If there is a teacher at Westview High less competent than Les Moore, it’s Jim Kablichnick, the ostensible teacher of science, as today’s strip aptly demonstrates. And, argh! Is this the intro to the annual “school levy fails” arc? Have we had that yet this cycle (I can’t be arsed to check)? Let me tell you—I’m a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but I’d vote against this band of nincompoops getting any more tax money!
“[T]he map” in Jim’s classroom “was so old,” he tells Linda, who fails to reply, “How old was it?”
“[T]he continents, which are major land masses surrounded by water, too large to be considered mere islands—the continents, I say—the continent of South America and the continent of Africa—those continents were still conjoined, united, and fitted together in some sort of ‘super’ continent, which would be a nice topic for a comic book,” Jim does not quite say, although Bantom cannot prevent himself from composing Jim’s speech in a loquacious manner, because—I don’t know—he’s never heard of The Elements of Style’s admonition to “omit needless words.” Also, Jim thinks his colleagues are ignoramuses who don’t know what South America and Africa are.
This might have been a mildly amusing joke if not for two flaws.
- The punchline should have read like one of these
- And the map was so old that Africa and South America were still joined together.
- And the map was so old, it only showed Pangaea.
- And the map was so old, it had “here be dragons” instead of Florida.
- And the map was so old, it had Amerigo Vespucci’s autograph.
- This image of a smartphone in Les’s delicate hands, from yesterday’s strip:
If only there were some way to see up-to-date maps in 2015! If only!
Strips like this drive me to drink, and for that, and that only, thank you, Tom Batiuk!
Here endeth my current stint as your guest snarker. Many thanks to TFH! The gloriously acid-tongued Epicus Doomus takes over tomorrow.
Son of Stuck Funky 