Tom The Dancing Bug Blog

Mad as hell in Disney World

To follow up on my previous post, here's a beautiful blog post by superstar Mad Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond.  Tom's is the kind of family every customer at Disney World would insist go to the front of every line.  And I really hope that his daughter's experience at Disney World isn't affected by blowback from this Rent-A-Disability scam.

Be Our Guest

 

A few months ago, I was talking with another dad about our enthusiasm for Disney World generally, and in particular for figuring out how to plan a day minimizing line-waiting time for our families.  A third dad said that when he went with his family he chose between two options he'd learned about to deal with long lines at Disney World:  An "official" and an "unofficial" tour guide.

 

I'd heard of the option my friend had ended up choosing: the "official" tour guide.  As I understood it, it's called a V.I.P. tour, and you hire a Disney employee to shepherd you around and help with line strategies and FastPasses (it's about $350 per hour, six hour minimum!).  But my friend said they actually do more than that.  While the Disney guide tries to avoid lines in legitimate ways, when they can't, they just have their friends working at each ride allow the family to cut the line.

 

I asked what an "unofficial" tour guide is.  He paused and sort of sheepishly explained that it's a person who has a "disabled" certificate who you hire to bring your family along as he/she goes to the front of the line due to their disability.

 

To tell the truth, I put the whole thing out of my mind because I like this friend a lot, and I didn't want to press him on the details of something that shady.  (He did end up going with the legitimate option, and I have no idea if he even considered the "unofficial" route.)

 

But Cory Doctorow and Boing Boing have been on top of the rising publicity this practice has been getting, first with a NY Post article, then with this NBC undercover report actually showing the "disabled" people getting their paying customers into rides ahead of the lines at Disneyland.

 

By the way, I would never judge or second-guess someone using a disability pass legitimately, because sometime disabilities aren't visible.  But I feel that the burden of proof shifts against the Hire-A-Handicap frauds in the NBC video who seem fully capable of standing in line; they are shown walking with no problem, and even jogging up stairs.

 

Of course all this is fraught with the issues of the growing income disparity we've come to see in America, and the increasing expectation and acceptance that the very wealthy will have a different experience than everyone else, in every activity they choose.  And this is true not only for the disability fraud, but also for the V.I.P tour, where wealthy parkgoers are apparently allowed to cut lines with a a few grand and a wink.

 

 

 

 

THIS WEEK'S COMIC!

LUCKY DUCKY, in "Gimme Shelter"

 

 

Click here to read on Boing Boing.

Click here to read on Daily Kos.  (coming)

Click here to read on GoComics.

 

TORNADO RELIEF CHALLENGE: RESULTS

Thanks to all who participated and donated so generously, we raised $1,862 to help Oklahoma tornado victims.  (And in three Tom the Dancing Bug Challenges, we have raised a cumulative total of $7,736 to help those in need.)

 

There were two high donations of $200, and I used a random number generator to determine that the winner between those two is:  Lou Barlow.

 

I then put the other $200 donor in the pool with the other donors (after making sure it was properly disinfected) and used the random number generator to determine a winner among them all.  And that winner submitted only the Display Name of "Logan W."

 

If these two lucky duckies will contact me at tomdbug at gmail dot com, we'll start making arrangements for the illustrations.

 

To all others, THANK YOU again for participating and helping the folks in Oklahoma hurt so badly by that disaster.

 

-RB

 

 

TORNADO RELIEF CHALLENGE UPDATE

Firstly, I've extended the deadline to donate to the OKALAHOMA TORANDO RELIEF CHALLENGE to Tuesday, May 28 at 3:00pm Eastern Time. Setting the deadline for midnight at the end of a holiday weekend, as I originally did, was not exactly the smartest decision I've ever made.

 

Secondly, THANK YOU to everyone who donated.  So far, we've raised $1,337 to help those devastated by the tornado, and I really appreciate your generosity.  Team Dancing Bug is simply the greatest rhytmically-moving-bug-related team in the entire history of such teams.

 

Nextly, I want to note that the current high donation is a tie among five different donors who donated $100 each.  If the Challenge ends in a tie on Tuesday at 3pm, I will randomly choose a winner from among the high donors (in addition to another winner from among all donors who donated $15 or more).  But remember: I will aggregate multiple donations from the same person, so upping your donation may not only help those in desperate need, it might also net you an original picture of Dinkle riding a unicorn over a rainbow (or whatever picture you want).

 

THANK YOU.

DONATE HERE

-RB

 

 

THIS WEEK'S COMIC

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE NIXONIAN PRESIDENCY OF OBAMA

 

 

 

Click here to read on Boing Boing.

Click here to read on Daily Kos.

Click here to read on GoComics. 

 

TOM THE DANCING BUG TORNADO RELIEF CHALLENGE

THE TOM THE DANCING BUG TORNADO RELIEF CHALLENGE

 

We've all seen the heartbreaking images and stories of devastation in the wake of the Oklahoma tornado.  I'm sure many of you intend to make some donation to help the victims, and I thought I'd create another TOM THE DANCING BUG Challenge to help encourage generosity.

 

Make your donation directly to the American National Red Cross through a donation page I set up, http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/ruben-bolling/tomthedancingbugtornadorelief, and you could win a specially drawn illustration I would create just for you.

 

There will be two winners:

- The top donor to the Challenge (multiple donations from the same donor will be aggregated); and

- One random donor to the Challenge regardless of size of donation, $15 minimum.

 

The illustrations will be 6 inches x 8 inches, and you can tell me what you'd like me to draw (subject to the boundaries of law and propriety), or we can come up with something in collaboration.  God-Man fighting Charley the Australopithecine, Hollingsworth Hound in a tutu, Percival Dunwoody riding a Giant Wombat... whatever you want.

 

The deadline for the challenge is 11:59 pm, May 27, but PLEASE DONATE NOW.  UPDATE:  I'VE EXTENDED THE DEADLINE TO TUESDAY, MAY 28 AT 3:00 PM EASTERN TIME.

 

Winners will be announced on May 28.

 

Thank you, everybody.  Hoping you are fortunate enough to be in a position to help in any way.

 

CLICK HERE TO MAKE A DONATION AND PARTICIPATE IN THE TOM THE DANCING BUG TORNADO RELIEF CHALLENGE.

 

UPDATE: Tell the great comics writer, philosopher and humanitarian Greg Pak that you donated, and get free CODE MONKEY SAVE WORLD (his Kickstarter launched comic collaboration with Jonathan Coulton) stickers!  Details here.

 

(Clarification: To be absolutely clear, I don't get anything out of this. Nothing.  I only use this page to keep track of donations for the purposes of the contest.)

 

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Sponsored

This week's comic was a lot of fun for me -- it was one of the first times I acknowledged that more people read the comic online than in print.  My entire career, I've been parodying print illustration, comics and ads.  But in this comic, I directly parodied an online phenomenon by mimicking its look.

 

This caused some confusion, and my favorite example of it was this email sent to me today at 6:37pm...

 

 

I kept looking at the vertical panel, expecting some sort of clever punchline or revelation.  I've come to the conclusion that it is real advertising.  This is disconcerting, as it not only detracts from the purity of the comic, but leaves me feeling gypped having had one less nugget  from the Super-Fun-Pak box.  As a devoted member of the Inner Hive, I'd rather the space be blank than be distracted by yet another insipid ad; especially one where there used to be a cherished chuckle.  We all gotta make a buck, but man, I sorta feel the line has been crossed.

Devoted but deflated,

<Name redacted>

 

 

...followed quickly by another email from the same correspondent, at 6:41pm.

I take it all back.  Genius.

<Name redacted>

 

 

 

This valued reader and INNER HIVE member generously gave me permission to republish his two emails, but I redacted his name, to spare him/her any embarrassment for hyperbolically calling the comic "Genius."

THIS WEEK'S COMIC: SUPER-FUN-PAK COMIX

SUPER-FUN-PAK COMIX!

 

FEATURING:

Caveman Robot

Darthfield

Superhero Fantasies for the Middle-Aged

Invisible Woman

Phil Collins

Popular Around the Web

Underground Bakeries

Freddie the Fusebox

Oh, That Nell Carter!

Cowboy Yodeling In Space

Piano for Quitters

Monkeys vs. Hermit Crabs

and MUCH, MUCH LESS!

 

 

 

Click here to read on Boing Boing.

Click here to read on Daily Kos.

Click here to read on GoComics.

 

THE ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING CONSTITUTION

From 2005:

 

 

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