Uh no, Jessica. Unlike you, your mother shot footage that actually turned out to be useful to someone, even if it was only you. Unless she meant it as a self-deprecating remark about how much she (Jessica) sucks at film making, in which case bleh, tell us something we don’t know. Either way, chalk it up as just another failed TomBat “joke”, pure word balloon filler. I assumed he’d have them ponder and/or actually retrieve the videos for a day or two but nope, it’s wham-bam-thank you, man, for not dragging it out for another week and a half. Knock on wood.
But seriously, she knew exactly where she’d find the answer to the big “Barbie” last words mystery but she couldn’t figure it out before she actually saw the footage? And her reaction upon seeing this mystery-solving footage is to make a snide and/or self-deprecating remark about camera-handling skills? Either way it’s peculiar, from both a plot development and writing choice standpoint. I mean she can’t resist cracking wise and humble-bragging even as the moment she’s been waiting for plays out on the screen in front of her? So what is it that I’m supposed to “like” about this character, exactly?
Son of Stuck Funky 
“You obviously didn’t get your camera skills from me. You take the camera out of the case first.”
“How’s my little Barbie doll today?”
So the TV is supposed to be the center of the strip, what people are looking at. So no one looked at this and asked, where’s the VCR?
Yes, even as an infant, I had a Dee Snyder hairdo.
So Jessica finds out that her father’s cumbersome last words were about her. I’m not sure that that that august distinction is as august and touching as Batiuk think it is, since they were coming the World’s Most Hated Dope.
Everyone loves someone, I guess.
It really is interesting how registered trademarks work, isn’t it? I guess it’s different when you’re, say, a big-city comic strip author who works for a big powerful syndicate as opposed to someone like a humble blogger, a hobbyist who indulges in a bit of harmless satire strictly for the humor of it. For a fancy big-city comic strip author it’s no biggie to toss around Star Wars or Batman or Barbie references, if they make a fuss his people call their people and a deal is struck. But when the little guy crosses the mighty TM line, the suits come out and the threats start to fly. Funny how that works.
But… why… Barbie?
p.s. every time I read the words “Barbie forever” I think it should be more like “WOOOO!! Barbie Forever, man!!!” [devil horns]
“How’s my Little Miss Scrambled Egg Hair today?”
The word “barf” is so limited….
Yuck. Ptooie. The Greek word for “Wayne Newton.” Someone will be killing HER for a ridiculous reason because she’s an insensitive clod with anger issues.
“Everyone loves someone, I guess.”
And everybody, no matter how miserable, is mourned by somebody…..
As long as this glurge somehow results in the end of the “documentary about my father, John Darling, who was murdered” plotline – that’s the best possible outcome.
Why does Jessica (whose father, John Darling, was murdered, PBUH) need to see the tape? Because as a child of the video age, she does not truly experience life unless it’s recorded. A mere comic book would have been sufficient for her father’s generation.
Parents generally don’t inherit skills from their children, Barbie.
“Parents generally don’t inherit skills from their children, Barbie.”
Maybe she sees signs and is afraid of turning into another version of her dad, John Darling, who was murdered.
Actually, Barbie, your mother has proven far better at producing a documentary than you have to this point.
Did Jessica not thing to use these tapes at some point in the documentary. A documentary done by the DAUGHTER of the subject!!!!
Errol Morris you ain’t Barbie!!!
Also of note, Plantman has proven to be as ineffectual a villain as Frankie the Rapist.
Good one Jess. It’s not like your mother is a camera-savvy career television producer who worked her way from northern Ohio’s Channel 1 to NBC’s nationally broadcast Today Show. Wait.. she is? Dang.
Well, at least you aren’t a 30-something “filmmaker” without a steady job whose only project is a yet-to-be-complete personal pet documentary with a potential audience of 3…
Don’t mind being wrong about the Barbie remark. (I’ve been wrong before and I’m sure I’ll be wrong again before I die.) But Jessica is an idiot (and I’m not wrong about that) and blew her chance to salvage her “video portrait” of her dad, John Darling who was murdered. She didn’t film any of Plantman/ Mossman’s exposition which along with all of the other “I hated John Darling” footage could have dovetailed nicely into the home video to show a man who was hated by the world, but was loved and beloved at home. Just another missed opportunity that TB didn’t miss.
I would not be surprised in the least if footage of the Plantman interview retroactively appears in the finished documentary, despite the visual evidence that the camera was not running at the time.
This is stating the obvious, but Batominc didn’t think this one through. Not only does Jess, as others have already noted, fail to understand in which direction generations hand knowledge down; her needlessly rude remark to her mother demonstrates that John Darling the Murdered misplaced his sole target of affection. “Barbie” turned out to be a harpy.
And we can add 30-year-old home video to the list of things Batominc doesn’t understand. 1980s home video was 4:3 analog 480i. Also, Tom Armstrong was better at drawing John Darling.
Finally, exactly no one failed to foresee this plunge into the sea of glurge. Funky Winkerbean has now out-glurged FBOFW, which did it better.
If “Barbie Doll” was really JD’s term of endearment for baby Jessica, why does TB need to materialize a video in order to demonstrate it? Wouldn’t mother Jan be able to relate this fact first hand? Wouldn’t Jessica somehow remember being told this? The role of conveniently placed videos and diaries used as plot devices in the comic strip is unsettling. I would expect more from a writer with over 40 years of experience.
Bobanero: “Unsettling” is an excellent word for it. So is “hackery”. His reliance on cheesy gimmicky plot devices is just indicative of his laziness and his seeming belief that his readers can only grasp the most simplistic and idiotic stories. I mean he might not feel that way IRL but based on his work you’d never know.
TB’s lazy approach is what irks me. Real artists make an effort to create the best product they can, while hacks do only the bare minimum required to collect their paychecks. Whether the artist is a writer or a painter or a musician or a dancer or an actor or a baseball player, or whatever — if he’s just going through the motions, he’s demonstrating a lack of respect for his audience & his work & himself. How can this guy preach that comics deserve to be taken seriously when he treats his own strip so carelessly?
He hasn’t done the Jessica character any favors during this arc either. She’s slow on the uptake, easily distracted, she has no follow-through at all, she’s rude to her mother and she has unresolved daddy issues too. Then again, strong female characters have never been TB’s strong suit unless they’re good at basketball or destined to die.
Jessica’s line of dialogue would actually make sense as a gentle joke if it was her mother’s line. And the timeline would work too.