This strip also reminded me of the Mickey penis Pancake Horror. I like the Philippe strips like this because Chris gets the characterization right : there is a time in a kid's life in which a
skeleton - the idea of a skeleton, pretty much regardless of context - is scary, end of discussion. I don't think it really would have worked with anything else - anything that comes to mind, anyway, like "a snake!" or "a ghost!" Can't really articulate why.
I debating if this actually going on for 7 more panels would just be obnoxious or if it would cross over into funny again. It's the David Letterman school of comedy.
Family Guy has, lately, pretty much beaten this one into the ground - it's pretty much reached the point where, in contemporary comedy, you can sense almost immediately when they're going for that
funny ... obnoxious ... aaaaaaaand back to funny gimmick.
I liked Letterman's take on it, back in the day, because his facial expression and inflection goes from
I cannot believe people are laughing at this to
that the people are laughing is the joke and the punchline, then he gets the giggles, and it's pretty much a feedback loop from there. Is he still doing Supermarket Finds?