Sunday week before Christmas
How can you tell it’s a reprint? With today’s reprint used in For Better or For Worse, the simple answer is the happy ending. There is no wordplay. When you get right down to it, you can tell it’s a reprint if it doesn’t seem like For Better or For Worse.
However, there is quite a bit of bickering on the way to the happy ending and Lynn Johnston hits a lot of her favourite themes:
a. Elly can’t control the kids.
b. The kids are brats who can’t behave in a public place.
c. People are always trying to get money from you by taking advantage of you.
d. Elly is hypersensitive about house-cleanliness.
e. Something happens which defies the laws of nature, like putting 2 children, 3 adults, a dog and a full-grown tree in the inside of a car.
f. Lynn Johnston can’t draw a decent tree in 2008 and couldn’t draw one in 1980.
2007 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Merrie and Robin being bratty and driving Deanna crazy until she forced Mike to take them out.
2006 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had April and Elizabeth listening to “wrap” music.
2005 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Grandpa Jim complaining about his Christmas routine.
2004 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had April working at the Food Bank and making a thought balloon about giving.
2003 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Merrie menacing a Department Store Santa.
I declare this Sunday week before Christmas For Better or For Worse strip to be the best since before 2003. I guess it’s no surprise it is a reprint.
However, there is quite a bit of bickering on the way to the happy ending and Lynn Johnston hits a lot of her favourite themes:
a. Elly can’t control the kids.
b. The kids are brats who can’t behave in a public place.
c. People are always trying to get money from you by taking advantage of you.
d. Elly is hypersensitive about house-cleanliness.
e. Something happens which defies the laws of nature, like putting 2 children, 3 adults, a dog and a full-grown tree in the inside of a car.
f. Lynn Johnston can’t draw a decent tree in 2008 and couldn’t draw one in 1980.
2007 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Merrie and Robin being bratty and driving Deanna crazy until she forced Mike to take them out.
2006 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had April and Elizabeth listening to “wrap” music.
2005 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Grandpa Jim complaining about his Christmas routine.
2004 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had April working at the Food Bank and making a thought balloon about giving.
2003 – Sunday week before Christmas strip had Merrie menacing a Department Store Santa.
I declare this Sunday week before Christmas For Better or For Worse strip to be the best since before 2003. I guess it’s no surprise it is a reprint.
posted by howard at 9:42 PM
5 Comments:
howard,
a. Elly can’t control the kids.
b. The kids are brats who can’t behave in a public place.
c. People are always trying to get money from you by taking advantage of you.
d. Elly is hypersensitive about house-cleanliness.
e. Something happens which defies the laws of nature, like putting 2 children, 3 adults, a dog and a full-grown tree in the inside of a car.
f. Lynn Johnston can’t draw a decent tree in 2008 and couldn’t draw one in 1980.
g - The Pattersons are too stupid to put Farley on a leash in public.
What most annoyed me is that John didn't have a method of keeping Farley safe more robust than "Have Mike distract him." He should have known that Elly would swoop him scowling and telling him to stop playing with the dog and do her work for her.
dreadedcandiru2,
What most annoyed me is that John didn't have a method of keeping Farley safe more robust than "Have Mike distract him."
Me, personally, I don't take dogs Christmas tree shopping. You are just asking to pay for a lot of trees the dog urinates on. As for a leash, if they can't remember to bring rope to tie the tree up on the car, then a leash is the least of their memory concerns.
The final caption should be rewritten, "We Pattersons like to be really stupid while we get a Christmas tree, but it's worth it once the tree is finally in the house."
On its own, I like this one - it's over-the-top in the disorganization. It's only because they *never* learn, and act so helpless about children and pet behaviour that it gets irritating.
If only it had been the *one* time they did something that dumb, and the *next* year's pre-Christmas strip was, say: "remember how we screwed up getting the tree? - yeah, no twine, we brought the dog... - look! I've solved it: an artificial tree!" (+ several panels of insanity figuring out how to put it together - maybe only the Italian version of the instructions made it into the box)
LJ could have had them learn from previous mistakes and still have had funny, different near-disasters.
howard,
The final caption should be rewritten, "We Pattersons like to be really stupid while we get a Christmas tree, but it's worth it once the tree is finally in the house.
They like to be stupid about a lot of things they decide are worth it after the fact. We saw a lavendar-and-teal example of this almost four months ago.
InsertMonikerHere,
LJ could have had them learn from previous mistakes and still have had funny, different near-disasters.
That would be the best way to do it. Instead, we see them act like goldfish who keep swimming around the same plastic tree because they only have a four-minute span of memory.
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