The problem is that it’s the same joke, repeated daily. Hopefully the punchline will be that the Ideal Shannon’s behavior will get irritating to Brad and Toni after a while.
While you were replying to a different poster please note that my message specifically put Shannon in a different category than the comics characters that were being harshly judged that I’m referring to. (Clearly she is out of control and none of the adults in her life have given her boundaries.) There are strips that are obviously exaggerating typical teenage behavior for comic effect. One classic example is Jeremy in the comic strip Zits. While sometimes exercising poor judgement – as teenagers sometimes do – he is a very decent kid with good grades, nice friends and a steady girl friend. Nonetheless there are frequent posters who condemn him with utter disgust. While I suspect they are just trolling, those are the kind of people who made me wonder whether they would prefer a “perfect” – i.e., completely unbelievable -child such as the version of Shannon shown in today’s strip.
Putting aside Shannon for the moment (as she is something of an extreme case), there is a tendency for some followers of strips featuring a child or teenager as a central character (think this strip, Zits and Curtis for starters) to heavily criticize/trash the young characters via the comments sections. Usually it’s because they are simply behaving like normal kids, with some comic exaggeration. More than once I’ve seen the complainers get asked “what would be more acceptable behavior in your opinion?” What’s happening here seems to be a parody version of what the commentators/trollers apparently wanted.
I think he’s far more than a sperm donor – He was an unwed father who took custody of his child when he most likely could have sidestepped that entirely, she clearly loves him and is not afraid of him so he is not abusive. He just is a working actor, which has irregular hours and annoys many in the readership.
Since Shannon staying for a month is apparently a new thing I think she spends much more time with her father than people assumed. It does make me wonder why Brad and Toni went to the trouble of building her a separate room just for periodic babysitting.
I’ve always thought the Evanses have missed an interesting plot line with the Shannon situation – which would have Brad finally confronting Toni about her inability to say no to her brother. While I am probably more aware than some here of situations where family members are expected to provide longterm free childcare (usually for grandchildren) there has clearly been, at least in the early days, a level a manipulation and pressure from Jonah that Toni falls for every time, presumably because of elements of their family background.
Brad and Toni haven’t had a real conflict with each other since they got married, and this issue has been simmering for years. This may be something they need to work out, for reasons that probably go beyond whether or not they want to babysit Shannon.
I’ve always wondered whether all the hours you need to spend supervising a garage sale would actually be worth the money you took in. People I knew found it was worth more to donate the items to a thrift store and take a charitable tax deduction.
What I remember was that Ryan White’s situation was what finally caused a lot of otherwise judgemental people (who were just fine with gay men dying) to have some sympathy for AIDS sufferers, as Ryan was considered an “innocent” victim.
I realize the strip is making a joke but maybe at 14(?) one should be learning a little empathy before focusing on maximum personal profit before all other considerations. She really does have more in common with Duke’s son than I would have thought.
The problem is that it’s the same joke, repeated daily. Hopefully the punchline will be that the Ideal Shannon’s behavior will get irritating to Brad and Toni after a while.