Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Another Ancient Pun and Some Gratuitous Fleshy Bits

Next in its series of Puns So Old Not Even Chaucer Would Have Touched Them is The Family Circus's take on the word "draw." Admittedly, it probably would have been more likely for English people in the Middle Ages to make a bath, but if we follow the idiom back into the Mists of Time, we will likely find that the original sense of "draw" here derives from a meaning that was around in texts by 1400 and probably earlier in speech: to draw water from a well (and then use it to make a bath). I thus claim that the Keanes are once again dredging up jokes designed not just to make extremely old people titter and cry, "What are they teaching them in these schools?", but to make the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-etc.-grandparents of these extremely old people do the same thing.*

It is also worth noting that the Keanes have been drawing** their sweet little doppelgangers half-naked a lot lately. Jeff and Bil Keane rarely miss an opportunity to strip the kiddies--especially little Jeffy, interestingly enough--down to their skivvies. All that pale, doughy flesh on display is really beginning to make me feel physically ill. For pity's sake, Jeff Keane: cover up the munchkins. Don't punish the rest of us for your need to draw*** yourself unclothed. Get a hobby. Rediscover the joys of life. Fling down your pens and dance away, happy and free, no longer obliged to draw**** this pestilential comic.

Eh...I knew that last one was too much to ask.



*Technically speaking, obviously.
**I here use "draw" in only one sense of the word. I thought you would like to know.
***Ditto.
****Yeah, yeah.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

KC Green did it much better.

Michael said...

"**I hear use "draw" in only one sense of the word. I thought you would like to know."

Tut tut, my dear.

Angry Kem said...

Oh, balls! I hate it when I do that! My fingers think they can out-think my brain! Crud, crud, crud!

Thanks, Michael.

Jana C.H. said...

Albert-- It's not that much better. At least Family Circus makes us suffer through only one panel of the stuff.

Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith Arthur Pinero: Where there is tea there is hope.

The Prettiest said...

Jana, it is far better. Because it's not the main joke. Also because it's used in recognition of its bad-jokeness and in metarecognition of the same (the character making the joke knows it is a poor joke). And who doesn't like a good bubble bath at the end of a comic?

On another note: whenever the Keane children are... depicted* naked, they are revealed to be hideously obese and at risk for later health problems. What conclusion are we supposed to... reach** here? Thel and Bill are skinny as anything, so what are they feeding their spawn? Breakfast of Cheereos and drawn*** butter?


* Not gonna do it.
** Not gonna do it.
*** CURSES. WOE.

Anonymous said...

I read "fling down your pens" as "fling down your penis." Because of the earlier nudity talk, not because I want to think about grown-up Jeffy's bits, especially not if they're being flung anywhere.

Brian said...

Let us draw the curtain on any further discussion of bits-flinging.

Michael said...

...bits-flinging

The mind boggles. The stomach churns. The gag reflexes.

Must decompress with the Dysfunctional Family Circus.

Jana C.H. said...

I say the KC Green strip went on far too long and moved far too slowly; the sprinkling of jokes along the way were not enough to redeem it.

It's not the same problem as Family Circus, but still only so-so.

Jana C.H.
Seattle
Saith James Boswell: Practice forms a man to anything.