So am I the only one...

[Henpecked]

[Usdom]

[Usdom]

[Les]

[Usdom]

[Les]

[Usdom]

[Les]

[Usdom]

[tHEfOOL]

[Les]

[stormydragon]

[Sling]

[Kris@WLP]

[Sling]

[Kris@WLP]

Quick precis: Arsenio has just moved into a new luxury high-tech (for the 80s) apartment. Through the course of the skit his attempts to relax in his new abode are thwarted by progressively more painful and potentially lethal mishaps involving the furnishings of said apartment, with the added annoyance of a repeat phone caller who refuses to accept that the woman he's trying to contact isn't at this number. Finally Arsenio, enraged, in pain from various accidents, loses his balance and falls backwards out the window to crash to the street below, where two street sweepers shrug and go about their business.

The whole bit is a prime example of the "sadistic" school of humor, where violence is either carried so far over the top, or has such unexpected consequences, that it becomes funny. (The most modern version of this school of humor, of course, would be "Happy Tree Friends.") It's best summed up according to Mel Brooks:

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."

[Northwolf]

[Kris@WLP]

Or, occasionally, funny BECAUSE it happened to you, only THEIR version is silly/cooler.

But mostly "funny 'cause it's not me," yeah.

[Henpecked]

There is one very important factor to all this, and Sling nailed it - the page-a-week format of the comic makes it so that while Peter is getting kicked around, the readership can only squirm and wince, knowing that it'll be at least a week (and probably longer) before his situation improves any. And there's no way to really fix that.

[Slacker Spice]

[Usdom]