Rich Kids
Today’s cartoon is a fictional depiction of what might have happened if King Kong had more successfully managed his show business career, gotten rich, and had a son (somehow, with a female giant gorilla, I guess?) A chip off the old block, he too, falls from the top of a building but since he’s rich and the son of a famous icon, the consequences are much less serious.
Not all of the offspring of the rich and famous become assholes, of course, but many do and anyone who has run in those circles at all knows this first hand. I didn’t exactly run in those circles but I used to spend a lot of time with someone who did so I often had a ringside seat.
I’m not saying that I’ve hung out with celebrities and their crotch fruit to impress you, although there was a time when I would have. I came from a middle-class family with no connections to wealth or fame, so I grew up with the typical American aspiration for those things. I used to think it was super cool that I’d met some celebrities but now I think it was more lucky than cool in that it taught me the pitfalls of wealth and fame without having to go through that particular inferno myself.
Because I happened to get my cartoons published in newspapers, I sort of stepped into the edges of the entertainment world. Okay, maybe not edge, maybe adjacent township. Nonetheless, my career made me occasionally kind of almost famous, at least among people who follow cartoons—and because of this, I met people who actually were rich and famous, people legitimately considered celebrities. (And though I was occasionally almost famous, I was never rich. Or even almost. But I made a decent living drawing cartoons every day so I’m not complaining!)
Lots of the rich &/or famous folks I’ve met are very cool and creative; amazing people who deserve to be celebrated. Some are not, but that’s how these things go.
And so along the way I’ve seen spoiled rich kids (as adults) of all sorts. I’m talking here about the ones who were raised rich because of their relationship to the person who did the original fortune-making. They’re not all the same by any means, but I think one common denominator is that the ones that look to be having the best time—drunkenly falling off the roof of a nightclub while climbing the railing reenacting your father’s famous battle at the summit of the Empire State Building, for instance—are the most miserable. Another aspect of the “realm of opposites” perhaps.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I guess I’m just saying that even though I grew up wanting to be rich and famous, I’m glad it didn’t happen to me. People become prisoners of wealth and fame and it can wreck your sense of self. I think it’s harder than it looks from your couch.
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A FEW NOTES ON THE ART in this week’s Sunday comic, above: There are 10 Secret Symbols, and yes, if one of them appears twice, it counts twice. You’ll note that the prince is wearing his blue camo pants, which make his legs virtually invisible when walking in a blue forest. Also, notice the tension in the velvet rope that PK has landed on. You don’t get details like that in most of your newspaper comics. And, those of you with larger screens or better eyes will notice that Gonzo of the Muppets is on the roof of that nightclub in a fairly poor disguise. It seems he dates only human women and that was forbidden in his contract with the Muppet Corporation so he had to keep it under wraps. Lastly, there is no significance to the name of the nightclub. I don’t remember why I chose it.
I’ve also no idea why Wayno wrote the Bizarro cartoons we published this week but that makes them all the more fun! Let’s read them together now…
Diseases of the foot are the number one cause of stand-up comics retiring early.
I’ve read that if you tongue-kiss a koala bear, it can freshen your breath for up to two hours.
Our efforts to market Bizarro Secret Symbols as fashion accessories on this planet have been very successful but they’re paying me in something called {g2#Z8* and I can only spend them on their planet. It’s always something.
Maybe he was stung by pool bees.
I can’t help hoping that stick of dynamite restores the peace real soon.
If I know Wayno, there are a dozen clowns in that casket. And, speaking of the King of Clown Cartoons, he has some interesting things to say about that aspect of his talents on his weekly blog post.
That marks the end of our cartoon shadow puppet show this week, Jazz Pickles. Thanks for sticking around until our flashlight ran out of batteries. If you enjoy what we do FOR FREE here, please consider helping us keep it that way by tossing a crumb or two into one of our links below. In gratitude, we will fall asleep hugging our pillow and pretend it is you.
Until next time, feel free to pretend your pillow is whoever you like.
BIZARRO SHOP Fun and cheap!
… Bizarro TIP JAR One-time or repeating. Your choice!
…Signed, numbered, limited edition prints and original Bizarro panels