This Might Only Interest Me

Hey, you know the serial/soap opera comics in the newspaper? I'm a big fan of them, because they're so, well, I don't know what. Bizarre, I guess is the word. I realize that practically everyone else on the planet finds them boring and dumb, but somehow I find them to be really funny more often than not. Plus, if you have a few willing friends, you can try to act them out and discover exactly how ludicrous the dialogue and body language are in actual, real-life settings. Or, they're ludicrous unless you frequently eschew pronouns and do a lot of pointing into the air whenever you make a point.

So, in the slow-paced, often-boring world of soap opera comic strips, one strip, Judge Parker, stands out for being exceptionally slow-paced and boring. To get an idea of how slow the strip is, it took six months from last January to June to cover one day in the strip. Usually, the strip's artist conceals the boredom by offering massive cleavage shots, which then double as a justification for repeating the exact same information the next day with the classic "I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said because I was staring at your boobs" defense. Also, I've been reading it for a year, and Judge Parker himself has never appeared outside of the logo on the Sunday title panel.

But the point of all this is to post the Judge's offering for 1/30/08, which is the most boring edition of Judge Parker ever, which puts it on the short list for Most Boring Comic Strip in the History of the Entire Universe.

"Someone will start a job! Someone will go for lunch! Someone will order a sandwich! You'll pay for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!"

Actually, I'm kind of hoping this conversation continues for the next two weeks. "Any condiments?" "Mayo." "Regular or fat free?" "Regular. Forget it if it's fat free." "What about sides?" etc. I'm wondering how long they could do it without anyone noticing.