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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Those damned Benefits

What's Mallard raving about today?

Relationships.

Mallard, when making a joke about "virtual" relationships, it works best if the people are not in the same physical space.

Also, never, never, never, never, never, never, never make me think of sex while reading Mallard Fillmore again.

10 comments:

Tog said...

Has it already been two weeks since the the "Weiner's Weiner" scandal broke? Or was Batshit on Patriot76's mailing list? (I'd suggest Batshit and Patriot76 might be the same scumbag, but Patriot76's scumbaggery smacks of effort, so that's not very plausible.)

Clell said...

- Now be fair. Bruce probably heard versions of this long before anyone knew that anything could be virtual...


- Hell, he probably hears it now, especially after one of his benders.

Kip W said...

Wow! I think Tin's accidentally managed to be almost timely today. He's probably at the bar now, telling them he hit the monofecta.

Rootbeer said...

Got WHAT?

Who are these people and what is their relationship and where are they and what are those rigid white rectangular things they're both holding?

I guess the words could constitute a joke in the right context, but The Artist has made an active effort to provide none.

Steve-O said...

I have no idea what statement Mallard is making today.

We get it. People have virtual sex. So what?

Tinsley: Sociopath said...

This comic almost works, and in the hands of someone with a multi-digit I.Q, it could have easily become functional. Remove the words "with benefits," and the comic becomes a subtle pun--not a funny one, more of an irritating Crankshaft-style idiotic one--but a subtle pun. I might almost have considered not pointing out that this was an example of Tinsley's hatred of every technology since the Stone Age if that was the case.

Word Verification: Amputh, a bastardization of amputate, and I would like to amputh Tinsley.

Tinsley: Sociopath said...

Whoops, I misread this comic. This does not work as a pun, and rewriting it will not help. Also, speaking of Crankshaft, I have been reading Comics Alliance's descriptions of the most depressing comics of the Nihilistic Funky Winkerbean. All of the comics there are far more hilarious than Mallard Fillmore.

Frank Stone said...

Well, I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Brucie has managed to set a new standard for expecting readers to guess his intention.

There's absolutely no context for what's happening in this strip. What led to the woman's statement? Where is this taking place? In a staff meeting? In a restaurant? Is it a date? a brainstorming session?

I suppose this strip made sense when Brucie came up with it at 3 a.m. after waking up and stumbling to the bathroom to unload some of his "research".

rewinn said...

Oh lordy!
This was a decent comic premise, destroyed by incompetent execution.
It took five minutes to do it right ... as DaveyK pointed out, the joke about virtual friendship is not visually supported by characters talking face-to-face.

To make graphic humor work, the text and the image have to work together. This is cartooning 101. But of course, Mallard Fillmore is not about being a *good* cartoon, any more than Socialist Realism was about being a *good* artist: when service to the Party and Ideology is all that matters, it doesn't really matter that you've lost your sense of humor.

rewinn said...

BTW if you haven't read The Progressive Caucus Budget Proposal, give it some time. The corporate media ignores it because it makes sense.