Rotary Club Fever: Catch It!
4/12/08
First, I’m just going to presume that’s not Coach Kaz talking to Gil-Hulk there. (If it turns out it is, which would be an utter catastrophic travesty, I will insist that you, fair readers, barrage Mr. Whigham with mail alerting him to the fact that our lovable Kaz MUST be featured with hulking super muscles, Heatmeister hair and most of all pearl earrings!)
Next…Rotary Club meeting? Kids singing the National Anthem? Some sort of award? Apparently “getting more involved” means Gil is going to find the most boring local activities possible. To punctuate the utter lameness of it all, Jim Gross is portrayed as pre-stached FOOB Granthony! Yuk. At least one of the other sleepy choir members is wearing pearl earrings (or has a Cully-stein bolt in the side of her head?)
So is the Rotary Club in fact a club for local citizens who got their hands caught in rotary blades?
4/14/08
Antonio Vargas, either a professor, a key grip, or a wanted criminal, depending on who you ask, wins some sort of boring award presented by Stone Cold Steve Austin. Then some other guy talks to Gil about immigration. This better end with Elmer Vargas being deported or I want my money back*.
*Oh that’s right. They don’t send me money to read their comic. Alright then. I’ll just keep complaining for free.
What? Amnesty should be handled through awards? IS he actually illegal? Or is it just the first thing that came to mind when a Hispanic name was chosen for a character?
Comment by Dick Tracy Broke into My Oddball Sanctuary — April 14, 2008 @ 10:15 am
I thought the goatee’d guy in today’s strip was former Minnesota Governor and wrestler Jesse “The Body” Ventura http://www.ontheissues.org/Jesse_Ventura.htm.
Jason, you’re right about whiny Jim Gross looking like Granthony. I don’t think it’s the National Anthem they’re singing…for all we know it could be the Howdy Doody Anthem.
That better not be Kaz in Saturday’s panel or we may have to scalp Chief Whigham.
I think the extent of Gil getting more involved will be yelling at that guy for making the vieled racist comments and then going home to get drunk in private.
Comment by Regina — April 14, 2008 @ 10:24 am
That Rotary Club guy looks like a Wooly Willy creation.
Comment by Ned Ryerson — April 14, 2008 @ 10:26 am
Oh I forgot to mention the huge claw in today’s first panel…it looks as it it’s ready to smother Governor Ventura.
Comment by Regina — April 14, 2008 @ 10:27 am
Whigham does appear to have a serious problem with hands. They’re either horribly misshapen or freakishly large, or he just cuts ‘em off entirely.
I am not ready to give up on his depiction of Coach Kaz; Whigham doesn’t bother with ANY details of people who aren’t in close-up, so there’s still hope for the pearl earrings. And the hair, for that matter.
Love Gil’s bored, resentful expression in panel 3 of today’s strip: he’s already checked out of this Loserpalooza, and he’s ready to get back to some serious drinking.
Comment by johnw — April 14, 2008 @ 10:35 am
“It’s a bland old flag” in the Rotary Club meeting. What’s up with the all white stripes? And from the star placement, it looks like a Betsy Ross original.
Did Gil get a wishbone tattooed on his face?
Comment by Thorpnotized — April 14, 2008 @ 10:52 am
It’s a shame that Elmer’s so tormented by his prostate that he has sneak to out of the room to pee at supposedly the very moment that a reanimated V. I. Lenin (sans left hand), is about to award him the title of Bolshevik of the Year for his erstwhile role in the Chavez cabinet.
Comment by Striker — April 14, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Excuse me; Elmer’s dad.
Comment by Striker — April 14, 2008 @ 10:57 am
I like the way the award-winning illegal immigrant is giving the audience the finger in Panel 3.
Comment by Gil'sBarber — April 14, 2008 @ 11:02 am
My first question was would any high school choir get up on a Saturday morning just to sing somebody’s anthem. Do they at least get some free pancakes? And sausages, dammit.
And yes, whose flag is that?
Comment by dale — April 14, 2008 @ 11:03 am
I don’t know who the presenter reminds me of, but he looks like some sort of James Bond villain. I mean, he’s got the “Sig Heil” posture going on in the first panel 3, and then he’s got the villainous facial hair to complete the illusion. He’s basically what I imagined Hugo Drax from the Moonraker novel to look like.
Also, I’m a bit leery about Gil Thorp tackling illegal immigration. Sure, we laugh about absentee dads and fake Negro Leaguers and amputees, but this sounds like a very heavy subject matter that may or may not fit in with the strip’s overall craziness.
Comment by El Santo — April 14, 2008 @ 11:07 am
I love Gil Thorp, I really do, but I have to say that today’s is very possibly the most wtf-inducing we’ve seen in about a month. Yes, that includes Marty Poon, Taco Casserole, Listen To That Coach Of Yours, and Where They’ll Ask For I.D.. Anyone want to disagree with me? I mean, who are these people, what the hell’s with the “illegals” comment, and what does “that’s how it SHOULD be done” even MEAN?
Comment by Zaq — April 14, 2008 @ 11:09 am
I actually think Gil looks more pissed off than bored in today’s panel 3. You do NOT try to talk politics with Coach Thorp.
Comment by Cash — April 14, 2008 @ 11:36 am
Well, I think it’s quite clear, as cleanshaven Gomez Adams is indicating, that amnesty for illegals should only be granted to those who get “some sort of award” from the Rotary Club. Sounds like a perfectly sensible, even-handed immigration policy to me.
No, but seriously, I hope Gil asks that guy what size shoes he wears. Also, I hope we stay at the Rotary Club meeting all week because….zzzzz….huh, where am I?
Oh, and I added myself to the Milford Reader map. Fun!
Comment by Ned Ryerson — April 14, 2008 @ 11:58 am
You know, it was Neal Rubin who wrote the earrings into the Kaz character — I don’t think that it’s the artist’s prerogative to draw him without them!
I seem to recall that in Kaz’s initial appearance, Gil was introducing him to someone (I forget who), who said something like “Hey, nice earrings, dude!”
So it was written, so it forever shall be!!!
Comment by Striker — April 14, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
Striker, Jason has featured that very strip as a “random amusing panel o’ the moment.” So yeah, the earrings are canon.
Comment by sourbelly — April 14, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
I’m pretty sure the guy talking about illegals is Jimmy Hoffa. Pretty soon Gil will be swilling brewskies with him at the local topless joint. I don’t think he will ask him if he knows where he can get a little work done..It will be more like, “I heard you paint Houses., Is that true?”
Comment by kenzo — April 14, 2008 @ 1:02 pm
Jason–wow, an obscure For Better or Worse reference with “foob” — I don’t know if I should appluad or cry. And who to applaud or cry for, you or me.
Comment by Dr. "Eat More Cheddar and Drink More Pabst," aka Gil's Dietician — April 14, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
Cripes those hands are weird– no wonder the choir has to sing with their eyes closed. They look less like hands and more like mutant vegetables…you know…like a sweet potato that looks like the Pope. Old Skinhead McGoatee has fused parsnip fingers and Immigration Guy has some horrifying rutabaga mishap. Ugh. Do you think he touches his wife with those things?!
I like how Armando is so thrilled to win his award that he stops to shave off his mustache before giving his acceptance speech.
Comment by Laura Jane — April 14, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Isn’t that Vince Carter (from Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.); see
http://www.timvp.com/gomer.html
in panel three?
Comment by Richard — April 14, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
Re: the “new” Kaz - on the upside, now we’ll find out what The White Shadow does during the off-season.
Comment by Sed — April 14, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
I always thought of Kaz as ,”The World’s Toughest, Buffest Metrosexual”. Besides the pearl earrings and highlights in his hair, he wore eyeliner and had plucked eyebrows. Kaz proved a guy could be masculine yet stay in touch with his feminine side. He could cold-cock a drunken lout or order eloquently from the wine list at BISTRO. Our Kaz is a true original and a star. I hope they don’t turn him into a cookie-cutter version of just another gym coach.
Comment by ScooterAl — April 14, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
No, really, I keep reading over these past two strips and all I can come up with is “Huh?”. There had better be some sort of explanation for this.
I was tempted to scream “racist” (OK, I kind of implied it), but I have to admit that Seja Patel’s aunt was written into and out of a storyline without once mentioning motels. Then again, that was during the reign of Frank the Elder.
I don’t think of “foob” as an obscure term anymore. I’m trying to work it into everyday lingo.
Comment by Dick Tracy Broke into My Oddball Sanctuary — April 14, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
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[...] not Gil, you ask? Because he’s still sitting in his vast basement, trying to figure out what that strange guy at the Rotary Club meant about amnesty for illegals. (“Damned getting involved with the students lives…Now [...]
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