The Unfunnies: Varsity Vic!

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Varsity Vic!

I was going to say something about this being about the only sport that I've ever seen Varsity Vic participate in, despite his name, but then I looked it up, and it turns out that though the most common use of 'varsity' is in regard to sports teams and other competitive arms of universities and colleges, it can also refer to those institutions in general. So Vic can be varsity simply by virtue of being a college student.

Of course, that revelation is now throwing me for a loop, because I always thought that Vic was in high school. I guess that all of the jalopy-riding and eccentric hat-wearing of the majority of his cartoons makes a bit more sense in that light.

As for the comic itself, I have but one thing to say: that girl has admirable levels of self-esteem.

- from Lois Lane No 23

The Unfunnies: Video Laffs

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Once again we see the phenomenon of the terrible joke as cultural record. I'm sure that somewhere a Reader's Digest editor is compiling a page of "Internet Chuckles" or "It Could Only Happen Online" anecdotes, and just as certain that, had mass media existed in the Stone age there would have been a humorous feature called "Fire Follies."

Note how in those early days of television humanity had not yet evolved the complex television-sharing diplomacy that any multi-child, single TV family must possess in order to survive - truly a dark and primitive time.

- from Detective Comics no. 249

The Unfunnies: Time Was, A Prison Was a Place For Laughter.

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I've mentioned the legal-system themed cartoons that ran in the various Batman comics before, with their light-hearted looks at crime and punishment and strange interconnectedness. Here's Warden Willis, head of the prison featured in Jail Jests. Presumably Lefty Looie is somewhere in the background.

Aside from the general thematic strangeness of these comics, I recently realized that they are all from the late 50s/early 60s, which is also the time period that the Shawshank Redemption, Cool Hand Luke... basically most of the classic prison movies are set in, and it's messing with my perceptions. I keep picturing 2143 putting fishhooks in his enemies' food or 2130 getting throttled with his own tether because he back-talked a guard.

The Morgan Freeman narration does add a certain class, though.

- From Detective Comics no 261

The Unfunnies: Shorty vs. Facial Hair

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Did I ever mention that Shorty was in the Navy during WWII? Yes, he went from office boy to Ordinary Seaman and then to high school student in the 50s, so evidently he was able to lie not only about his height but also the fact that he was roughly 12, thus his problems in keeping up with the Navy Hipsters that seemingly infest his ship:

 

NOTE: I sincerely apologize if the last joke seemed out of date; the hipsters here still love their beards. I hope yours are the same.

- From Superman No. 32

The Unfunnies: Klassic Komedy With Daffy and Doodle

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New computer I may have, but that doesn't mean that I'm any better at getting things done. Here's the Unfunny from this past weekend:

Here are the things that you need to know about Daffy and Doodle:

1. They appeared in a wide range of DC books as generic comic fodder.

2. Their major character traits were stupidity and being exactly the same dude only with different face positioning.

3. They were never, ever funny, as evidenced by this retelling of a joke older than the very Earth itself.

- This here comic is from Superboy No. 8