Tuesday, November 18, 2008

How Farley Really Died

It’s a good thing he’s a comic strip dog, other wise today’s For Better or For Worse would be the one where Farley dies, only he’s killed by Mike and Lizzie as they pulled on both sides of him. Today’s strip reminded me of the time when I was young, and my mother, who was teaching kindergarten at the time, took my pet guinea pig to school to show to the little 5-year-olds. My guinea pig did not survive the trip. You cannot simply assume that a child will know how to treat an animal, particularly a small and defenseless one. This appears to be the lesson learned by Elly in today’s For Better or For Worse. However it is not clear if Elly’s intent is to instruct her children on how to handle Farley so they don’t kill him, or if Elly’s intent is to stop the kids from fighting over the dog. We don’t get to see the aftermath. Instead we have a sort of “Can’t see the trees for the forest” kind of situation, where the humour is derived on the idea that Elly is so involved in the overall process of taking care of the dog, that she almost doesn’t notice her kids trying to kill the dog.

11 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Obviously your mom did not just "show" the guinea pig to kindergarteners. What did she let them DO?!?

(My kid's kindergarten had a class pet guinea pig. He lived in a cage, and every kid in that class was taught to handle and treat him properly. He went home with various kids for each holiday, and survived every trip.)

Aside from the suffering of the poor animal, did your MOM learn a lesson from this? I personally hope she felt properly guilty and mortified...

1:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Note that the one time Elly SHOULD have yelled (to get their attention and stop them), she freezes in panic and does nothing.

1:56 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

qnjones,

I agree that Elly should have yelled at them to stop since they were trying to kill the poor animal; too bad for him she freezes when she's faced with a real problem. I remember seeing her go into a similar stasis when John got lost. The children needed someone who could see past her own fears to help them deal with their own; what they got was a panicky idiot who shut down because she couldn't handle pressure.

2:07 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

You cannot simply assume that a child will know how to treat an animal, particularly a small and defenseless one. This appears to be the lesson learned by Elly in today’s For Better or For Worse. However it is not clear if Elly’s intent is to instruct her children on how to handle Farley so they don’t kill him, or if Elly’s intent is to stop the kids from fighting over the dog.

Given that we have an arc that rotates around Elly's wanting to keep Mike from mauling the poor creature to death, I'd say the former.

2:09 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Anonymous,

Obviously your mom did not just "show" the guinea pig to kindergarteners. What did she let them DO?!?

This has been some years ago, but as I recollect the story she told me she had extracted from the kid who killed the guinea pig, he wanted to see what would happen if he strangled it and my mom did not notice what he was doing until it was too late.

Aside from the suffering of the poor animal, did your MOM learn a lesson from this? I personally hope she felt properly guilty and mortified...

My mom is pretty good at guilt, particularly when it is her own. She never took family pets into her classroom again. In her defense, it was her first year of doing Kindergarten and it was a Head Start program that was just being started, so my mom was inexperienced and a lot of the kids were pretty rough.

5:48 AM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

Note that the one time Elly SHOULD have yelled (to get their attention and stop them), she freezes in panic and does nothing.

True. Elly probably needs time to build up to a good shrieking. She has to unhinge her jaw, and that's probably something you just can't do on a moment's notice.

When it comes to Farley’s treatment, Elly will prove to have a terrible track record. I wonder if the original reaction from her readers back in 1980, was a fear that the next day’s strip would show an injured puppy.

5:51 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2,

I remember seeing her go into a similar stasis when John got lost. The children needed someone who could see past her own fears to help them deal with their own; what they got was a panicky idiot who shut down because she couldn't handle pressure.

At least Lynn Johnston’s portrayal of Elly is consistent of not being able to handle any kind of adversity. When you look back at how Elly handled Kortney Krelbutz, rude customers at Lilliputs, April back-talking, or even planning her daughter’s wedding; you see a woman who hides and lets someone else handle even the slightest problem.

Given that we have an arc that rotates around Elly's wanting to keep Mike from mauling the poor creature to death, I'd say the former.

Probably the next one up, given the theme established today.

5:53 AM  
Blogger InsertMonikerHere said...

I take the last panel as somewhat exaggerated for comedic effect, so while I do see Farley as being mishandled, I don't imagine the unseen panel four: bury the dog and buy a new puppy before dad gets home.

I babysat for two sisters who would argue over whose turn it was to pet the cat. One would hug the cat close and the other would try to push her sister's arms away and pry him out. Yes, I would have to put a stop to it. But it was also pretty clear that the cat (who had amazing patience) could have gotten loose from either or both girls at any time.

By seeing the 3rd panel as exaggerating a scene like that, I'm able to look at it without immediate horror :-)

6:51 AM  
Blogger howard said...

InsertMonikerHere,

I take the last panel as somewhat exaggerated for comedic effect, so while I do see Farley as being mishandled, I don't imagine the unseen panel four: bury the dog and buy a new puppy before dad gets home.

Yes, For Better or For Worse is not known for its dark humour. Back in 1980, when it was just starting out, the reader might have been a little worried. By 2008, there is no doubt that Farley can take any abuse that is dished out, because he has a calendar and a children’s book to push.

9:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And we know what WILL kill Farley.

Yuck. That's what makes all this re-run stuff so bad. We know all the fates of the characters. Surely, Lynn doesn't think there will be any more "dramatic tension" or "surprise" events for the strip? And really, that was the only unique thing about the strip and the only reason most readers were consistent followers.


DebJyn

11:25 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DebJyn

Yuck. That's what makes all this re-run stuff so bad. We know all the fates of the characters.

Not only the fates, but the storylines. Because Lynn is mixing reprints in with the new-runs, we know that the new-runs are simply variations on the same stories the original strips told. You can tell stories about old characters that are new and original, if you are willing to write a whole sequence that has nothing to do with the old storylines. Instead what we have is “See a reprint on dog pee. See a new-run on dog pee.” OR “See a reprint where John was an asshat. See a new-run showing John was even more of an asshat.”

Surely, Lynn doesn't think there will be any more "dramatic tension" or "surprise" events for the strip? And really, that was the only unique thing about the strip and the only reason most readers were consistent followers.

There were very few surprises in the modern strip and the dramatic tension had a lot to do with whether or not Lynn would do exactly what you thought she would do. However, there were stories that had not been told before and that was an advantage.

2:22 PM  

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