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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Those damned current events

What's Mallard raving about today?

Americans, Elliot Spitzer.

I'm sorry...how does Elliot Spitzer's resignation not count as a current event? (At least at the time that Mallard wrote this.)

7 comments:

Scott H. said...

For starters, shouldn't that be "newest" ex-governor? Because it's not like there is only one governor at a time, who is supplanted when a new one leaves office.

But... what is the point of this "joke"? Spitzer's resignation falls under current events, civics and (well, eventually) history. So people who are supposedly ignorant of all these subjects still know his name, which proves... what? The media overplayed the story? People will only pay attention to news stories when it involves something salacious?

Come on, Bruce. I'll live with the fact that I disagree with 99 44/100% of your opinions and your clumsy art and pitiful writing and poor grammar and sub-Hallmark-level prose. Can you at least endeavor to write gags that can be understood by anyone who hasn't mind-melded with your fevered brain mass?

Maybe I should comfort myself by imagining that he's making some subtle point about anti-humor or pretentious "art." Maybe?

BillyWitchDoctor said...

My God, Tinny's nonsense is actually starting to curl up into a little ball.

Right-wing hacks like Tinny moan and shriek that peoples be bein' ign'r'nt of stuff, and junk--but as we've discussed here repeatedly, they also constantly cry for more education cuts, sneer at science, and disdain all centers of higher learning.

The truth is that for all their bitching and moaning, hacks like Tinny (and Rush, and O'Reilly, and so on) love an uneducated, ignorant population, for without it, their audience would not exist.

It would also be a lot more difficult for them to pretend that nonsense like today's strip makes even a little bit of sense.

Kaitlyn said...

I wish he had a real survey instead of a ftw "joke."

Seriously - is he acknowledging his delay here? He can never report on current events in a timely manner? (Which isn't his fault, but still, he's an ass.)

Dave's right - knowing the dude's name and what happened (including the diamonds!) falls into two of his categories right now, and the other one will come along in a couple generations.

I love his survey! Our "knowledge of ... history" is low! What history, Mallard? America's? Europe's? Art history? The history of MATA?

ahahahahhahahaha I need sleep.

Guess what you guys. Most cities had trolleys before they had buses, but Memphis had buses before trolleys! Hahahhahahaha

Never do a report on your city's mass transit system if you want to retain your sanity. Never.

Anonymous said...

This is a funny cartoon.

Remember, this is coming from a man whose biggest and best gripe with the previous democratic president can be summed up in two letters:

Bee and jay.

And that was an administration from only a decade ago.

Anonymous said...

I think that a lot of Mallard's gags are characterised by something I'll call "comedyness", to adapt Stephen Colbert for my own purposes. He finds a couple of statements that sound like there could be a joke in them somewhere, and just sticks them in his comic, oblivious to the fact that he hasn't actually said anything funny or clever.

Michael Foley said...

What exanonymous said. You can look at a cartoon from just a week ago to see how Mallard has contributed to public discourse and understanding.

rewinn said...

What I find funny about this strip is that the Mallard character is supposed to be a newsman. In which case, he would have reported on the Spitzer problems not last week, and therefore be happy that the audience was paying attention.

Now, if Mallard were a history teacher, I could understand his ire. But for a newsduck to be upset that people are paying attention to him suggests an extreme form of self-loathing: "People are so worthless that they are reading the garbage I peddle!

That's pretty revealing about Tinsley.