Cartoon Food
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, then a short essay, then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner, Wayno. He does a weekly blog post, too, and I highly recommend it.
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Welcome to the middle of some ocean, Jazz Pickles. Today’s cartoon features one of tens (hundreds?) of thousands of unfortunate cartoon souls who are stranded on a tiny, one-tree island for eternity.
As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, there are certain tropes or set-ups that have appeared repeatedly in the world of cartoons, across cultures and languages, and for over a century. I know New Yorker Magazine’s Bob Mankoff has written some about cartoon tropes but after a few minutes of googling, I can’t find it, so I’m going to wing it at the risk of repeating something he’s already said better.
Here are some well-known cartoon tropes: person stranded on a desert island, guy crawling in desert, person in heaven/hell, psychiatrist’s couch, guru on top of mountain, guy in dungeon, the grim reaper, and former pornstar reincarnated as a household appliance. Okay, that last one probably isn’t as common as the others but you get the idea.
Without going into a whole thesis on the psychology behind these tropes, I’ll just say that we cartoonists return to them because they contain an endless supply of humor. Maybe it’s because they are situations that say something about the human condition—about eternal truths, and what is important in life—and the more high-minded something is, the easier it is to lampoon.
Most of us cartoonists also, I think, relish the honor of adding our unique version to the historical catalog. Below are but a few of the dozens I’ve done on the desert island theme.
This one won’t make sense if you don’t remember the BeDazzler product. Maybe they still sell it, who knows? It’s a handheld device probably akin to a stapler that allows you to attach plastic jewels to fabric. If there is a person walking this earth who does not want one of those, I hope I never meet them.
Here’s a meta, if not depressing take on the trope itself.
Here I’ve combined three tropes in one. (This was drawn during a phase in which I was not using realistic colors. This one doesn’t look too bad, but some are godawful, and in retrospect, I wish I’d given it up much sooner.)
This is one of my favorites, for sure. I’ve represented characters as drawn by eleven famous cartoonists, with my own guy in the water. From left to right, the cartoonists are: Tom Wilson (Ziggy), Richard Guindon, below him is Charles Rodrigues, up high again is Mick Stevens, in front of the tree trunk is B. Kliban (my main cartoonist influence and the reason I first tried my hand at cartooning!), Gahan Wilson, Ted Rall, Gary Larson, Jack Ziegler, John Callahan, and in the speaking role, Charles Addams.
Which cartoon cliché would you least mind being trapped in forever? I’d have to vote for the reincarnated-as-a-household-appliance one.
Time now to see if Wayno dipped into any tropes in his Bizarro cartoons from the week…
Even stuffed animal teenagers can be hurtful and cruel, it seems.
In Wayno’s blog post this week, he included a link to a video of a guy explaining the “sad trombone” cliche and how to achieve it.
Some of these books are based on ones in Wayno’s own library. He discusses them at length in his blog post this week.
There’s nothing cuter than a flying baby with beard stubble, amiright?
Some folks were confused by this one. They were probably people who do not realize that baseball cards have copious facts and stats about the player on the back.
The real Fred Flintstone brings us to the conclusion of this week’s cartoon yard sale. Thanks for sticking around until we started giving stuff away. If you like our stuff and appreciate that it is free of ads or paywalls, perhaps consider helping us keep it that way via one of the links below. We’ll think you’re much cooler than you actually are if you do!
Unil nex week, I jus noiced he “ “ isn’ working on my keyboard.
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