If any strip this month sparks angry letters, it’ll probably be this one.  I can really see something like this going on someday, though.  There are people who fly to Israel so they can carry a cross up Calvary Hill to see what it felt like to suffer as Jesus did.  But I don’t think any nails are involved.  You can see someone somewhere thinking that Slavery Fantasy Camp would be a good idea for similar reasons.  And I don’t think any whipping, hobbling or rape would be going on.

But of course, both ideas are kind of pathetic commentaries on how divorced from true historical horrors our culture is lucky enough to be.  People have to go out and make up “real” experiences as fantasies.  And without any kind of understanding of how skewed our perspective is, people make a big deal out of very insignificant things…such as Janet Jackson’s breast, and my comic strip.

EDIT: Within hours, one of my friends told me that the premise of this joke was done in a Saturday Night Live skit by Eddie Murphy and Steve Wonder.  I was a big fan of SNL in those days, but I swear I do not remember this “Cotton Land” skit (though it definitely existed).  My apologies to Eddie Murphy, but I promise I wasn’t ripping him off intentionally.  It’s funny, though…  I thought to myself when I wrote this that, “this is the kind of joke Richard Pryor would have done.”  Close, very close.  Anyway, I am embarassed.