Frazz by Jef Mallett for January 13, 2012

“Native American word for”? Surely Frazz knows better!

Actually, wearing white is considered to be fashionable right now. No more “don’t wear white after Labor day” rule! And after the Japanese snow monkey lesson, she won’t be able to wear pink pants. lol

Wapiti is the Indian name for my hometown. My place of birth is a town called Red Deer, which is named after the Native American term for the river, Wapiti River (=Red Deer River).

The proper term for a female “straight man” is “talking woman” to distinguish from comedienne, dancer, singer, show girl, stripper, etc. The comedienne/straight man combination has almost totally replaced the comic/talking woman arrangement.My wife is the best talking woman not in the business, constantly setting up straight lines I can’t refuse using.

cezpaige: Originally Gracie Allen was a talking woman, but her straight lines were getting the laughs, so they switched parts. George Burns actually wrote most of the material in vaudeville, and it wasn’t until the material-consuming days of radio and particularly the TV series that they needed additional writers. They are probably a major factor in the extinction of the talking woman/comic format. The rest was that the straight line usually gets put down in the punchline and that seemed to be abusing women. Putting down men is acceptable.