Raise your hand if you saw this coming. Right, I didn’t think so. The reason you didn’t see it coming is BECAUSE IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY F%$*ING SENSE WHATSOEVER.
…and that is the dual-sided insanity coin that is Gil Thorp: On one side, the absolute inane twist like this is so maddeningly nonsensical, we can’t help but hate everything about it. On the flip side, this is exactly the kind of stunt so far out of left field that keeps many of us reading the strip. Where else could you get this as a payoff of everything that’s happened thus far?
Additional questions/comments then I’ll let you toss in your own bewilderments:
- What’s with this Hawaiian theme all of a sudden?
- How is the parenthetical (Sacko) verbally expressed?
- Do you think these television directors are actually paid to put crap like this on the air, or is the explanation that this is an all volunteer public access station?
- If there is one thing that is a constant, it’s that dishonesty and deception are always rewarded in Milford. (Hey they falsified medical reports and endangered a teenager’s life as a result! Why not give them a TV show? )
Up next: Jamarr Gaddis provides faulty intelligence to lead America into a new war, and is rewarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom!
Sacko and the Rajah? Okay Neal, you win. I laughed my ass of reading this strip. Completely nonsensical, completely hilarious, and oh by the way, it’s a week into December and there’s no sign of football season being over yet. Vintage Neal, and I absolutely love it. I think I made a comment like 3-4 weeks ago about how it looked like Neal might actually wrap his storyline up on time for once. Man, I was way off.
Also, what’s that gang sign Matt the Hatt is throwing in panel 2? “We’re number 3″? “Peace, and also my thumb”?
Also also, Matt’s Hatt doesn’t have a full brim in panel 3. Check it out, it doesn’t even extend around the front of his head. I understand that small-town high school kids don’t have much money, but you’d think The Rajah could at least afford a hat with a complete brim.
Comment by Cash — December 6, 2008 @ 12:53 am
I was really hoping we’d heard the last of Matt’s stupid, self-appointed nickname. Who ever actually got to use a nickname they gave themself? I once knew a kid with the surname Di Silvestro who decided one day that his nickname should be “Diesel”. It didn’t work – we still called him “Fat D”.
Comment by Bernard Bernoulli — December 6, 2008 @ 2:21 am
I’m with you Jason. WTF?????????? Since when did these two imbeciles show anyone that they are capable of doing a show? I picture Marty Moon lying in a gutter with a bottle of Thunderbird after he was given the news that these two nimrods took over his basement show. Kicked out of his own basement…damn that must suck.
As for Matt’s hat…I think it may have been a victim of the Valley Tech Pranksters..either that or he was trying to make a baseball cap out of it.
In ansers to your questions, Jason:
1) Who knows? That’s the insanity of Gil Thorp. You never know what to expect.
2)Hmmm…good question…unless he’s thinking it to himself, therefore the parentheses.
3) I think they’re all as drunk and delusional as Marty Moon and are just putting on this show as a public access filler.
Billy Dee Williams and Hillary Clinton sure have high hopes for the Sack and Hatt show. Who the hell is watching this crap at 3AM???
Comment by Regina — December 6, 2008 @ 5:10 am
This is so awesome. What’s more awesome is that Marty’s sitting at home right now in his underwear, drinking Dickel Brother’s Sour Mash, screaming at the tv so loud that a couple veins are popping out of his head. Thash that shmart alleck Sackoshit kid! New direction, my ass.
C’mon Neal, you owe us this one. We need to see bitter, drunken, rejected Marty’s reaction to this development.
Wait, please tell me this is live and not the “testing” they talked about a few days ago!
Comment by Ned Ryerson — December 6, 2008 @ 6:00 am
I can’t possibly say anything to top the already-posted contributions. I’ll add one more thing: if I were the real-life Marla Drutz, an actual TV executive of fairly substantial accomplishment, I’d be thinking defamation-of-character lawsuit against Rubin and the syndicate for portraying me as a moron who’d happily hire a couple of untested teens to cohost a TV show.
Comment by johnw — December 6, 2008 @ 7:24 am
Answers, ve gut answers!
1) Please don’t impute this stylistic train wreck to Hawaiians. As a Hawaiian, I can tell you that wearing a Hawaiian shirt under a smoking jacket is about as Polynesian as wearing a tux top and loincloth bottom.
2) They’d have a better title for their show if they used the Rajah’s real last name, Vanzetti.
3) Scarier than the fact that public access channel directors are paid to put crap like this on the air, is the fact that comix artists are paid to put it on dead trees and the internet.
4) Speaking of falsified medical records, I think someone should subpoena Sack-O’s birth certificate. If it says “Hawaii” — believe me, it’s phony.
Comment by detachable dancing brontosaurus doll — December 6, 2008 @ 7:33 am
Hey, look on the bright side – Hatt has his hat back, so now we can distinguish him from other characters once again!
Comment by Aesop — December 6, 2008 @ 7:37 am
I love Matt’s comment in panel 3. “You’re all heart! Get it? Cuz you have a heart problem? And everything you do is dictated by it?”
Comment by Wasabi Jane — December 6, 2008 @ 8:41 am
Ah, Neal Rubin: The O Henry of the funny papers.
Comment by sourbelly — December 6, 2008 @ 9:21 am
If Neil is the O Henry of the funny papers, then who is the Sue Ellen Mishky of the funny papers?
Comment by Scott de B. — December 6, 2008 @ 9:27 am
I prefer to think of Neal Rubin as the Edward Bulwer-Lytton of the funny papers.
The strange thing is, he’s a really good newspaper writer. Columnist in Detroit for years. I just don’t think he gets the unique rhythm of the 3-panel serial comic. (Nor does Stan Lee, to judge from the abominable daily version of “Spider-Man.”)
Comment by johnw — December 6, 2008 @ 10:43 am
Hatt? Seriously? I guess we all figured out they were going to put Jeff on the air, if they could fit his 6-9 frame in the studio, but…really. Hatt?!
They didn’t fire Marty Moon, did they? Boy, when he recovers from his five-day bender, they are going to be SO sorry.
Comment by jules — December 6, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
I think I’ve figured out the parenthetical (Sacko). Pause right before you say it. Tilt your head forward, eyes fixed upward toward the camera. Then say it, drawn out, while wiggling your head from side to side. Then pause right after saying it, and then continue on with whatever else you were going to say.
Comment by mr. beautiful — December 6, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
I’ve never been fortunate enough to watch TV at this level, so I honestly don’t know: Why doesn’t the Mat get a ramen noodle stuck in his ear, too?
Comment by jackaroodave — December 6, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
What about Hatt’s thoughtless “dude, you’re all heart” comment ? I think they should be known as Sacko and Sicko.
Comment by blondie — December 6, 2008 @ 4:08 pm
I hate to break the news to everyone, but Milford’s season is over.
They’ve played 9 games – they were 5-0 on October 22, lost 3 straight
without Ponz, then used the wing T to win the “last” one.
No high school team plays more then 9 regular season games that I
know of, so I think either Milford made the playdowns at 6-3, or
will play a historic 10th regular-season game sometime before
Christmas. I’ll bet any money that Rubin has their record as only a
9-game total after that 10th game.
So the Rajahs tryouts for the TV gig were held behind our and Marty’s backs.
We dont know if Marty was asked about this, whether he approved it, or what his reduced role on the station amounts to. Next week must provide many answers.
Comment by Rob — December 6, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
Yeah, I can really only echo Jules at #12 at this point. I had more or less guessed that 6-9 Jeff Ponczak was going to find his way onto the show as a host at some point, but…Matt?! I….huh!?
And, as one who loves to use parentheses at just about every opportunity in his written work, I’m curious as well as to how they’re supposed to be pronounced.
Comment by emptyeye — December 6, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
#18 (Rob)–I used to cover high school football part-time for my hometown newspaper in Ohio, and the regular season lasted ten games. Unless somebody has changed it.
Panel #3 has to be the sickest pun I’ve ever seen in a comic strip–at least a newspaper one.
Comment by Doug Puthoff — December 6, 2008 @ 9:13 pm
Rob! Playdowns? Are you kidding me? Playdowns?
Comment by Don, the Rebel without a Blog — December 7, 2008 @ 12:56 am
Y’know, I sometimes wonder if Rubin is intentionally thumbing his noses at all of us who actually want to read a quality comic strip. Maybe he just wants to make the strip as bad as possible.
Comment by Doug Puthoff — December 7, 2008 @ 7:35 am
P2: the new ‘Prep Spotlight’…. say what??? a) prep for a colonoscopy b) prep school (the dolts think Milford is one) c) and editing error… Rubin meant ‘Perp’ d) prep for good lovin, goth girl special guest e) PRE Pubescent – pointing out which Milford third graders are gonna be hotties when they grow up… Do one o’ya brainiacs in cyberspace know?
Comment by SemperFi4evr — December 7, 2008 @ 9:22 am
Addendum: #1 Cash, P2: Matt’s ‘sign’ is he’s showing the vast viewing audience his two fingers. Today he tells Ponz/Shemp “Dude, you’re all heart;” Monday P1 he finishes with “…so I have two fingers for you, you idiot!” Vicious eye-poke with violin string pluck (in parentheses, of course!); hilarity ensues.
Comment by SemperFi4evr — December 7, 2008 @ 9:35 am
SemperFi4evr – if the show is actually called “Perp Spotlight,” that would explain everything. Let’s get that Ben Franklin con man back in here!
Comment by jules — December 7, 2008 @ 9:50 am
#23 (Semper)–I’m still holding out for Clambake. But he’s probably too busy getting ready to run the country now.
Comment by Doug Puthoff — December 7, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
I can only assume that “WHCC” stands for “What the Hell Community College”. Where they put two untrained high school students on TV because….what the hell!
Comment by Scott de B. — December 7, 2008 @ 4:48 pm
Like in the movie Office Space “It’s Hawaiian Shirt Day”.
Comment by Regina — December 7, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Don’t look now, but on Monday, weird things are afoot at the Swifti Mart, where all the Romanian peasant women get their Nutboys. Ashley is about to be rudely surprised, and she wasn’t even supposed to be there today.
Comment by Sgt. Saunders — December 8, 2008 @ 3:51 am
Rob – my high school played 10 games every year, and even played 11 one year. When I was at Penn State, I know State College High played 10 regular season games every year as well. That said, Milford always ends the regular season against Valley Tech, and I don’t think a team that lost 3 games in district/conference is making the playdowns.
Comment by James G — December 8, 2008 @ 9:32 am
They do around here – a 5-4 team made it to the semifinals, despite finishing last in their conference. Of course there’s 8 classes, so plenty of confetti to throw.
Comment by Rob — December 8, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
[...] Marty Moon is replaced on his TV show by Jeff and Matt, and nobody ever speaks of this again. Once again, nonsense involving Marty proves to be a fan favorite. [...]
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[...] second thought, based on comparing the artwork of December 6th to that of today, I’m going to presume that basketball season was just skipped due to lack of [...]
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[...] last we have the answer to the question that nobody asked: What do you get when you fuse the DNA of Sacko and Hatt with an industrial drum of lard from the Milford cafeteria? The guy from panel [...]
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