I looked at this over and over, and I still don’t see the joke. Anyone have a better insight?
Well, it’s not particularly FUNNY. But it appears that a person in the other room is indicating that the guy claiming his homework is completed is actually lying, or ACTING as if it’s done.
Lame joke.
-L
The kid is lying about having done his homework. The line from the television broadcast is a humorous joke which alerts us to the fact that he is telling his mother a falsehood in order to be able to watch the awards show.
An actor claims to be someone other than himself, and speaks lines written by a playwright or screenwriter in order to create an illusion. So you can see an actor as being a liar by definition.
You’re right, though…it IS a pretty crappy example of the strip.
The humor, such as it is, is in the irony of the announcement for best actor just as the boy is trying to convince his mom that his homework is done.
I think the “humor” is to be found in the irony that this kid is acting (lying) so that he can watch an award show for actors. Or something along those lines.
Perhaps the only thing truly funny about this is that the author of Foxtrot actually makes a living drawing these inane cartoons.
Well, no, the voice is coming from the TV. It is, of course, the Oscars. So, not only is some anonymous voice suggesting he’s acting, it’s the academy itself.
And, of course, another thing funny about that page was the link to the “Comics I just don’t understand” page. Sorta fits with Foxtrot, I think.
Yes, it makes sense. No, it isn’t funny, but give the guy a break! Churning out a daily cartoon is tough. I drew a strip and weekly editorial cartoon for a local paper for several years. It ain’t easy to come up with a knee slapper (OK, the strip in question isn’t even close to a knee slapper) day after day, week after week. I had one to four panels to introduce the concept, hook the reader and deliver the punch line while using as few words as possible. This is arguably why by Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes), Gary Larson (Farside) and Berke Breathed (Bloom County) ended their strips. They just got out of it before their jokes got lame. The truly great know to get out while still on top.
When I first saw it, I was sure that the cartoon had been cut off. After it all, it was a Sunday strip, which rarely are run as one panel. There are all sorts of esoteric format rules for cartoonists so that different papers can break the Sunday panels at different places (so they can print it as two rows of panels or three rows, for instance).
Then I looked back at the previous Sunday’s (multi-panel) strip and realized it had the same dimensions.
I guess Amend was just having an off day. Or his humor is far more subtle than I can appreciate.
Since this seems to have been answered (at least, why it’s supposed to be funny, regardless of whether it actually is), and it wasn’t really too factual in the first place, I’m just going to close this.