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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

P J Piehole's


While looking through some old drawings the other day, I was shocked and embarrassed to find that I'd used the same joke twice in cartoons about a year and a half apart. The reference in the cartoon above to P J PIehole's being closed because of obscenities in the Find-a-Word Puzzle was repeated a month or two ago, though not word for word.

I'm especially shocked that the management at Piehole's hadn't cracked down on this problem. And thank heavens it didn't happen in a comic strip; using the same jokes over and over in a comic strip could end a cartoonist's career pretty dang fast.
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8 comments:

  1. Scott CummingsOctober 17, 2007 at 7:56 AM

    I've read that Jim Davis has people who go through past Garfield strips to make sure he doesn't repeat gags. You may want to look into that.

    However, I wouldn't mind seeing a variation of the Piehole obscenity gag in Cul De Sac. Alice's Find-A-Word puzzle would look something like: C J O R & # ! ! @ % N V M ....

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  2. Jim BorgmanOctober 17, 2007 at 8:51 AM

    I advise a stay in rehab and an apology tour on all the talk shows immediately.

    I used an elephant to symbolize the Republican Party in a cartoon in 1979 and again this year and the swift boaters have been scorching me ever since.

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  3. Patrick O'ConnorOctober 17, 2007 at 1:31 PM

    Hilarious, nonetheless.

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  4. arcticcircleOctober 17, 2007 at 2:58 PM

    What? WHAT? Garfield is forever recycling gags! Mondays are awful, coffee needs to be strong, lasagne tastes great. Comedy gold that can be mined over and over.

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  5. john cuneoOctober 17, 2007 at 8:07 PM

    Hey, while looking through some of my old drawings, I gagged repeatedly.
    Is that, like , the same thing?

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  6. richardcthompsonOctober 17, 2007 at 10:28 PM

    By gagging I guess you meant gagging, as opposed to, you know "gags". Gagging is usually a warning sign of something. I usually only gag while looking at my recent drawings; they have to steep for a while before I can tolerate them.

    What shocked me with this one is that I thought I was being original the second time I came up with it. But, nobody cared! Till I opened my big mouth.

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  7. Matt D.October 18, 2007 at 9:21 AM

    The Free Comic Book Day "Peanuts" book (from Fantagraphics) reprints two strips with Snoopy ice skating that are nearly identical in terms of drawings and punchlines. It was rather funny (that they were the same; the strip actually wasn't so funny.)

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  8. richardcthompsonOctober 18, 2007 at 10:46 AM

    Well, heck then, I'm going to use the joke over and over again till everybody's heartily sick of it.

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