Stand-up Scatology

In today's Bizarro comic, we goof on a couple of popular children's characters, one of which has a particularly off-putting name, blithely ignored by fans.

Dan's final art follows my sketch very closely, although his depiction of Piglet resembles the familiar Disney character more than my grubby, cigarette-smoking version.

I also did a sketch showing a grizzled show-biz manager advising the would-be comedian to clean up his act:

The scene with the couple watching TV works better, in part because it's a more realistic situation (except for the talking pig), but I do like the body language in the sketch with the manager.

The gag was inspired in part by the disturbing sight of a parent and child sitting in the aisle of a bookstore reading aloud from this horrifying volume:

There's a fine line between cute and disgusting. Sometimes there's no line at all.

Wikipedia has an interesting description of the Piglet character, noting that he's "a very small animal with a stutter and a generally timid disposition, [who] often conquers his fears and seems to want to be brave." That's a fair description of quite a few stand-up comics.

For the statisticians in the audience, the Pooh gag marks my 25th appearance in Bizarro. There are many more to come, including a special Form 1040 bit next Friday, and something extra in late May.

Catch up on our previous collaborations here.