Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
WCDT Strips 3151 to 3155 (8 - 12 February 2016)
cesium133:
--- Quote from: Zebediah on 09 Feb 2016, 07:00 ---
--- Quote from: cesium133 on 09 Feb 2016, 06:09 ---I've never been through the Massachusetts Ritual (in fact, I've never been to Massachusetts), but I can confirm that the Wisconsin Ritual is not particularly suited for the lactose-intolerant. :psyduck:
--- End quote ---
Nor the alcohol-intolerant, and especially not the bratwurst-intolerant.
--- End quote ---
Bratwurst intolerance!? Sacrilege!
DSL:
--- Quote from: osaka on 09 Feb 2016, 04:16 ---
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Feb 2016, 04:03 ---The difficult thing about the reanimated frog exam is convincing the professor your frog really does put on a top hat and sing "Ragtime Gal."
--- End quote ---
Specially when, even if it actually does, the professor for some reason loathes that song.
--- End quote ---
Am I missing something?
DSL:
--- Quote from: TieDyeKat on 09 Feb 2016, 05:20 ---Okay, Hammerspace hair is cool for Claire, but for heaven's sake, a grad asst. wouldn't be grading papers with a BLACK sharpie.
Not even after THE RITUAL.
Red or dead.
--- End quote ---
It was a red Sharpie when she put it in there (thair?) for later. The Hair Will Not Be Upstaged.
Zebediah:
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Feb 2016, 07:39 ---
--- Quote from: osaka on 09 Feb 2016, 04:16 ---
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Feb 2016, 04:03 ---The difficult thing about the reanimated frog exam is convincing the professor your frog really does put on a top hat and sing "Ragtime Gal."
--- End quote ---
Specially when, even if it actually does, the professor for some reason loathes that song.
--- End quote ---
Am I missing something?
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pismg8l57Rs
--- End quote ---
BenRG:
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Feb 2016, 07:39 ---
--- Quote from: osaka on 09 Feb 2016, 04:16 ---
--- Quote from: DSL on 09 Feb 2016, 04:03 ---The difficult thing about the reanimated frog exam is convincing the professor your frog really does put on a top hat and sing "Ragtime Gal."
--- End quote ---
Specially when, even if it actually does, the professor for some reason loathes that song.
--- End quote ---
Am I missing something?
--- End quote ---
It's an old, old Loony Toon, pre-dating most if not all of the famous characters from the Warner Brothers animation studios. I think it was a sort of redress of an old Kipling- or Poe-written short morality story. Basically a penniless man finds a shoebox on his doorstep. Inside is a frog who puts on a top hat, dances and sing the 1920s hit song 'Ragtime Girl'. Certain that this is his ticket to fame and fortune, he decides to put the frog on Broadway. He easily impresses an agent with his pet's 'talent' and a show is arranged.
Unfortunately... the frog will not perform in front of crowds or even small groups. The agent is ruined and turns his anger on the poor man who loses what few possessions he has to cover the agent's losses. All he has left is that damn frog. Too broken even to seek revenge on the cursed creature, he simply leaves it on someone's doorstep in the same shoebox with the same despairing note that he had originally found on it: "I have nothing left except what you will find in this box; may it bring you better luck than it did me." So the cycle repeats.
It was the genius of the director of this short that the cartoon comes across as incredibly funny and you laugh at the moment of the agent's humiliation and the man's ruin. Yet... when you think about it... it's a horror story very much in the tradition of Poe with the protagonist in the end having nothing left but his life and cursing the fact that he has that much. Indeed, on repeat viewings, you can't help but wonder if, as the man shuffles off of the screen, he is now going to end his life as had all of the frog's previous keepers. Of course, in the tradition of Poe and Kipling, in the end the disaster was self-inflicted. If he'd just kept the frog as a pet or even if he'd killed the thing for what little sustenance it could give him for one day, he would not have been destroyed. His own greed and desperation for wealth led him to disaster.
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, western animation was every bit as dark and gothic as the most hardcore modern-day animé.
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