Shrubville

« All Babies Love Prickly City | Main | Wishin' and Hopin' (and Prayin') »

July 23, 2006

Laugh It Up

TODAY'S STRIP

Uh oh, somebody's been reading through his copy of Philosophy Rocks! again. Today Stantis quotes the French(?!) philosopher Voltaire. I guess Stantis only likes the French for their fries and esoteric views on life. No word yet on their salad dressing.

It's the classic set up: Winslow asks why God lets bad things happen, Carmen quotes a philosopher, then there's a sight gag. But as it always is with Prickly City, what the quote says doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the quote. Now I could sit here and think about whether or not Stantis has a point, and that his quote relates somehow to the punchline, but what's the use? Stantis doesn't think about these things - he gets a basic idea ("Darn kids flipping through my books again...what's this? This quote really does rock! What do I know how to draw...a tornado! Perfect!") and throws it out there hoping the image of Winslow and Carmen being tossed around in a tornado will be funny enough that people won't care. He's right - we don't.

But hey, I get paid the big bucks to break this stuff down, right? Winslow asks why bad stuff happens, Carmen says it's because God is just trying to be funny and we're too afraid to laugh, and God hits them with a tornado. Ha ha ha. You see it's funny because it's a tornado in tornado season. Ha ha ha.

Oooh, wait...maybe Stantis is on to something. Remember when Bush gave the German Chancellor an unwanted back rub? Why in God's name would a man come up behind a woman he doesn't really know, amongst the leaders of the free world, and do something that would get him fired for sexual harrassment in any other conference room in America by touching her inappropriately?

Maybe Bush is God. And he's trying to be funny. But the leader of Germany is too afraid to laugh. Bah, I'm on fumes here. Me, I think Bush is a frat boy bully that wanted to shut up an uppity bitch up so he made her feel uncomfortable the easiest way he knows how. Too bad he's not back running one of his failed oil companies or Bush would have gotten canned for doing something like that. Sad: things are horrible in the Middle East - Bush does this - it's a punchline in monologues. If Clinton were to do this during Monica-gate, he would have been thrown in prison. Or the electric chair. Gotta love politics and an American public that thinks sex is much more horrifying than violence.

What's interesting is that this might be the first time Stantis chose a philosopher that isn't just a liberal but actually shares some of his Republican/Conservative/Rightie views. Voltaire was all about freedom of speech and religion and civil liberties, especially after this happened: "...the Rohan family had a lettre de cachet issued, a secret warrant that allowed for the punishment of people who had committed no crimes or who possibly posed a risk to the royal family, and used it to exile Voltaire without a trial." Maybe that's where Cheney and Rummy got the idea.

But on the flip side Voltaire, much like the neo-cons and the authoritarian conservatives, believed in a monarchy where philosophers like him (and presumably Karl Rove) would "advise" the leader. While a bright guy, I'm guessing Voltaire never stopped to think that his good ol' monarch might decide to shut up his critics and thinkers and people who believed in science so he could rule with an iron fist. Not that anything like that would ever happen in THIS country...

Personally I hope Stantis does an entire week of strips using quotes from Voltaire. Here are a few for starters:

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

(Oh, wait, Stantis can't talk about Iraq anymore.)

"A witty saying proves nothing."

(Who doesn't get tired of quoting Bush?)

"You know that these two nations are at war over a few acres of snow near Canada, and that they are spending on this little war more than all of Canada is worth."

(Just swap Canada for Afghanistan.)

And finally, this one will just be for us here to remember at Shrubville:

"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: 'O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.' And God granted it."

Comments

Posted by: Charles Brubaker at July 23, 2006 12:16 PM