This is the weekly dispatch from Bizarro Studios North, where I have been writing and drawing the Monday through Saturday Bizarro comics since 2018. My partner and friend Dan Piraro created Bizarro in the late twentieth century and continues to do the Sunday comic from Rancho Bizarro in Mexico.
Wayno
Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity.
Frank Zappa
Anti-intellectualism is a fascinating subject, an us-versus-them psychology, rooted in obsession with others having more of something. Instead of admiring smart people and aspiring to become one, it's easier to cry, "No fair!" as if knowledge were a physical commodity to be divvied up. "If you have some, that's less for me!"
The flipside of Frank's observation is the pervasiveness of willing, even proud stupidity. People in charge of certain systems don't want their followers to think; the uninformed are more easily controlled by the powerful.
Intelligence, reason, education, and science are so despised in some circles that they risk being legislated out of society. One hopes the pendulum will swing the other way, but it had better happen soon.
Mister Zappa left the physical plane more than thirty years ago. If only he could see us today.
Bizarro reader Michael P. sent us a pipe pic he snapped in the wild.
Michael writes:
I saw this planter at an antique store in Knoxville, Tennessee, but didn’t buy it.
This unusual piece is possibly as old as the 1950s and appears to have been a fairly popular item, based on the number for sale on Etsy and elsewhere.
Mother's Day is coming up next month, kids.
Thanks to Michael P. for recognizing a potential pipe pic and photographing it for us.
You can decide whether the latest Bizarro panels are stupid or smart. I try to find the sweet spot somewhere in between.
Romance comics were once a big thing, sometimes expanding into niche markets.
I usually include a bogus Secret Symbol count on April Fool's Day. This panel has five symbols, hinted at by the numeral in the crown. When I draw each comic, I assign a sequential number to the art, and this one was the 2,271st since I started working on the dailies—no fooling.
Wednesday's gag takes place in a corporate fretboardroom.
The musical gag prompted my favorite comment of the week over on BlueSky:
Superb work! The chord frames on the sheet music are realistic, and well spaced. The Gibson SG, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster are all accurate, with correct curves on the Fender headstocks. Realistic controls on the amplifier. Few people will notice, but BRAVO!
Thanks to sombermoose for paying attention to the details. Comments like yours make the effort worthwhile.
Recontextualizing a familiar phrase or swapping in a different word can provide the seeds for a gag, as with this oracular offering.
"...and serve it in a paper cup."
At least poor word choices are easy to fix.
Bonus Track
Michael Hurley: "Long Journey"
From the LP Long Journey
Rounder Records, 1984
Rounder Records, 1984
Outsider folk musician, singer-songwriter, and sometime cartoonist Michael Hurley died this week at age 83. His debut album, First Songs, was released in 1963. Several of his subsequent LPs featured his wolf cartoon characters Jocko and Boone.
Hurley was a true American original.
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