dreadedcandiru2 (dreadedcandiru2) wrote in binky_betsy,
dreadedcandiru2
dreadedcandiru2
binky_betsy

Saturday, 26 June 2010

In today's strip, John pays Elly a very left-handed compliment about her legs.

(Strip Number 144, Original Publication Date, 27 June 1981)


Panel 1: As our story begins, we find John of the Stemless Eyeglasses smiling as he somehow manages to look at Elly despite lacking visible eyes; what he's looking at is her wearing a striped tank top and shorts as she goes about her gardening. Needless to say, the fact that she's being ogled is as disturbing to her as a certain artistic error is to us.

Panel 2: Her face frozen in the Bug-Eyed Glare Of Existential Horror, Elly tries covering herself up as she turns to him and asks him what he's staring at.

Panel 3: She is even more astonished and disgusted by his telling her that he'd forgotten that she had legs.

Summary: Now, you and I know that John is complimenting Elly on her looks. Granted, he does so in an awkward manner but at least he's making the effort. The source of humor is what's going on inside Elly's muddled, pessimistic, glass-half-empty head; what she hears is his saying that he regards her as nothing more than a slab of meat to be ogled. One could probably make a case for this being the lead-in to this classic example of Elly acting like a jerk.
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