JAM: February/March 2002 Issue: Coda

Mike Metheny

"Charlie Parker: A head of his time." (Bill Griffith's "Zippy,", Jan. 9, 2002)

"Zippy" the Bopper

Poor "Zippy the Pinhead." He gets no respect, either here (the syndicated comic strip has consistently ranked at the bottom of Kansas City Star polls) or in the hometown of his creator, Bill Griffith (the San Francisco Chronicle wants to ditch Zippy altogether).

Well, you can count this writer as a longtime fan who has always appreciated the strip's "too hip for the room" quips, provocative observations and irony. I mean, how can anyone refute the wisdom of a sage capable of summing up life in four words? ("Exist, consume, worry, die.")

Zippy's hipness quotient rose to even higher highs on Jan. 9 when the great muu-muued one paid a visit to the Charlie Parker sculpture at 18th & Vine. An intense one-on-one scatting lesson with Bird and Zip yielded the following tip from the bop legend:

"You got th' OOBLY, but you gotta work on th' BLAT and th' HONK."

Good advice for us all.

Are we having fun yet?

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