Tuesday May 12, 1998: Now they're really gonna play football

[NonsenseWords]

Something odd about this punchline. I get Millie's, but Ozy's isn't... it's not really related to the actual joke. I get that he obviously doesn't pay attention to sports, but it detracts from the joke (itself not particularly good).

That couch is really distracting me now. The lack of shading lets he linework come through more clearly, but that couch is so busy that I'm kind of losing Millie against it.

[Tom_Radigan]

You're right about the couch. But I believe the idea of Ozy's comment is that it's not "football" in the non-American sense, i. e. soccer, which is where teams play the ball using their feet. In American football, teams never use their feet, except for the field goal kick.

[Feefers]

Cribbage, is quite complex, but looks nothing like football, or soccer, given is uses cards.

Apart from the word being slightly amusing (Cribbage) any ideas why to pick on this card game?

[nickspoon]

Because Cribbage is a very dull, very complex game, usually played by old people. It's funny because it's the converse.

[Burning Sheep Productions]

I remember this one fondly. The joke isn't big but it fulfils a task of familiarising the audience with the characters in their normal setting.

[Hyperion]

I agree with what BSP said.

[Cactus Jack]

Having a secondary, not neccasarily related, joke is something O&M does alot, and I think it is done successfully. Usually it is in a fourth panel, but I think it works fine here. I do wonder why Millie is watching football in the first place, but I have a feeling I'm not suppose to ask questions like that

[cougartiger]

My guess is she was flipping through the channels, saw the game and stopped to watch for a bit. I don't like sports but even I do that sometimes.

[sad jazz cantaloupe]

I think Ozy's punchline is pretty funny, it must just be because I'm american

[NonsenseWords]

...so am I. I just really do not appreciate this joke, I guess.

[Arloest]

I just want to make here on how different these individual strip topics are from the original new strip topics. The original ones were (for the most part) showered with praise, except for the later ones that sucked. Now it seems to be mostly criticisms. Not saying one is better than the other, but either it shows how much this board has change or how bad the original strips actually were.

[sad jazz cantaloupe]

personally I'm a little bugged by the "this strip isn't funny" in every single thread. If you don't even think the old strips were good, I wonder why they joined DC the first place?

[NonsenseWords]

Every single thread? Au contraire. There are a couple that just aren't that good, and it's due to different perceptions of humor. For instance: I don't watch sports at all (even through channel surfing), and I think this is a weird way to setup a punchline, therefore, I don't appreciate the strip. I thought the next one -- bath accessories -- was cute. I think several of these so far are cute. I just don't like the ones that are blatantly ripping into a particular politician, or... well, ones that are kind of obtuse to me.

[sad jazz cantaloupe]

What's weird about you not liking this particular punchline, is that it's designed for people who don't like sports. I would understand you not liking it if you did like sports lol
I guess you have to not like sports for a specific reason to find it funny

[Liz]

I've noticed the whole, "This strip sucks" in almost every single thread too. I only went through the archive for the first time two and half years ago or so and I particularly enjoyed the earlier comics a lot (although, to be honest, I never finished the entire archive so I can't really say that the newer strips suck that much) and that was half the reason I joined DC. I other half was because Jason was on here ;P But really, do they suck that much?

I suppose I can't really say much about everyone's current opinions because I was never around five or seven years ago. I don't know how everyone was then. I can only go by what I've read so far and judging by that, it seems like everyone was far different five to seven years ago. Of course, I'm a firm believer that people grow and mature over time and I guess it's like rewatching childhood cartoons as an adult. Things just aren't the same as they were when you watched them years ago.

As for me, I think I can relate to this strip. I'm not much of a sports person so I find the punchline to be amusing.