Well, if you’re weather sensitive, this strip might comes as something of a consolation – being weather sensitive is bad, but being Force sensitive is a lot worse. And remember, the Professor caused only a slight disturbance in the Force when he turned on his anti-zombification device – back when Darth Vader blew up Alderaan*, Akuns was in the hospital for several weeks. (This also goes to show what incredible self-control Obi Wan must have had, to suffer such intense emotions without ever appearing anything more than slightly constipated to outside observers.)
The grand piano falling on Akuns in panel five is, of course, an authentic “Painway & Stumps” – the best grand piano there is…for dropping onto somebody. Experts especially admire the Painway’s crisp and clear sound – upon impact. The piano’s sound has been described as truly ‘bone-crunching’ – much like the piano itself – and can even be further enhanced by special peripherals, like that anvil installed on Akuns’ Painway. Most Painways are delivered in high-gloss, black lacquer, but Akuns went for a white one – he doesn’t like having pianos dropped on him, but he hates having unstylish pianos dropped on him. Another advantage of the Painway piano is it’s insanely high price, by the way, making its destruction not only physically, but also financially painful for the owner/victim. That pain, at least, Akuns has been spared – it’ll be (unevenly) distributed onto all taxpayers in his Empire.
Strangely enough, Wikipedia is still defining grand pianos as “musical instruments”. If you go by the number of people that have heard and seen one of those things actually being played, compared to the number of people that have seen one dropped onto somebody or chasing Laurel & Hardy down the street**, you’d have to conclude that a grand piano’s primary function is as “a heavy object used to inflict physical violence on people for humorous purposes” – at most it might have been “originally derived from a musical instrument, and occasionally still used as such”. Elitist bastards, those Wikipedia people. >_>
More on Thursday.
*Yes, I know – it was Grand Moff Tarkin who blew up Alderaan – but who even remembers him? =P
**Yes, I know – that wasn’t a grand piano – but who even remembers that? =P