Game 1
vs. 
vs. Over in the Just Not Funny Divisionof the National Crappy Comics Competition, one of the most anticipated matches has Garfield taking on Cathy. Both strips have been boring readers with the same 4 gags over and over for more than 25 years. In fact they both share making compulsive eating fun and goofy. Continuity is not a requirement since nothing ever changes. Well, Cathy got married and Andrea’s kids got bigger, but Irvin is the same passive-aggressive loser he was when she dumped him for awhile, years ago. Now that they are married, we can watch them slowly morph into the Lockhorns.
Garfield is one of the few strips it actually has fewer characters than when it started. Jon’s original roommate, Lyman, disappeared years ago to the same place they hid Richie Cunningham's brother, leaving behind his lobotomized dog. Garfield was mildly amusing when he was a bad rip-off of the B. Kliban® Cats, but as soon as he stood upright, he started a sharp exponential decay. At least he still amuses small children and the feeble-minded. No one has found Cathy funny since Donna Summer topped the charts.
Winner/Loser: Cathy
Game 2
vs. 
Game 2
vs. The Just Not Funny Division of the NCCC(tm) is stacked with strong contenders like our next match-up between BC and Family Circus. Johnny Hart is a legend and BC’s early years are milk-out-your-nose funny. As the years wore on, the set-ups grew stale and then religious allegories starting sneaking in to the point people started (justifiably) looking for things to take offense at while the real offense is just not being funny.
Family Circus is an icon and a part of our cultural heritage. If any cartoonist draws a meandering trail of thick dashes, the reference is immediate and recognizable. Bil Keane even has enough of a sense of humor to put the more tasteful parodies and tributes on his web page. The strip is sweet to point of cloying and large doses can induce diabetic shock. Perhaps no other strip is more often and more maliciously parodied, but the heart of the strip is in the right place. The gags have to be deliberately, if easily, misconstrued to be disturbing. BC doesn’t even require that effort.
Winner/Loser: BC
First round action wraps up next with the Walker-Browne Division.
Previous results:
Dead Writers Division
Pointless Soap Division
Second Round Results
6 comments:
Loved the reference to Richie Cunningham's brother.
On BC, I also tire of the religious allegories. Too bad when he was born again he wasn't born with a sense of humor.
Excellent choices, yellojkt. I wouldn't be surprised if BC took it all. I wonder how many papers Cathy appears in now vs. in its, er, heyday? I know of several papers that have dropped it in recent years. Even the least discriminating comics readers must be tiring of Cathy's neurotic ways.
I remember Richie's brother. Then he disappeared and my family thought I was crazy. Danm doubters!
Why isn't cathy funny? The premise is there.
Brackets, dammit! Where are the brackets? I know you've got a wall-size chart somewhere.
I thought Garfield was going to take this one but I can't argue with your logic.
Huh. I was thinking Garfield would win/lose this one. Cathy had made up for years of torment to me and humanity when Irving asked one simple question shortly after their marriage. I believe it was "What have I done?" when he was confronted with a Cathy storage box obsession storyline. It was perfect.
Brackets:
In the Final Four, the Dead Writers Division winner will meet the Pointless Soap Division winner.
And I am really feeling sorry for Irving. Somehow Cathy's neurotic behavior is much more annoying know that we know she has finally landed a dupe.
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