Doonesbury's debut
Today's silent penultimate panels are from two usual suspects:
Boondocks by "Aaron McGruder"
Pearls Before Swine by Stephin Pastis
and, in a special debut to the watch:
Doonesbury by Gary Trudeau
We've seen that the SPP tends to be a tool (trick, crutch, whatever) of the younger generation--the McGruders, Pastises, and Malletts of the comics world. But even a grizzled veteran like Trudeau can pull a silent penultimate panel on us from time to time. Well, why not? Any cliches that he wants to use--an SPP, or a child's malaprop--he can. (As long as he never has B.D. say "I fell on the slidewalk.")
And reader Suzzii points out this week's This Modern World:
That's a silent penultimate panel, allright. Thanks, Suzzii.
posted by Matt Gill at 5:10 PM
1 Comments:
It seems you've started something, mentioned in USA Today (online at least)even.
However, you never really explain WHY you track SPPs, or even why SPPs exist. The "silent beat" phenomenon is interesting in comedy, and dedicating an entire panel (or usually 25% of a "standard" comic) seems to show that having the silent beat is important at times. Is it really necessary to have, can the jokes stand alone without it?
Your thoughts on the subject would be interesting to hear. I read many online comics, and have noticed a trend in SPPs as well.
Best of luck.
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