Good News, Bad News

Cidu Bill on Sep 30th 2009

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Filed in Bill Bickel, CIDU, Wizard of Id, comic strips, comics, humor | 21 responses so far

21 Responses to “Good News, Bad News”

  1. Dave Van Domelen Sep 30th 2009 at 12:04 am 1

    Bury her in the coffin-like tanning bed, which they wouldn’t want to keep using anyway and will let him have for a steal.

  2. Cornbread Sep 30th 2009 at 12:04 am 2

    Nobody’s gonna want a tan in a bed where someone’s died, so they’re offering to let the guy have it as a coffin?

  3. Cornbread Sep 30th 2009 at 12:05 am 3

    Jinx, Dave.

  4. Richard Sep 30th 2009 at 12:10 am 4

    I think this is supposed to be a cremation joke.

  5. mkilby Sep 30th 2009 at 12:19 am 5

    Perhaps the local cemetary charges by the pound, and the guy is offering to dessicate the corpse before burial. However, that would make this an “Ewww.”

  6. TasmanSea Sep 30th 2009 at 12:35 am 6

    I was understood it to be about creation when I first read it, which would definitely be an ewww… the coffin interpretation seems more plausible for a mainstream comic somehow though. There isn’t really a scenario where it makes sense to leave her “right where she is” i.e. dead in the tanning bed indefinitely though… so still some CIDUness.

  7. Rainey Sep 30th 2009 at 01:22 am 7

    The salon owner could sell the tanning bed to the funeral parlor as a cremation device. This would help offset money owed to the victim’s husband due to a lawsuit.

  8. MoWatt Sep 30th 2009 at 02:10 am 8

    I think everyone but Richard is over-thinking this. Read it as:

    “I can save you a bundle . . . ” ON CREMATION ” . . . if we leave her right where she is.”

    That’s the gag. Simple as that.

  9. Kamino Neko Sep 30th 2009 at 03:57 am 9

    Except that tanning beds don’t emit heat (therefor being useless for cremation), but they DO resemble caskets, if vaguely.

  10. Brent Sep 30th 2009 at 05:45 am 10

    In Medieval times (like where Wizard of Id is supposedly set), ultraviolet radiation was unknown. Therefore, I propose that the “tanning bed” is just a big oven.

  11. Frank the curmudgeon Sep 30th 2009 at 05:51 am 11

    Kamino - you’re being too unimaginative for lack of a better word. Definitely cremation . Cartoonist like poets have license.

  12. mkilby Sep 30th 2009 at 07:23 am 12

    I think the cremation / dessication / modern / medieval question is unimportant compared to the funny / unfunny question. This one was simply not funny, no matter how you read it. Parker should retire (but he doesn’t need to go to the same extreme as his erstwhile partner Hart).

  13. Powers Sep 30th 2009 at 07:30 am 13

    It’s a little late for that, mkilby. Parker pre-deceased Hart.

  14. Powers Sep 30th 2009 at 07:32 am 14

    Wait, sorry. Just looked it up. Brant Parker actually died eight days after Hart, but he hadn’t drawn the strip since 1997, when his son took over. I have no idea who’s writing it these days, but it’s probably Mason Hart.

  15. David N Sep 30th 2009 at 10:02 am 15

    My take is that the salon guy wants to leave her there so he can charge rent, and always have the bed “in use” if you will. Thus, the good news is he can cut the husband a good deal on that.

    But overthinking a Wizard of Id comic hurts, man.

  16. David (S) Sep 30th 2009 at 10:14 am 16

    Wizard of ID has never been terribly concerned about anachronisms. I remember puzzling over a couple in a 70s collection, one involving Wiz giving the Duke a sunlamp, and one where Wiz and Blanche go out to a Japanese restaurant. I was puzzled partly by the anachronism, and mostly because I didn’t know what a sunlamp was or what Japanese food was like (I was six).

  17. mkilby Sep 30th 2009 at 11:03 am 17

    Ooops. My mistake: I only thought that Parker was still alive because the strip was signed with his name. No wonder the Wizard of Id has been so lame for so long. All the more reason to cancel it, now that I know it’s a zombie.

  18. Nicole Sep 30th 2009 at 01:02 pm 18

    Somehow this reminds of this Monty Python sketch

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce0UEb05DXI

  19. Frank the curmudgeon Sep 30th 2009 at 02:02 pm 19

    Parker & Hart are still more creative and funnier than Batiuk. I thought he was banned from CIDU ?

  20. mkilby Sep 30th 2009 at 02:25 pm 20

    Nicole @ 18:
    Speaking of Monty Python, next Monday (5 Oct) will be the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of the first episode. As it happens, Sunday (4 Oct) is the 20th anniversary of the death of Graham Chapman (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsHk9WC7fnQ for a clip from his funeral, starring John Cleese and Eric Idle).

  21. Brent Oct 1st 2009 at 03:32 am 21

    David (S):

    Yeah, BC and Wizard of ID are well know for not caring about anachronisms. I just think it’s fun to No-Prize the gaps where possible… the idea of a medieval tanning bed that “tans” you in the same way you’d brown a piece of meat has more humour for me than this strip by itself. It goes back to the Flintstones, where modern conveniences were done up in a way that was “plausible” (ie within the laws of humourous cartoons), and so weren’t really so much anachronisms, but just silly. BC and Wizard only do that occasionally.

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