Tag: Lisa’s Story

People Don’t Love This

today’s strip Okay, we get it. China China China. The sole reason Lisa’s Story can’t be made is because the Chinese can’t appreciate true art. Why did we need a SECOND week to hammer this point home?  I would love if someone in this strip just came out and explained why the Chinese can’t appreciate the beauty of Lisa’s Story, but of course that would take effort and possibly be controversial. “They Are Them” is just a terrible “parody” or whatever you want to call it of “This Is Us”. It sure sounds like a Cold War paranoia thriller, or a body-snatcher movie. It’s also pretty much nonsensical and something I don’t think anyone’s ever said. Also, Mason, This Is Us-sorry, They Are Them-is a TV show. Movies are different than TV shows. American Idol was huge. The same concept as a big budget movie would be terrible. Why is Les at these meetings again? Mason is incapable of convincing anyone to make this movie, and Les is just sitting there quietly. And he’s probably getting paid for this, somehow.

It Was About Cancer, Not The Heart, Mason

today’s strip

“It’s a romance movie! There’s never been one of those before! I mean, sure, they literally go back to 1896, but still romance! Surefire hit! And so what if the movie ends with the heroine wasting away and dying rather than finding the man of her dreams?”  Does Batiuk think this is supposed to be a good pitch?  Stating the genre of the movie isn’t a convincing argument for why it should be made.
Man, someone must have once told Batiuk that the only reason Hollywood hadn’t paid him nine figures to adapt Lisa’s Story was because it was Too Much Art for the masses. Or maybe that’s just what he tells himself. Although I can totally picture him calling up studio after studio until someone finally realized if they just appealed to his ego he’d leave them alone.
I would really, really love for someone in this strip to just not like Lisa’s Story. Even those who are against the spreading of the Lisa Gospel are totally convinced it’s beautiful art. Just once someone should react like a normal human would: “Wait, the lab results got mixed up somehow? And you spent how many pages on this ‘Darrin’ dork opening a letter? Why is this all about Les, it’s supposed to be ‘Lisa’s Story’?”.
Since Batiuk is just repeating the last “Lisa’s Story: The Movie” arc, how long do you think it’ll be before Alan Silver suggests Lisa not dying in the movie?

Also, if you want to laugh more than you’ve laughed at this strip (for a reason Batiuk intended), read the Wikipedia page for “four quadrant movie” and try and imagine how Lisa’s Story would be remotely close to what it describes.

That Is A Painful Face

today’s strip

I know trying to figure out the meaning of Tom Batiuk’s work these days will have the same result as looking upon a Lovecraftian Elder God, but seriously, what is the deal with Mr. Silver’s face? It’s hideous, of course, but I can’t tell if he’s supposed to be squinting or what. And if he’s never even met Mason then why does he have a poster of his Mason up in his waiting room?

I really couldn’t tell what the “free coffee” line was supposed to be.  I’m guessing it’s supposed to mean people are so interested in working with Mason they buy him lots of coffee, but I thought at first Alan was hitting on Mason, since he’s pointing right at him and has that horrible expression on his face.

Oh, and Les is Mason’s sidekick. Isn’t that cute. I don’t know why Les is bowing to shake Alan’s hand, apart from the artist wanting to make sure there was room to showcase Mason and still fit that word balloon in.

They’re Jewish, Get It?

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You know, last week after Batiuk went out of his way to make sure you knew the guys pulling the strings in Hollywood were Jewish, I wondered why Batiuk didn’t just have Bernie’s dad be an executive. And it sure looks like that’s where things are headed. Although it’s possible Batiuk just forgot Silver was Bernie’s last name. Someone last week stated that Batiuk clearly isn’t a racist. Maybe not, but the macaque strip and now two straight weeks of “Jews run Hollywood” don’t help things.  I am very, very grateful Les never did take Cayla to China.
This might possibly be the least warranted “smug Les face” I can remember seeing. What is he so smug about? The fact that Mason has the gumption to ask for a cucumber sandwich? Baituk can’t even keep his own writing coherent. As was already pointed out, I really don’t think someone who seems to be set up as the equivalent of Chris Pratt or Tom Cruise would just sit quietly in a waiting room until someone gets around to see him, and I really don’t think Les should be shocked that Mason would ask for a sandwich.
This does carry on the long Batiuk tradition of people being smug jerks to people who’ve literally done them nothing wrong and are just doing their jobs, though.

The Les You No

Today being 4/20 and all, I found it perfectly appropriate that Mason’s contact photo on Les’ phone should be a picture of some cannabis. But the “trees” we’re looking at in today’s strip are the kind that “don’t provide any shade,” not the kind you smoke. So, the Lisa’s movie is already in the pitch meeting stage, is it? Normally, this would mean that the screenplay’s been completed. Otherwise, they have nothing to “pitch.” Of course, normally, location scouting for a major motion picture takes place after the script is done, and by someone (or a team of people) whose job it is to scout locations; not by the leading man/exectutive producer taking pictures with his cellphone.

Les, perhaps still smarting over his students’ shabby treatment of Batton Thomas, shows little enthusiasm over going to Hollywood to pitch the movie. This sends the normally mellow Mason into a tizzy, demanding that Les join him immediately, his teaching job be damned. Mason is hellbent on involving Les in every single aspect of this movie project, but one questions the wisdom of dragging him along to the pitch meetings. Is no one in Hollywood going to be aware that Lisa’s Story already had been optioned and gone into production nearly six (!) years ago? And that, after insisting that he write the screenplay, Les arrived in Hollywood, splitting his time between complaining, daydreaming, and wishing for death , before walking away from and sabotaging the project?