I’ve been carrying this piece around in my notebook for a long time without any decent ideas coming to mind, but my first-ever visit to a Renaissance Faire a couple weekends ago finally gave me a direction. It took far longer than it should have to fit this story in three panels – I had to cut a lot of very bad Olde English, a lot of very sarcastic responses to said English, and a lot of back story explaining the origins of the woman’s intolerance for poorly-formed Elizabethan phrases. But I’m pretty happy with how this one came out.
Originally the woman had the final “dat booty be groovy” lines, with the man remaining clueless, but I ultimately decided to let him save himself (this particular turn is likely inspired by the fact that I recently re-read a certain old strip of Balder’s that I always found rather brilliant.)
MRS. SHOEBOX’S ASSESSMENT OF TODAY’S STRIP: *Double snort-laugh* Yeah. I like it.
Thanks to Rob for some late-night words of advice on this one.
In other news, I recently narrated another episode of Escape Pod, Philip Brewer’s “Like a Hawk in its Gyre.” Feel free to check it out, but be forewarned that I mispronounce “gyre” six words into my reading.
-=ShoEboX=-
Ahahah, it’s amazing how often people try (and butcher) trying to speak like they’re from another time period. Spot on!
The instant my browser loaded that image I went “Hey, that looks kind of familiar!” and indeed it does. http://partiallyclips.com/2002/11/29/medieval-couple/
What did she mean by “we’re” doing it twice? Her speech was consistently modern. (Except for “well and truely, maybe?) I liked the strip. I’d like to read the parts you cut. I’m sure they’d be interesting.
Renaissance Faires. Just not really sure what to do after we’ve been to the Ded Bob show.
@jan: I think she meant country matters, m’lady. “It” = sex.
I thought it was a particularly awesome touch how for every single “thy/thine” (even extending to the one “mine”), the guy managed to say the wrong one. Your knowledge of Elizabethan grammar and how it is typically butchered is truly impressive, good sir.
In other news, just to get the obligatory semantic nitpicking in… There was kind of a turn-of-the-century a few years back, so most of the words he used in the last panel weren’t actually from “this century.” Maybe “the past hundred years” or “the modern era” would have been a more apt set-up?
Oi. Yeah, you’re right, that would’ve made more sense. Stupid 2000s, ruining my strip…
-=’Box=-
I read the lady’s final line as ironic, which the continuingly clueless fellow misinterprets as agreement. Ah well.