Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sunday, May 24: Lucy the expert

Peanuts

This strip is very much classic Peanuts in style. The first years of the strip usually used Sunday comics to present a bunch of jokes that might as well have been about any little kids. This one speaks to a definite personality. In fact, the joke at the end is kind of weak; the strip is more concerned with illustrating Lucy's authority on the subject of jump ropes than its result.

3 comments:

  1. The dialogue he's written for Lucy is what makes the joke sing -- am I mistaken, or did Schulz crib it from someone discussing golf clubs? Or was it tennis rackets?

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  2. I don't know. There's something quite funny about how asking the question ("I wish I knew whether or not I got a bargain") is answered at the cost of the item, and the pronouncement is bad news.

    It's almost a neat Buddhist moral, that inability to be content with what we have leads to suffering.

    But there's a second joke in the end too, beyond "Lucy's authority is funny" -- it's that Lucy tries the jump rope, and then turns herself inside out to destroy it so she can justify the poor evaluation she wants to give it.

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  3. I just realized... "Wooden grips are better than the leather ones... especially in the rain... but then, who jumps rope in the rain? Ha, ha.."

    SOMEONE HAS A SECRET

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