We might as well give up and make it a Cathy-themed wedding
Cathy, 12/28/04
As I predicted, going through the wedding planning process at the same time as Cathy of Cathy has turned out to be a fairly unsettling and for the most part unpleasant experience. In the past couple of days, though, I’ve noticed something in the strip that perhaps looms much larger in my life than it does in the lives of most normal, non-wedding-planning persons: shameless plugs for Thebigday.com. This is an online gift registry where you can register for just about anything you want; people buy you stuff online, and you get a note telling you what people bought and a check with which to buy it all (or to spend on hookers and blow, if you prefer, although you probably shouldn’t mention that in your thank you notes).
Anyway, due to our aversion to acquiring more crap and desire to go on a fab honeymoon, my fianceé and I plan on registering at this site for our wedding later this year, and thus it’s deeply distressing to see it being shilled in Cathy. It’s hard enough getting married when you’re a pair of contrary, anti-establishment hipsters, but when the indie rock song you picked out for the ceremony gets covered in a cheesy movie starring J.Lo, the inexpensive yet nice-looking dress you want is the darling of all the ladies at Indiebride.com, and the cool wedding registry you plan on using is suddenly plastered all over Cathy — well, sometimes it seems that the whole world is against you. Our lives: a series of never-ending trials.
The last isn’t really so bad, though, if it introduces the concept to our elderly relatives who have apparently been waiting our entire lives to buy us some gold-rimmed piece of china that we’ll eat off of maybe once every other year. Of course, we’re going to be registering for fun vacation-related gifts so we can party hardy in the Mediterranean, not spaying and neutering services. Our cat is already spayed, and frankly, fixing the rest of them will not be high on our priority list on the big day. I do wonder if Thebigday.com paid Cathy for the prominent mention — in which case this may be the first instance of comic strip product placement that I can remember. Earlier today, I was unable to reach the site, which prompted the horrifying vision of millions of glassy-eyed Cathy minions, with that “Hang In There” kitten smiling down at them from the wall, all simultaneously visiting the site and overwhelming their Web servers.
sninky-chan
December 29th, 2004 at 9:43 pm
Lord, if that isn’t the best description of the feeling of being followed by marketers I’ve ever read. Ever since I read Generation X lo these many years ago and discovered that my disaffection was a MARKET, I find ever-increasingly that so many things I like (in that private, “I’ll only show this to my closest friends who will understand” kind of way) are suddenly HUGE and you can buy the T-shirt and everyone already has.
Hubris
December 30th, 2004 at 9:07 am
I never thought Cathy would succumb to the lure of payola.
GreenFish
December 30th, 2004 at 9:40 am
t’s hard enough getting married when you’re a pair of contrary, anti-establishment hipsters, but when the indie rock song you picked out for the ceremony gets covered in a cheesy movie starring J.Lo … (snip) … well, sometimes it seems that the whole world is against you.
I’ve always been sort of the day late & a dollar short type of hipster (in other words: not a hipster whatsoever), so I have to say, in probably a half-cruel kind of way, sorry — that your comment really amuses me. There is an overwhelmingly short life to trends these days — for instance, the fact that Uggs were in for about two months last year and no one could get them, and by the time they became available again this last January, they were already out of style. Or you’ll pick up a particular type of purse at an indy craft fair and the next thing you know, a rip-off of that purse is at Forever 21 and Rampage and mall-suckers everywhere seem to have it. You get that jaded sense that nothing is “original” anymore, and you have to buy old to get new. You have to be unstylish to be “truly” stylish.
It’s kind of a bitter feeling, isn’t it? At least, for me, it is.
To be perfectly frank, I’m kind of glad I’ve never been that ‘up’ on the trends, because as soon as you realize it’s a trend, it’s already out and I’m the type of person that would be pissed I spent the money to get it.
Oh — and the idea that comics have stooped to the level of product placements?
Just … no.
Bad Cathy.
Anonymous
December 30th, 2004 at 1:54 pm
Pity, people getting married today have so much. Too bad they can’t think of their fellow man instead of some dumb animail.
People are starving all over the world and Amerikans are worried about Fido and Fluffy.
Sad and pathetic.
sophia
December 30th, 2004 at 2:55 pm
I think I commented on this earlier, before the domain change, so it’s probably been lost. But:
I got engaged the same day as Cathy — February 14 of this year. I’ve been married since April. Cathy hasn’t even finished registering. Guisewite is seriously going to milk this thing out *until the end of time*. I’ll be a partner in a law firm (and I don’t even start law school until fall) and you and your wife will have twins and your first home by the time Cathy and Irving actually exchange vows.
I’m a friend of Laura Shapiro’s, btw, and have been reading daily almost since your very first post. Thanks for the endless at-work amusement! :)
Hubris
December 30th, 2004 at 3:16 pm
Anonymous,
Apparently you didn’t read the extended Blondie storyline “Dagwood Finds His Conscience At The Soup Kitchen.”
The preferred term is “AmeriKKKans,” by the way.
J
December 31st, 2004 at 8:55 am
(I love this site.)
My wife and I had to pick out two DIFFERENT sets of china patterns, because we use separate everything for milk and meat (we’re Jewish). I, of course, didn’t care one way or the other, but she spent almost an hour at JCPenney agonizing over which sets to scan with the handheld gift-register-o-matic. (We also registered at BurdinesRichsMacys, Amazon.com, and Target.)
The funniest part is that we didn’t even get complete sets. We have three place settings of one kind of china, and one of the other. Now there’s a big box of white elephants sitting in our guestroom closet. Of course we’ll never be able to throw it away — after all, it was a gift, and worse than that, it was a wedding gift (she won’t even throw away cards) — but we’ll never use it, either.
We did get quite a few things we wanted and needed — including an awesome knife set that, unfortunately, can only be used during Passover (where you have to have two MORE sets of dishes that can’t be used during the rest of the year) because she thinks that the lame set I bought for myself four years ago is just fine — but for the most part, a lot of the stuff we got, we’ve never used.
Except the money. We use that.
Wedding china is overrated. I think perhaps we should try to sway the wedding-gift-buyer’s opinions on it to something more useful. Like cash. Or the down payment on a house.
d-42.com: Josh Cohen online
December 31st, 2004 at 9:00 am
But what will we use China Cabinets for now?
I really like “I Read The Comics So You Don’t Have To”. Found it recently, enjoy it muchly. In response to this entry… Anyway, due to our aversion to acquiring more crap and desire to go on a fab honeymoon,…
Donna Rowe
December 31st, 2004 at 4:16 pm
Cathy Guisewhite has created a registry for Cathy and Irving at Thebigday.com as a fund raiser for an animal shelter called Pet Orphans of Southern California. That’s the reason for the product placement. By promoting Thebigday, she’s promoting her cause.
I don’t know. Certainly corporate sponsorship is nothing new to nonprofits — look at PBS — but it still seems a little tacky to give free advertisement to a for-profit corporation, no matter how worthy your cause. What’s next, Geico signs at church? “Jesus saves and so can you, 15% or more at Geico”.
Then again, placement at Amazon.com has helped several organizations raise money for tsunami relief aid, so who knows? *shrug*
Anonymous
December 31st, 2004 at 11:48 pm
TheBigDay.com is what’s wrong with the world today. People log on and buy you a present. But it’s not really a present, it’s money. Really you’re paying someone 10% to lie to your wedding guests. Why not be honest and put on your invites, and we don’t want crap, we want money?
You kids these days are just lazy mf’ers who don’t realize that standing on line at Bloomingdales to return the three toasters you got is what builds character.
Boy it sure is hot in this handbasket.
Richard
January 19th, 2005 at 3:40 pm
Here’s a question: Has that strip EVER been funny? I don’t remember one comic strip that has been funny. Recently, it has gone from crappy to unreadable.
Anonymous
January 27th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
(Great site)
“…but when the indie rock song you picked out for the ceremony gets covered in a cheesy movie starring J.Lo…”
I can only assume you mean “The Book of Love” by the Magnetic Fields. That is the greatest song. It’s appearance in _Shall We Dance?_ is a travesty. Seeing Mike Doughty cover it renewed my faith in man.
justin benedict
August 8th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Truly, the receptionist was a much more realistic bride. She was furious because the country was going through “hard economic times” as Cathy’s mom put it, and that she wouldn’t be getting tons of gifts…Charlene? is she the receptionist? I found her much more interesting than the feminist friend of Cathy…though she blossomed a a bit after she had kids
Do do do
September 17th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Like anonymous, I am incensed that Cathy gave up china sets for charity.
Also, I am an asshole.
doolz
November 14th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I believe that cartoon people have the right to do whatever the heck they want with their wedding not-gifts, especially if it means that cartoon pets are neutered and spayed.