Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for January 20, 2024

Once again Batty goes from a week-long setup (five days of “Ed’s going to get a massage”) directly to the epilogue (“How do you feel after your massage?”) and omits the event itself.

Sometimes I think he does this because he knows nothing about the thing that’s the subject of his stories (never had a massage himself, never talked to anybody who has, can’t be bothered to research). Other times I wonder if he thinks he’s creating some kind of meta-level humor—“I set you up to expect a week of funny physical comedy, and then Presto! we go straight to the postlude. Joke’s on you! Now where’s my award?”