Adams’ Apple
There’s a comic strip in the Oregonian from a former (or current?) elementary school teacher from Vancouver, Washington. A while ago, the Oregonian surveyed several comic strips to decide which new strip to add to the paper and replace the Peanuts reprints. Since all the new comic strips sucked (although I was mildly partial to Lio, but it was a case of grading on a curve), the winner as the Peanuts reprint — over 50 percent of respondents voted for it. “Adams’ Apple”, the Vancouver based strip, came in second, and thus ended up replacing some forgetable comic strip that had lingered on the Comics page unnoticed for some time.
I am not one that derides the comics page of the newspaper. There are about a dozen good strips — not terribly great and not really Appointment Reading. The best of the lot seem to lose something in collected book form where a Calvin and Hobbes would gain something.
Adams’ Apple is a strip that I suppose would garner knowing nods of recognition from teachers. The art isn’t terribly great, and the gags go no further than the cartoonists’ observations and anecdotes. So it was that it aggrivated me a few week’s ago. For a moment I had to ponder whether I had wandered a little too far into Political Correctness for my own good to decide whether this former (or current) teacher and now cartoonist of a not terribly good comic strip and a stupid gag of mild intolerance was worth a couple seconds worth anger.
I searched the web for the strip, since I would rather present it than explain it, but it appears “Adams’ Apple” isn’t on the web. Which is just as well.
So the teacher has the class rise to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. One student asks the teacher if he can be excused from the recitation of the Pledge. The teacher thinks “Oh boy. It’s one of those kids.” The next panel shows the teacher reciting a spiel about “Oh, no. We respect diversity of religion and etc.” The final panel has the kid saying “So I can go use the bathroom”, and the teacher breathing a sigh of relief.
Is the cartoonist just a little obnoxious? Goddamned those Jehovah’s Witnesses who put an unwelcome spork in our daily rituals and just mildly don’t conform. Why must we change slight things around for their benefit?
October 24th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Friend: I know that you wrote this entry over a year ago, but I stumbled upon it while searching for this infernal comic on the web—there is still (mercifully) no online edition.
I hate this comic. I, like you, am not one to complain about the comics page, but this has to be the most retarded thing I have ever read…anywhere. It’s not funny, it’s not intellectual, it’s just juvenile, much like many public school teachers I’ve met—and I WANT to be a public school teacher!
I have even written the Oregonian in a humorous way encouraging them to stop killing their readers by printing this lame comic, but to no avail. I am ponding legal action.
November 13th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Nathan,
Well, I guess I don’t understand why you ‘hate’ the comic Adams Apples. Is it because it presents a conservative view of the city of Portland and presented in an extremely liberal newspaper named the Oregonian? The other day was the ‘dig’ referring to naming a street after a labor leader. I mentioned naming a street Jimmy Hoffa or Walter Reuther to some friends one night when we were discussing Interstate Avenue and here it is in print. Today’s strip derided our mayor for walking out of the commissioners meeting.
I consider it a miracle that this point of view is even in the Oregonian. Mr Ohman, the Oregonian’s editorial artist hasn’t even touched these subjects. I’m hoping Mr. Adams takes on the local bicyclists and the liberties they have ‘taken’. I call it anarchy…
The fellow above your letter mentioned the artwork. What does he want? Hal Foster’s rendering of Tarzan or Prince Valiant? Mr. Adams’ artwork far surpasses some of the other strips in the Living section. (Also, I fail to understand the context of the paragraph.
I hope that in your trek to become a teacher, you will try to develop a sense of humor to go along with the subject you will teach. You will need it!
By the way, what is ‘ponding legal action’?
November 13th, 2007 at 11:28 am
It barely registers as a dig against Potter, which it does not need to be. More to the point, today’s strip does not make any sense. Why would a parent call the principal if his child for saying the teacher called the city council members (or was it the mayor) an elephant? It’s not insulting so much as non-sensical. His Joke Generator was malfunctioning, the formula correct today — the ingredients off.
November 13th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Hmmm, Let me take another look at it.. Ah, I think it is ALSO a comment on the students NOT paying attention. Problems that teachers have today.
They had them in my day too, sixty plus years, but there was a board that helped with my attention span… not allowed today which is a shame, I feel.
Parents call the principal’s office because they feel their child is being misdirected. The teacher says one thing, the kid hears another, and the parent hears something else. Sort of like that Norman Rockwell ‘gossip’ painting he did some time ago.
Probably, Justin, this strip should be relegated to an editorial cartoon, yet Doonesbury is also politically aligned, would you not say?
November 13th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Yes, I understand the premise of the strip. It is one that has been used before, and one that usually makes sense. The rub with this one is that what the student told the parent through the incorrect relaying of “Irrelevant” to “Elephant” is simply a silly non-sequitur, and nothing that would alarm the parent– as is the case with other miscorrect relays the strip has used in the past. I am unable to cite an example because I don’t make it a point to remember episodes of “Adams’ Apple”. While other incorrect statements of “What the teacher told us in class” might get that “call to the prinicipal”, this one would not. Hence, the joke-generator for this formula was malfunctioning this one particular time.
February 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
God I hate this strip. The tone is preachy, the characters are unlikable (the teacher wags his finger at everyone! It’s so obnoxious!) and worst of all, the jokes simply aren’t funny. Nine times out of ten, it just uses some unbelievably trite comic strip cliche (kids are better with computers than adults! students dislike homework! HAHAHA.) and the rest of the time, it simply doesn’t make sense.
Here’s a link to one of the strips, the only one I can find online:
http://www.nea.org/people/images/comicrelief2.jpg
If I were a waiter, and someone did that to me, I’d spit in his food.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
This strip makes me want to hang myself. How this idiot teacher ever got his lame, badly drawn comic strip into the newspaper is beyond me. All he ever does is make terrible puns and whine about the administration. Oh, and today we get the headlice thing again. Baby louse says something about musical theater, daddy louse comments on how lice have a long history in theater. How so, baby louse wants to know. Well, son, haven’t you ever seen “Hair?” HAHAHAHAHA. Get it? Cause they live in the hair? Lice in your hair! AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. Will the hilarity never end.
I really hope that crap puns are not what makes a “conservative oregonian,” mr. walters, that would be kind of scary. This strip has no mind at all, and doesn’t even approach having a political one. The only positive thing about it is that it has probably inspired hundreds of down on their luck oregonions not to give up– if this chump can make it, anybody can.
July 23rd, 2011 at 6:55 am
THANK YOU Justin and Lolo – I am not alone. Today’s strip – 7/23/11 – the young boy says “it’s way to early to be talking about school yet.” That first “to” should be “too.” This is not the first time that this strip has made basic grammatical errors – I would think he was doing it on purpose but I don’t think he’s that clever. Bad art and dumb jokes are par for the course (although this strip excels in both) – but this is too much.
July 23rd, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Grammatical errors might be more excusable if not for the subject matter.
March 30th, 2012 at 9:00 pm
BEST CARTOON THING EVER YOUR AWSOME!!!