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June 10, 2007
Noxious Gases
"Mr. Stantis, my diagnosis is that you're an unfunny hack."
WHAT DOES THIS EVEN MEAN?!?!?
I've just about had it with Scott Stantis and Prickly City. It's as if he's trying to produce the absolute worst comic strip in the land. Someone needs to tell him to stop trying - the title is all his.
Does Stantis even know what carbon offsets are? Basically it's when you can't (or won't) cut back on your own carbon consumption so you pay to balance it out somehow - plant a tree, donate money to a green cause, etc.
Winslow's bright idea is to steal Lucy's psychiatry stand and charge people for...carbon indulgence? So they're going to pay Winslow, the smelly stupid stinky hippy green liberal, to actually use up more carbons? And he'll happily do it, because he's a greedy ne'er do well who could care less about saving the environment?
All together now: HUH?
Let's put aside the idiocy of having the liberal in the strip want to destroy the environment. Why would anyone pay Winslow - who doesn't own a car, or a house, or anything as far as I can tell - to burn fossil fuels? Why not just do it themselves? Or does Stantis have a secret desire to burn even more oil than he already does? It's yet ANOTHER case of Stantis coming up with what he thinks is a clever idea, scratching it out on a napkin at lunch, then slapping it together by the Friday deadline without actually reasoning out what the heck it's supposed to mean.
So to recap: Winslow is a greedy corporate bastard only out for profit, so much so that he'll happily produce excessive greenhouse gases if people will pay him. Carmen is the concerned citizen who points out that he's wrong. Maybe Stantis should have shown her planting Charlie Brown's Christmas tree while she criticizes Winslow.
At least Stantis didn't include Al Gore. Unfortunately it might be a sign of things to come. What are the odds he spends the week drawing a fat Gore talking about the environment while lecturing us (rightfully so) about how the media has failed us and the Republicans have ruined our country? His book did come out a few weeks ago. Place your bets now.
Comments
Ummm, you may want to redo this one; "indulgences" refers to the medieval practice of giving payments to the Church to offset sins. Yes, dumb comparison, but still . . .
Posted by: Reflex76 at June 10, 2007 02:32 PM
Are you referring to me or Stantis?
Posted by: The Furnace at June 10, 2007 02:43 PM
Because if Stantis honestly thinks the average reader will understand the medieval definition of "indulgences" as the equivalent of our modern use of the word "offset," he's even worse than I thought.
Posted by: The Furnace at June 10, 2007 02:45 PM
The "Indulgences" thing was actually a right-wing talking point for a while . . .
Posted by: Reflex76 at June 10, 2007 07:03 PM
So why would Winslow do it?
Posted by: The Furnace at June 10, 2007 09:05 PM
I guess that's the sort of thing Stantis expects him to do . . .
Posted by: Reflex76 at June 10, 2007 10:21 PM
From Dictionary.com (way down near the bottom of the "indulgence" page.
American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - indulgence
In the Roman Catholic Church, a declaration by church authorities that those who say certain prayers or do good deeds will have some or all of their punishment in purgatory remitted.
Note: In the Middle Ages, indulgences were frequently sold, and the teaching on indulgences was often distorted. The attack by Martin Luther on the sale of indulgences began the Reformation.
Posted by: John at June 10, 2007 10:22 PM
I thought the analogy between carbon offsets and medieval Catholic indulgences was not too far off. As far as liberal causes go, that one is ripe for mocking, and a capable cartoonist could have done something funny with it. But Stantis, within the limited confines of his two character-less characters, completely fumbles it. He just gives the talking-point without any joke.
Have you noticed how often Stantis wastes the extra space allotted on Sunday? This stupid little one-off should have been a weekday strip, but instead he spent the whole week repeating the same senseless outsourcing jokes. He really is lazy.
Posted by: John at June 10, 2007 10:45 PM
I apologize for not knowing that indulgence doesn't mean "yield to your desires" and instead is a reference to a medieval practice. How silly of me not to know that specific Republican talking point that as a regular news and blog reader I've never heard of before.
Posted by: The Furnace at June 11, 2007 08:27 AM
What makes it worse: I was baptized a Catholic. Then again I didn't grow up during the Middle Ages.
Posted by: The Furnace at June 11, 2007 08:28 AM
Ah, Furnace, but did you go to Catholic high school? Sometime around senior year, religion class gets to the "Luther had a point, but the English were driven by pure politics" lecture - immediately followed by weeks of tedium about the importance of saving yourself for marriage and why Pre-Cana is so great.
Posted by: Annie at June 11, 2007 09:12 AM
