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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Those damned clowns

What's Mallard raving about today?

Clowns, Federal Employees.

Less than 2 weeks before the most important election in his lifetime, and Mallard spends his time hurling non-specific school ground insults at all Federal Employees. And drawing barely recognizable elephants, as if the clowns were not enough semiotics for his readers to understand that we're supposed to be at a circus.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"the far side" did that joke much better

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

So did Psychonauts.

So does the elephant indicate that Republicans are clowns too? Or are we just getting our symbolism all mixed up?

Anonymous said...

I think Bruce Tinsley stole this idea from Truly Tasteless Jokes, "what is the difference between a clown and a lazy, worthless employee at the D.M.V/post office/social security/whatever? A clown is white." I, really, think Tinsley uses "government employees" and "cavemen" as code words for minorities. Fuck that racist Bruce Tinsley.

Kaitlyn said...

Wow.

This is so insane...

Why do his parents work in the circus? What does that have to do with anything?

Of course, circus people have to move around a lot, and a non-military government job is very stable. Hell, I sometimes think I want one because they appear stable from the outside.

I wonder what the job market will be like in 2-3 years, when I graduate. Since middle school (maybe before Sept 11th, maybe after), I've worried about the economy.

Conservative dad tells me I have nothing to worry about. Of course, he's a cop. Though his job isn't safe, thanks to budget cuts.

Shit, right now the military is the safest bet for life-long employment. Minus the wars and all.

Kaitlyn said...

Tinz is saying government jobs shock even circus folks. Because they're so... well, you know. Don't you?

This reminds me so much of an Archie comic. Don't laugh! It's in one of the many digests we have, and it was made in the late '60s or early '70s.

Archie and Jughead are walking, and they pass a group of teenagers protesting something. They say something about rebellious teenagers. Then one of them points out a teenager in a suit and tie carrying a briefcase and looking squarer than square. He's the biggest rebel. Why? His parents are hippies. The parents are crying and saying "Where did we go wrong?" The hippie's house shows that the Archie people knew as much about hippies as Tinz does circuses. It's all raggedy - their clothes are frayed, so their homes must be too!

Then there's a mad article written before hippies and the British Invasion - 61 or 62. The typical teens have kids that become doctors and squares as well.

To sum up, instead of knocking civil servants again, he could just be retelling the joke of how kids rebel against rebellious parents.

rewinn said...

Kaitlyn - and let's not forget Michael J Fox in Family Ties - a whole sitcom on that same theme: parents are liberals, but their son is a square!

Today's joke seems to be saying that government employees are the OPPOSITE of circus clowns. Well, ok, that's a GOOD thing. So what's the punchline?

Finally (at the risk of helping Tinkley be successful) this is Yet Another Strip that isn't really a strip. A "comic strip" uses sequential art: more than 1 picture to show the passage of time, action, etc. Tinkley hasn't drawn one of those in AGES. He's basically drawing a one-box cartoon, that is to say, a PANEL not a STRIP.

Now there's nothing WRONG with PANELs; it's a perfectly valid format (e.g. Far Side) but Tinkley needs to face the fact and re-shape his cartoon. This will do WONDERS for his writing: panels must be VERY economically written and, as a result, can be VERY funny.

I doubt Tinkley will make the change; writing economically is HARD. The strip format lets him just pour words out until he gets tired lettering.

Anonymous said...

Tinsley and his Republican pals are coming to the conclusion that they are going to lose big this year, so they are starting to poison the well with accusations of voter fraud, and dusting off the "government is this terrible tyrannical force that must be destroyed" propaganda that's kind of been stuck away in a closet for the last eight years.

Anyone who remembers the Clinton years, with the rise of right-wing talk radio fueling anti-government militias and Timothy McVeigh types, aided and abetted by our "liberal" mainstream media, knows that we are in for a rough time.

Anonymous said...

All government employees are rebellious clowns who take lots of money and never get paid and are illogically liberal.

And Mallard, a duck who lounges in front of the television with a bag of chips while at work is superior.

Side note: I can see Russia from my hostel.