Comics Can Be Funny: "He he he, that crazy Marmaduke!"

As we all know, the majority of comics on the funny pages are filled up with the same tired jokes rerun everyday: Garfield is fat, lazy cat with a loser owner; Marmaduke is a dog who thinks he's a person; Hagar the Horrible works hard pillages villages--he slits throats, ravages anything that moves, and drinks the blood his victims--only to be ragged on by Helga for not returning with any quality booty. Yes, there are some consistently funny strips (Pearls Before Swine, and the insane Ballard Street), while the more repetitive strips do produce the occasional gem, like the above B.C.--Johnny Hart, please, keep pushing the envelope.

However, there are multitude of lame comics. We ought to make them funny. This time we will focus on everyone's favorite lush, Andy Capp, and that crazy Marmaduke. (Parodies after the jump)

As we saw last week, Garfield is greatly improved by removing Garfield, allowing us to witness the bizarre loneliness of Jon Arbuckle, a man who seeks comfort from sock puppets. This week we have a two-fer.

First, Marmaduke:

Actually, Marmaduke's owner is hilariously mistaken. Marmaduke has not stolen his massive collection of bones from other dogs. He has been digging up graves for two weeks. The dogs crowed around Marmaduke are keen to learn his secrets for effectively desecrating graves.

And now for Andy Capp:

This strip shows us the sad state of sanitary affairs in the Capp house. The truth is Andy has never known where Flo keeps his clothes due to memory loss brought on by chronic alcoholism and constant brawling. Consequently, he has never actually changed his own socks, shirt, or underwear; Flo is forced to change him. Unfortunately, the only chance she has is after he passes out from binge drinking. Oh Andy Capp, who knew you were so relevant, showing us the serious consequences of Britain's binge drinking problem.

Extra: Here are is a recaptioned version of the Marmaduke strip. Do you prefer this to making snide comments after showing the original strip?


And for kicks, check out Marmaduke Explained. Joe Mathlete explains the premise and punchline of each Marmaduke in 500 words or less. It's somewhat hit and miss. (Warning, he uses some bad language).