s.
As to whether Lynn means to set it in modern times or simply to remove the elements of the strip which place it in a particular time period, I don’t know. My comparison point is the timelessness of Peanuts reprints (aside from the little girl’s dresses and hair). Presumably if Lynn could eliminate those 1980 parts from her strip, then she could potentially go forever with her reprints.
If we are indeed meant to be in an indeterminate time period, it seems to me that Lynn has a great deal of work ahead of her. For instance, she has to pretty much destroy Jim's history. After all, being a veteran ties him and everyone else down to a specific time period and that's not going to be allowed in the new order. After all, references to events have to join typewriters in the dustbin of New-Run history.
dreadedcandiru2,
For instance, she has to pretty much destroy Jim's history. After all, being a veteran ties him and everyone else down to a specific time period and that's not going to be allowed in the new order.
That’s a good point, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Lynn has not thought this out. Another point of confusion would be Elizabeth’s Grade 13 year.
Of course, her real plan may be to do 50% new-run and old run for the first year, and then once her readership is hooked on the old runs, then reduce to the point where the changes she would introduce via new-run would be minimal.
Speaking of grade 13, Lynn goofed when she had not only Mike but all his friends not do grade 13. And yet they (his friends) went directly to university. According to the_berserker, when grade 13 existed, students who went to university did grade 13. Period.
Why'd she mess up? Aaron didn't do grade 13. (He said so back when he used to post to RACS.) Like Mike, he went to college (equivalent to community college in the U.S.). (Mike later transferred to university--which, I have no idea if Aaron did, too.) I'm guessing Kate did do grade 13, so Lynn suddenly got clued into that for Liz.
(Not that this has anything to do with today's newruns, 'cause...ZZZZ.)
That's very interesting. I didn't remember Mike not going to a full four-year university right away. Did Lynn do this just to mirror what Aaron did? Because it certainly doesn't fit with the way she has always portrayed Mike as the family genius. And, certainly, John could have afforded to send him. Seems quite odd to me, given that all the characters go on and on about how brilliant Mike is. Liz has always been a total nitwit, and she went straight to four-year college!
Post a Comment
<< Home