Anyone who reads this blog, if anyone does, has probably figured out that my intentions are often "humorous", or perhaps, to risk pretense, "satirical". I've spent my life bandying one liners and insults with my brother and father (indeed my wife says when she visits my family that "its like attending a smart-ass convention"), and stuffing my head full of punchlines from the major comic-strip writers like Charles M. Shulz and Johnny Hart, and later Jim Unger, Gary Larson and Scott Adams.
Well, unfortunately, one of my long-time favorites, Brant Parker, who co-created The Wizard of Id in 1964 along with Johnny Hart, has passed away just a few days after Mr. Hart himself. Apparently, Mr. Parker has not worked on the strip for several years, and had been sick for a long time, so there is no causal connection between the two deaths. It was the result of a stroke Mr. Parker suffered last year, as well as complications from Alzheimer's: a "broken heart" was not involved. Nevertheless its kind of fitting that these two should go so close to one another, because in many ways they are the last of that crop of cartoonists who came of age in the 1960s and gave us the comic strip as we have it today. How humor in this medium has changed over the years would be the subject of a good post, but its six in the morning and I'm still a couple of coffees short. Lets just say that the times were gentler back then. That's not a criticism; our harsher age requires a sharper brand of humor, for instance this guy, who is hit and miss but can be appallingly funny.
Well, unfortunately, one of my long-time favorites, Brant Parker, who co-created The Wizard of Id in 1964 along with Johnny Hart, has passed away just a few days after Mr. Hart himself. Apparently, Mr. Parker has not worked on the strip for several years, and had been sick for a long time, so there is no causal connection between the two deaths. It was the result of a stroke Mr. Parker suffered last year, as well as complications from Alzheimer's: a "broken heart" was not involved. Nevertheless its kind of fitting that these two should go so close to one another, because in many ways they are the last of that crop of cartoonists who came of age in the 1960s and gave us the comic strip as we have it today. How humor in this medium has changed over the years would be the subject of a good post, but its six in the morning and I'm still a couple of coffees short. Lets just say that the times were gentler back then. That's not a criticism; our harsher age requires a sharper brand of humor, for instance this guy, who is hit and miss but can be appallingly funny.
So Goodbye Mr. Paker. You made the world laugh every day for over thirty years. I can think of no higher calling.
Meanwhile, did you hear the one about the PM's psychic? "She carries [Harper's] bags, she opens the door. She is very nice." She also powders the PM's nose when he gets all sweaty, which is often. She's also predicted the date of the great Conservative Majority: the day after the sun goes supernova.
Meanwhile, did you hear the one about the PM's psychic? "She carries [Harper's] bags, she opens the door. She is very nice." She also powders the PM's nose when he gets all sweaty, which is often. She's also predicted the date of the great Conservative Majority: the day after the sun goes supernova.
3 comments:
Sandra Buckler has gone completely bonkers. Seriously, that little set of doors in her forehead just opened up and a cuckoo sprang out. (I love that line from Gore Vidal).
"she carries bags, she opens doors"
well, she's apparently far more useful to the canadian polity then most of harper's cabinet.
"Our harsher age requires a sharper brand of humour"
That was just garbage. There was nothing funny, sharp, biting, insightful or witty about anything in that guy's so-called political cartoon. Just swearing and incessant Bush-bashing. Gee, never seen that before.
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