"Status offenders"? Let's look it up. The definition of "status offender" is ”a young offender (as a runaway or a truant) who is under the jurisdiction of a court for repeated offenses that are not crimes". But John's definition is someone committing offenses "against the status quo." Let's look up status quo: Latin for " the existing state of affairs". How does playing video games offend the existing state of affairs? Where is the joke here? Great God, where is the joke?
Here's some Status Quo, guaranteed not to offend:
Oh, and it's that time of the month! FunkyWatch: October's Most Depressing 'Funky Winkerbean' and 'Crankshaft' Strips over at Comics Alliance!
Heh, I thought of the band Status Quo too. Heh, heh, we're like…old.
This is becoming eerily like that infamous “Diff'rent Strokes” episode where Arnold and Dudley are lured into the creepy bicycle guy's secret molestation lair. If Skunky offers Owen a glass of wine and half a Quaalude, I am outta here.
I had to think about this one for a few because on the surface it makes no sense whatsoever. Turns out it doesn't make sense after you think about it, either. I guess the message here is that kids who play video games are victimized because they're part of something new that frightens a certain uptight segment of our society, or something. This pretty much ignores the 35+ year history of video games, but you know, whatever. It's also completely contrary to FW's usual anti-technology worldview, but hey, it's somehow peripherally involves comic books so it's OK because comic books are a beloved American art form and (zzzzzzzz).
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In the course of my job I have visited several upper elementary school classes, and (for reasons unnecessary to detail here) one of the things I've asked them are "How many of you play video games?" Inevitably every boy's hand, and at least half of the girls' hands, would shoot up into the air. It would seem that not playing video games would be a going against the status quo–but then Batiuk rarely gives the younger generations much thought beyond the "damn kids get offa my lawn" level, so I'm not surprised he doesn't know this.
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What?
The most sure-fire way to maintain the status quo is to spend all your time on your flabby ass playing video games that you bought from huge multinational corporations. Or perhaps I'm missing something here. Kind of like how I missed the "joke" yesterday.
TFH, thanks so much for the "Pictures of Matchstick Men" video. Brings back memories, AND it's relevant.
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sour: You didn't miss any jokes as far as I can tell. Maybe some brainless dialog, but definitely no jokes.
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Young people who play video games are nothing but status offenders."
Oh, I don't know…"airheads with no real life" comes to mind…and said teen spends all his time playing video games with someone who never outgrew his own adolescence, "loser" seems appropriate.
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After posting this, I'm off to play Call of Duty. It's my way of sticking it to the Man, man. I do this because I'm a rebel, thinking outside the box, refusing to be bound by conventional society's shortsighted, constrictive rules. There's Gandhi, Martin Luther and me. I passed Copernicus when I installed Gears of War.
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Down With The Establishment!
What Is Reality?
Methinks someone's been smoking bananas.
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I guess Lefty The Band Director could never be one o' them video game status offenders, if ya know what I mean!!
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I think I'm beginning to figure it out. At first I thought technology was BAD. Now I realize it's awesome, so long as it is confined to whiling away the hours for no particular reason. Just don't try using it to, say, keep track of important appointments. Or (shudder) reading books!
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Never say never…
Besides, it is not out of the question that DSH proposed to Lefty by first slipping the ring onto a Power Glove and then the Power Glove on to the hand that comes out of the unpinned sleeve.
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With a tip of the old helmet to OB Dan, I am starting to think a finale, how grand I'm not sure, may be in the works. TB has been unloading his personal views so much after Les proposed to Cayla – one thing after another – from Tony say technology bad! Fire burn Tony! through the upcoming school levy thing, the bookstore issue, and now this nutty comic book/video game bullshit, not to mention is impersonation of Rembrandt – he's just dumping all his killer shark issues on us in a seemingly never ending shitstream. We may have even seen the CW for the last time. I'm really beginning to come around and think that the finale will occur on or about Les' wedding to Cayla.
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dollyllama: Video games have been around for over thirty years, and are therefore an "acceptable" form of technology like television and the printing press. Things like smart phones and social networking, meanwhile, are still to recent to be trusted and must therefore be regarded as unequivocally evil.
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I was going to say the same thing, Sourbelly– video games are chock full of ads from "The Man". On top of that, *everyone* is playing video games these days. You're just as likely to see a 45 year old plunking down $55 for the next Medal of Honor game as you are a 13 year old asking about Pokemon.
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Owen looks like he wishes he had a role of quarters in his pocket so he could go to the arcade and play video games in peace.
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huh? Video games? a multi-BILLION dollar industry that has it's own trade show in los vegas? that's a status offender? For petes sake Sony makes video games – MICROSOFT makes video games. I play video games and am old enough to have matchstick men on my i-pod- (had it on that old vynil thing they used to play musice once upon a time but it got scratched). you couldn't get any more mainstream than this.
Now of course there will always be people who think X is ending civilisation as we know it and since tv has 24 hours of time between commericals to fill and nothing sells like conflict you'll see these people on the air a lot you can tell them at a glance because they suffer to quote HL Menken "The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy".
Which of course is why they are never usually seen about FW.
But anyway comic books and video games are not demonized becuase they are so marginal – it was their popularity that drew the demonizers.
well end of lecture.
a good book on the comics panic – The Ten Cent Plague David Hajdu.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Chabon – it's a novel but it does deal with the brith of comics and the 50's hysteria.
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Tomorrow's dialogue:
Dead Skunk Head John: You ever been in a Komic Store Basement before?
Owen: No sir, I've never been in one before.
Dead Skunk Head John: You ever seen a grown man naked?
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But what are your thoughts on yaoi, Tom?
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