2014-07-31

Sitcom Thursday: Strips that annoyed me this week

Family Tree, 2014-07-28.

"Mo-om! No way are we going on a whole week's trip with nana!" says the red-haired girl.
The yellow-haired woman smiles condescendingly. "She'll take you wherever you want to go. Just name it!"
"OK." says the girl. "Let's go on the grand tour!"
"Perfect!" says the white-haired woman. "Grand Rapids, Grand Forks and Grand Junction."
"Not even the Grand Ole Opry?" asks the red-haired girl in disbelief.
The yellow-haired woman stares blankly into the distance, clearly thinking about something else.

First let me address the matter of names. I know that these characters have names, and I know that four of the strip's characters are called Ames, Maggie, Twig and Teddy, but I have no ideas who is called what. I went back through the archives a few months and all I discovered was that the boy (who is not in this particular strip) is named Teddy.

It does sound unnatural when characters call each other by name all the time, but there's a reason comic strips do it. It's not because the authors actually think people talk that way, it's so that the reader can work out what everyone's name is.

But the actual reason I posted this strip was the red-haired girl's bizarre request to go on "the grand tour". That's not a thing. No one would make that request. She clearly only said that to set up the response from the white-haired woman. And the joke only works if we assume that "the grand tour" is some specific thing and the white-haired woman is deliberately misinterpreting, but it isn't.

Also, why did yellow-haired woman volunteer white-haired woman to take red-haired girl and Teddy wherever they want? White-haired woman may already have been planning something, she didn't know. And what's with the emphasis on the word "the"?



B.C. 2014-07-29.

Thor is standing behind a rock on which "travel agent" has been written.
"I'd like to travel to a place that likes Americans" says BC.
"I hear Wyoming is nice this time of year." says Thor.

I don't care whether they're in the past or the future (it's definitely the future though), there is no way this strip makes sense within the setting.



Big Nate, 2014-07-30.

"Ooh, this is one of my favorite 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' episodes!" says Nate. "It's the one where -"
Francis interrupts him. "Hold it! I bet I know! Either there's a disruption of the space-time continuum, or a member of the crew is possessed by an alien entity! ... or both! It's both, isn't it?"
"Lucky guess." says Nate, grumpily.
"And... uh-oh! I feel a warp core breach coming on!"

Do you get the impression that Lincoln Pierce doesn't like Star Trek? Although I like TNG, I admit that there are certainly some things that are pretty easy to criticise about it. Francis's complaint in this strip isn't one of them though. The things he mentions did happen in the show, but not with the sort of monotonous regularity implied. The only episode I can think of that combines the elements mentioned is Cause and Effect from season 5, and I don't think that had a warp core breach.



Freshly Squeezed, 2014-07-31.

"And another thing - - the way mom treats dad." says Liz. "You'd think he was her child instead of her husband, the way she coddles him. Letting him eat whatever he wants, watch any sport on TV, doing his laundry and dishes... honestly, is that any way to run a marriage?"
"Uh..." says Sam.

Apparently Liz thinks that a mother should let her children eat whatever they want and watch whatever they want on TV? And that a wife shouldn't let her husband do those things?

1 comment:

  1. Well, if you'd look in the comments of the Big Mate comic in question, the author himself says, and I quote, "I think Star Trek is a little cheesy, but I love it."

    I feel that Francis is being sarcastic/blowing things out of proportion because he thinks he's too smart to watch a space opera TV show.

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