Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for November 18, 2012
Transcript:
Alice: Petey, what's that? Petey: It's my school project on Thanksgiving. It didn't go so well. Alice: Why? Petey: Instead of the first Thanksgiving, I did a diorama of the third Thanksgiving, when they were all getting on each other's nerves. Petey: See, they're standing around in an awkward silence. And look, everyone hates the stuffing, and the turkey came out dry. Petey: The native americans are sitting at a separate table because all the pilgrims are talking about football. And who cares about that? Alice: Ha! It's great! I always love your work! Petey: Well, my teacher says it didn't fall within the parameters of the assignment. Now it just makes me cringe. Alice: Would it help if I took it outside and ran over it with my tricycle? Petey: Sure, back up over it a few times, too.
margueritem almost 12 years ago
Another artist goes unappreciated.
Linux0s almost 12 years ago
Nothing a good tricycle trouncing won’t fix.
runar almost 12 years ago
Maybe he should have done a diorama based on the Thanksgiving play from Addams Family Values.
Sisyphos almost 12 years ago
Petey is not the first great but unsung artist to destroy his own work out of frustration with the philistines. Alice, be smart: don’t run it over; instead, hide it away for a few decades until Petey becomes famous (then bring it out) or a clinically depressed unknown (then run it over with your Porsche).
cdward almost 12 years ago
I love Petey’s dioramas.
GROG Premium Member almost 12 years ago
They had football back then?
Perkycat almost 12 years ago
I love this one!! No, Alice, don’t destroy it – Petey will want this for his collection.
vldazzle almost 12 years ago
Oh yes, all the men in my family were into sports. I’m so glad that my lover prefers going to the opera with me (or as diverse a thing as the movie, Ted which we saw when I was there in July and we also enjoyed). Naturally I’m a Family Guy fan, too and knew who wrote it.
pumaman almost 12 years ago
And by the fourth Thanksgiving it came to fisticuffs.
Biltil Premium Member almost 12 years ago
The real trouble started when the indians asked the pilgrims to pass the turkey and one of them flipped them the bird, instead of passing it politely
Gokie5 almost 12 years ago
I know how Petey feels. My older daughter made what I thought was a very original diorama about The Hobbit, showing the scene where the dwarves were captured by giant spiders. The dwarves were wrapped in cocoon-like things and suspended from a spider filament, and you could see bits of their hair protruding, maybe a little nose here and there. My daughter made a C. A’s were granted to diaramas that were slick and Disney-looking, and to my sour-grapes eyes, it looked as though the parents had helped. Humph!
brick10 almost 12 years ago
Diorama reducto ad absurbum?
Gokie5 almost 12 years ago
Thank you, lin! I thought so, too. Too bad you weren’t the teacher!
CrazyIrishOperaGirl almost 12 years ago
Minus the football talk, that’s probably how it was. Petey should be a historian when he grows up.
calvinsfriend110 almost 12 years ago
Reminds me of a Simpsons episode where Lisa made an Oliver Twist diorama.
CrazyIrishOperaGirl almost 12 years ago
When I was in fourth or fifth grade, we were assigned an art project which involved sculpting a miniature bust. I wanted to make Charlie Brown, but my teacher wasn’t aware of who I was trying to portray and was frustrated with my going against criteria to sculpt a perfectly round head instead of a perfectly proportioned one. I distinctly remember all the kids at my table gawking at me and the humiliation that came as the teacher took my work and deformed it with her hands until it resembled a bald head who’d had his brain put in lopsided.
Gokie5 almost 12 years ago
. . . I was a teacher myself for awhile, and know it’s not an easy job!