31 July 2007

Blowing a Fuse

In today's Dinette Set, obstacles litter the path to extracting any enjoyment from today's panel:
  • The reader is supposed to accept there's an entire book on replacing fuses?
  • The reader is supposed to believe someone is aware that Ma blows fuses in her house often...literally.
  • The reader is supposed to be ironically amused by the fact that Burl spent 30 minutes discussing a heating vent, and yet the panel itself contains somewhere around 180 words which are at least marginally legible. 180 god damned words. That's not humor, it's a sign of dementia.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

too many words; i'm not fucking reading this.

also, this is another in Larson's series of "conversations in search of a punchline."

Anonymous said...

Okay, here goes:
1. Davey, please do not use the Lord's name in vain!
2. Jake please refrain from using the "F" word.
Now, enough of Mommie's scolding---
I thought this was a hysterical cartoon today (and Davey you were gone when they took Timmy to the "old Folks" amusment park!) It was truly a hoot!
Haven't you two ever been around old,cranky,tight, self centered,cheap elderly people? Can't you just visualize how thrilled Ma would be getting a boring book on "how to change a fuse" for her birthday????? Maybe there were too many words in the script--(and this one too!)--but reading the titles of the books for repairs that elderly top do --you have to admit was funny!!!!

Anonymous said...

Hmm - this is a blog in a country enjoying freedom of speech. I would think that anyone can take "the Lord's" name in vain or any other way as they so choose. I'm an atheist, personally, so there is no "Lord" as far as I'm concerned to blaspheme against. Anyone is jsut as free, of course, to disagree with me or to not read this blog.

As to the "F-word" - I've never quite understood the concept of a "bad" or "dirty" word. I believe in, as the French say, the "mot juste" or the right word. Sometimes, that word just happens to be "fuck" - a wonderfully ancient Anglo-Saxon, straight-forward, forceful word (no, not an acronym).

By the way, I think the problem many of us are having with DS is not that the premises are unfunny. Often Julie finds something that, in theory, would make good fodder for a joke. The problem is that the execution of that joke ruins it completely 99.9% of the time. Crotchety old people, miserly, slightly dimwitted suburbanites, and "funny" sight gags could make for a very funny comic strip. They just don't in this case.

Michael Foley said...

It's written like there are 2 more panels of the cartoon that are missing.