Creative Bender is currently enjoying some time in Europe. If you please leave your name, your number, and a comment after the beep, CB will get back to as soon as possible. *BEEP*
It is true, I am currently in Europe. Expect no updates until I return. Which will be in a week. I know, how can you survive a whole week without Creative Bender? It will be tough for me too.
What, another comic? Is this site turning into nothing but drawings? Not really, but between Sean and I’s colloboration on Hollow Oak University, my own dabblings with Back of the Envelope, and now Sean and I’s easy going Filler, it seems like it, doesn’t it?
Filler is essentially me firing off a couple of lines to Sean, he draws the letters, and it comes right back to me. Consider it the fast food comic of this website. Where HOU is the steakhouse and Back of the Envelope is that dive bar you frequent, which results in beer goggles and makes it appear better than it really is.
You are as beautiful as the sun
This poem is now done
Simple and to the point. And for the record, I would never suckerpunch anyone. At least to their face!
A rock band runs onstage to the delight and screams of its fans in attendance.
LEAD SINGER: Thank you! It is great to be here in Cleveland!
BASS PLAYER: Actually, we are in Chicago.
LEAD SINGER: Oh, well, it is great to be wherever we are! We are The Crickets!
DRUMMER: Um, we are not The Crickets. We are The Harpoons.
LEAD SINGER: I knew that. I knew that. Man, it must have been all the alcohol I drank backstage.
RHYTHM GUITAR: You were drinking apple juice.
LEAD SINGER: Was that what that was?
RHYTHM GUITAR: Pretty sure you wrote that as a rider in our contract.
LEAD SINGER: I am way off tonight.
BASS PLAYER: It is the middle of the day.
The lead singer looks up into the sky into the blazing sun.
LEAD SINGER: So that is not the moon?
BASS PLAYER: Not by a long shot.
LEAD SINGER: Okay. Let me get this straight: We are The Harpoons and we are playing a midday concert in Chicago. And the pressure I am feeling on my bladder is from apple juice and not beer.
DRUMMER: Exactly.
LEAD SINGER: Whew. I think I have it all figured out. Now, for our first number, we are going to play our big hit “Stairway to Heaven!”
RHYTHM GUITAR, BASS PLAYER, and DRUMMER: THAT’S NOT OUR HIT!
This one is from my old college roomie and you can tell it has the college spirit. The phrase is all “rah rah” and some “sis-coom-bah.” I think these cards are now inspired to take on bigger challenges, like the Mona Lisa or Starry Night. 52 Card Write-Up may be the underdog, but with cheers like this one, it may be unstoppable. Also, despite not being from Texas, the writer decided to warn me about messing with the Lonestar State. I wasn’t going to cross Texas anyways, but this is just further reinforcement not to get on the state’s bad side. So, the moral of this card: dominate, but stay away from Texas. Not worth the effort.
There are numerous other clues. Jerry, Kramer, and George all have alternate personalities they take on, like George’s Art Vandalay, mirroring and further fracturing Jerry’s own mind. Kramer remains first nameless for a few seasons, reflecting Jerry’s own ill-definition of what it means to be untethered. Numerous plotlines come together at the end of episodes as if some omniscient force (read: Jerry’s mind) is overseeing things and wants to tidy up the story. Jerry pictures his father as two different people. The world he has built for himself allows him to date numerous beautiful women and then discard them like they are nothing without consequence. Jerry even gives himself an easily defeated nemesis in Newman. If Newman does not get his comeuppance from Jerry himself, often “fate” does the job.
View the landmark episode “The Contest” not as one centered on self-pleasure, but on Jerry’s fight with reality and his fantasy world. Think about what happens if Jerry “wins:” he can reenter the real world. He wins against the rules he himself set forth, both in the episode in regards to the contest, and the world he created. Of course the first person out would be Kramer, he is the one most unrealistic in the “reality” of the show. He would be the easiest to dismiss on the way back to reality. In the series finale, we learn that George won, but he cheated. Jerry’s own neurosis self sabotaged Jerry’s quest to become sane.
As the seasons (and Jerry’s own illness) progress, the plots become more ridiculous. Jerry is slowly becoming more insane, leading to episodes that unfurl backwards, contain sequences that are eerily similar to the movie JFK (which crazy Jerry must have seen before entering the mental institute), and so on. Characters associated with George (Jerry’s neurosis) either enter or have just returned from a mental hospital over the course of the series: George’s girlfriend admits herself after a George gaffe and George’s old neighbor has just returned from one. It is not surprising that the character associated with Jerry’s neurosis, what drove him crazy, is associated with those characters. Even George himself gets carted off when George Steinbrenner is worried about him. Yet, we hear nothing more about that after the episode. Once again, Jerry’s mind smoothes out or dismisses anything that would force him to think about his situation.
The series is Jerry’s mind rum amok. These characters face little to no long term consequence. That is, until the end. The series finale had Jerry locked up with his imaginary friends. Jerry can no longer run away from them and must face them. And what does George say? Why, he makes a joke referencing Jerry’s top button. This joke echoes a line from an early episode. But what is more important is that Jerry is confronting the incident that drove him made: his bad comedy. This is furthermore emphasized when we see Jerry performing in jail to a silent (and dangerous crowd). Now, crazed Jerry has constructed a situation where he must face his fear and overcome it. Hopefully, Jerry conquers his own demons and comes out on the other side all the more funny.
Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to? Tommy Tu-Tone may be singing abotu a girl named Jenny, and the actual song title is Jenny, but most people remember her number: 867-5309. And so, on this card, the writer decided to honor Mr. Tu-Tone and write Jenny’s number, not on the wall, but on the eight of diamonds. He really made this card his. He got it, he got it, and for a good time, he wrote. I can go on with the Tu-Tone puns, but I will stop here. I will say, 8 seems to inspire a lot of musical references, between this card and the “Eight”y Breaky Heart one.
National Park, in Washington, D.C.
At Nationals Park, in Washington, D.C., the Presidents race each other
Dan Uggla, of the Florida Marlins, waits for the pitch
Hanley Ramirez, of the Florida Marlins, gets into his batting stance
Mike Stanton, of the Florida Marlins, approaches the plate
Trying a new way to draw these. And by new way, I mean new orientation. I think it is a tad clearer. Which makes these comics as murky as the waters of the Gulf of Mexico…too soon?
Creative Bender 