Off the Mark: Bryan didn't realize who was following him.

Off the Mark is a really solid single-panel gag cartoon that I rarely talk about but usually enjoy. Today's installment uses both Twitter and a pun in service of a joke, which normally wouldn't be a good sign, but Mark Parisi manages to pull it off.

The cartoon works because neither Twitter nor the pun are the joke in and of themselves. Rather, they sort of each work as a set-up and a punchline at the same time; the tweets set up the pun, but the pun does just as good a job setting up the tweets. And what's really funny about the cartoon is the situation.

Which makes sense, given that single-panel cartoons tend to live or die by the absurd situations they depict.

Monty and Off the Mark: What's with all these pop-up ads for Hoover vacuums?

These comics are hilarious because both the robot and the apple have been masturbating while viewing bizarre fetish material on the Internet.

Off the Mark and In the Bleachers: I just don't know if I can get used to a Dustbuster!

These cartoons annoy me for slightly different reasons.

Off the Mark annoys me because, while its premise--the proliferation of green technology among witches--has potential, it falls apart in the follow-through when it ceases to make any sense. A broom would be greener than a Dustbuster, after all.

Meanwhile, In the Bleachers annoys me because it seems to have betrayed the entire concept of the cartoon. Unless being a knight has randomly become a sport, that is.

Off the Mark: Luke inadvertently grabs his lightsaber and ends up looking a good deal scarier than he had planned.

I've written before about the need for single-panel cartoons to create situations that are inherently amusing, as there is rarely enough space for a set-up followed by a punchline. And while there is a nominal set-up and punchline joke in this Off the Mark, the writing's real value is that it makes the absurd situation clearer. The situation is funny, but the labeling the writing provides is, in this instance, necessary.

This cartoon also has the advantage of having a well-known set of characters to play off. Most single-panels have to make do without any established characterization, which makes it both more difficult and more important to create an amusing situation.

Off the Mark: Come in, Daddy! You're not yellow, are you?

Every good cartoonist knows that the only thing funnier than a joke about farting in the pool is a joke about peeing in the pool.