2008-01-04

A blues singer at a bar performs into a red megaphone-shaped microphone, facing a few seated patrons. His sung lyrics, framed by musical notes in a big speech bubble, read: "Oh, I got the blues, baby... I'm a blues-havin' guy... put cyanide in all the bar patrons' drinks... and now they're gonna die, oh, I got the blues, baby..." The caption beneath reads: "Now and then, I like to make sure the audience is still listening." The joke: he's slipped murderous confessions into his song to test whether anyone is actually paying attention. In the votey (a black-and-white aftercomic), the singer leans toward the crowd and keeps going, now half-spoken rather than sung: "Lady in the front row already took a drink, not even really singing now, she's gonna die soon" — confirming a patron has unwittingly drunk the poison while no one listens.