20 Comments

  2. She has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, so the only ways she can leave is by stepping down voluntarily or by dying. Despite the urgent wishes of some of the population who disagree with her legal approach(es), she did not leave.

  3. “Butt I don’t get it, because of course she did leave (for medical reasons) and return”

    I wouldn’t get if she hadn’t.

    Why should an arbitrary comparison between Mary Poppins and Ruth Bader Ginseng be at all relevent or funny. Why RGB? Why not… Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Stephen King or Gloria Steinem?

  5. I think the basis for a comparison to RBG is that she is the protagonist of On the Basis of Sex, a movie in release at the same time.

  7. Mary Poppins resigned her position at the end of the first movie, Justice Ginsburg did not, she merely took a brief leave of absence. The reanimated Mary Poppins could be rehired for a new position to cash in on a second movie. If Justice Ginsburg had resigned, there is no way that she could be reappointed, and her replacement would probably renounce most of what she has stood for.
    P.S. I am astonished that this strip was not farmed out to the Crimeweek page.

  8. Kilby, I trusted the community not use the mention of her name as a springboard for political discussion, and that trust was justified.

  9. A supreme court justice can be removed through impeachment. So there are three ways they can leave the bench.

    It looks to me like the joke here is that RGB and Mary Poppins are similar in that they can be viewed as protecting those that cannot protect themselves from the ravages of an oppressive guardian. Unlike Mary Poppins, RGB has never left. RGB never left the court, despite taking some time away from oral arguments for medical reasons. She was still a supreme court justice.

    This is not meant as a discussion on the merits or validity of the characterization of RGB as a protector. I’m merely presenting what I think the author of the strip is projecting, not my own interpretation.

  10. I think you’re all missing that there are currently movies out: “Mary Poppins Returns,” and “RBG.” He preferred the movie RBG because she never left, unlike Mary Poppins, who left in the first movie, and is returning for the second.

  12. Kilby: There are two relatively recent movies. The other is “RBG.”

    In addition to what Usual John and chemgal said, I’m not sure that the cartoonist was even thinking of her recent medical absence. I think that might just be a (confusing) coincidence.

  13. RBG is a documentary. “On the Basis of Sex” is a drama. Documentaries never have the “legs” that dramas do. There is no movie actually titled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg”.

    “He preferred the movie RBG because she never left, unlike Mary Poppins, who left in the first movie, and is returning for the second.”

    So the connection is there are two movies and they both have main characters and one of the movies the main character does something that the other character didn’t?

    That is dust thin…. But it is something.

    “They can be viewed as protecting those that cannot protect themselves from the ravages of an oppressive guardian”

    That’s pretty flimsy and projecting. But then again this is a guy who did a week about Barbie turning 60 and becoming a crossing guard and becoming homeless for … some reason … so… you could be right. But sheesh…. dust thin.

  14. I’m with Usual John… Grimmy asks Ralph’s opinion on “Mary Poppins Returns,” Ralph replies that he preferred Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We are supposed to think Ralph is talking about the movie “On the Basis of Sex” (or perhaps “RBG”– the documentary released last year), but he really means the Ruth Bader Ginsberg character from the movie: she has been constant and faithful while Mary Poppins is, well, a bit flighty.

  15. “There is no movie actually titled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg”

    I understood “…preferred the movie RGB” to mean “preferred the movie character RGB” rather than implying the existence of a movie called RGB.

  16. If the joke is what all you seem to think the joke is the the cartoonists has serious delusions of coherence.

    Of the hundreds of movies out there the cartoonist picks one that has the word “return” in the title and compares it to another move that has absolutely no similarity or relation (other than being a movie with characters in it) but has a main character (but not a title character) based on a historical person who is still alive and figures the juxtaposition of one movie having the word “return” and the other having a character is still alive is enough to be considered a joke.

    It’s not. It’s really not.

  19. Bill’s willingness to trust us to not get political in the discussion seems very risky to me, as I’m fairly sure the comic makes more sense if you assume political motivation. If not a direct “this political stance is better”, I think the joke is supposed to be hinting at that, and it’s “funny” because it’s a bait and switch.

  20. I thought that RBG is a CNN program. Only “On the Basis of Sex” is a movie as Mary Poppins is. (By the way On the Basis of Sex is a good movie – did not see the Mary Poppins. Not giving away the ending as this comes about fairly early in the film – but go figure the way to fight discrimination against women is to find an example of discrimination against men and use that to determine that discrimination based on sex should not be allowed.)

Add a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.