Crankshaft, a comic strip about a bus driver that contains less bus-driving action than "The Honeymooners," has had a strange story this week. It began thus:

As you may know, comics are supposed to be funny, even though most aren't and we accept that fact and read on in the hopes that one day they will be. Some you hate-read just to feel better about yourself, because you didn't laugh. Hah! Take that, artist. This one is not funny, and seems to presume we will eagerly await the result of Ed's cognitation. Also, at first I read that as "sucker" in the "one born every minute" sobriquet, instead of the moisture-leech sense.

The next two days:

This is impossible. Even if the lawn mower is self-propelled, it cannot climb a tree, because the wheels disengage when you let go of the dead-man's handle. Even if this feature is disabled, it cannot climb a tree, because the wheels are not touching anything; the rotation of the blade will not cause the mower to go up a tree, let alone stay there.

Today:

Surely it's setting us up for a boffo Friday where the video goes Viral, as they say, and . . . hilarity ensues, I guess, in the sense that Ed is humiliated nationwide. But note that the young woman is delivering the paper - literally, The Paper - and it's obviously an afternoon edition.

That's the sort of thing that really makes it hard to suspend disbelief.