Craft Class Critique
Lynn Johnston did a pretty good job yesterday in imitating the night gown Elly Patterson is wearing in today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse. It’s too bad she didn’t bother to read the strip to see that “Mike is in craft class” as opposed to “Mike is at home all day because of the teacher’s professional development day.” It’s possible that she read the bit about the craft class and decided to ignore it so she could slam the teachers for having a professional development day. It’s also possible she read “Mike is in craft class” and realized she had to come up with a reason why Mike would be there instead of being at school. Or maybe all of the above.
It seems highly unlikely that John Patterson could score a craft class for Michael at the last minute (unless a vacancy came up because someone got a divorce). It has to have been planned all along that on the teacher professional development day, Mike was going to a craft class. That would make logical sense and it would have been appropriate for Lynn to have put that little detail into her new-run. Of course, if she had done that then little Michael would not have been able to lay that threat of destroying things quietly on Elly in the final panel of yesterday’s strip. That huge laugh I got from a son threatening his mother would have been gone. I would have missed it so. In that case, it seems clear to me that the humour from that situation outweighs those little things like “making sense” or “coherent story.”
As for the overall arc for the week, we get introduced to Elly’s writing and the reason for her dropping the writing all in one week. To really make this illness stick as a player in quitting Creative Writing, Elly is going to have to be sick for awhile for it to make sense. A single missed class is not sufficient in real life. I wonder if that is what Lynn has in mind, or will Elly instantly quit? I certainly hope so. I can’t wait for the outlandish excuse Elly will lay on us as her reason.
It seems highly unlikely that John Patterson could score a craft class for Michael at the last minute (unless a vacancy came up because someone got a divorce). It has to have been planned all along that on the teacher professional development day, Mike was going to a craft class. That would make logical sense and it would have been appropriate for Lynn to have put that little detail into her new-run. Of course, if she had done that then little Michael would not have been able to lay that threat of destroying things quietly on Elly in the final panel of yesterday’s strip. That huge laugh I got from a son threatening his mother would have been gone. I would have missed it so. In that case, it seems clear to me that the humour from that situation outweighs those little things like “making sense” or “coherent story.”
As for the overall arc for the week, we get introduced to Elly’s writing and the reason for her dropping the writing all in one week. To really make this illness stick as a player in quitting Creative Writing, Elly is going to have to be sick for awhile for it to make sense. A single missed class is not sufficient in real life. I wonder if that is what Lynn has in mind, or will Elly instantly quit? I certainly hope so. I can’t wait for the outlandish excuse Elly will lay on us as her reason.
posted by howard at 9:38 PM
7 Comments:
In that case, it seems clear to me that the humour from that situation outweighs those little things like “making sense” or “coherent story.”
That, sadly, seems to be standard operating procedure with Lynn; whatever insane excuse she comes up with for Elly's departure this time around will be so bafflingly unrealistic that it will permanently silence the strip's defenders.
She seems to want it both ways -- to have the strip have a storyline (even cobbled together between old and new) and to have it have punch lines everyday. Some strips like Foxtrot can pull it off, FOOB is no Foxtrot though.
Ugh. This strip originally appeared in the summer of 1980 (between Mike's kindergarten and grade-one years). He must have been taking the craft class as a summer activity (though that is the one and only mention of it, and we never see him in the class).
Once again, Lynn is reaching back into the first collection. Continuity, schmontinuity. Does anyone recall off-hand whether she's already reprinted the one where Elly is sick in bed, thinking about how she cares for the kids and John when they're sick and ends with "I want my MOM"? I want to say it appeared during hybridsville, but maybe I'm just thinking of the CBC interview from 1980 where they cut between that strip and Lynn re-enacting it.
Anyway, there were originally two more strips in this sequence--the aforementioned "I want my MOM" and the one where Elly is driving Michael home from craft class and he says "I wish I was magic. I wish I could make you feel better."
I can’t wait for the outlandish excuse Elly will lay on us as her reason.
Same here. This should be gloriously awful.
DreadedCandiru2,
That, sadly, seems to be standard operating procedure with Lynn; whatever insane excuse she comes up with for Elly's departure this time around will be so bafflingly unrealistic that it will permanently silence the strip's defenders.
I can hardly wait.
Anonymous,
Some strips like Foxtrot can pull it off, FOOB is no Foxtrot though.
True enough. Both strips feature families, but the Foxtrot does not go for the mundane real-life situation like Lynn does.
aprilp_katje,
This strip originally appeared in the summer of 1980 (between Mike's kindergarten and grade-one years). He must have been taking the craft class as a summer activity (though that is the one and only mention of it, and we never see him in the class).
That makes more sense. Lynn Johnston has stacked the deck this time with John telling Elly she gets a day off and reneging on it. Plus she put Elly’s temperature at the dangerous level of 104 degrees, to make John seem even more like a heel for not making better arrangements. In other words, another example of using the new-runs to make John Patterson seem even worse than before.
Does anyone recall off-hand whether she's already reprinted the one where Elly is sick in bed, thinking about how she cares for the kids and John when they're sick and ends with "I want my MOM"?
She has not reprinted that one, but I remember it from the CBC interview where Lynn re-enacted it. That was hilarious.
Anyway, there were originally two more strips in this sequence--the aforementioned "I want my MOM" and the one where Elly is driving Michael home from craft class and he says "I wish I was magic. I wish I could make you feel better."
Some more strips to look forward to plus the new-runs to be added to put the kibosh on the Creative Writing class. November is looking good.
That makes more sense. Lynn Johnston has stacked the deck this time with John telling Elly she gets a day off and reneging on it. Plus she put Elly’s temperature at the dangerous level of 104 degrees, to make John seem even more like a heel for not making better arrangements. In other words, another example of using the new-runs to make John Patterson seem even worse than before.
She really is piling it on. Having John tie Elly to a railroad track and then twirl his [false] mustache wouldn't be much of a stretch beyond what Lynn's doing here.
November is looking good.
And by "good" you mean "baaaaaaaaad"! :)
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