Crankshaft by Tom Batiuk and Dan Davis for July 03, 2023

In the quiet words of Queen Elizabeth I, “Come again?”

Well, I guess this explains why Ed suddenly disappeared from the lobby of the Valentine last week. Pity he couldn’t have brought a punchline along with him.

Why do Ed’s daughters keep dragging him to classical music concerts and operas? OK, I realize it’s so that Ed can make some malapropism about what he’s just heard, but they’re no better than Harry Dinkle’s “puns” about composer Claude Barlowe.

The program director needed to Chopin the night’s program and promised the orchestra would come Bach with more Beethoven.

“That’s all right,” says Ed, who’s now on his fourth fifth.

Does anyone in this strip not have a “resting smug face”?

They could do Beethoven’s Eroica three times…

You GO fourth but you TAKE the fifth.

Either way, Schroeder would approve.

Play the fifth and go home.

For this holiday the orchestra should be playing “The Stars and Stripes Forever”.

Instead of numbers 4 and 5, how about Beethoven’s 6-pack?

Tee hee.

It’s funny because they had to cancel which symphony they were going to play because…um…the guy who shoots off the cannon is sick? No, wait, wrong symphony.

Do Batuik and Davis owe you guys money? They don’t keep their lawn up? They cut you off in traffic? The comments here look like everyone belongs to a club of Batuik and Davis haters.

What, no “Lisa’s Story” plastered everywhere??

Actually, he’s not talking about the symphonies but the soundtracks from the straight-to-the-bargain-DVD-bin entries in the film series.

But……1/9 is less than either 1/4 or 1/5.

Did you that they excavated Beethoven’s tomb?

When they opened it, they found it was half full of sheet music and half full of blank staff paper – and Beethoven was in the middle, furiously erasing.

They queried “Why, Herr Beethoven, whatever are you doing?”

“Can’t you see, you fools? I’m decomposing!”

…_ Morse code for the letter V. V for victory. That motif was widely used in WWII by both sides in many forms of media from animated cartoons to posters. But mostly by the Allies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BmyaP9Vj1U

And here is a short doc narrated by Mrs. G.B. Trudeau. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6eIkamRsO8

Ha ha. It’s funny because 5+4=9. I guess.

Incidentally, applause and intermission aside, playing both symphonies takes about as long as the the 9th (65-70 minutes). So the audience needs not feel short-changed by the new program.

Haha! XD