Whiffex 3: I Don’t Buy It
It was just a matter of time before Lynn Johnston returned back to one of her favourite sources of humour in For Better or For Worse – animal poop. If I understand the basic point of this strip: The best method of getting rid of pet odor in your house is to boot the pet outdoors. As a corollary, pet odor deodorizers do not work as advertised, at least not to the sensitivity required by Elly’s ever-growing, new-run nose. I wonder what pet odor deodorizers did to Lynn Johnston? This is the first time I can think of that she has decided to slander a product in the pet care industry to my knowledge.
Ironically, Lynn has chosen to show Elly struggling to use Whiffex 3 to remove Farley the dog’s odor during the course of a commercial. Commercials of this sort usually run 30 seconds and Elly’s effort looks like it should last longer than that, unless we are talking one of those infomercials that can run up to 30 minutes or more. I have a hard time imagining the necessity for an infomercial on pet odor removal. If the commercial runs 30 seconds, it diminishes the appearance of Elly’s effort and makes you wonder why Elly is not really giving the product time to work. If it’s an infomercial, you would have to wonder why Elly is watching it in the first place.
The fun parts of the strip are 2 panels of underbite Elly sniffing the remains of dog poop, the mutant selling Whiffex on the television, Farley’s cross-eyed semi-deranged look as he poops, and the magically-appearing Whiffex 3. It must be interesting to live in a world where a product appears in your hand if it appears on the television, just at the time when you need it. Of course, only Elly Patterson would question the quality of such a gift. However, Elly lives in the land of Pattersons, where submitted books get $25K advance checks, and where you can find a teaching job without looking for one. In such a land, you might not appreciate magically-appearing products and consider them to be commonplace.
Given how Farley looks when he poops, I might be a little more worried that I have a sick dog. It would be unusual for a dog that is house-trained to walk next to the home owner and dump a load right next to her instead of begging to be sent outside. In such a situation, is the best thing is take the sick dog outside or to move the sick dog to the garage so he is protected from the cold? More importantly, if your objective is to paint the picture of a beloved dog to push children’s books or plush toys of said dog, maybe it would be good to show strips featuring the dog doing something other than pooping, pissing, or destroying children’s toys or the furniture. Maybe the dog should be shown playing with the children or some kind of strange behaviour like that.
Ironically, Lynn has chosen to show Elly struggling to use Whiffex 3 to remove Farley the dog’s odor during the course of a commercial. Commercials of this sort usually run 30 seconds and Elly’s effort looks like it should last longer than that, unless we are talking one of those infomercials that can run up to 30 minutes or more. I have a hard time imagining the necessity for an infomercial on pet odor removal. If the commercial runs 30 seconds, it diminishes the appearance of Elly’s effort and makes you wonder why Elly is not really giving the product time to work. If it’s an infomercial, you would have to wonder why Elly is watching it in the first place.
The fun parts of the strip are 2 panels of underbite Elly sniffing the remains of dog poop, the mutant selling Whiffex on the television, Farley’s cross-eyed semi-deranged look as he poops, and the magically-appearing Whiffex 3. It must be interesting to live in a world where a product appears in your hand if it appears on the television, just at the time when you need it. Of course, only Elly Patterson would question the quality of such a gift. However, Elly lives in the land of Pattersons, where submitted books get $25K advance checks, and where you can find a teaching job without looking for one. In such a land, you might not appreciate magically-appearing products and consider them to be commonplace.
Given how Farley looks when he poops, I might be a little more worried that I have a sick dog. It would be unusual for a dog that is house-trained to walk next to the home owner and dump a load right next to her instead of begging to be sent outside. In such a situation, is the best thing is take the sick dog outside or to move the sick dog to the garage so he is protected from the cold? More importantly, if your objective is to paint the picture of a beloved dog to push children’s books or plush toys of said dog, maybe it would be good to show strips featuring the dog doing something other than pooping, pissing, or destroying children’s toys or the furniture. Maybe the dog should be shown playing with the children or some kind of strange behaviour like that.
posted by howard at 11:43 PM
6 Comments:
howard,
More importantly, if your objective is to paint the picture of a beloved dog to push children’s books or plush toys of said dog, maybe it would be good to show strips featuring the dog doing something other than pooping, pissing, or destroying children’s toys or the furniture. Maybe the dog should be shown playing with the children or some kind of strange behaviour like that.
That would never occur to Lynn; she thinks that pooping, pissing and chewing things are gut-busting fun and believes that people share her opinion. Not for her the strange idea that this paints the Pattersons, Elly especially, as a bunch of idiots who shouldn't have pets because they don't take care of them properly.
dreadedcandiru2,
That would never occur to Lynn; she thinks that pooping, pissing and chewing things are gut-busting fun and believes that people share her opinion.
In Lynn's favour is the outrageous success of the movie Marley and Me, which features an extremely destructive, but loveable dog. It will be interesting to see how the children's book sells when it comes out.
I don't mind the framing. The "I happen to *have* this product on hand just when the commercial is on, reminding me to use it" bit is silly, but I can take it as telescoping Elly hearing about the stuff earlier and then trying it while remembering (or having the omnipresent ad playing *again* on TV).
As for the length, I have clocked back-to-back double doses of Oxi-Clean commercials at over 3 minutes, and they weren't 'even', so one was approx 2 minutes long. This is the kind of obnoxious 6 AM ad you can encounter on the TV at the gym :)
No, what I mind is the overall message.
First, poor Farley *again* has an explicit "??". He's not being sent out *when* he made the mess, he's confused - this is no way to housetrain or treat a pet. As pointed out, if he is housetrained, he is likely unwell and should be watched or put in the garage.
Second, this is yet another "poor Elly, life is sooo hard" stories. No longer an part of FOOB, this is a strong component of the "For Worse or For Worst" new FOOB order. And once again, we can see how it's partly to largely due to Elly not doing little things to make her life easier. Is Farley housetrained? Why didn't she do something when she saw the dog straining? Why is Farley still around after making a mess? Does she want Farley to think it's OK to go around making messes in the house?
And if the smell is only obvious by trying to stick the carpet up your nose, then maybe the cleanser's done a good enough job!
InsertMonikerHere,
And if the smell is only obvious by trying to stick the carpet up your nose, then maybe the cleanser's done a good enough job!
Not good enough for Elly, though; she'd rather scrub a hole in the rug than take a sick dog to the vet. As I said, he looked as if he passed a ball of thumbtacks when he let go on the carpet; that tells me that this is the first blast across Elly's bow by the HMS Gastritis.
the first blast across Elly's bow by the HMS Gastritis.
Well, if dumbass Elly would quit feeding him her hideous "table scraps", maybe he'd have less problems in that area....
InsertMonikerHere,
The "I happen to *have* this product on hand just when the commercial is on, reminding me to use it" bit is silly
Although that is a valid way to read between the lines, I prefer to read between the lines that it magically appeared, not unlike finding Grandma Marian’s old wedding dress in perfect condition in a crawl space. To me that seems more in context with For Better or For Worse than the idea that Elly would ever buy a brand name cleaning product.
Second, this is yet another "poor Elly, life is sooo hard" stories. No longer an part of FOOB, this is a strong component of the "For Worse or For Worst" new FOOB order.
It is a strong component of the new-runs, but it was also a mainstay of the first several years of the strip.
And once again, we can see how it's partly to largely due to Elly not doing little things to make her life easier.
This is the element of the new-run that is different. In the old strips, Elly’s problems with cleaning were more to demonstrate the perspective of the stay-at-home mom that an infant at home oftentimes was so time-consuming she did not have time to make dinner and keep the house as clean as she would like it. It’s almost like Lynn Johnston has remembered that Elly struggled to keep things clean without remembering the “why” element which made the storyline realistic.
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