I’ll show my age here and say that the supreme master of the pun was Bennett Cerf, who spoke to my UPenn class on publishing (he had founded Random House). He said that the better the pun, the louder the groan.
Dear bigpuma: Maybe “Frazz” is all about bringing everyone to a higher level, rather than appealing to the lowest common denominator. I did go to the dictionary to figure out today’s strip, and feel good about it.
First, you’re another sloe-eyed vamp,Then someone’s mother, then you’re camp!Then you career from career to career…I’m almost through my memoirs, and I’m here!!!!
bigpuma: The problem with elitism is that it has been made into a dirty word to fling at anyone who enjoys philosophy (the love of wisdom and reason, to save anyone suckered by this view having to look it up). As a result, ignorance is valued and we are collectively the slaves of the multinational corporations and their mass media. In a free society, the elite ranks are open to any who will make the effort. We are quickly returning to the feudal mindset in which they are established at birth.
I love the occasional race to the dictionary. Today I learned that the word “pun,” which I always thought was confined to a play on the different meanings one word can have, also includes plays on similar-looking or -sounding words. (And I know everyone’s waiting with baited breath to read that “-sounding” is a “suspended adjectival compound.” Just sayin’. ’Cause I love the sound of that phrase.) [She said, in her best Junie B. Jones voice…]
@bigpuma “I am confused, and amazed, that so few see my point.”I believe that I see your point very clearly; I just disagree with it. I’ve been excoriated for my everyday vocabulary, which includes “excoriated.” I once served on a board where nobody but me was familiar with the expression “by a circuitous route.” They all accused me of elitism or showing off, or something. Eventually I left that group and found another one whose members include several who also learned to speak more complex English and who share my love of wordplay. And I’ve learned to tailor my conversation to the comfort level of those I’m schmoozing with, without – I hope – coming across as condescending. But you can only do what you can do in that regard; there will always be someone whose “nettlesome fussbutton” is easily pushed!
That last sentence in my last post didn’t mean you, by the way, although I did borrow most of a phrase you recently coined and which I loved almost as much as your earlier reference to grammar mavens as “peevish fussbudgets”:))
Thanks for your comment. Opinions and reactions are always interesting (it’s why we come here, right?) but the interactions are so much more enjoyable when personal assaults and offensive language are left out. The mudslinging on “Doonesbury” sometimes reminds me of a comment made by a Sunday-school teacher once to the effect that a particular little boy had spent the morning “trying out all his bad words”!
“What goes for “normal” here gets you pummeled anywhere else.”
Well, that’s often true, for sure. But the whole premise of “Frazz” is beyond the normal, or a distortion of it that makes it a vehicle for zaniness. I guess that’s how I would say I see the strip, the characters, the gags – it’s all exaggerated zaniness. In real life, Frazz would have been dead many times over from all those falls on his head, helmet or no. But the cartoonist’s images of him spinning through the air let us enjoy a moment of surprise, of imagining the feeling of flying, if only for a second or two. (I actually had that experience once when I caught my foot in the carpeting in an airport and for one heady moment, both feet were off the ground and I was flying. Others saw a fall, but I experienced flight! And bounced back up again and went on my way, thank goodness.) I mean, what if there really were a child who read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and comprehended it?! How interesting would that child’s perspective be! And how did Jef Mallett get so mentally uninhibited that he can conceive of all this bizarrity? I mean, how did he think up the concept of a kid who fills in the circles on standardized tests in such a way as to form the Mona Lisa?!?
But I think you’re talking more about tone and attitude than how imaginative the situations are. And I agree with you that people naturally seek a happy sense of camaraderie, which often involves shared perspectives on things. Not long ago, I was unexpectedly snapped at by one of the regulars on “Doonesbury,” who accused me of “talking down.” I actually suffered over that for some days, not just because I felt unjustly accused, but because apparently some unidentified thing I’d written had caused somebody else to feel uncomfortable. But here we are, in this oddly impersonal environment, free to talk to people any way we like because the relationships, in a sense, lack the usual personal accountability. Drat. I keep straying off the subject of your thoughts about the strip.
While I wasn’t exactly like Caulfield, I did come in for some pretty tough treatment from other kids because I was such an intellectual, and I’d been told I was unusual so many times by so many adults that I just assumed that was one more fact about me, no different from the fact that I was also taller than pretty much everybody. (This would be true of Caulfield. I learned the hard way to keep a lot of my verbal impulses to myself. (Caulfield hasn’t yet.) I wish to goodness I’d had a Frazz to encourage me to let it all hang out, even if just around him. Spontaneity, optimism, fearlessness about taking risks and making out-of-the-box connections between ideas – all these great attributes have to be corralled somewhat in classrooms, or you’d have chaos. That’s why Caulfield DOES end up in the principal’s office so often! Because his flights of fancy ARE disruptive, and they are sometimes rude and obnoxious. (Wish I knew how to italicize instead of capitalize. Sorry about that.)
I’m guessing Jef Mallett may have been something of a Caulfield, or an Annie, or a littlepuma (:-)); perhaps the strip is his way of indulging all the stuff he carried around in his head, with little scope for expression until he began cartooning it. I can see how some readers would find it elitist, take offense, maybe even just go elsewhere. But I don’t see it that way. I don’t see the selfishness, arrogance, and bigotry in “Frazz” that I have seen, yes, in gyms, and among individuals of great wealth, and so on. Maybe that’s because I’ve also met really sweet people in gyms, and had very wealthy friends who are humble and kind. So I assume the best unless forced to see something different.
If the characters in this strip were to adjust their conversation and behavior to the people around them the way we do in real life, there’d be no stimulus for thought and conversation among us here in this forum! The principal would never slide on the waxed floor in his socks, tricked (yes, unkindly) by the kids. No child would dare ask the teacher what she had wanted to be when she grew up, giving us all the opportunity to realize that the old battleax had once been an idealistic little girl who hoped to be beautiful.
The later it gets, the wordier I get, which is why I try not to write much at night. I really enjoy your comments, though, (your peevishly fussy comments!) and appreciate the opportunity to sound off a little, back at you. See you tomorrow!
Might be a little easier if you were not so determined to find fault most of the time, especially when it requires a major stretch (e.g.“Of course Frazz prefers to live in the present. Isn’t he living the perfect life?”)
The Old Wolf over 11 years ago
Groan, Jef. You’re trying to shame Pastis…
hendrix_david over 11 years ago
Bad pun…
wdpeck over 11 years ago
Won’t work – Pastis has no shame.
Thomas Overbeck Premium Member over 11 years ago
I’m sure some Public Image Ltd. fans got a chuckle. :)
Varnes over 11 years ago
ADHD, drug ’im….
frumdebang over 11 years ago
I’ll show my age here and say that the supreme master of the pun was Bennett Cerf, who spoke to my UPenn class on publishing (he had founded Random House). He said that the better the pun, the louder the groan.
rshive over 11 years ago
Don’t know who said it, but “any pun is worth the effort to set it up.”
calspace over 11 years ago
Ah, someone who knows the meaning of the word career. I am so in love with this strip!
aitches_2 over 11 years ago
Isaac Asimov was a fan of puns, often writing whole short stories to make one.
ellisaana Premium Member over 11 years ago
Career or careen? It depends on the bounce.
Not the Smartest Man On the Planet -- Maybe Close Premium Member over 11 years ago
Dear bigpuma: Maybe “Frazz” is all about bringing everyone to a higher level, rather than appealing to the lowest common denominator. I did go to the dictionary to figure out today’s strip, and feel good about it.
phoenixnyc over 11 years ago
First, you’re another sloe-eyed vamp,Then someone’s mother, then you’re camp!Then you career from career to career…I’m almost through my memoirs, and I’m here!!!!
hippogriff over 11 years ago
bigpuma: The problem with elitism is that it has been made into a dirty word to fling at anyone who enjoys philosophy (the love of wisdom and reason, to save anyone suckered by this view having to look it up). As a result, ignorance is valued and we are collectively the slaves of the multinational corporations and their mass media. In a free society, the elite ranks are open to any who will make the effort. We are quickly returning to the feudal mindset in which they are established at birth.
gcarlson over 11 years ago
Me: The pun is mightier than the sword.2nd Guy: The pun is the lowest form of humor.3rd Guy: Gerald is the lowest form of humor.
peconpie over 11 years ago
Does anyone recall Ferdinand Feghoot??
Tyrnn over 11 years ago
That’s not really a pun, it’s just proper use of language. I like it.
The Legend of Brandon Sawyer over 11 years ago
lol hes making a career out of careening
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
I love the occasional race to the dictionary. Today I learned that the word “pun,” which I always thought was confined to a play on the different meanings one word can have, also includes plays on similar-looking or -sounding words. (And I know everyone’s waiting with baited breath to read that “-sounding” is a “suspended adjectival compound.” Just sayin’. ’Cause I love the sound of that phrase.) [She said, in her best Junie B. Jones voice…]
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@bigpuma “I am confused, and amazed, that so few see my point.”I believe that I see your point very clearly; I just disagree with it. I’ve been excoriated for my everyday vocabulary, which includes “excoriated.” I once served on a board where nobody but me was familiar with the expression “by a circuitous route.” They all accused me of elitism or showing off, or something. Eventually I left that group and found another one whose members include several who also learned to speak more complex English and who share my love of wordplay. And I’ve learned to tailor my conversation to the comfort level of those I’m schmoozing with, without – I hope – coming across as condescending. But you can only do what you can do in that regard; there will always be someone whose “nettlesome fussbutton” is easily pushed!
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@bigpuma
That last sentence in my last post didn’t mean you, by the way, although I did borrow most of a phrase you recently coined and which I loved almost as much as your earlier reference to grammar mavens as “peevish fussbudgets”:))
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@comicsssfan “property was cheap there.”
And talk was, too, right?!
Thanks for your comment. Opinions and reactions are always interesting (it’s why we come here, right?) but the interactions are so much more enjoyable when personal assaults and offensive language are left out. The mudslinging on “Doonesbury” sometimes reminds me of a comment made by a Sunday-school teacher once to the effect that a particular little boy had spent the morning “trying out all his bad words”!
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@bigpuma
“What goes for “normal” here gets you pummeled anywhere else.”
Well, that’s often true, for sure. But the whole premise of “Frazz” is beyond the normal, or a distortion of it that makes it a vehicle for zaniness. I guess that’s how I would say I see the strip, the characters, the gags – it’s all exaggerated zaniness. In real life, Frazz would have been dead many times over from all those falls on his head, helmet or no. But the cartoonist’s images of him spinning through the air let us enjoy a moment of surprise, of imagining the feeling of flying, if only for a second or two. (I actually had that experience once when I caught my foot in the carpeting in an airport and for one heady moment, both feet were off the ground and I was flying. Others saw a fall, but I experienced flight! And bounced back up again and went on my way, thank goodness.) I mean, what if there really were a child who read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and comprehended it?! How interesting would that child’s perspective be! And how did Jef Mallett get so mentally uninhibited that he can conceive of all this bizarrity? I mean, how did he think up the concept of a kid who fills in the circles on standardized tests in such a way as to form the Mona Lisa?!?
But I think you’re talking more about tone and attitude than how imaginative the situations are. And I agree with you that people naturally seek a happy sense of camaraderie, which often involves shared perspectives on things. Not long ago, I was unexpectedly snapped at by one of the regulars on “Doonesbury,” who accused me of “talking down.” I actually suffered over that for some days, not just because I felt unjustly accused, but because apparently some unidentified thing I’d written had caused somebody else to feel uncomfortable. But here we are, in this oddly impersonal environment, free to talk to people any way we like because the relationships, in a sense, lack the usual personal accountability. Drat. I keep straying off the subject of your thoughts about the strip.
While I wasn’t exactly like Caulfield, I did come in for some pretty tough treatment from other kids because I was such an intellectual, and I’d been told I was unusual so many times by so many adults that I just assumed that was one more fact about me, no different from the fact that I was also taller than pretty much everybody. (This would be true of Caulfield. I learned the hard way to keep a lot of my verbal impulses to myself. (Caulfield hasn’t yet.) I wish to goodness I’d had a Frazz to encourage me to let it all hang out, even if just around him. Spontaneity, optimism, fearlessness about taking risks and making out-of-the-box connections between ideas – all these great attributes have to be corralled somewhat in classrooms, or you’d have chaos. That’s why Caulfield DOES end up in the principal’s office so often! Because his flights of fancy ARE disruptive, and they are sometimes rude and obnoxious. (Wish I knew how to italicize instead of capitalize. Sorry about that.)
I’m guessing Jef Mallett may have been something of a Caulfield, or an Annie, or a littlepuma (:-)); perhaps the strip is his way of indulging all the stuff he carried around in his head, with little scope for expression until he began cartooning it. I can see how some readers would find it elitist, take offense, maybe even just go elsewhere. But I don’t see it that way. I don’t see the selfishness, arrogance, and bigotry in “Frazz” that I have seen, yes, in gyms, and among individuals of great wealth, and so on. Maybe that’s because I’ve also met really sweet people in gyms, and had very wealthy friends who are humble and kind. So I assume the best unless forced to see something different.
If the characters in this strip were to adjust their conversation and behavior to the people around them the way we do in real life, there’d be no stimulus for thought and conversation among us here in this forum! The principal would never slide on the waxed floor in his socks, tricked (yes, unkindly) by the kids. No child would dare ask the teacher what she had wanted to be when she grew up, giving us all the opportunity to realize that the old battleax had once been an idealistic little girl who hoped to be beautiful.
The later it gets, the wordier I get, which is why I try not to write much at night. I really enjoy your comments, though, (your peevishly fussy comments!) and appreciate the opportunity to sound off a little, back at you. See you tomorrow!
craiglachman over 11 years ago
Wow. I just thought it was funny.
childe_of_pan over 7 years ago
Might be a little easier if you were not so determined to find fault most of the time, especially when it requires a major stretch (e.g.“Of course Frazz prefers to live in the present. Isn’t he living the perfect life?”)