Irregular Webcomic! #2414

Disclaimer: I've never seen The Tonight Show. It may actually be quite good, for all I know. I was just searching for some sort of name for a TV show which features celebrities being celebrities (as opposed to being actors playing characters). Although almost nobody in Australia has even seen The Tonight Show, the name has permeated our shared mindspace through the insidious process of cultural osmosis - and I assume the same is true of other English-speaking countries. (I wouldn't hazard a guess on non-English-speaking countries.)

And anyway, even given a healthy 55-year lifetime, I'd lay odds that The Tonight Show won't still be around in the time of Iki Piki and Paris. It's really just being used here as a recognisable pseudo-generic "variety show" type title.

As a matter of fact, it's far from clear that TV itself will still be around in this future time...

Let's face it: Basically this whole strip is built on foundations of quicksand. Criminy... I think I've ruined it by trying to make some sort of note about it. And yet here I am, still writing. I don't know when to quit, do I?

Clearly not.

That was a joke, see?

I said, "I don't know when to quit, do I?" and then I inserted a paragraph break to represent a short pause, then said, "Clearly not." See, it's funny because I did something implying that I don't know what I'm talking about, and that I'm guilty of the very thing I'm implicitly trying to deny by drawing attention to it.

See, that was funny because I explained the joke, in defiance of the generally accepted wisdom that explaining a joke ruins the joke.

That was a deconstruction of the concept that explaining the joke ruins the joke.

Look! Bunnies!

2023-03-20 Rerun commentary: If I'd wanted to choose an Australian TV show (that I've actually seen) and simply mystify anyone who isn't Australian, I would have chosen The Don Lane Show.

Maybe I should have.