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Curtis, 1/15/05

If you weren’t convinced by Barry’s reckless use of the word chutzpah, here’s more evidence for you that Curtis is actually written by an elderly Jewish man. In fact, I’m not even sure that actual elderly Jewish men exclaim “Oy!” repeatedly in response to lower back pain these days.

This strip summoned up from somewhere deep in my primal pop-culture consciousness memories of novelty rap group 2 Live Jews and their hit single “Oy, It’s So Humid.” In retrospect, it’s kind of amusing to think that there was a time when the group that 2LJ (as I’m sure their fans called them) spoofed, 2 Live Crew, was not considered a novelty group. Remember when the most dire threat offered against Western civilization was a song called “Me So Horny”? Good times!

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Curtis, 1/3/05

Once a year, Curtis takes a break from its usual urban tomfoolery to present an opaque Kwaanza fable set in some mythical ancient African locale. This year, though, the strip has moved the seasonal tale to an shameful time in our own history, when six-fingered persons were cruelly oppressed and shunned. Thankfully, we live in more enlightened times, when our digital diversity is celebrated with national events like Polydactylism Week (August 3-9).

Though I can never quite grasp the point behind the plots of the Kwaanza stories, they do feature some of the most interesting art seen in the strip. I like the long first panel here, with the sort of trippy, melty piano-y thing going on towards the middle. I have to say that I’m less in favor of the gratuitous use of quotation marks around words like “knack” and “Joe” and “untouchable.” And the less said about “naturallyier,” the better.

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Curtis, 12/7/04

Boys, Curtis! He’s telling that you’re no good with girls, so you should start dating boys!

At least that’s what I’m getting out of this. Anyone who can offer another interpretation that makes any more sense, please let me know.

One thing I do like in this strip is the sign in the second panel from the left in the bottom row: “No hair cut below the neck.” When will the oppression of Hairy-Backed Americans end?