Friday, January 18, 2008

Who Are the Real Losers?

I've had a problem with The Born Loser since there was a strip where the protagonists' boss, Rancid Veeblefester (!) made a horrible sexist comment. I wish I could remember the date of the strip to showcase it because it made me realize that The Born Loser is one of the worst strips currently in production. The art is simplistic, the characters are one-dimensional and embarrassingly stupid.

The strip was started in 1965 by Art Samson and originally didn't feature any regular characters. Currently the strip stars Brutus Thornapple, his wife Gladys, son Wilberforce and collection of other characters, each more stupider than the last. No offense to Art or his son, Chip (who started on the strip in 1989) but the comic strip is horrible and needs to be put to sleep.

Our initial installment features Brutus talking to some guy who we find out in the last panel is his Uncle Ted. The strip gives you a small chuckle but the thing I'm wondering about is the age difference between Brutus and Uncle Ted. Now, keeping in tone with the strip, Brutus went bald probably around age 27. Brutus should now be about 40 at most 45. Uncle Ted should look older to me because he's Brutus' dad's brother. Maybe I'm just projecting my stereotypes of uncles onto Ted. Let's see if we ever see Uncle Ted again and maybe that will help clarify.