Today's panel is a masterpiece of meta-humor.
The dialog, carefully tucked into the top of the panel, invites the reader to breeze through today's vignette, barely aware of the bustle below. The reader is tempted to read quickly and exit the panel believing they have fully grasped the joke.
"Oh, Burl," we chuckle to ourselves, "Why do you rush through the art gallery without taking time to truly appreciate it?"
But then aren't we, the reader, equally guilty of rushing through The Dinette Set without taking time to truly appreciate it?
Timmy's knowing glance through the fourth wall, barely visible from behind Burl's massive girth, is a gentle chastisement. The question for Burl, Timmy seems to be saying, is not "Why do you rush through the art gallery?" but "Why do you come here at all?"
And once the light of understanding has been activated the rest of the panel is illuminated for the reader, and it is as if we are looking at an entirely different story altogether.
The exhibit signage wearily warns the queue that the same tired artist's work is still on display (after all, it's not like there's any new art being created). Burl's shirt provides the starkest metaphor for a trip to the museum: a 1-mile marathon. Joy's shirt advertises for the museum which, if truthful, they all really wish they were visiting. Not one, not two, but three neck passes insure that no one mistakenly infers that Burl paid any kind of entrance fee.
And, as the besweatered beatnik docent reminds us, "Art" is just the name of a guy.
Once the reader has dug deep into the center of this panel and extracted the marrow, we come to the crux of the matter.
The question for us, dear reader, is not "Why do you rush through The Dinette Set without taking time to truly appreciate it?" but "Why do you read it at all?"
Don't miss the marginalia in the gift shop:
- Please tell me I am not the only person freaked out to find that Burl's head can swivel to face in the opposite direction from his body, as if he were an owl.
1 comment:
You are not the only one.
Brilliant deconstruction today. I feel both enlightened and shamed.
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