Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 23, 2024

Just learned something In other parts of the world, it’s the Incy Wincy Spider. Now I’m wondering which came first.

Little spider, to me you’ll always be itsy-bitsy.

Offshore whirlwind? What does that have to do with anything?

The spider, tired of spinning webs, took his web for a spin, Frazz!

loved Frazze’s take on the concept of a water spout!

Swimming.

I love spiders.

We used to call the downspout from your gutters a waterspout.

Sisyphus

Do you suppose Sisyphus wore a polo shirt with an itsy bitsy spider embroidered on the breast pocket?

Kind of like rebuilding a house on the edge of the coast after repeated hits by hurricanes.

Now I’ve gotta get my mind out of the gutter.

For the Borg spider: “Perseverance is futile.”

I think these two are inside the school since Frazz has his work clothes on, but this is one of the few strips I’ve seen where Frazz is not actively doing something while chatting with a student in the school. He normally has a broomstick in his hand, pushing a mop, cleaning, carrying something, etc….or if not in the school he’s running, swimming, or some other type of activity. I have to admit a bit of surprise at what I perceive to be an anomaly to his character in today’s strip. Then again, since I’ve retired, I’ve got more time on my hands to notice such trivial happenings.

“Up the Downspout” would be a good title for a 60’s movie.

S-o-o-o-o-o Frazz didn’t get the verse? Nobody explained the term ‘waterspout?’ I think not. This arc gave him an opportunity to inject a different tangent into the kid’s musings. Should make him stop and think about it.

In this context, it obviously does not refer to a tornado over water. It’s talking about a raingutter downspout on the side of a building. But I could see where a small child might not realize that, being too young to have had the particular “joy” of having to clean leaf clogs out of the downspouts.

The Little Richard version with Debbie Gibson is the best, IMNSHO.

fusilier

James 2:24

Children’s version of Sisyphus, eh? I never had any problem with the waterspout.

Merriam-Webster also gives this definition of waterspout: a pipe, duct, or orifice from which water is spouted or through which it is carried

Of for crying out loud, even as a kid, I knew that while a waterspout was a tornado-like phenomenon, a waterspout was also another term for a gutter’s downspout. I never thought that the song was referring to the off-shore twister and always knew the spider was climbing up a gutter system’s downspout (probably up the inside of the spout) but that the song used the three-syllable word waterspout instead of the two-syllable word downspout, because it needed three syllables to scan properly.

I refuse to believe that Frazz, who became a successful song writer later in life, was that unfamiliar with words, synonyms, and a song’s scanning structure as a child.

Never even heard of an offshore windmill until I was 60.

I’d call it perseverance since the full lyrics are:

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.

Then the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

30 years ago, my 2 year old daughter sang it a the “Itchy, Bi+$hy Spider” Made sense to me!