Ah, I was wondering about the third panel, and it seems reasonable to do this, at least to me it does. Also, since you asked about other countries: In the Netherlands hospitals are free when you've got health care, which you have to, so it's free.

Honestly, the punchline in panel 3 was awesome. I loved the break-the-fourth-wall thing that you never do.

Scott is the bar that is set for women's rights.

The third panel broke the fourth wall? Huh... I automatically read into it my own interpretation: character-Scott was making a joke about how you can't talk about hospital bills without getting embroiled in some political debate.

Which is what author-Scott was saying in a serious manner... I guess that works out. The explanation doesn't hurt anything, but I thought the comic worked well on its own.

Wouldn't a guys' ER/Spa have to be a sporting event, with guaranteed 90% mortality? And no politics, of course ... that'd put it up to 100%.

@Leon, DAMNIT now I'm seeing that, too!

@Henry, one word (or two, I don't know), cleanup (or clean up).

@Scott, I assume those EMT's would also be licenses masseuses? Like EMT training...

Probably because running a strip club has to be a lot less enjoyable than patronizing one.

Well played explanation, and great comic.

You could link to this BI and explanation (below the instructions) as a reminder any time things get out of hand.

I love panel four. I feel your pain. Sadly, lucrativeness is usually the hallmark of businesses I do not want to be in, either.

panel four - last line - story of my life

Basic Instructions a "no bickering" zone? Isn't 4 panels of bickering the very essence of Basic Instructions?

Why on Earth wouldn't someone want to be running the business where an ambulance arrives and 2 EMTs strap a guy to a gurney as one of them shouts "this man is under STRESS! We need to get him to a strip club, STAT!" and the other says "I'll start the tequila IV..."?!?!

I can think of no prouder legacy...! (Well, cartoonist, maybe... ;)

Of course the siren is blaring _The Stripper_... <G>

That...might actually work as a business model.

Ha, Meyer’s trying to dodge controversy. Wuss!

Thank you for leaving politics out of your strip (and this site). Although I am a "politics junkie," I come here to laugh and forget about it for a bit.

the other day, I (re)saw the How to win at Risk strip. When I got to panel 3's poke at the "Bush Doctrine," I thought "oh no, here we go." But panel 4's poke at the "Clinton Doctrine" balanced it out and made it all good.

Also, I would imagine a 'Man's Spa' would be one with comfy seats, video games/table top games in abundance and food & beer of the most exquisite and tasty kind...
Well, my perfect spa would be like that... Mmmmmm...

I guess the only thing left to not talk about is religion. All hail His Lordship, The Flying Spaghetti Monster! I've been touched by His Noodley Appendage!

Alex, no county on earth has free health care.

You simply have a different method of payment.

You pay a doctor directly, you pay a doctor and an insurance company, or you are taxed by a government.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody pays.

I liked dave's post the best...

@Me: Thank you!
After reading several euro-commenters referring to their "free" health care, this was my thought too. The providers (doctors, nurses, etc) must feed their families as well, so they are not performing this service "sans compensation".
Out of pocket costs matter. But so do waiting times, quality, and certainly the decision-making ability as well. From what little I know of euro/scandinavian-care, these items can often be lacking, and the overall tax rates definitely outstrip (oops, accidentally made a relevant reference!) the ones on this side of the pond. Jus' sayin'. ;-)

I've never seen a thread with so many people actively discussing NOT discussing politics. Or anything else, for that matter.

loved the third panel and like one of the other comments, I thought it was a joke in and of itself. Health care is already such a joke i thought that was a very funny way for the character to avoid talking about the bill.

About running a strip club - I bartended at a couple of places for over four years total. It's no fun to be in the business. It's rather sad and depressing really. Most of the women that work there are messed up psychologically, abused in some fashion and take a lot of drugs (both legally and illegally). The customers are horrid. Friday and Saturday nights were better because then the crowd usually had a lot of drunk college kids blowing off steam and spending money. But the rest of the time the "patrons" were older nasty men who liked to pay some youngish girl to act out a fantasy for them (this usually being - "You're so successful and sexy" ).

It's not a business you want to be in if you want to keep any illusions about humans.

Kudos to Scott for this policy.
I come here to laugh because of his creative skill.
I go to CNN/Fox readers posts to laugh at stupid political comments.

Ha, Meyer’s trying to dodge controversy over his dodging of controversy. Double Wuss!

As a person from a country that adopted free universal healthcare 30 years before I was born I guess jokes about doctors being expensive don't make much sense to me and certainly don't seem old. I just thought I'd let you know I have a differing perspective.

From reading old fiction (Austin, Twain) it seems that while doctors were usually respected members of the community, they were often quite impoverished. So maybe health care wasn't always expensive, esp. when it was pretty pointless/harmful.

Isn't "fourth wall" a reference to stage plays, set in 3 dimensional space? In this case, I'd suggest you're breaking the third wall.

Panel 3 was not lost on me, and I thought it was clever.