Lia Sounds Off About "For Better Or For Worse"

[pmkraa]

Glurging FOOB. I absolutely HATE this comic strip. It used to be my favorite, but it quickly turned into a POS when Dee "Ooops!"-ed her birth control. After that, I read it only to trash it. Just thought I'd re-visit and dump more on the FOOB. It's been a while.

[4thDan]

Interesting observations. I've only read it in passing, and rate it about on the same level as a lot of the "dinosaur" strips in the paper...the ones that never seem terribly funny, and will NEVER be dropped ("Blondie", "Sally Forth", "Family Circus", etc.). Sadly, there are very few cartoonists in the paper that I actually find funny and/or entertaining to read.

[Gorillamydreamz]

Imcmusicgirl09 -

Glad you love FBOFW. Sorry you don't see Lia must too. She read it every day.

In later years, JohnsTon did rely on puns for humour and approached every character from the same worldview: her own.

For many, reading their beloved strip became an exercise in frustration. But the love and JohnsTon's obvious skill kept us coming back for more. I think most of the complainers share your love for the strip.

That love is simply tempered with frustration. :)

[Gorillamydreamz]

Imcmusicgirl09-1. This video is obviously a tribute and the date is months before JohnsTon retired. The strip is obviously a big part of their lives.

2. Where's the typo? Lynn JohnsTon's name is spelled correctly on this posting. Are you referring to someone's comment?

3. We'll stop wearing socks only when hiking.

Bottom line, these people do love and understand the comic. Somewhere in there it just stopped growing. I love Beauty and the Beast but it's still about an abusive relationship.

[lmcmusicgirl09]

1. Lynn is officially retired. - - she's stated it herself.

2. It's Johnston, not Johnson. - - If you're going to post negative things, at least spell her name right.

3. When characters aren't wearing socks it's because they're in the house.

I could go on forever. lol If you're going to be negative, at least understand where the cartoonist /comics are coming from.

NOTE: this was funny, but your talent would be of greater use by simply being funny that bashing a (very talented) persons work.

[ROBSHOTGUN]

I totally disagree I think that there is alot of the pattersons in all of us !!!

they are very true to life

[pmkraa]

Hey, what's the name of that piano parlor solo playing in the background? It just seems to fit very well to Lia's snarking......BTW my hatred for the FOOB is on par with Lia's.......

[Gorillamydreamz]

Hilarious. You're going to get lots of marriage proposals from this sucker!

[TIPTON340]

Lia, your fabulous. I agree with you about FBOFW. I fell in love with it when it debuted in 1979 and enjoyed it through the decades, but as the kids grew I became disenchanted with it.

[MissAlainey1991]

i like you, your funny:)

[haffmonty]

Canadians don't wear shoes indoors. Ever. Especially in winter. The occasional thong (flip flop) or sandal or dress shoe on a special occasion might find it's way indoors, but on a day to day basis...NEVER. Canadians are much like the Japanese in that respect. It's a cultural thing.

[haffmonty]

And...I would wager...the average Canadian home's carpets and floors are much cleaner due to this 'quirky' custom.

[haffmonty]

The shelves in your home are gorgeous. Please fill them.

[frednora]

I love this comic, and I think this video is hilarious.

[OBarbara]

aha no favorite characters...........but you like to read it everyday????I got it,you love to hate it!~thats ok,Looking for the corny video called The Christmas Angel!~.wish me luck!~

[wolf25ph]

Funny. I read the comic and think what a perfect life they lead. I would love to be in a family that close, loving and perfect. Although not exciting to me it's warm and fuzzy and what I hope to have in a family.

[VioletGirlxox]

lol!

[mrgrt1]

I totally agree with Lia on every point. And, WHY oh WHY do I read this strip? I'm a glutton for punishment. I can't stand the story lines, the characters, the lame jokes and puns, and yet, I always read it. And now that Johnston is re-doing the strip from the beginning, I'm STILL going to keep reading it. AAAUUUUGGGHHH!!!

[emilygclarinet]

It's like watching a train wreck. You see horrible things, but can't pull your eyes away.

[violetw]

I agree, For Better or For Worse is a plebian comic strip... it's also so 'canadian'.... i.e., canada is now like europe -- a socialist state where no one can think for themselves anymore because they've been thoroughly enabled by their governments. Lynn Johnson is officially 'retired' (but refusing to admit it... by recycling her strip just like Charlie Brown strip, but at least the creator of that latter comic strip is dead and his heirs are violating his last request, to let the strip end.

[kittykisses]

I'm with you all the way!

[emilygclarinet]

You rock!

[Gorillamydreamz]

They will discover Elly's obsession for pushing her children toward the wrong people is due to her Alzheimer's. She thinks Anthony is alternately her grade three crush or "that intense, handsome fellow who tortures foreigners on 24".

[Gorillamydreamz]

April will run away, changing her name to Zimmerman as she lives a happy life devoid of predictable plotting, socks, and being forced by your omniscient creator to marry an inappropriate partner simply because they pulled your hair in kindergarten.

She will wear high heels, eat genteely, date and dump dozens of potential suitors as she climbs the corporate ladder.

[jrkelm]

and another thing... there is never any lack of a hot beverage when there is something to "talk over" in this strip. And doesn't Elizabeth know that two years ago Anthony was caught in the NBC Dateline sting "To Catch a Predator"? By the way, the feds are ready to draw up racketeering charges on Gordon Mayes.

[artmunky]

Hahaha oh yeah Anthony is creepy. Especially when he had his pedophile moustache.

[KirkVI]

I feel you on all points Lia,but like you, I have to read it every day!:) Micheal as a kid was/is my favorite character.

[allasan2]

Why did you waste your time making this video if you hate fbofw so much?

[artmunky]

I couldn't agree with you more. This is one of the more infuriating comic strips in the papers.  Thank you for saying what needed to be said.

[blbernak]

I totally agree. I was hoping the strip would end with Liz marrying and Grampa dying, which would have been OK, but it's not ending, is it? FBOFW is at the top of my newspaper page so I end with it, and lately I've just been skimming over it, not paying attention - there's no point, it just ends with some touching, lame pun as she said. I've been reading it all my life, but I wish it would just end already.

[debjyne]

Absolutely on target! What a bunch of losers the whole clan has turned into--and how sad there are some people who still think the Pattersons are something great. Heck, they aren't even nice now.

And nothing says true love like having a wedding ceremony while your father/grandfather is in the hospital dying....

[Spinningrobo]

I always wondered about relationship of Lynn to her real kids. Does she treat her son like a god and the daughter gets the left overs? In the strip Michael is virtuous, smart, talented and charming (ick) while Liz was in a pre-marital sex situation, dating lots of guys, couldn't be happy with her jobs, kept moving around, etc. What gives? I wanted Liz to marry the cop and live in the First Nations village. Pooh on Blandthony. But thank goodness he shaved the 'stache. :D

[lmcmusicgirl09]

@Spinningrobo Actually, Lynn rarely gets to see her son, while her daughter lives only a street over. He daughter is happily married to a man whom she's dated for years, and loves what she does and what he does.

[johnfrancisrizzuto]

Great insight! I always marvelled at their eating habits and lack of shoes also. Now the author is saying she's happy to be going back and doing reruns "it's like being 30 again". I say she just do a strip called "ellys life post John" I mean, when I get dumped, I can't say "hey boss, will you take my work from 30 years ago?" And Elizabeth choosing Anthony over the pilot, the cop or even the guy who cheated on her. What a loser.

[BillBrd1]

I've seen cardboard cutouts with more personality than Blandthony.

[thirdrobot]

"if you don't like it, don't read it"

how about, i don't like it and i'll read it and then make fun of it? does that work for you?

[HowAbominable]

The comic about Michael not being an intellectual is so true. He's never really shown any sort of intelligence at all. I'm probably more of an intellectual at age 20. Michael is an extremely average guy, who of course gets tons of praise and is worked up to be some sort of genius because he happens to be a Patterson.

As for making fun of the strip, that's the fun in it. While I hate the strip, I will be sad when it's gone and I can't pick on it anymore.

[Louisesplace]

I'll be sad when it's gone too-and I agree with you about Michael, HowAbominable!

[Gorillamydreamz]

Though we'll never get the chance to see it, I predict Micheal will soon be "outed" for plagerizing his book.

It will start when an old professor recognizes the atrocious spelling and lack of proper grammar in his novel is not, in fact, a stylistic choice and snowball from there.

Anthony will then comfort Michael and seduce him behind Liz's back. Old habits die hard, right Anthony?

[notgoth]

I used to love this strip and it's so sad how it's become this shadow of itself where none of the Pattersons are called out on their flaws and everybody marries some tool they dated in High School.

[dcaktor]

Ummm...reading it despite being irritated by it is kind of the whole point. Also, this is just for fun, for crying out loud.

[BtonMan75]

If you don't like it, don't read it.

Seems simple.

[bribabytt]

This was very revealing, though not necessarily about FBOFW.

[Louisesplace]

Ah, yes...the psychology of Lynn Johnston is fascinating...

[Zayrina]

I kind of hate you for being right.

You are funny though, even though I kind of hate you.

[Gracie287]

This is so awesome. I would love to hear your thoughts on the Wedding of the Century!

[sdsclg]

This is so great! Spot on!

[tpcomputerman]

Totally right with every point you made!

[normloman]

Accurate insight, given with an entertaining delivery. This surpasses the quality of the average youtube video. This Lia person ought be on the radio.

[jacktheripoff1888]

It's as if Lynn has been trying for decades to say; "Look, it's not as unrealistic eutopian perfect as you try to make it. Look at all these so-called problems I put in the strip all these years."

It jumped the shark with Farlry dying saving April.

I still read it too. For years I tell myself the same thing. There is no more Calvin and Hobbes so I might as well read this.

I'm just ticked because I cannot get syndication for my own strip "Yagoda and Yezhov".

[dagincajun]

Hahahahhahahahahahaha!!!! You tell em, Lia!

[Gracie287]

This is great!

[lokiskywalker]

Hell, I'm surprised Elizabeth didn't respond to her attempted rape with a lame joke.

[subeysvx]

Ah yes, the horror that is FBOFW. Of course Lia's right about everything, it is all so stupefyingly true. It's like a train wreck, I can't look away. At least it'll be ending soon and this tragic circle will come to an end. Well, go into endless reruns, anyway.

[GooglingMyEx]

Aw, come on, Twinsnake! Those folks seem to shoeless all the time, not just when relaxing. And I'm with Lia...John Patterson is a big dope. Take this week, when he said he didn't care about his home being upended by the imminent wedding because he wouldn't have to do anything! I don't need square-jawed; I just need non-dope!! Good point about wordplay, Twinsnake...but...some of those puns ARE pretty lame. :)

[Twinsnakecoatl]

It's obvious John is going to cooperate! Do you really think the father of the bride can afford to sit idly by during the whole affair?

You should know that John likes to tease Elly about her having to do all the housework. It's one of the quirks that keeps their marriage solid.

[singoutlouise]

Is that like that quirk he has of being emotionally abusive to Elly (calling her a dummy) when she was his dental assistant?

[Twinsnakecoatl]

So a one-time incident, in which he was in a bad mood, makes John Patterson an abusive husband?

[GooglingMyEx]

I don't know...it seemed as if he was always treating her shabbily when they were in that work situation. You make a good point that the standards of abuse have changed since the 1980s when those particular strips originally ran. I don't think that behavior was considered a big deal back then. Through our enlightened eyes these days, however, it comes off as emotional abuse. I don't know--maybe I just don't like the fella. You make good points. :)

[Twinsnakecoatl]

You make valid points too; a comment like that is hurtful in any decade or generation, but I'm pretty certain a strip with an apology appeared when the arc was originally published.

And it's okay if you don't like John or the strip in general. I don't intend to force you to change your opinion.

[Jenniferkate]

um, you do know that John Patterson isn't real, right? He's a character, albeit originally based oh Johnson's husband, but a character.

[singoutlouise]

Good! A jerk that big deserves to be fictional.

[artmunky]

Thank you for the clarification. I don't think anyone realized that. "Hey people, don't you know that water is wet?"  Thank you.

[Jenniferkate]

I try the best I can.

[Twinsnakecoatl]

Not wearing shoes bothers you? What kind of a reason is that? I mean, who doesn't like to take off their shoes after a hard day's work? I do, after walking over 10 miles daily.

Also "FBOFW" is based on real life, therefore, it's use of graphic comedy is limited; most of the time it has to rely on wordplay, which, I will add, is not always the use of puns.

Finally, if you want square-jawed men, I suggest you read "Brenda Starr", who always complains about aging, but has never actually done so.

[p9p8333]

Take a 10 mile walk off a 9 mile peir

[Twinsnakecoatl]

That's pier.

[rainbowrockers]

It drives me insane too. I hate it but I have to read it everyday. The puns are the worst and everyone thinks Lynn is so witty because of them. Ick.

[TServo2049]

What irks me about FBOFW? That it devolved into a freakin' soap opera.

I'm happy with my collections of classic 80s and early 90s strips...that's the FBOFW I grew up with.

[binkle1]

You are SO FUNNY! even though FBOFW is my favorite strip. I agree; you should have your own show. Now, I DEMAND you do a diss on "Cathy!" I HATE THAT STRIP! ;)

[Louisesplace]

This person is hilarious. Someone give her a cable show!