At first I couldnt’ quite put my finger on the reference in this work. It was any comic I had ever read! I had recently introduced my friend Geoff to the comic, and though he didn’t really enjoy it, he picked out this strip almost immediately! And most disappointed was I in myself as I own the very FILM that this strip references! The over-hanging reference to the piece (much like the mother in the strip) is to the 1983 Martin Scorsese film “King of Comedy” starring Robert DeNiro.
Though a lesser ‘Marty’ film, it still contained some solid laughs. In fact, funnily enough, it also contains Jerry Lewis, the American comedian quite popular with the French! Strangely, it is also in this strip (once one discerns the reference within the work) that the ‘veil’ surrounding Rienne himself begins to slip (and perhaps the cartoonist Wong as well!). We discover that Rienne is not his REAL NAME! He is in fact, a Ryan (as opposed to an Ar-Ee-En as I’ve discovered it is pronounced). One wonders next then….it Etout his real surname? Is the cartoonist now shifting to a discussion of identity, what it is, how it functions, and how gives us our identity or is it simply a pre-existing concept give to us before we are given a choice?
Also established that ‘Rienne’ is unemployed much to the frustration of his mother.
At first I couldnt’ quite put my finger on the reference in this work. It was any comic I had ever read! I had recently introduced my friend Geoff to the comic, and though he didn’t really enjoy it, he picked out this strip almost immediately! And most disappointed was I in myself as I own the very FILM that this strip references! The over-hanging reference to the piece (much like the mother in the strip) is to the 1983 Martin Scorsese film “King of Comedy” starring Robert DeNiro.
Though a lesser ‘Marty’ film, it still contained some solid laughs. In fact, funnily enough, it also contains Jerry Lewis, the American comedian quite popular with the French! Strangely, it is also in this strip (once one discerns the reference within the work) that the ‘veil’ surrounding Rienne himself begins to slip (and perhaps the cartoonist Wong as well!). We discover that Rienne is not his REAL NAME! He is in fact, a Ryan (as opposed to an Ar-Ee-En as I’ve discovered it is pronounced). One wonders next then….it Etout his real surname? Is the cartoonist now shifting to a discussion of identity, what it is, how it functions, and how gives us our identity or is it simply a pre-existing concept give to us before we are given a choice?
Also established that ‘Rienne’ is unemployed much to the frustration of his mother.
— Olaf Demeanor Dec 17, 18:22 #