Interest Haiku #1: Zippy the Pinhead

[flwyd]

shadowpryde recently thought of writing a journal entry about each of her LJ interests. While she hasn't done so (and I can't blame her), I think this is an interesting meme, so I'll get it rolling. I'll arbitrarily go backwards most of the time.

Zippy the Pinhead --
Inner child, big clown
Roadside monuments' best friend
True American

The comics page is often full of comics that make you go "Huh? I don't see why that's funny." Zippy, on the other hand, makes lots of people say "Huh? I don't have a damn clue what's going on." Those folks would do well to check out How To Understand Zippy the Pinhead.

Once I got used to the strip, I came to appreciate it as a daily commentary on the poignant yet pointless world that is American culture, past and present. It is a world of diners and road side statues, where worried intelectual musings encounter trite simplicity. That a whimsical strip of surrealist consumerism makes its way into modern newspapers is surprising and comforting to me.