And Even More Basic Instructions

You all know what a big fan I am of Scott Meyer's "Basic Instructions" comic strip. I think it's the most clever and consistently laugh-out-loud funny comic I've ever read. Matt gave me Scott's compilation book, "Help Is On The Way" for Christmas. It's freakin' hilarious. Seriously. Scott has a most warped sense of humor.

Scott often uses images of his wife Missy in his strips. He usually gives her the good lines...the counter-punches to his dumbness. She is the sensible - and more importantly - sane one, the polar opposite to Scott's male craziness.

On Scott's blog, after viewing one recent installment of the comic, a commenteer noted that Missy looks something like, well, a lesbian. He was stereotyping her because of the short hair and nerdy glasses. Here's the strip in question: (And again, if you're blind like me, you'll probably have to right-click and "Open Link In New Window" to be able to read it.)

Eh- maybe she does, maybe she doesn't.

On Scott's blog, the comments went back and forth. Missy herself even posted that she was indeed, "gay for Scott" and suggested that she might get a wig for future drawings. Bizarre, that last part.

So Scott did something incredibly clever. He took one of his old strips and redrew it. He took Missy out, and in her place he put in the image of actress Portia de Rossi. Here are the two strips, the old then the new:



This is genius on so many levels. For one thing, despite the fact that Scott wanted to portray Missy as looking less like a lesbian, Portia de Rossi actually is a lesbian. Secondly, using a strip about a running gag as a running gag is brilliant. Thirdly, the redrawn strip again shows us the little picture of Scott in the smoking jacket, which was the subject of an earlier strip and has become a running gag by itself.

And I love the play on words in this strip. In my typical obliviousness I had never before noticed the similarity between Fats Domino and Chubby Checker. Tubby Marble? Gordo DeChessbishop? Oh, L-O-L !

Too much! Why can't all comic strips be this funny and good?

Here is the comic strip with the lesbian discussion. It starts with the second comment.

And Here is where you can order "Basic Instructions" stuff, like Scott's book. Please do! (I've already got one of his t-shirts, but I really love the one that says "I'm With Embarassed" with the arrow pointing off to the side. Yep, gotta get that one too.)