Flat Line

I liken today’s joke (if it exists at all) to a tiny object that someone wants to safely ship over a great distance via parcel post. The sender acquires a large and sturdy box, and places the object in it, and for protection, surrounds the tiny object with styrofoam peanuts, excelsior, and wadded-up pages from the Plain Dealer. Then the sender seals the box shut with reinforced tape, and brings it to the post office to send it on its way. The parcel is delivered, and the recipient cuts open the tape, pries open the box, and has to rummage through the worthless filler material in search of the contents. Finally his fingers grasp what must be the tiny object. He pulls it from its packaging, holds it up and inspects it, and wonders aloud, “This is it?”

Really, a lot of these strips can be compared to that mystery box. The joke contained therein (“liquid sound“?) is so small, weak and obscure that it’s almost impossible to identify. Who rates hotels on a musical scale, and why is “B flat” apparently mediocre? Many marching band instruments are pitched in B♭.

And finally, when is Funky going to take off that fake beard?

 

Bore Stories

To me, “shop talk” consists of discussing shared experiences and common aspects of one’s profession with others in that same profession. This, this is just a bunch of old men, not just pissing and moaning but trying to outdo one another’s tale of woe. Similar to, though not one iota as funny as, Monty Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen” sketch:

First Yorkshireman: In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o’ tea.
Second Yorkshireman: A cup o’ cold tea.
Fourth Yorkshireman: Without milk or sugar.
Third Yorkshireman: Or tea.
First Yorkshireman: In a cracked cup, an’ all.
Fourth Yorkshireman: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper…

Call Me the Sleeve

Jeffcoat Wayne
February 16, 2013 at 11:07 am
One week of this mundane arc down, three more to go. YIPPEE!!!!!!!

I really did not expect the Music Education Convention to run into a second week, but here we are. Batiuk has managed to find a topic of even less interest to the average reader than comic books, and I say this as a former high school band member and a band parent (and with all due love and respect to comics fans). Having swung and missed every day last week at humor, today Batiuk “assumes” a serious tone with a tip o’ the Scapegoat shako to the struggles of women band directors.

Hard Candy

Duane
February 16, 2013 at 3:30 pm

This whole week’s story should have just been done in ONE Sunday comic, not wasting a whole week.

Indubitably! In fact, today’s strip packs about as much entertainment as did the six strips that preceded it, which is to say, none.

You would suppose that the two people who accompanied Harry to this convention might already be seated in the front row. Instead, Harriet and Becky arrive “just in time” for Harry’s session.