Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Smith/Jones '08

Once again, I feel like Kurtz is using his cast as finger puppets for a personal joke.

Brent has never shown himself to be a fan of Doctor Who. In fact, the series has never been mentioned in the comic before. So why reference it now? Oh, right...because Kurtz has suddenly become a fan and thus one or more of his characters are now fans by proxy. /sigh.

Now, if the strip were Kurtz himself voting for the Doctor, that'd be a horse of a different color.

The old woman's dialogue feels pretty forced in the second panel as well. Is there really a reason for her to tack on "...for president of the United States?" to that sentence?

The punchline fell pretty flat for me as well. I mean, there could have been some witty comment but instead we get a very tired (if you're a who fan) "just The Doctor" joke.

21 comments:

Unknown said...

Sorry, I should have made it clear on the about page that Brent loves Doctor Who and hates Desperate Housewives.

You're the only person on the planet who had a problem with today's strip.

Where's McCloud? I miss his retarded posts.

Chipacabra said...

Me, I liked the ranty blog post about how anyone with a problem with politics in the comic can suck it, and then the comic itself is a weak joke about not having any political stance at all.

Dajagr said...

So if it's Doctor Who? for President, then is the veep James Watt?

Sko said...

"You're the only person on the planet who had a problem with today's strip."

So have these political strips inspired you to run for Mayor of Deluded Town, USA, then?

FistsOfTinsel said...

Given the blog post from yesterday (as well as the strip regarding ghosts of voting) made me think this strip might have more bite. I wasn't expecting an endorsement for a specific candidate, but the "I vote for Mickey Mouse," is a pretty weak follow-up to the whole "your vote matters" vibe that we've been getting the last few weeks.

If the overall joke was meant to mean "Brent never changes" (as he goes from apathetic non-voter to someone who pretends to vote but in reality is not), then where's the story arc? Shouldn't there have been a strip or two in between where he appears to become inspired only to eventually realize that opting out is the way for him?

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Ha maybe Kurtz wants to be a politician and just wants to ignore the polls.

I didn't have a problem with it, it just wasn't very good.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

the strip is "an examination of the human condition"? HA HA HA

Kurtz you are the funniest comic strip writer I know.

R.W.McGee said...

So original. Stay tuned for tomorrows strip, when Scratch steals some lasagna from John. (McCain)

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Btw has anyone been reading the last few weeks of CAD. Its moved away from the "Ethan stupid, sets something on fire" jokes and actually has some body behind it. I agree CAD has been lacking for a few years and maybe my expectations are lowered, but it has been good with an actual story.

Plus the surpise wedding was a nice change, a ncie change to the "epic weddings" buildup in a few webcomics Ive been seeing (Epic wedding aren't bad necessarily but not EVERY comic has to do it)

Reader said...

1. I have no problem with Brent being a "Doctor Who" fan. It's entirely in character. Although I will agree that this is one of those instances where knowing less about the creator of the work would've been good, as I too immediately thought of Kurtz' newfound love of the show. That's more my fault for reading his blog than it is Kurtz's though.

2. The "for president of the United States" works, as it adds to the incredulity of the tone of voice with which I assume the woman spoke.

3. I think Brent's last line should've been "Exactly." That would've made me smile more than the existing one did, although it too made me show my pearlies.

Unknown said...

Brent's last line can't be "exactly" because it would ignore the in-joke from the show.

In the show, The Doctor always introduces himself as "The Doctor." People inquire "Doctor Who?" and he always retorts "just the doctor."

So it's true to the reference and the show.

Anonymous said...

@Kurtz:

Actually, nobody ever says the phrase "Doctor Who?" in the show, to the best of my recollection.

Kovac said...

I'm with The Kurtz on this one.
While it may not have been previously established the Brent was a Doctor Who fan, it isnt an impediment to the joke at all.
Who cares if it wasnt previously know - It is NOW.

Perhaps you could argue that the humor would have been better with the foreknowledge, but I suspect that it would have just been more obvious rather the funnier.

Ben Sunshine-Hill said...

I don't mind the joke, but compare this strip to yesterday's strip, and to the week before it. It's so slooooooow. I was totally jazzed about yesterday's strip in particular, actually, because it had great fast-forward pacing and the level of comedy was kept high throughout. I optimistically feel that that's Kurtz's preferred pacing, where you're smiling through the whole thing instead of having three panels to explain why you should laugh at the fourth. He certainly seems to have more fun with the fast-paced strips himself.

J. P. Armond said...

"Where's McCloud? I miss his retarded posts."

Wow, I actually agree with SK on this one. :p

TheOriginalJes said...

Ballot choice aside, I feel that the strip adequately mocks the entire premise of a "secret ballot" that we're supposed to have.

Here in Georgia, some districts are "transposing" votes from absentee ballots because of "errors" on the official ballot slips. Even though we're made to sign the outside of the official envelope.

I should think that the ACLU would have problems with chain of custody issues.

Reader said...

kurtz said: Brent's last line can't be "exactly" because it would ignore the in-joke from the show.

I didn't realize that. Although I'd still argue that when you have the choice, it's better to forego the in-joke in favour of a joke that is more accessible.

A Nonny Mouse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
A Nonny Mouse said...

Esoteric Scribe: They do ask "Doctor who?" in the show. Not every episode because that would be annoying, but it has actually been done more frequently in the new episodes than it was in the classic ones. It's been done something like three times in the past four seasons, the first instance (I think) being when Rose's mother saw his regenerated form for the first time.

I've read in an old Doctor Who magazine that the "Doctor who?" question in response to his name was actually the original motive behind the title. I don't know if that's true or if they were retconning their own history.

Brent saying "exactly" would have been stupid because no fan of Doctor Who could possibly try to make out that the character's name is "Doctor Who"- even if there are a couple of episode titles which erroneously name him such (The Death of Doctor Who, for instance- don't worry kids, it was just a robot made in his likeness by the Daleks in his third Dalek adventure.) Maybe he could have been talking about the two Cushing movies, but who the hell would talk about those?

I didn't like the strip though. It takes two tired jokes and just sews them together.

Anonymous said...

Alot of comments have been in regards to the failure of this strip being a good political strip. But honestly in that regards it isnt weak, as it doesnt endorse a particular canidate and ergo won't cause angry emails from obama/mccain supporters and i think it works perfectly to just get a doctor who joke in which i think was the main motive. Yes, fans of the show are well used to the joke and while some might find it tired and overused, i still smiled at it and i do hope that SK might at some time in the future make a storyline centered on some Doctor Hijinks

A Nonny Mouse said...

Even if you have somehow avoided hearing "Doctor who?" joke before, the whole "I'm making a silly write in vote and taking it seriously" setup is also rather overdone.

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