Swivel Chair, Swivel Head

See it here.

I damn near fell out of my chair when I read this particular Dinette Set.

The joke, such as it is, seems to be that Joy and Burl have set their AB-swivel chairs up in front of the TV so they can tone their flab into rock-hard abs while they watch TV, except that they have set the chairs up facing away from the TV.

For the first time I can think of, The Dinette Set is demonstrating a meta-awareness of the fact that its characters are capable of swiveling their heads 180 degrees.

It certainly raises the question of what the author's intent is in doing so. Is the purpose to pretend that their swivel-headedness is and has always been a deliberate choice on the part of the author rather than a by-product of ham-handed artwork? Or is it that the artist simply did not notice that the chairs were facing away from the TV in making a flaccid joke about Burl and Joy's flab?

I leave it to you to decide.

Rock-hard marginalia in 48 hours!

• Honestly, are we to believe that Joy's bust is too dainty to fit the entire Everlast logo? Hardly.
• I never want to see a reference to Burl's groin again, ever.
  

Meta-Post: Shenanigans!

the duck never skips a beat, but we have to wait for weeks on end for some blather? i call shenanigans.

For background, in case you don't know, I also do a blog about Mallard Fillmore which just makes me so irritated every day that I almost have to write something about it. That's what the duck reference is about.

I confess that I have been taking a break from this blog. Whereas it takes 5 minutes to dash off a post about Mallard Fillmore, since that's shooting fish in a barrel, it takes at least an hour every night to write up something to say about The Dinette Set. Not to mention figuring out just what to say about it. And with the current pace at my work and travel, The Dinette Set became a bit of a burden.

Plus, truth be told, I have come to despise the characters in this comic so much I often just can't bring myself to even think about them.

I see three possibilities for this blog from here.

• I may re-charge my batteries on it and come back.
• I may find a shorter-form version of commenting on it; something that takes less time to conceive and articulate and maybe something that invites more reader commentary. I'd be open to suggestions from readers about that. At one point I though of just doing a sub textual commentary, a'la Joe Mathlete, but he's so damned brilliant, I don't want to thieve his idea, and how many days in a row can you actually get away with just saying: "Burl is an asshole."
  
• I may give up. I don't want to do that precisely "because stuff like this should not go without comment."