The Comic Strip, Part 24 - In the crowd of a million people, I'll find my valentine

"Funseekers" - March 26th, 1988

Someone had a lousy vacation.

I am always wary of the sort of folks who go in for mandatory organized hedonism. You will be having a perfectly good time at a party or drinking establishment, and then someone will start to get mad because they feel that everyone will be having so much more fun playing something like "catch the water balloon" or "pictionary" or "poker."

I like a good aimless party where people show up, eat/drink, listen to loud music while jumping up and down, and then I like it when it slows down and people start talking to each other.

I like traveling to places to see what is there, to feel for a moment like I am a part of it. I hate being trapped in a bubble of tourists who are so intimidated by the fact that people talk different and they don't know the way to the museum without asking or checking a map that they build up their defense mechanisms to the point where they might has well have gone on the grand tour of their back yard.

Dear heavens, I am a curmudgeon of fun.

When this episode started, I hated it. It was a bunch of alpha-enforced fake fun. And then, not to give the ending away, it all works out.

As a post-script, I have to say that I love this:


They spend about five minutes contriving to get the characters into precisely that pose, as well as a bunch of foreshadowing showing images of the Madonna looking like Katrin Cartlidge, but there is no reaction to this. It happens for the viewer, and then it is done. They refuse to take the easy way out. Good for them.