18 September 2006

Fact-free zone

See it here.

Today's Dinette Set is all about the fading importance of fact in modern discourse, especially in the midst of a bitterly-contested election where truth is the first casualty.

No one in the audience can possibly have any idea what the actual number of steps for a day should be, and the author must know this. So we have to conclude that the panel is designed to ask the reader to derive enjoyment without benefit of knowing the facts.

As such, and much like modern discourse, the reader is apt to accept as fact whichever figure best fits their own preconceptions, or in this case makes the joke more personally entertaining.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, what about the marginalia? I do believe the two coffee mugs beneath the TV read: "Coffee Is" "For Closers". And I have NO IDEA what that means.

Most of the other stuff in the panel was typical bludgeon-style marginalia: Ms. Larson's overriding contempt for her subjects.

What does the comic strip in general say about modern society that we continually revisit these characters in order to heap scorn and vitriol upon them?

Anonymous said...

"Coffee is for closers" is a line from "Glengarry Glen Ross." But that still doesn't explain why it's in the marginalia.

Today's DS (09-19-06) frightens me -- WTF is the meaning of the t-shirt? I know I don't want to know. On the other hand, The Pennys panic button under the counter actually made me laugh.