The Improved Azumanga Daioh v.2: Fair is Fair

Over the weekend, I mentioned my plan to ease my frustration with Kiyohiko Azuma’s Azumanga Daioh and its frequent lack of punchlines by replacing them with the last-panel gags from Charles Schulz’s immortal Peanuts.

For me, this is a win-win-win, as it combines the appealing characters of Azumanga with the familiar joke structure and–Linus Van Pelt’s theology lessons aside–reliable comedy of good ol’ Charlie Brown. Still, I can see how some fans of the original manga might take exception to my little sequential mash-up, so tonight, I’m offering up the following as proof that it can work both ways:

 

 

See? And now we can all be friends.

 

English teachers also go to college to learn how to cite sources, like this: Azuma, Kiyohiko: The Azumanga Daioh Omnibus; Schulz, Charles: The Complete Peanuts v.8: 1965-1966.

10 thoughts on “The Improved Azumanga Daioh v.2: Fair is Fair

  1. Aww! I was just getting into the blood feud! Well, I still object to the implication that American humor is somehow more puerile than the culture that invented the musical toilet, but if Chris says we have to be friends then so be it:

    I think manga like Hikaru No Go and Nodame Cantibile are cool because you can actually learn stuff from them. They remind me of back in the day when you could learn how to build a crystal radio and lemon juice-powered amplifier by reading The Flash, or see Batman walk Robin through birthing a cow or an emergency tracheotomy.

    PS – These mashups are a funny idea.

  2. Wow! Azumanga Daioh it turns out is not a cross-cultural humor vaccine as some suspected. Maybe Lone Wolf & Cub would have worked better. Linus’ head rolling down a slope is always a laugh grabber.

  3. Why?! Why do English teachers go to college for four years?!
    Is it because, in those four years, they hope that they can do something better, nobler with the degree than teaching English, and after they realise that this is not the case, it is too late?

  4. Non-sequitur humour is always a plus!

    Reminds me of the favourite of a stoner friend of mine in high school:

    How many flapjacks does it take to cover your grandmother’s ceiling if a wooden wagon has square wheels?
    September 12th! Because ice cream doesn’t turn green when it melts

    His subsequent laughing fit got us both thrown out of art class. ART CLASS!

  5. Speaking (or, in the case of the interwebs, typing) proper English makes you not look like an idiot.

  6. Sorry, I have to disagree. I think Peanuts is hilarious and frequently re-read at least two or three strips.

    …But then again, I studied English language and culture throughout my school career and lived in America all that time, so some things that don’t make sense to the casual reader are easier for me to understand.

  7. I can see how some fans of the original manga might take exception to my little sequential mash-up

    Because manga fans are just as humorless and lack just as much perspective as, say, Hal Jordan fans when it comes to the sacred purity of their fannish obsessions?