After Big Boy, Another New Ploy
New Run Status: 3 ½ new-runs to go
I am getting a little nervous about the new-runs. In the month of August, 3 of the 5 new-runs came from the Sunday strips. I was counting on the Sunday strip to be new-runs. Today’s Sunday strip of For Better or For Worse is a reprint. Lynn only has 8 possible strips left in which to meet her promise of 50% new-runs for the first year of new-runs. Will she make it? The tension builds.
In today’s strip Elly convinces young Michael that he is a big kid, and uses that impetus to get Mike to do chores. Amazingly, this works with Michael. Even though Elly seems to speaking reasonably to Michael, we find out later that Elly considers this to be a ploy.
The final panel joke is that although Elly has been so successful, she has even merited praise from John; the next time she wants to get Michael to do something, she will have to think of another ploy to convince him.
There have been a number of strips like this over the last year of reprints. Elly has to trick Michael into behaving properly. John, on the other hand, usually resorts to brute force and threats. Neither parent seems to resort to asking nicely and then levying a punishment if the child fails to accomplish the task in a reasonable time. I guess such a thing wouldn’t be considered funny.
I am getting a little nervous about the new-runs. In the month of August, 3 of the 5 new-runs came from the Sunday strips. I was counting on the Sunday strip to be new-runs. Today’s Sunday strip of For Better or For Worse is a reprint. Lynn only has 8 possible strips left in which to meet her promise of 50% new-runs for the first year of new-runs. Will she make it? The tension builds.
In today’s strip Elly convinces young Michael that he is a big kid, and uses that impetus to get Mike to do chores. Amazingly, this works with Michael. Even though Elly seems to speaking reasonably to Michael, we find out later that Elly considers this to be a ploy.
The final panel joke is that although Elly has been so successful, she has even merited praise from John; the next time she wants to get Michael to do something, she will have to think of another ploy to convince him.
There have been a number of strips like this over the last year of reprints. Elly has to trick Michael into behaving properly. John, on the other hand, usually resorts to brute force and threats. Neither parent seems to resort to asking nicely and then levying a punishment if the child fails to accomplish the task in a reasonable time. I guess such a thing wouldn’t be considered funny.
posted by howard at 12:44 AM
4 Comments:
Elly has to trick Michael into behaving properly. John, on the other hand, usually resorts to brute force and threats. Neither parent seems to resort to asking nicely and then levying a punishment if the child fails to accomplish the task in a reasonable time. I guess such a thing wouldn’t be considered funny.
Also, neither thing would actually ever occur to them. Elly seems to believe that other people simply cannot be reasoned with and thus must be manipulated into doing things she wants them to while John is simply too stupid to do anything but bellow threats.
Lynn only has 8 possible strips left in which to meet her promise of 50% new-runs for the first year of new-runs. Will she make it? The tension builds.
Hm. Well, if she does eight days of new-ruins, she can plausibly move into the "Mike is in school" references in the old-runs.
DreadedCandiru2,
Elly seems to believe that other people simply cannot be reasoned with and thus must be manipulated into doing things she wants them to while John is simply too stupid to do anything but bellow threats.
And in their last moment of parenting, John threatened and Elly shrieked. 29 years later and nothing changed. And it still wasn’t funny.
aprilp_katje,
Well, if she does eight days of new-ruins, she can plausibly move into the "Mike is in school" references in the old-runs.
According to comment by spotts1701 over on Foobiverse, Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be new-runs dealing with Connie and Elly doing back-to-school shopping. I think you are absolutely correct about what it is leading into.
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