Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 02, 2022

Darn it! Who got FIRST PLACE?!?

Doesn’t sound like Vale’s story deserved 2nd place at all. Either the voting is rigged or they barely got any entries in.

Bernice had to get her little negative Zing in (as usual).

So…be honest… who has already finished off all of their left over Halloween candy?? LOL

It becomes clear why the Vale story lasted a week and had no resolution, only to be followed by the equally lame story writing contest story. He was setting things up for this. Frankly I’d rather we had a week of Luann shopping than rehashing Vale.

Mr. Packer has a lot of explaining to do once Miss DeGroot storms into the award ceremony.

I bet he researched the Can-Can dancers all on his own! 8^ )

Maybe this contest is a scam?

Vale forgot to include wine makers, bakers, prostitutes and thieves

Perhaps the individual who (mistakenly) took me to task for calling Luann “stupid” (which I did not) can criticize Bernice for doing the same now.

It becomes clear why the Vale story lasted a week and had no resolution, only to be followed by the equally lame story writing contest story. He was setting things up for this. Frankly I’d rather we had a week of Luann shopping than rehashing Vale.

Given the way this is going, maybe Axel won 1st place!

And THAT “won” second place??

Who sat on the Judge’s Panel?

Vale’s mom???

There must have been only three entries.

Nothing wrong with the story so far. “Vincent” is, indeed, the correct pronunciation, and the breakdown of the population of Paris is fairly accurate.

100,000 is a lot of cancan dancers and mimes.

G& K do you hate Lu that much she does all the work and Vale walks away with 1st place.

Sounds like a Hoax contest?

Well, howzaboudat? We don’t know for sure—though some may harbor suspicions—whether Vale quoted Luann verbatim for his “van Gogh’s diary” school assignment, but it appears that he wrote his contest entry on his own (unless he plagiarized from someone else), contrary to the assumptions of many of yesterday’s commenters. G&K pull the patented misdirection play again! And the folks who were wondering why the van Gogh diary entries Luann made up would have been submitted to a humor contest have their answer: They weren’t.

That last panel WOULD be the end of whatever ‘friendship’ ever existed between the two. Literally proving the old adage of “with friends like that, who needs enemies”.

Interesting that the wikipedia entry that Vale copied from has a pronunciation guide for “Claude” but not for Monet. Is it pronounced “MO-net” “MON-et” or “Mo-NAY?”

Paris didn’t have a blacksmith????

The contest was for a humorous story. Luann provided Vale with background information for his class assignment regarding Van Gogh. He did that assignment and then saw the contest for a humorous story. Now, he saw his chance to put his own spin on a dull story and turn it into a parody. I’ll always remember when we had to do an essay on Mac Beth in high school, and one of the guys turned it into a brilliant and riotous diagnosis of Lady Mac Beth’s chronic cigarette cough.

Speaking of clods, it appears one outstripped Luann in the contest. Sooo – Who’s on first?

This sounds like jokes from a recently developed robot.

Vale’s story sounds really bad and unfunny. So, unless it gets better right after that part, either one of the jury members is a relative of him, or this contest is extremely bad. Luann still won a prize, but seeing a bad story win a bigger prize is depressing. I like how the strip talk about this kind of conflict situations.

Am I the only one who is still mad that we don’t know what is happening with Tiff and the Manse? I admit that sometimes this strip should be named “Tiffany” instead of “Luanne,” but geez.

Judges must have found some humor in Vale’s writing as a non-fiction spoof.

Vale’s gag about “Vincent Van Gogh (pronounced Vincent)” is a hilarious take on how hard it is for non-Dutch people to properly pronounce his last name.

A: “There was a painter here earlier asking for you.”

B: “Did he leave his name?”

A: “He started to. Said ‘Vincent’ and then had some kind of choking fit.”

So who got first place? And what happened with Tom Farrell‘s window upstairs which was busted and the bar bent in?

If THAT’S bad, imagine how awful Luann’s entry was considering she lost to Vale’s entry.

300,000 tourists are always in Paris. 200,000 are trying to become artists. The rest are watching the Can-Can dancers. Doing the math, a total of 999,000 people are trying to avoid the mimes.

I can do bad, too.

I dunno, Luann. It’s more entertaining than what YOU write.

So, is he explaining how to pronounce Monet’s first name, or is he calling him a clod?

Because he’s kind of all over the map with the parenthetical asides…

Isn’t this supposed to be a COMEDY writing contest??

That ape’s entry isn’t at all funny.

Ouch; if this got second place, that’ll make Luann reconsider her warm glow about her third place finishing. Then again, it does emphasize how subjective the whole judging thing really is.

Only reason I can think of as to why Vale’s entry won ANY award, is that the judges must of thought it was satire.

Oh, a BURN from Bern.

I like that he says how to pronounce “Vincent,” but not “Van Gogh.”

Way to rub it in, Bernice.

It’s like music. Today’s music is so distilled down to certain beats per minute, certain specific sounds used, rhythms, sounds, etc.

Actual songwriting skills are not considered because they might make you think, if the lyrics are more than ‘OOOOH BABY!’. And (gasp!) there might be melody, dynamics, harmonies, and counterpoint. OMG and the world will explode if there is polyrhythmic structure or an odd time signature.

Yet some sneak by. In 1980 Genesis released DUKE, and the song “Turn it on again” was a huge hit, even though it was in 13/8 if memory serves. But 1980 is a LONG time ago.

Sadly these days music is distilled down to the lowest common denominator. Dumbed down and instrumental skill is considered self-indulgent, or showing off.

This doesn’t sound like Luann’s suggestions; so at least Vale wrote it himself and is trying to make it humorous. Luann hasn’t finished reading it so we can’t fully comment; maybe the judges thought that the name miss-spellings were intentional plays on words.

Why are the most interesting stories here about Tiffany?

If the rest of the essay is like this, I’m surprised, as it seems he did write it himself and didn’t use Luann’s ideas. But I’m a bit skeptical and think he may have sold the recording to someone who did win first prize. Axel? It’s a stretch, I know. Couldn’t be another football player we know, Kip? Not sure GnK would crossover Luann with the quad gang. :-o

Vale’s story does not include any of the diary entries Luann gave him. So maybe he did write it himself.

Having read Luann’s story, she’s no David Sedaris herself.

For those who didn’t see or forgot Luann’s idea, check out August 11 on.

G&K were the judges of the writing contest, and to them everyone, even a smarmy jerk like Vale is superior to Luann.

I’m surprised they let Luann have third place.

If this got 2nd place, how bad was Luann’s entry that got 3rd?

Couldn’t be Luann – it’s too clever.

Greatly improved!!

I think Vale’s writing is hilarious!

Bernice is such a card

I don’t think Vale put a lot of effort into the story. Just sayin.

Fun bit is apparently it was better than whatever you wrote

Yup. Three entrees.

Geez, it was judged by kids. Really would’ve gotten better entries from kid writers.

I think Vincent Van Gogh spent most of his life in The Netherlands,not Paris

Somebody should mention that Toulouse-Lautrec was a dwarf who lived his life in heavy-duty pain and died before he was 40.

Meanwhile,back at the mansion,Tiffany is trapped in the elevator.

Aaaand there it is. Bernice couldn’t let an event pass without a snippy comment.

I don’t think Bern is being snippy or nasty. Luann said she deserved credit for the story but Bern doesn’t know what content Luann provided to him. She’s just inquiring.

(pronounced TWO TEA BUG) Just had to do it. Now I feel just like a young teenager.

Bernie manages to get back to snarking on Luann.

Meanwhile….

Actually, from what we’ve heard of it, I find Vale’s tale rather amusing!

I always like the snark!