howtheduck (howtheduck) wrote in binky_betsy,
howtheduck
howtheduck
binky_betsy

Monday, 21 October 2019

The one where there is nothing here but Farley’s eating sound effects and a terrible punchline.

(Original Publication Date, 22 October 1990)

Panel 1: 4 crunches. 3 grunches, 2 munches and 1 gulp. 


Panel 2: 3 crunches, 1 grunch, 1 munch, 1 grokk, 1 crunk and 1 gulp.

Panel 3: 1 crunch, 1 grunch, 2 munches, 1 gulp and 1 urbp.  The burping noise tells us dinner is over.

Panel 4: Life is just a bowl of dog food.  What could that mean?  It’s a takeoff on "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" where “cherries” has been replaced by “dog food.”   It falls into that category of humor for which Lynn Johnston takes a common phrase and replaces one or two words.  Fortunately for Lynn, some people think It is hilarious to read a common phrase with one or two different words. 

There is a famous song by that name "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” but knowing Lynn, most likely this is being taken from Erma Bombeck’s book: If Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1978), a book title that is far funnier than the punchline for this comic strip and could have been easily adapted into a funnier punchline for Lynn.

If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am I the ground corn?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am beet to a pulp?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why kibble about it?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am I meat and bone meal?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am wet and never dry?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am never pasteurized?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, what am I doing in the dog biscuits?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am I Beggin' Strips?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am I not on the Gravy Train?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why am one half po and not Alpo?
If life is just a bowl of dog food, why is it Iams not, instead of Iams?

Summary: I like that Farley has his name on the bowl of dog food, so that the reader knows this bowl of food does not belong to Michael.  We readers need all the help we can get to make those distinctions.
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