Thursday, April 17, 2008

Beautiful Brains


Today's Bizarro is sponsored by Oil of Olay. Squeaky face? Try Oil of Olay!

Judging by the emails I got, this cartoon resonated with a lot of folks. The seed of the idea came from my friend, Derek. He suggested the misinterpretation of the question, "what is the capital of..?" and I used it in a beauty pageant setting. I was somewhat inspired by the hilarious and embarrassing performance of a recent Miss Teen USA contestant that's been all over the Interwebs recently. If you haven't seen it, prepare to cringe.

By the way, why do we still have beauty pageants in 21st century America?

10 comments:

Penny Mitchell said...

Because women don't put enough thought into the fact that their brains and their spirits could easily outshine their external appearances if they would just knock it off already?

Germaine Greer is a goddess:

"The discontent of youth passes when you realize that the music you are hearing is not about you, but about itself. Only when a woman CEASES THE FRETFUL STRUGGLE TO BE BEAUTIFUL [emphasis mine] can she turn her gaze outward, find the beautiful, and feed upon it."

And:

"Women over fifty already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the western world. AS LONG AS THEY LIKE THEMSELVES, THEY WILL NOT BE AN OPPRESSED MINORITY. [ditto] In order to like themselves they must reject trivialization by others of who and what they are. A grown woman should not have to masquerade as a girl in order to remain in the land of the living."

And:

"The misery of the middle-aged woman is a gray and hopeless thing, born of having nothing to live for, of disappointment and resentment at having been gypped by consumer society, and surviving merely to be the butt of its unthinking scorn. "

It's too easy to blame things like beauty pagents on men. If women would refuse to go along with it, they would end, instantly. Period.

Proudly sporting prematurely gray hair and nerd glasses,
Penny

Unknown said...

Dan - your email bounced b/c account over quota.

Alex at Neatorama

Jon88 said...

Alex said it first. Not vital to me, since I now check the blog daily (was just trying to cast my vote, so to speak). Also wanted to say that I look forward to seeing today's panel again next week so I can have a second laugh.

Dan the deal man said...

nice. the "capital of the (insert state)"
joke was used on fresh prince of bel-air too

Hailey said...

Oh wow. Why? Well, lots of reasons. Most aren't very good (duh) but the entertainment value of that clip, and your cartoon make it worth it!

My beautifully brainy daughter and some cousins have participated in a few pageants and one even won (a lot of money).

For my daughter (and me) it was a lot of work. We learned a lot of good things and vowed to never do it again. The process was actually kinda cool; the judges were ridiculous.

The "Capitol" joke is a 5th grade/blond favorite! Thanks!:D

Karl said...

I just love watching that clip of Miss South Carolina, although I feel sorry for her, it must be so embarassing. I find it funny however because she starts to answer the question of why Americans can't fine the US on a world map and by the end of her answer she is completely off course and saying we should be helping people in South Africa and Iraq. Poor thing, maybe it would be better in the long run for her if she changed hair colour.

Love the cartoon BTW, but I have to confess, I didn't get it at first, but when it hit me, I did, laugh.

Karl said...

Sorry, I don't want to become a posting hog, but Dan, I just seen your question about why we still have beauty contests in the twenty first century. It's a good point, and the only thing I could think of is that people are still very competive; women as well as men, so I think that might be part of it; winning the prize so to speak. And to be honest with you by perhaps being a little old fashioned, I would prefer watching a beauty contest (just for the sake of unexpected entertainment, like this video clip showed)than seeing a couple of women trying to beat each others brains out in a boxing match. I don't know why anyone would pay to see that, but that's only my opinion.

vanderleun said...

We have beauty contests because there is no such thing as looking at too many hot babes.

You should know that.

If you claim you don't it's only because you're trying to curry favor with confused women.

Cindy Nakata said...

ah, I love this one
I laughed so hard at work with my colleagues.

Anonymous said...

You asked why do we have Beauty Pageant, I ain't no vegan so, it's all about meat. Yup, I've watch "Man Show" and I still miss it. Lots of lovely wimmin jumping on the trampoline, sweeeet!!! The Beauty Pageant is a show about easy pickings for men. BeefCake!