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Sunday, February 03, 2008

That damned Super Bowl

What's Mallard raving about today?

The Super Bowl, Commercials.

Inside Mallard's head: Gee, I guess I better make some sort of Super Bowl reference. Well, let's start simple, I mean obviously the Colts are going to be in the Super Bowl, so let's draw a Colt catching a pass. Hmmm, what number should he wear? I think most receivers wear numbers like #5. Or do they? I suppose I could go onto ESPN to look that up, but this has already taken 1 minute of my life and what are the chances that I'm wrong? I'm never wrong.

While I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure football players don't wear face guards anymore, so let me erase the one I drew...I'll leave a little bit of it there and turn it into some sort of odd-looking lower tooth. Cool, that really makes the drawing funny.

Now, let's see, draw two thought balloons...Hee hee! One of them is coming from his butt. Man I never get tired of that!

OK, now, what do I know about the Super Bowl that I can make funny...

Man this job is hard. All I can remember is that GoDaddy commercial a few years back with that big-breasted woman...

(3 minutes of silent reverie)

Damn! I wish I hadn't drawn a football player; I mean they're the only people not watching the damn commercials! I could start over, but this has already taken 5 minutes of my life. OK, what if the football player was thinking about the commercials? He'd have trouble concentrating on the game. I know I'm having trouble concentrating while thinking about that big-breasted woman.

(3 minutes of silent reverie)

If the football player was thinking about breasts, he'd drop the pass! Players are always dropping passes in the Super Bowl! I mean, at least I think they are. I suppose I could go onto ESPN to look that up, but this has already taken 9 minutes of my life and what are the chances that I'm wrong? I'm never wrong.

Excellent, I'm done! Oh, wait...need to add an extra dot on my ellipses. Man I never get tired of that!

8 comments:

Kaitlyn said...

Does he really do this year after year? 34 in a series, I guess it would be cuter to have it be whatever number super bowl this is (that's what I would have done, worked in as many background bits as possible).

The Super Bowl used to mean commercials and great food to me (and asking my mom to explain the game). Now? PUPPY BOWL!!!!!!

Kaitlyn said...

I have the flu or some damn bug that is EEEEEEEEEEEEVIL and it is 1:30 and I ache but I haven't thrown up in about 24 hours and I was still funnier and more coherent than Tintin.

Where's my money?

BillyWitchDoctor said...

DaveyK's mega-post was totally worth the reading the MF strip.

The "odd-looking lower tooth" is a coloring error, I think; that's supposed to be a tongue. (I'll let you imagine for yourself why a football player would never, EVER stick his tongue between his teeth while on the field.)

Wow, dude's wide open, isn't he? I guess drawing more than one guy would've completely destroyed Tinny's drawing hand. (*wistfully remembers Mort Drucker's fantastic sports-art from Mad Magazine, from which this strip looks badly copied*)

Get well soon, Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn said...

Mort Drucker and Mallard Fillmore, what I wouldn't give to see him draw the parody...

or anyone at MAD

other than that, no, Mallard and Mad/Mort Drucker? ::headexplode::

And him badly copying Drucker? That would mean reading or at least looking at my magazines!

I am getting better - I can talk today, and like I said, have stopped "creating Mallard Fillmore cartoons". (That's a good euphemism, and it makes me wish I'd been looking at the comic when I hurled on the laptop.)

Anonymous said...

I think the entire point was missed.... See, it's about how dumb jocks are.... you have this guy, screwing up the most important game of the year, because he's thinking about COMMERCIALS.... ihatehillaryclinton....but he's so rich that he can afford tivo.... but he's so dumb he didn't think about it....damnlibruls....burp

Anonymous said...

The humor is in the #34! He could have picked any number, but he picked 34! It's funny! Ha ha!

Anonymous said...

Daveyk, good idea except for one thing: as many comics have shown, bruce prefers oddly phallic objects to boobs.

rewinn said...

Again, the comic writing is weak.

I get the point of the joke: the superbowl commercials are so much better than the game that even the players want to see them more than play in the game.

It is, to say the least, a debatable point but, hey, it's only a joke, ok?

Making it a soliloquy is the problem. The reader doesn't know whether the joke is that football players are supposed to be stupid, or that the commercials are better than the games. When the butt of your joke is unclear, the joke fails.

Also, the body language of the receiver is wrong for the joke. He's visually working hard to get that ball, which is contrary to the joke.

The joke would work much better with players in a huddle, discussing the commercials, maybe drawing a penalty for delay of game. The body language of a huddle lends itself to imagining players standing around (Doonesbury style) talking about irrelevancies. The writing could be sparse and efficient, hence much funnier.

The duck could even pretend to be a referee, in his famous striped shirt and no pants.

Of course, a huddle is harder to draw than a single player. But I think the basic problem is the writing. To write comedy, it helps to imagine how other people feel, which is a problem for rightwingers.