Pondering Baby Blues and Between Friends

Between Friends, 2013-05-01.

Baby Blues, 2013-05-01.

The fact that these two strips appeared on the same day isn't actually the staggering coincidence it may appear to be as it's a pretty common theme in both these comics, and not without reason. The problem really is that the underlying message always seems to be "Hey women, if you're over 40 then you look bad and you should feel bad." And this is supposed to be funny?

Between Friends is particularly bad for this as the main characters actually seem to revel in this attitude, resenting younger women for not feeling bad about how they look but taking pleasure in the idea that those women will eventually reach the point where they too suffer from constant guilt and shame about their appearance.

It's not quite as grim as Tom Batiuk's comics where the message is pretty consistently that awful things will happen to you, all happiness is fleeting and life is merely an agonising journey to the grave, but it's in that same direction.

What are we supposed to be laughing at here? I could understand if the joke were "Hey, look at these unreasonable expectations society pushes on women, aren't they ridiculous?" but it seems more like the opposite of that, like we're not supposed to find such expectations ridiculous, the joke is actually at the expense of the comics' main characters. Or that those young people making them feel bad are right, but don't worry, they'll get theirs when they get old and fat and ugly, then we'll see who has the last laugh.

It's no one, no one laughs, because this is terrible.

Zits

"... so then you can just go to image > pixel aspect ratio > custom pixel aspect ratio, then..." rambles Jeremy nonsensically, effortlessly pronouncing two greater-than symbols.

A deer with Walt's face stands beside a road, staring blankly at the reader, its antlers like two grasping hands raised to the sky.

"You're getting that look again." says Jeremy.
"What look?" asks Walt.

Comic

Zits

"I'll have a #1 combo with fries and a shake." says Jeremy to a woman with a notepad.
"Same for me but with cold slaw." says Sara.

The woman vanishes and their menus are replaced with glasses of water with straws.
"Cole slaw" says Jeremy.
"Ezackly." says Sara. "Cold slaw is my Achilles' Tooth."

Suddenly the glasses are gone and Sara is eating a bowl of indistinct green stuff.
"I love this girl!" thinks Jeremy.
"Did I say something funny?" asks Sara, between bites.

Comic

Zits

Jeremy sullenly plugs in a vacuum cleaner, turns it on and lifts it up, holding it against the wall of clothes blocking the doorway.

Later, his mother finds him lolling on a chair, using his phone.
"Did you vacuum your room like I asked, Jeremy?" she asks.
"Yeah." he replies. "It made a huge difference, too."

Comic