Monday, 20 October 2008

Carpal Knowledge

Bizarro is made possible by a grant from the Peter Fitzperfect and Karrin A. Driveway Foundation.

I love finding new angles on cartoon cliches. Of all the many such cliches in our culture – guy-on-a-desert-island, guy-crawling-through-the-desert, mice-in-a-maze, etc. – the "Tunnel of Love" one is an oddity because I haven't ever seen or heard of an actual Tunnel of Love (that isn't a modern version of the cliche) and suspect they haven't been around in half a century or more. Yet, the romantic carnival attraction remains a well-used cliche in our culture, popping up with fair regularity.

These cliches are no accident, of course. Certain set-ups just lend themselves to commenting on life. The psychiatrist's couch and the gates of Heaven are two perfect examples. You can just say so much about the human condition in those situations.

The "Tunnel of Love" cliche represents the beginning of one of life's many journeys, one that starts out all rainbows and unicorns, but as often as not turns out badgers and amputations. I've seen much better Tunnel of Love cartoons than this one of mine, in fact, I think I've done better ones myself, but I like the wordplay of this one, combined with the image of the person with a computer in a boat.

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