Yes, Opal and Earl bicker, but they also make comedic jabs….
and they both get it. They know it’s funny.
If you’re trying to create humor, especialy in a few panels, an always sweet, soft-spoken spouse is just not as funny as a flippant or acerbic one….
so you pick a couple who are sarcastic, or love to get in jokes and digs.
It doesn’t mean a lack of affection…..
just that their way of communicating, which might seem very funny in real life, doesn’t always translate, for some people, to a comic or the written word.
I see critical comments about Opal, and also about Peggy, in “Daddy’s Home”, Nancy, in “Luann”, and others I can’t think of…..
usually the women, but sometimes the men, too…
or sometimes they’re not spouses, but comedy foils, like Grandma in “Agnes.”
They’re called mean, or suggestions are made to dump them.
Yet if you see a pair like that living next door… even on TV, like on “Roseanne”, or “Married with Children”…
you know you’re supposed to giggle, not be outraged.
Look way back, to “The Honeymooners.”
Some of Jackie Gleason’s “funny” digs sound a bit more misogynistic in 2018… but the bickering, and Alice’s heavy sarcasm… were the basis of the humor.
I see this all the time in the comics…
Yes, Opal and Earl bicker, but they also make comedic jabs….
and they both get it. They know it’s funny.
If you’re trying to create humor, especialy in a few panels, an always sweet, soft-spoken spouse is just not as funny as a flippant or acerbic one….
so you pick a couple who are sarcastic, or love to get in jokes and digs.
It doesn’t mean a lack of affection…..
just that their way of communicating, which might seem very funny in real life, doesn’t always translate, for some people, to a comic or the written word.
I see critical comments about Opal, and also about Peggy, in “Daddy’s Home”, Nancy, in “Luann”, and others I can’t think of…..
usually the women, but sometimes the men, too…
or sometimes they’re not spouses, but comedy foils, like Grandma in “Agnes.”
They’re called mean, or suggestions are made to dump them.
Yet if you see a pair like that living next door… even on TV, like on “Roseanne”, or “Married with Children”…
you know you’re supposed to giggle, not be outraged.
Look way back, to “The Honeymooners.”
Some of Jackie Gleason’s “funny” digs sound a bit more misogynistic in 2018… but the bickering, and Alice’s heavy sarcasm… were the basis of the humor.
Maybe GoComics needs a laugh track!