Wednesday. July 15, 2009 Marmaduke Analyzed

Unable to achieve sufficient thrust to clear the roof, Marmaduke decides that the safest place to land is on the children.

Marmaduke appears to have suddenly sprung from the neighbors' yard, and is about to crash into a pool occupied by children. Although it seems like only a second should elapse between the appearance of the dog and the crushing of the children, one child has managed to find the time to say, "Uh-oh. Here comes another splashdown in the Hudson." In the time it takes to say this, the kids could have taken evasive action and cleared the pool; yet there they remain, waiting for their demise. Billy has even stretched his arms out as though waiting to catch Marmaduke.

How is all this possible, we may ask? A better question would be, how is the daily publication of this strip possible. Still another question would be, why have Brad and Paul Davidson waited six months after the crash of flight 1549 to try to make a joke out of it. True, they couldn't have made a swimming pool joke in January, but this joke really shouldn't have been made at all. There is little in common with birds taking down an airliner full of people and a birdbrained dog about to take out a pool full of kids.

The most disturbing thing though, is why is the strange brown-haired kid comparing the swimming pool to the Hudson River, which still has problems with raw sewage?