Is there more to this than just typical Amelia behavior, responding to an order to stop by throwing another carrot?
It’s not part of a longer sequence. The days before after this one have different topics.
Related
12 Comments
I’m not sure either, but it looks like Amelia isn’t looking forward to eating the carrots, so the prospect of getting rid of the whole bag wouldn’t be a punishment to her. So she throws a few more, a win-win situation.
Wallace is a kid who rejects boundaries, who wants to experience all he can, and who sometimes act in ways that others think inappropriate. Amelia needs to behave inappropriately. She has an emotionally distant father, who wants his daughter to be a “pretty little princess.” (Wallace has what must be one of the greatest sets of parents in the history of comics-land.) Amelia acts out. Like Brando in The Wild One, her answer to “What are you rebelling against?” would be “What’ve you got?” That includes her doing things like smashing pumpkins or, here, throwing carrots in class.
When I first saw this strip last week, I thought that Wallace’s “bug-eyed” reaction was inordinantly strong for a tiny carrot “plip“, but seeing it again here, it was probably just his shock at hearing the teacher go ballistic.
P.S. In retrospect, the strip would have worked much better if the third panel had zoomed in even more than the second, so that Wallace’s “calm” face would not have been visible.
Quite disconcerting that not only does the teacher “go ballistic”, but her smooth immediate return to the planning conversation with Wallace, without missing a beat, reveals (to us and to the startled Wallace) the depth of her control over her presentation of mood.
@Mitch: to me, that was the whole point. The teacher “turns on” the persona required for the situation, and so easily returns to the previous calm discussion.
Thanks, Chemgal, I’m glad you said much more clearly the idea I also was trying to say!
Shades of Cheech & Chong’s “Sister Mary Elephant”…
Class? Class!
SHUT UP!
Thank you.
And now I’m going to read from this lovely book of poetry.
The sun kisses the morning skies.
The birds kiss the butterflies.
The dew kisses the morning grass.
Uh, class? Class!
WAKE UP!
[As recorded, the poem has no fourth line, but I think the fourth line starts out “And you, my friend, may kiss…]
@ MiB – That recalls a line from “Welcome to Duloc” in “Shrek”:
“Please keep off of the grass;
Shine your shoes, wipe your…
… Face.“
Which recalls the Gritty Kitty poem from Ren & Stimpy:
“Gritty Kitty ain’t so pretty,
But it’s really…
Thick.”
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’m not sure either, but it looks like Amelia isn’t looking forward to eating the carrots, so the prospect of getting rid of the whole bag wouldn’t be a punishment to her. So she throws a few more, a win-win situation.
Wallace is a kid who rejects boundaries, who wants to experience all he can, and who sometimes act in ways that others think inappropriate. Amelia needs to behave inappropriately. She has an emotionally distant father, who wants his daughter to be a “pretty little princess.” (Wallace has what must be one of the greatest sets of parents in the history of comics-land.) Amelia acts out. Like Brando in The Wild One, her answer to “What are you rebelling against?” would be “What’ve you got?” That includes her doing things like smashing pumpkins or, here, throwing carrots in class.
When I first saw this strip last week, I thought that Wallace’s “bug-eyed” reaction was inordinantly strong for a tiny carrot “plip“, but seeing it again here, it was probably just his shock at hearing the teacher go ballistic.
P.S. In retrospect, the strip would have worked much better if the third panel had zoomed in even more than the second, so that Wallace’s “calm” face would not have been visible.
Quite disconcerting that not only does the teacher “go ballistic”, but her smooth immediate return to the planning conversation with Wallace, without missing a beat, reveals (to us and to the startled Wallace) the depth of her control over her presentation of mood.
@Mitch: to me, that was the whole point. The teacher “turns on” the persona required for the situation, and so easily returns to the previous calm discussion.
Thanks, Chemgal, I’m glad you said much more clearly the idea I also was trying to say!
Shades of Cheech & Chong’s “Sister Mary Elephant”…
Class? Class!
SHUT UP!
Thank you.
And now I’m going to read from this lovely book of poetry.
The sun kisses the morning skies.
The birds kiss the butterflies.
The dew kisses the morning grass.
Uh, class? Class!
WAKE UP!
[As recorded, the poem has no fourth line, but I think the fourth line starts out “And you, my friend, may kiss…]
@ MiB – That recalls a line from “Welcome to Duloc” in “Shrek”:
“Please keep off of the grass;
Shine your shoes, wipe your…
… Face.“
Which recalls the Gritty Kitty poem from Ren & Stimpy:
“Gritty Kitty ain’t so pretty,
But it’s really…
Thick.”