The Untold Story of John and Ted
Once again Lynn Johnston has chosen to tell and not show something that happened in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse. For some strange reason, she was more interested in showing John Patterson taking Ted McCaulay home, paying off his baby-sitter and kissing his kids good-night than showing what happened with John at the Swig and Swine. This is akin to taking the “Farley rescues April” story and just showing April heading down to the ravine followed by a strip with the Patterson family standing around Farley’s dead body and talking about how he rescued April. The most interesting story is the one Lynn leaves out, and she has been very bad about it lately.
Just last year, during the Liz and Anthony wedding sequence, we don’t see Elizabeth and Elly having a wedding day mother / daughter talk, and we don’t see Elly meeting Anthony’s mother. Both those stories would have been more interesting than the story about Gordon Mayes’ fleet of limousines. Instead we can just imagine how the interchange with John and Ted must have been:
Strip #1
John: I know how the single man lives, Ted – why do you think I got married?
Ted: John, you’re full of it. You got married in university. You don’t know how the single man lives at all.
John: Well, Elly tells me it is awful.
Ted: And she would know.
Strip #2
Ted: You don’t wanna ask a couple of girls to dance? That’s all right. Let’s just talk to some girls.
John: How do you do that?
Ted: You buy a couple of girls a drink. Then you ask them if they would like to play pool.
John: Does that work?
Ted: Sure, John. You have to know the magic words.
John: What are those? Abracadabra? Alakazaam? Shazam, the World’s Mightiest Mortal?
Ted: No, John. The magic words are “I am a doctor.”
Strip #3
Carol: You scratched again, John. We win! You boys owe us another round of beer.
John: This stick is a “cue” that I am no good at pool.
Nancy: That’s so funny! You must keep your wife laughing all the time.
John: Elly does laugh sometimes.
Ted: She’s a regular laugh riot. Beer, John?
John: None for me, Ted. Somebody has to drive.
Carol: It’s a good thing you can drive, because you sure can’t play pool.
Ted, Carol and Nancy laugh.
Strip #4
Ted, Carol and Nancy:
Foam, Foam on deranged.
Where th’ beer and th’ cantaloupe pray.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
For what can a cantaloupe say?
Ted: A classic from my childhood. Join in with us next time, John.
Carol: Do you know any funny songs, John?
John: No. Elly likes Bobby Curtola, but he’s not very funny.
Nancy: You are so funny, John! Bobby Curtola?!
Ted: I have another one. Do you ladies know Black Velvet Band?
Carol: I don’t think I’ve heard of that band before. Are they related to the Black Sabbath band?
Ted: No.
Strip #5
Ted: Ladies. A pleasure to meet you both.
Carol: Call me, Ted.
Ted: I’ll be calling you-oo-oo-oo…oo-oo-oo!
Nancy: See you later, John. Maybe you and your wife can get together with my husband and me sometime.
John: I dunno. I’d have to get a sitter.
Nancy: “Have to get a sitter”? You are so funny, John. See you later, alligator.
Ted: K-K-K-Carol. Beautiful Carol. You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore!
John: Well, Ted. It looks like you found a new girlfriend.
Ted: I did? Who is that?
John: Carol.
Ted: If you insist. O Christmas Beer. O Christmas Beer. Of all the beers most lovely.
Just last year, during the Liz and Anthony wedding sequence, we don’t see Elizabeth and Elly having a wedding day mother / daughter talk, and we don’t see Elly meeting Anthony’s mother. Both those stories would have been more interesting than the story about Gordon Mayes’ fleet of limousines. Instead we can just imagine how the interchange with John and Ted must have been:
Strip #1
John: I know how the single man lives, Ted – why do you think I got married?
Ted: John, you’re full of it. You got married in university. You don’t know how the single man lives at all.
John: Well, Elly tells me it is awful.
Ted: And she would know.
Strip #2
Ted: You don’t wanna ask a couple of girls to dance? That’s all right. Let’s just talk to some girls.
John: How do you do that?
Ted: You buy a couple of girls a drink. Then you ask them if they would like to play pool.
John: Does that work?
Ted: Sure, John. You have to know the magic words.
John: What are those? Abracadabra? Alakazaam? Shazam, the World’s Mightiest Mortal?
Ted: No, John. The magic words are “I am a doctor.”
Strip #3
Carol: You scratched again, John. We win! You boys owe us another round of beer.
John: This stick is a “cue” that I am no good at pool.
Nancy: That’s so funny! You must keep your wife laughing all the time.
John: Elly does laugh sometimes.
Ted: She’s a regular laugh riot. Beer, John?
John: None for me, Ted. Somebody has to drive.
Carol: It’s a good thing you can drive, because you sure can’t play pool.
Ted, Carol and Nancy laugh.
Strip #4
Ted, Carol and Nancy:
Foam, Foam on deranged.
Where th’ beer and th’ cantaloupe pray.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
For what can a cantaloupe say?
Ted: A classic from my childhood. Join in with us next time, John.
Carol: Do you know any funny songs, John?
John: No. Elly likes Bobby Curtola, but he’s not very funny.
Nancy: You are so funny, John! Bobby Curtola?!
Ted: I have another one. Do you ladies know Black Velvet Band?
Carol: I don’t think I’ve heard of that band before. Are they related to the Black Sabbath band?
Ted: No.
Strip #5
Ted: Ladies. A pleasure to meet you both.
Carol: Call me, Ted.
Ted: I’ll be calling you-oo-oo-oo…oo-oo-oo!
Nancy: See you later, John. Maybe you and your wife can get together with my husband and me sometime.
John: I dunno. I’d have to get a sitter.
Nancy: “Have to get a sitter”? You are so funny, John. See you later, alligator.
Ted: K-K-K-Carol. Beautiful Carol. You're the only g-g-g-girl that I adore!
John: Well, Ted. It looks like you found a new girlfriend.
Ted: I did? Who is that?
John: Carol.
Ted: If you insist. O Christmas Beer. O Christmas Beer. Of all the beers most lovely.
posted by howard at 12:34 AM
11 Comments:
The thing that most strikes me is how chummy our one-panel-wonder babysitter seems with John.
"Doctor P"...the very nickname Anthony (also chummy) called John.
Hmmm. I believe we have pinpointed the person who John eats massive cinnamon rolls with in this era.
howard,
I'd have liked to see those strips too but I know why Lynn could never write them.
Ted: John, you’re full of it. You got married in university. You don’t know how the single man lives at all.
John: Well, Elly tells me it is awful.
Ted: And she would know.
That wouldn't have been allowed as it would suggest that Elly/Lynn is passing judgment on something she knows nothing about. We, of curse, know that she's full of crap but her fans hate being reminded of her ignorance.
Ted: No, John. The magic words are “I am a doctor.”
Lynn could never write that because it would remind people that Elly was laying in wait, ready to pounce on some upwardly-mobile nerd (*coughJOHNcough*)who didn't know much about girls.
John: This stick is a “cue” that I am no good at pool.
Nancy: That’s so funny! You must keep your wife laughing all the time.
John: Elly does laugh sometimes.
Ted: She’s a regular laugh riot. Beer, John?
That would remind people that Elly has no sense of either humor or proportion.
Nancy: You are so funny, John! Bobby Curtola?!
Ted: I have another one. Do you ladies know Black Velvet Band?
Carol: I don’t think I’ve heard of that band before. Are they related to the Black Sabbath band?
Ted: No.
That's a clear reminder of how out of it Lynn is musically so she wouldn't write it.
This is akin to taking the “Farley rescues April” story and just showing April heading down to the ravine followed by a strip with the Patterson family standing around Farley’s dead body and talking about how he rescued April. The most interesting story is the one Lynn leaves out, and she has been very bad about it lately.
Someone should mention this sort of thing in a letter to Coffee Squawk... but I suppose LJ will utterly ignore it, as she apparently does everything submitted there.
What the heck is that bed John is tucking both kids into, in panel 4? It's not any bed Mike has had before--and what is he thinking leaving flux-age baby/toddler Liz with preschool/kindergarten Mike and his no-doubt restless sleep? I could see having both kids in his bed that first night, if it was going to make them less anxious, but this doesn't make sense.
April_Patterson,
I could see having both kids in his bed that first night, if it was going to make them less anxious, but this doesn't make sense.
Sadly, it does to Lynn; she seems transfixed by the image of having all the kids in the same bed. It's her visual shorthand for a close sibling relationship; any reminders that it looks like incest are as discounted as the suggestion that Mike and Jo Weeder look like lovers.
Anonymous,
The thing that most strikes me is how chummy our one-panel-wonder babysitter seems with John. "Doctor P"...the very nickname Anthony (also chummy) called John.
Going through AMU reprints, I found the history of the nickname Dr. P and it’s interesting to watch the progression of who uses it.
2/5/1996 by Gordon Mayes
3/13/1998 by Tracey Mayes
1/22/1999 by Jean Baker
5/15/2006 by Gerald Delaney-Forsythe
9/3/2006 by Duncan Anderson
7/31/2007 by Eva Abuya
7/11/2008 by Anthony Caine
10/11/2008 by new-run Jean Baker
03/26/2009 by unknown Thérèse-like baby-sitter
What we have is a nickname that used to be used exclusively with persons having a work relationship with Dr. Patterson -- the Mayes through John’s investment in his business and Jean Baker at John’s work. Later on, we had the very strange sequence in 2006 with John taking Gerald and Duncan for a joy ride in his new Crevasse that resulted in John getting a speeding ticket. From that moment on April’s friends starting calling him Dr. P. Once he got engaged to Elizabeth, Anthony Caine started using the nickname. As for this unknown baby-sitter, it’s hard to say what Lynn Johnston intends by showing a baby-sitter this chummy with John. She has appropriated this modern nickname for Dr. Patterson into the new-run strips for Jean Baker, so this implies that the baby-sitter is a co-worker who agreed to baby-sit for John. Another possibility is that in the new-run era, everyone knows Dr. Patterson and calls him Dr. P.
DreadedCandiru2,
It's her visual shorthand for a close sibling relationship; any reminders that it looks like incest are as discounted as the suggestion that Mike and Jo Weeder look like lovers.
I think it’s also a visual shorthand for “I only have 5 panels, so I can’t put 2 panels with John visiting both the kid’s rooms”. My guess is lazy drawing.
aprilp_katje,
What the heck is that bed John is tucking both kids into, in panel 4? It's not any bed Mike has had before--and what is he thinking leaving flux-age baby/toddler Liz with preschool/kindergarten Mike and his no-doubt restless sleep?
From the way the kids are drawn, I suspect they may be Cabbage Patch Kids, that John has mistaken for his own children. As for the bed, remember that house expansion that gave the Pattersons their extra downstairs bedroom for John and Elly? Remember that this renovation didn’t happen until some years later? Obviously Lynn Johnston didn’t.
As for the bed, remember that house expansion that gave the Pattersons their extra downstairs bedroom for John and Elly? Remember that this renovation didn’t happen until some years later? Obviously Lynn Johnston didn’t.
Wait, can you tell this from today's strip or another one? ::confused::
[My word verification is "flown." Hmmmm....]
aprilp_katje,
Wait, can you tell this from today's strip or another one? ::confused::
From the bed for Mike and Lizzie. As you pointed out, it's not any bed Mike has had before. Ergo, the home renovation must have been completed "between the lines" of course.
Ergo, the home renovation must have been completed "between the lines" of course.
::snerk::
Of course! Anything and everything can and does occur between those lines. ;)
Post a Comment
<< Home