"Archetype, there's a cliché in my trope."

Today's Bizarro comic tears down and rebuilds a time-honored cartoon motif.

Just about every cartoonist has done some variation of the "fly in my soup" setup. In fact, Dan and I just published one last week. Today's offering utilizes the comic panel form itself to comment on the idea of such a gag.

The final art is staged very much like the submission sketch, but Dan did a better job of maintaining consistency within the cartoon's logic by putting a suit and tie on the customer. In my version, the diner is naked, which is simply not credible.

This self-referential approach, which both questions and answers the very concept of the cartoon, may seem overly intellectual or esoteric. Therefore, as a palate cleanser (or palate soiler), we present the same drawing with different text for a no-nonsense lowbrow laugh. It's not publishable in a daily paper, but perhaps could have appeared in the old National Lampoon.

My next team-up with Mister Piraro will appear on Xmas Eve, and our many previous joint efforts are viewable in this blog's Bizarro index.