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I think this is pretty funny, Sis. I know that you’re not a helmeted-BD fan, but be fair — he’s in uniform, he’s just shot Roland several times and is going to hit him with a shovel! That’s good slapstick, at least??
Desperate Dan was a dirty old man / Washed his face in a frying pan / Combed his hair with the leg of a chair / Never could make the last line of this metrical composition scan.
Cow pie is the food of Desperate Dan, star and tutelary deity of The Dandy (D.C. Thomson & Co. 1937-2013). The pie is as big as a small cartwheel; the horns and tail protrude delightfully from the crust. Let’s call Dan a rough diamond — rougher by far than Batman, tougher by far than Popeye; no super-powers, all brawn and a heart like a wheel.
The Dandy and its rival, The Beano (D.C. Thomson & Co. 1938—) are printed comics in the UK sense — weekly illustrated/cartoon magazines for children, full of comic strips that are humorous and full of ancient wisdom. You might call them comic books, but not in the US sense.
Orwell in 1940 published a literary/sociological analysis of “Boys’ Weeklies”, a different style of children’s comics — text-based with some illustration, on the themes of war, heroism, sporting prowess and sportsmanship. Slightly more grown-up than The Dandy, they were The Wizard and The Rover; they were populated by slightly more grown-up versions of Desperate Dan, such as “Alf Tupper, The Tough of the Track” (athletics), “Bomber Braddock VC” (aerial warfare), “Wilson, The Wonder Athlete” (athletics) and “Roy of The Rovers” (the verray, parfit, gentil knyght of the football field).
There were Girls’ Weeklies, of course — Bunty and School Friend, for example — but Desperate Dan and Alf Tupper didn’t go to boarding school or have ponies so I wouldn’t read such stuff (or not until my sisters had finished with them, anyway).
..sometimes they feel obligated to bring it to you..
“Clevinger really thought he was right, but Yossarian had proof, because strangers he didn’t know shot at him with cannons every time he flew up into the air to drop bombs on them, and it wasn’t funny at all.”
I think this is pretty funny, Sis. I know that you’re not a helmeted-BD fan, but be fair — he’s in uniform, he’s just shot Roland several times and is going to hit him with a shovel! That’s good slapstick, at least??