Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 18, 2014

Rick, do whatever you can to restore Joanie’s confidence. Everybody knows, you are a selfless soul.

I think it was Mark Twain who said something like, “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. You can learn a bit about the structure of a frog, but it ends up dying in the process.” Or maybe he said that about literature. Or maybe some herpetologist said that about frogs.

Japanese can and do manage to use the “L” sound….. usually when trying to pronounce an “R”. I remember Pat Morita (as Arnold from Happy Days, maybe?) telling someone, for some unremembered reason, “That’s okay. I can’t say Chevloret.”

A Chinese-American acquaintance tells me that in the restaurant business, the Cantonese word for someone who doesn’t leave a tip is “plick”.

thebird55,

It wasn’t Pat Morita, and it wasn’t on Happy days. It was an Isuzu (remember them) car commercial.

An Anglo customer has trouble pronouncing the word Isuzu. The Japanese-American salesman tries everthing to get him to pronounce it right; from slowly-repeat-after-me to finally manipulating his lips while getting him to pronounce it right is the highlight of the bit (it’s all very funny).

After the voice-over talks about the features of the car, the commerical ends with the buyer signing the deal while the salesman says “It’s okay, kid, I can’t pronounce Chevroray.”

The Japanese guy asks his banker why his investments keep going up and down. To which the banker says fluctuations.To which the Japanese guy says…well fluctu Americans also.

Well, they certainly sell enough CoroLLas. Somebody must be able to say it.

DIY comment template for today’s strip:

That reminds me of the one about the Japanese guy who…

<insert decades-old, lame, borderline-racist joke that you would never tell about black people here>

If they were committed campaign workers, they haven’t slept for the last three days. If Rick manages to “try something” before they pass out, he’s been missing out on a lot more than sleep.

I wish that dating was that easy.

@AstolatIf people have nothing but still want to say something, resort to the lowest common denominator. — racist jokes.

I must be looking at the wrong strip. I don’t see anything in today’s strip about Japan or Japanese people, or their language. Just two campaign workers talking about the aftermath of a campaign, and the possible start of a relationship. What am I missing?

@argy.bargyThe second comment — which has now been removed — was about a Japanese person pronouncing “election” with the “l” pronounced as an “r.” Let’s leave it at that.

1. Worthington Industries. 2.Buffalo News / united Artists (google ‘em ! I dare ya!) heehee! Merry Christmas, Mr. Trudeau… Thanks FOR Above! "… and that’s the way it was, on this day – Vote Key.

@DLee4144Joanie is a campaign worker. Rick is a reporter covering the campaign.After a 16 hour flight across 3 continents and no sleep for 48 hours, I still had enough energy.