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.
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?
ReplyDeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteIt'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.
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.."
ReplyDeleteSOMEONE HAS A SECRET