I think I get the idea – it’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Sonny tries to sort out his life by writing down things that he hates, Daddy blows his stack seeing that spankings are one of those things, and gives him a spanking – even though the whole point of spanking is to act as a deterrent – you are SUPPOSED to hate getting spanked and associate it with the thing you did wrong. Dad is utterly missing the point of discipline and thus the resentment and punishment will continue unabated. It’s more of a “hmm” punchline than a “haha” punchline, but that appears typical for this strip.
My change would be if the Dad set up a suggestion box in the first panel, and Sonny wrote “no more spankings” in the second, with the third and fourth staying the same. It still wouldn’t be hilarious, but it would follow a more traditional joke setup.
This comic just made me sad . . . setting up the kid to be spanked. Been there, had it happen . . .
Ugly.
Simply not in any way funny.
Well, we know the kid isn’t English. The English Vice isn’t for him.
The child is a manipulative masochist. He wrote “Things I Hate” on his dad’s favourite cardboard box (he has an extensive collection of cardboard boxes of historical and cultural significance). Then he put his “spankings” note inside it, hoping to goad his father into a spanking. Dad is normally very calm and “Ward Cleaver” in his discipline, but he was fooled into thinking that spankings might ensure the child never commits such a horrible act again.
It must be a trope this week – how your parents messed you up . . .
One of the top five reasons why I didn’t. Oh, you can be self-aware enough to realize what parts of your upbringing you didn’t like and do those things differently – and I like to think that’s what I did with my stepdaughter – but with a child who is with me 24/7/365? I didn’t think I could keep from reverting to how I was raised. ‘Nuff said. Written, I mean.
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think I get the idea – it’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Sonny tries to sort out his life by writing down things that he hates, Daddy blows his stack seeing that spankings are one of those things, and gives him a spanking – even though the whole point of spanking is to act as a deterrent – you are SUPPOSED to hate getting spanked and associate it with the thing you did wrong. Dad is utterly missing the point of discipline and thus the resentment and punishment will continue unabated. It’s more of a “hmm” punchline than a “haha” punchline, but that appears typical for this strip.
My change would be if the Dad set up a suggestion box in the first panel, and Sonny wrote “no more spankings” in the second, with the third and fourth staying the same. It still wouldn’t be hilarious, but it would follow a more traditional joke setup.
This comic just made me sad . . . setting up the kid to be spanked. Been there, had it happen . . .
Ugly.
Simply not in any way funny.
Well, we know the kid isn’t English. The English Vice isn’t for him.
The child is a manipulative masochist. He wrote “Things I Hate” on his dad’s favourite cardboard box (he has an extensive collection of cardboard boxes of historical and cultural significance). Then he put his “spankings” note inside it, hoping to goad his father into a spanking. Dad is normally very calm and “Ward Cleaver” in his discipline, but he was fooled into thinking that spankings might ensure the child never commits such a horrible act again.
It must be a trope this week – how your parents messed you up . . .
Obligatory link to “This Be The Verse” by poet laureate Philip Larkin: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48419/this-be-the-verse
“And don’t have any kids yourself.”
One of the top five reasons why I didn’t. Oh, you can be self-aware enough to realize what parts of your upbringing you didn’t like and do those things differently – and I like to think that’s what I did with my stepdaughter – but with a child who is with me 24/7/365? I didn’t think I could keep from reverting to how I was raised. ‘Nuff said. Written, I mean.