The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Important Touchy Subject Vaguely Alluded To

Here's an Almanac that bravely almost mentions an important issue but deftly avoids it for a cheap laugh, like usual.

My favorite is the Shaker. You so rarely come across a good Shaker joke these days, but you so rarely come across a Shaker either. I did see a Shaker once, she came to our school in 8th grade to present a program on her religion. I don't think she gained any converts, but it was interesting and, as we'd coincidentally been doing a week of drug-awareness programs, a little confusing in context. I went to a Quaker school up till 10th grade, and I can claim some pretty thick Quaker heritage, but there weren't many Quakers attending the school. Our third grade teacher, Mrs. Harker, was Quaker and sometimes used thee and thou and did it unaffectedly. She was cool and funny and told great stories (the best one was about how she somehow managed to get her car stuck up in a tree). Nowadays if someone asks my religious affiliation I usually say "lapsed Quaker", then I hope they ask how do you become a lapsed Quaker so I can tell them you sucker-punch a Buddhist. It's a lousy joke and no one's ever laughed at it, but someday they might.

5 comments:

nolanart said...

Sucker punched a Buddhist!

Ha Ha! That IS funny, someone should have laughed.

nolanart said...

Oh, awesome caricature of Katie Holmes, by the way.

here today, gone tomorrow said...

I laughed! And I'm even a Buddhist!

Freddy Letrange said...

Whom does thee think thee is fooling? Real Quakers don't say 'thou.'

richardcthompson said...

Oops, good point Freddy, that's true. Another reason I'm lapsed, I guess.

But glad to hear my lousy joke finally worked.