THE SUNDAY FUNNIES: AUGUST 9, 2009

Hello everybody. Ms. Waxy Dragon here!
Now, in July 26th's Sunday Funnies, I started discussing whether or not jokes should be updated, using Bud Abbot and Lou Costello's classic routine "Who's on first?" as an example.
If needed, I'll wait a moment while everyone checks out that previous post in the archives.

(Hums to herself a minute...)

Okay, everyone up to date?

Now then, let's look at another example this weekend: Whether or not animals can talk?
I'm not discussing anything related to any version of Doctor Doolittle, for in that situation, the good Doctor is talking with the animals in their own tongues and everything is just translated into English for the benefit of the audience.
Nor am I talking about the avian species that actually can speak to some extent, or even the situation where a person knows an animal can speak, but must keep that knowledge a secret like Francis the Talking Mule or Mister Ed, the horse. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just Google them to find out.
Instead, I'm discussing the humor based upon trying to convince someone who has not heard an animal speak that the animal DID speak, like the poor guy who kept trying to convince people that the (later named Michigan J.) Frog did actually sing during the classic Merrie Melodies cartoon "One Froggy Evening" (circa 1955).

There is an animated gag where a guy takes a dog before a talent agent because the canine can allegedly talk. After a couple of questions where the answer is a standard dog sound like:
"What's on top of a house?
"Woof!" replies the dog, for roof.
The routine ends with the guy asking the dog:
"Who's the greatest baseball player of all time?"
To which the dog allegedly responds "Woth!", for Babe Ruth.
At which point the talent agent kicks both of them out of his office, usually literally, and then the dog looks up at the man with these big, sad soulful eyes and goes:
"Do you think I should have said DiMaggio?"

I have never seen anyone try to update that routine until the June 23, 2009 installment of Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.
Pierce tries to convince his friend Jeremy that he has a talking chicken by asking the bird:
"What's the President's name?"
To which the chicken clucks "Barack!"
Jeremy walks off in disbelief, leaving the reader to wonder whether or not the chicken actually made a comment about Michelle Obama afterwards.

Now in this case, it's funny and original, from the perspective that no one (to my knowledge) has ever tried updating that routine before.

And if you still do not believe that animals can talk, just remember that you've spent the last couple of minutes reading a post written by five year old baby dragon, unless you believe all that baloney about me being just one of many avatars of an avid Internet user.
-wd.