Robert Kirby says that his first look at this week’s cartoon marked the beginning of his career in Mormon humor:
Tribune humor columnist Robert Kirby says Grondahl, then an editorial cartoonist at the Deseret News , set the standard by which every LDS humorist would be measured.
Kirby remembers flipping through Freeway during a Mormon sacrament meeting when he landed on Grondahl’s cartoon of a father holding up a monster baby for congregational approval.
He couldn’t stop laughing and had to leave the chapel – a moment he marks as the beginning of his career in Mormon humor.
“That’s when I started thinking, regardless whether you believe this [Mormon doctrine] to be true,” Kirby says, “human behavior about it is still funny.” (http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13978315)
For me, it’s one of many that is my all-time favorite Grondahl cartoon.
Posted with the kind permission of The Sunstone Foundation, the publisher, and Calvin Grondahl
Perhaps Grondahl foresaw the future link between Mormons and vampires?
Ha ha! This reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where a friend has a really ugly baby and they don’t know what to say to the mom about him. The gang decides to say, “Oh, he’s breathtaking!”
Look at the audience – sit – approve – put your arm to the square – listen – numb. WAIT – it’s a monster baby, now THAT was worth seeing.
Reminds me of my devout mom – who brings soft porn romance novels to read in the dark of long conferences – at least they are interesting. Would she ever leave the church – hell no. Does the secret forbidden sex in historical novels make it easier to bare. Guess so.
Thanks for this introduction. I guess growing up with parents who were both converts, in Oregon, has meant that I missed most of the Mormon culture stuff. Maybe I would have picked more of it up if I had gone to BYU like the rest of my sibs, but I never was interested in living in Utah. My four months being a nanny for a Utah family pushed me even farther away from what I saw as “cultural” instead of doctrinal. As I have mellowed, I have started to find value in some things, and more disdain (probably not Christlike, I know) for other parts.
Ironically, Keepa is what finally drew me in to looking at Utah pioneers as people, instead of just scripture stories. Thanks for sharing another part of Mormon culture I missed, and now find value in.
Julia
poetrysansonions.blogspot.com