On Today's Alley Oop - 24 June 2021

 I don't know how Wootietoot used to do a daily review of this strip. It is such a mess, lacking in any semblance of the basic principles of decent storytelling techniques and peppered with unfunny jokes that make the main character look like he might lose an intelligence contest with Joel and Rufus over at "Gasoline Alley". Alley Oop has really become that stupid. Two-and-one-half years into the the Lemsay era, we still have not seen Oop do battle with anybody. Wrasslin' with the Minotaur or an alligator where they end up singing "Kumbaya" doesn't count.

The past eight strips have seen, mercifully, the end of the Chrab story and the start of the moon landing story. Why the moon landing. Well, "just because", my stock answer for what happens in this strip because nothing is ever explained, at least in a way that makes sense. If my count is correct, and I admit I might have slept through a couple of the stories, this is just the fourth time-travel story but it already is the second trip to the 20th Century. Is Joey already out of ideas on where to go so has to go to the recent past for her ideas? Maybe, but the problem is that a fair number of the readers in her audience lived through these times and remember what it was like and can point out where there are errors. Ooola's dress, for example, is much too long for a young, attractive, woman at that time. Hard to believe but they were really short back then. 

Let's take a really quick look at the last eight episodes:

6/16 - Ooola and Doc discuss whether their meddling is really helping in their wanderings amongst the multi universes. When asked for his opinion, our "hero" chimes in with the total non-sequitur about porcupines and the Titanic. Even for this strip, that reaches a new level of unfunniness. But why  has Joey made helping other universes the new mission statement for these people. "Just because."

6/17: It suddenly dawns on Ooola that Doc used the time-cube to move to other universes. A little slow on the uptake as that last story dragged on for a couple of months. But we find out that the time-cube can also make smoothies. As Ralph Kramden used to say, "har, har, hardy, har, har".

6/18: Today's episode centers on a discussion of where they should go next much like you or I would discuss our next vacation. No purpose or reason to go any where but I guess a strip about them just sitting around the lab wouldn't last too long. They consider Jupiter where Doc has a way to deal with the gravity and gasses. Boy, could Nasa use a guy like this.

6/19: So with Jupiter out, they decide to go watch the moon landing in 1969. No purpose or reason - "just because". That and they don't realize that you can actually watch a lot of that stuff on the Internet.

6/21: Poof! and it's sometime in 1969 with our heroes dressed in sort of 1960s fashion. Oop, as would be expected, is dressed as a hippie, or at least the Lemsay version of a hippie.

6/22 - To somehow and for some undisclosed reason, they decide to go to Nasa headquarters to watch the moon landing. Doc magically pulls out lab coats to use as a disguise even though every picture I've seen of the Nasa technicians shows everyone in a tie with their suit coats off. 

6/23 - An absolutely wasted day about the moon being made of green cheese which is odd given that Oop has been to the moon twice. Oop's hippie clothes have magically disappeared.

6/24 - Perhaps the dumbest strip in this set with the trio talking about using fake ID to enter NASA. As if that could have been possible during the most critical mission ever undertaken by the agency. Of course, tomorrow there will be a silly gag like them delivering pizza to get them inside. But - and this is a really wacky idea - why not use the time-cube to get inside? They've already shown it can get them anywhere.

Doing this in big chunks doesn't make it any easier to review but it makes it easier to see how disjointed the storytelling is and how it just lurches forward must like an infant taking it's first steps.