Off the Mark by Mark Parisi for April 19, 2015

The judges would reject “What If?” because it’s technically only the beginning of a question – or rather of a number of different questions (in the context of the book) – so Alex would not include it in his reading list.

Who is famous in America but foreigners have to use Google to catch the joke?

Somebody, coincidentally, gave me a book this afternoon, called “Why did I buy this book?”

Not a great Jeopardy question cos it has no concrete answer … but still an amusing coincidence, if you’re as easily amused as I am.

Toonerific… I know you probably weren’t complaining, just making a joke…But I quite often hear serious whining about how “American” a joke is, or how “arrogant” the cartoonist is for using American slang, or even putting temperatures in Fahrenheit.

And I’m always surprised.

Through the marvel of the internet, I can read a bit of the Times or the Guardian, and do the Private Eye Crossword… so I see the odd English cartoon.

The comics and the articles… not to mention the the puzzle…. are FULL of slang, British cultural references and allusions to people with whom I’m completely unfamiliar.

If I want to understand, or I’m trying to solve a puzzle, I Google them, as best I can… though sometimes I don’t even know what to search for.

I recently tried reading some cartoons online from Charlie Hebdo, but between the gaps in my French and my ignorance of French politics, I didn’t get much at all.

But it would never even occur to me that a cartoon on a British or French website should be more “international.” …nor that I have a right to demand that a cartoonist in Sheffield or Paris worry about whether I understand the joke.

GoComics isn’t meant to be merely a public service. It’s run by Universal UClick…who are in the business of syndicating, ie. selling, North American comic strips to North American newspapers.

I’m sure they’re delighted that some of their offerings have a world-wide following here…but they’re American (and a few Canadian) cartoons!

All questions inspired by Jeopardy!

I read the book titles wondering about the comic, then read the caption. Very funny. Yes, Susan Sunshine – I, too, am easily amused. That’s why I’m here.

“Who Censored Roger Rabbit?” (the original, now out-of-print, graphic novel to the Disney film.)

Yay, more publicity for Randall Munroe!

Regardless of the “books” in the cartoon, I’d like to get Trebek in a one on one dialog some time and see if he is really as “bright” as the arrogant “pri—” alludes to being!

SusanSunshine: Not all of them. Fred Basset is British. I remember when one of the Dallas newspapers carried it (it was that long ago), they flopped the picture to remove the right-hand steering. WuMo is German or Dutch (probably appears in both languages somewhere), etc.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Waldo is a small town in Indiana whose main industry is making red and white stripped stocking caps.