250 small chances – Chap. 6, Act 4, Strip 103

And here we see Snuka’s attempt at fractional suicide being thwarted by the unchanging and unbending laws of B-movie scripts.

Even if Snuka”’ is only a fraction of the original Snuka, a fractional main character still counts as a main character for purposes of ballistics. And the only purpose of ballistics in connection to B-movie main characters is providing weak plausibility cover for their charmed lifes. As in, if a single bullet has a 98% hit probability, it’s still not mathematically impossible for every single of 250 bullets to miss. This is why machine guns are such a popular movie prop – with a six-shooter, an average member of the audience might still be able to roughly guesstimate that proability, but calculating 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 x 1/50 in their heads will likely be a bridge too far for most.

Whether the red shirt rule would have been enough to counterbalance the main character effect remains an open question, but Snuka”’ is just happy that he didn’t risk it. Aside from that, a red shirt would have been against SNLF dress code, anyway. I’m not sure regarding brown trousers…a somewhat greenish brown might have been okay, the SNLF could never afford to be really strict about fabric colors.

This strip also demonstrates a difference between Snuka and Biff. After missing 250 times in a row, Snuka realizes he isn’t getting anywhere, and stops shooting. Biff would just have broken open the next case of ammunition.

More on Thursday.







Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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