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It’s funny because we’re all going to die someday, and alone

Marvin and Six Chix, 4/18/06

Boy, here’s a cheery pair. Marvin is funny because, awwww, he’s too young to understand the concept of death! Isn’t that precious? He isn’t constantly stalked by the terrifying specter of his own mortality! How cute!

What on earth have his parents parked him in front of to distract him while they eat/read/have sex/pretend for one precious moment that their life hasn’t been ruined by a baby? Too many inspirational Lifetime movies can warp his tiny developing mind.

Also, if I were forced to wear that hideous grey union suit as a baby, I would have figured out what it meant to die … of embarrassment!

Six Chix, meanwhile, is funny because … well, I guess it’s funny because this old lady is going to die! That’s a knee-slapper, all right. Unlike Marvin, she has a grim, joyless look that says that she’s known all about death for some time, and frankly thinks it’s time to get on with the whole thing. So come on, hellish, grinning demon from the netherword, let’s get this show on the road! We can pick up Tommie’s favorite patient on the way!

Curtis, 4/18/06

If Curtis is going to insist on doing a zany, contrived storyline where Curtis accidentally signs up his dad to give blood, the thing he fears the most, then I have to say I think it’s very clever to do it this way: with the hijinks implied (“I saw it on the news!” “…and the firemen were able to get me down out of the tree!”) rather than actually trying to put everything in panels. Nevertheless, the word “happy” in panel one is smack dab between two of the most inappropriate quotation marks in comics history — and this being Curtis, that’s saying a lot. In fact, I’ve decided that when you abuse the noble quotation mark this badly, you must suffer the wrath of … Quotin’ Margo!

By the way, kids, don’t try to air-quote like this at home; Margo is especially suited for this activity because, as Uncle Lumpy pointed out when I posted the comic this came from, she’s got six fingers on each hand. Yikes!

Get Fuzzy, 4/18/06

OK, seriously Darby, I can’t go down this road with you. Just let me know when you get back from the brink, I’ll be waitin’ for ya.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 10:37 am and is filed under Apartment 3-G, Curtis, Get Fuzzy, Marvin, Six Chix. |

57 responses to “It’s funny because we’re all going to die someday, and alone”

  1. SNF
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:47 am [Reply]

    What are you people going on about with your six fingers? I count: Thumb, two fingers folded, two fingers unfolded. Explain yourselves!

  2. Phin Windbag
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:50 am [Reply]

    But in today’s Fuzzy, discriminating connoisseurs must love Panel 1. . .

    I mean the justaposition of the two cartoonist persona’s—The impeccably groomed and coiffed Pastis drawn effeminately holding pinky finger extended (balancing out the Ashlee Simpson poster on the wall!!—brilliant touch in dismissive decor) as he attempts to politely engage in phone discourse; Conley’s self-portrait as a shifty, lying denizen of a seedy, dive bar—a bit like Dorian Grey’s portrait a decade or so into the debauchery.

    Any Curmudgeonaholics know the relationship between Pastis and Conley?. . .good-natured camaraderie or some seething animus?

    Hoping for the latter (makes this week more engaging!)

  3. Sophietje
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:53 am [Reply]

    OK, here’s a quote from Stephan Pastis about Darby Conley:
    Darby and I actually came to blows once, and I shoved him through a sliding glass door. After he stopped crying, I promised him I would never do it again.
    :)
    I guess they are good friends., so I’m guessing this is all consentual.

  4. mentarman
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:55 am [Reply]

    “We should all live our lives like today is our last day”? Mary Worth must have a TV show now.

  5. mentarman
    April 19th, 2006 at 10:56 am [Reply]

    ps, I only count five fingers per hand as well. Thought the way they are contorted reminds me of T. rex trying to do quotation marks with his small, shrivelled, ineffectual arms.

  6. BassoGap
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:01 am [Reply]

    Phin – From the quotes, I’d guess Pastis and Conley are good friends, and I’d expect this week’s GF strips to be followed by a nasty skewering in next week’s PBS.

    Then again, maybe there’s a bit of Troy and Rex stuff going on between them. If they start talking about playing golf together…

  7. edgeways
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:10 am [Reply]

    ferget six fingers, hoave you counted the number of TEETH that Death has? I tell you he’s (if such a thing can have a gender) a dentist’s wet dream.

    Incidently do you think McEldowney is having fun drawing Pibgorn lately? It woudn’t take much to turn that *ahem* strip into a non-family frendly feature, not that I’m complaining mind you, the sexuality just *er* ooozes from the page nowadays,

  8. J Shiggity
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:10 am [Reply]

    I just don’t get the excessive tax-based humor in the comics. Its enough already. It is time to realize that all of the good tax humor, after umpty-ump years of comic-dom, has been expended and that it probably happened after year 1. We get it. People don’t like to pay taxes. People don’t like hemmorhoids either but i don’t see anyone mining that comedy gold year after year. Frankly I think it would be much funnier.

  9. damusicmaka
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:19 am [Reply]

    Actually if you cut and paste the Marvin strip with Six Chix strip with the Grim Reaper standing behind Marvin replacing his bunny, the strip becomes very funny.

  10. RichM
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:30 am [Reply]

    It only looks like too many fingers because as comics readers, we are conditioned to expect four per hand.

  11. Monkey David
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:31 am [Reply]

    Oh I’m going wherever Darby want to go. Having Pastis stick out his pinky like that…wonderful.

    Plus, “Get Fuzzy” really is the best artwork on the comics page today.

  12. Tom
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:38 am [Reply]

    Pastis, Conley, and Amend (of Foxtrot) all used the same dialog for an April Fools Day strip a year or two ago.

    This direct copy business is clever, but coming so soon after the “booger” fizzle, you can’t help but wonder if the tank isn’t really as empty as Cartoon Conley’s beer bottle.

    I await the vengeance the “Ashlee Simpson” poster will call down upon his head.

  13. Lulu
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:50 am [Reply]

    Oh, dear. I guess I’m in the minority corner, as I’m finding Get Fuzzy giggle-out-loud funny. I love the way Satchel is cut and pasted into the PBS panels (you can even see a bit of zebra’s hair in one of the panels today!). It is so wonderfully slacker and a nice, subtle dig at all of those cartoons drawn by rote these days. I mean, Garfield will go *days* without so much as a change of whisker or paw. Maybe I’ll tire of it by the end of the week, but for now, I’m laughing and laughing.

  14. David
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:54 am [Reply]

    Like Hell she’s got six fingers! How do you figger? You’re just saying so to drive us all mad.

  15. Pammeey
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:56 am [Reply]

    I agree with Lulu. I love Get Fuzzy and I love Pearls. Combining the two is like chocolate and peanut butter!

  16. BigJoe
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:03 pm [Reply]

    Can anyone even explain the point of Marvin? He doesn’t want to live today like it’s his last day because yesterday sucked? Doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe if it was something like “today has sucked so far” it might make more sense.

  17. Sophietje
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:12 pm [Reply]

    Oh Pammeey, I totally agree with you. I like both strips very much (and I even loved the booger ones, just because of the art), so seeing them combined is fantastic.

    I showed the strips to my non-comic-loving husband, and he’s been walking around all morning saying “no speka da eenglish”. And on that note, I will happily go wherever Darby and Stephan go.

  18. srah
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:15 pm [Reply]

    There must be some kind of collaboration between Conley and Pastis, mustn’t there, for the same comic to run on the same day with Satchel’s head “pasted” over the PBS cartoon?

  19. mentarman
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:20 pm [Reply]

    BigJoe (#16), it’s a terrible joke based on Marvin thinking “last day” is referring to the last day he lived through, ie, yesterday, not the last day of his life. I’m not explaining it very well but that’s because it is an awkward and pathetic joke to begin with.

  20. King Folderol
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:33 pm [Reply]

    #8. Agreed. Cathy has somehow managed to milk this for like a month now. With all the time she spends with her accountant you’d either think 1) she’s got a bunch of investments that never come up the other 11 months of the year or 2) she’s cheating on her taxes with her accountant’s help.

  21. Uccellina
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:39 pm [Reply]

    I love Pearls Before Swine, and last time I went to the zoo I found myself standing before a certain enclosure muttering “kill da zeeba!” My friends’ four-year-old son was a little worried.

  22. Andrew
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:48 pm [Reply]

    Count the fingers on Margo’s *left* hand, screen right. It’s definitely six: two up, three curled, one thumb.

  23. Concerned Citizen
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:48 pm [Reply]

    Margo has six fingers because cartoon characters have one extra implied finger. This is how one can tell them apart in real life. In fact many victims of unfortunate accidents involving the loss of a finger are in danger of having large objects like anvils and pianos drop on their heads. There are compensations though, such as being able to produce dynamite out of thin air and unlimited credit at Acme.

  24. gnome de blog
    April 19th, 2006 at 12:54 pm [Reply]

    There are compensations though, such as being able to produce dynamite out of thin air and unlimited credit at Acme.

    Not to mention getting to hang out with Jessica Rabbit.

  25. Treadwell
    April 19th, 2006 at 1:03 pm [Reply]

    You six fingers folks are mistaking the curved lines representing the shape of her palms as fingers.

  26. mere cog in the machine
    April 19th, 2006 at 1:14 pm [Reply]

    When I try to count Margos fingers I feel like I’m Winston Smith, she’s O’Brien, and the needle’s up about a far as it can go.

  27. Finger Food for Thought
    April 19th, 2006 at 1:55 pm [Reply]

    22: Six fingers on her left hand? Look closely and count again. There’s no more than five fingers on ANY hand in this strip. Josh owes us a retraction and a sincere apology for wasting our time like this.

  28. Stephen
    April 19th, 2006 at 1:56 pm [Reply]

    did anyone see the little dig that Baby Bkues did at PBS the week after PBS did its dig at Baby Blues? It was subtle but clever. It featured the baby gnawing vigorously on a stuffed alligator identical to the ones in PBS.

  29. frippy
    April 19th, 2006 at 3:15 pm [Reply]

    A baby wearing grey, drinking from a black sippy cup, with a Robert-Smith style hairdo, pondering death and the misery of his daily existence? I had no idea Marvin was a goth.

  30. theophylact
    April 19th, 2006 at 3:58 pm [Reply]

    Pastis, Conley and Jef Mallett (Frazz; probably not in your paper) all seem to be friends, and comment regularly on Gene Weingarten’s online chat, “Chatological Humor”.

  31. Pammeey
    April 19th, 2006 at 4:42 pm [Reply]

    Speaking of Frazz, doesn’t he look (and sometimes act) like a grown up Calvin? (Or maybe it’s just me.)

  32. Amy
    April 19th, 2006 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

    #31: I agree! That’s part of why I love Frazz, I feel like it is, in some ways, a successor to Calvin and Hobbes.

  33. King Dogmeat
    April 19th, 2006 at 5:00 pm [Reply]

    Thank you, #25, for settling, once and for all, the Margo-six-finger argument. I just saw two guys at a bar come to fisticuffs over it. I stayed out of the way and thought to myself, “This is close to the epitome of civilization.” The epitome would be if they came to blows over which was the largest known prime number. But this one is answerable too: Look here!

  34. mooselet
    April 19th, 2006 at 5:04 pm [Reply]

    I want to know what the hell Marvin is drinking out of?? A black sippy cup??? Looks more like a coffee mug.

  35. Holy Prepuce
    April 19th, 2006 at 5:20 pm [Reply]

    Not just Zebra hair, Zebra snout! (Look to the left of Satchel’s head.) But turning to the actual PBS that this strip is lifted from, what exactly is going on with the trojan-egg device? Are these newly-hatched baby alligators, instinctively programmed to recognize and kill Zebras? If so, whence comes their extensive knowlege of pop culture? Or are they some kind of shrunken adult zombie alligators, cleverly disguised in faux easter eggs by the otherwise dimwit alligators?

    Re Frazz, I’d worry if I were those kids’ parents — here is an obviously educated, financially comfortable adult man who chooses to work as a janitor in an elementary school so he can befriend preadolescent children.

  36. TEM
    April 19th, 2006 at 6:47 pm [Reply]

    The main reason I read any comics nowadays (besides Josh, of course), is because of the fun Conley, Mallet, and Pastis have with their strips. Having “Fuzzy” and “PBS” combined is like a little slice of comic strip heaven to me. I eagerly await a croc/Bucky face off with Mrs. Olsen as the referee.

    Pammeey, you are a genius. I never would’ve seen the Frazz/Calvin connection until you pointed it out.

  37. Braniff
    April 19th, 2006 at 6:53 pm [Reply]

    To #8: Strictly speaking this has nothing to do with the comics page, but Jeff MacNelly (the creator of Shoe) created a wonderful political cartoon which spoofed the Form 1040 income tax return that the Chicago Tribune runs each year. Has anyone else seen it? (MacNelly’s Shoe in its heyday would depict Shoe, Cosmo and Loon trying to work on their tax returns; those were often very funny.)

  38. Len
    April 19th, 2006 at 7:00 pm [Reply]

    #35 — Holy Prepuce? Wasn’t that what the Mohel removed from our Savior at the Sacred Bris?

    Those “baby” or zombie crocks are just too smart for their own good. Why zombie? Is it cause the crocks speak with a bizarre Haitian accent? Where did they get the mallet, the gun, etc.?

  39. Pelagius
    April 19th, 2006 at 7:11 pm [Reply]

    We have a GF/PBS/Frazz triumverate here in the nation’s capitol. The WaPo comics section rocks out with three pages a day. Take that, NY Times!

  40. AwfulArt
    April 19th, 2006 at 8:15 pm [Reply]

    “Pirahna Club” takes a nice shot at Bill & Hillary.. I especially like Hillary’s new face..Or is it her old face. Wait I forgot..She’s two faced..

  41. Mary Brandt
    April 19th, 2006 at 8:37 pm [Reply]

    I’m not sure if anyone else pointed this out, and I don’t think anyone else has, but the “Two for Two” is the real joke, I believe. See, it’s funny, because there’s only two things you can rely on: death and taxes! It’s so funny! Truly hilarious! Comedic gold! Hahaha! Ahahahahaha!

    …

    Your site has driven me to the brink of insanity.

    -MB

  42. roydrink
    April 19th, 2006 at 8:39 pm [Reply]

    Frazz as older Calvin?! I pointed that out months ago!?

    ?!?!?!?!? (hey this is great)!?!?!?!

  43. TEM
    April 19th, 2006 at 9:42 pm [Reply]

    Re #42: The pioneers at the forefront of a popular movement never get the recognition they deserve. Think about it – somewhere Milli or Vanilli (whoever is still alive, I forget which one) is sitting around pissed because they started that whole lip-synching instead of actually singing live for paying concertgoers, got reamed for it, and now acts build their entire careers around that whole premise.

    Don’t make the mistake Milli Vanilli did, roydrink. When you receive your award for coming up with the idea, don’t cave into pressure and give it back.

  44. Holy Prepuce
    April 19th, 2006 at 9:47 pm [Reply]

    # 38 — Exactly! It, together with the Holy Umbilicus, are the only first-degree relics of Christ, because the rest was assumed whole into Heaven. (Although why there should not also be Holy Hair Trimmings and Holy Fingernails was never clear to me.)

  45. Curtis\'s Dad
    April 19th, 2006 at 11:45 pm [Reply]

    Curtis, turn that “rap” junk down, or I’ll be “happy” to call your friends Derrick and “Onion.”

  46. C&H Fan
    April 20th, 2006 at 1:36 am [Reply]

    Hmm…only a vague indirect mention of what I witnessed in the Detroit Free Press comics on 4/18. Get Fuzzy’s Darby did a VERY bad paste job over the Pearls before swine strip. I mean a really bad paste job. It was so obvious that I knew it had to be intentional. I thought it might have been an April Fool’s joke until I realized it was 4/18. Is this what is being referred to here? Anyone know what the point was?

  47. sasha
    April 20th, 2006 at 7:18 am [Reply]

    While you’re praising the Get Fuzzy/PBS interaction, spare a thought for the baffled comics readers who have only GF and not PBS on their comic pages.

    Hey, Conley, the strip is completely incomprehensible to people who have never seen PBS.

    Two different people told me this week that Conley’s gone over the edge, and they aren’t going to read GF any more. I did try to explain, but what I got was a perplexed look and a “So what’s the point of that? Stupid idea.”

    If two people told me that, more or less out of the blue, then of how many readers in the wider world are those two representative?

    Yeah. Stupid idea.

  48. mere cog in the machine
    April 20th, 2006 at 9:40 am [Reply]

    Do they really have cars with names like “Crevasse” in Canada? Maybe John should trade in his “Bushwhacker” for a ‘98 ‘Buttcrack” or an ‘03 “Assdimple”.

  49. rich
    April 20th, 2006 at 9:42 am [Reply]

    32: But that’s what I hate about Frazz! How hard is it to come up with an original character design? It’s so obviously a ripoff of Bill Watterson’s style.

  50. Monster
    April 20th, 2006 at 10:14 am [Reply]

    I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it, but Margo is so extreme with her quotations that even her quotation-fingers have quotations around them!

  51. Adouble
    April 20th, 2006 at 10:36 am [Reply]

    After two “jokey” B.C.s in row, I take it back, I prefer when Hart just does crazy, fundatmentalist nonsense. Today’s “Scribbling 101″ joke is just too hard to read, and not in the don’t-doctors-have-bad-hand-writing-huh-know-what-I-mean sort of way.

  52. 420
    April 20th, 2006 at 12:58 pm [Reply]

    I have plenty to say about GF/PBS but not enough time to type it.

  53. punk
    April 20th, 2006 at 2:13 pm [Reply]

    #26: If you want a vision of Apt. 3-G’s future, imagine Margo and Lu Ann, stomping on Tommie’s face-time — forever.

  54. Canadian guy.
    April 21st, 2006 at 10:03 am [Reply]

    #48: No.

  55. West LA Piltdown Man
    April 21st, 2006 at 10:24 am [Reply]

    GF’s copy and paste of PBS has drifted into the Andy Kaufman school of angry comedy/comics at this point. Punish the audiance for not being hip/avant garde enough to get the humor. Let’s quite being cool and get back to being creative…

  56. Art Kid
    April 25th, 2006 at 7:44 pm [Reply]

    49: Actually, it’s very difficult. Almost every comic artist’s style you see settles somewhere into your brain, and it’s extremely easy for one or more to come to the surface when you’re trying to build your own style. Put all of the artists into only two or three mediums to work in, and things will overlap. Character design gets even trickier to differentiate when you consider how close typical hair styles, especially typical male hair styles, tend to be. There are only a few categories, plus few individual eccentricities.

    Note that I’m not defending any particular artist or situation, but the “how hard is it to come up with an original character design?” bit just begged to be answered.

  57. Mike Carrieri
    September 17th, 2008 at 1:39 pm [Reply]

    I believe Frazz is closest as the next C&H, in dialogue and look. Many like Close to Home, Robotman, and Herman have a similar wry humorous look on life. And are thought provoking. The other comics that merely show slices of life and argue one way or the other about an angle on current topics are not comics but editorials. But I miss C&H because it presented many sides of how we think about life, and exposes the ultimate futility of our efforts.

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