Perhaps predictably, just a few days after warning the reader about the danger of oversimplifying when examining The Dinette Set, today's panel is a case in point. At first glance, the temptation is to simply dismiss it as yet another Ma-in-the-bathroom joke.
But, the dialog is strikingly odd.
You can see the neighbors' living room (and the neighbors can see into the bathroom) but only when the bathroom door is left open. Imagine the freaky Escher-esque architecture that would be required for that fact to be true.
The only possible rational explanation, therefore, is that Ma is mistaking Joy and Burl, sitting in their own living room, for the neighbors while she is on the toilet. Ma's dementia is, of course, nothing new.
What is new, however, is the "trees" picture taking pride of place away from the clown painting.
These facts taken together create a metaphor for the upcoming U.S. Midterm elections. The clown, always a detached neutral observer and commentator is pushed aside by a partisan metaphor in which the forest is obscured by the trees. Ma mistaking her own family for the neighbors is commentary on the sharp partisan divisions within the United States population. And the overarching theme of crapping in full view of the public is about as apt a metaphor for the state of U.S. politics as you are likely to find.
No matter who you vote for, make sure you vote (for marginalia):
- Exbisition?
- In fact, from the general appearance of the bathroom, it seems like you would have no choice but to leave the door open since one's legs would clearly be sticking out of the door. In fact, it appears as if the toilet bowl would preclude the bathroom door ever closing.
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