Magic Act

A while ago I discovered that it was easier to get a laugh out of readers if my cartoon characters were themselves smiling. I think it works sort of like a laugh track. When I first drew today's cartoon, it just didn't work ...until I remembered the "smiling face" principle and changed it by pasting smiling mouths onto Mr. Shuldig ...as if he thought the whole affair was funny.

Unfortunately I find the ignoring of the Iranian threat to be pretty scary, and so, in the last panel I left Shuldig's original expression showing.

Did I ruin it? Or did I still get a laugh out of you?