Medical Tourism

June 1, 2018

In today’s strip Norton plans to go on vacation. But it being Norton’s plans, they are a bit misguided based on his own misinformation. This comic strip is straightforward. Evidently Norton planned to attend a live surgery in similar fashion that many sports fans attend sporting events. I like the foam finger and pennant in the last frame. It provides a nice visual to go with the punchline.

And for those not in the know, medical tourism as Wilfrid describes it is a real thing. Not tourism in the traditional sense of vacation. Rather, depending upon the availability of medical services and surgery wait times in some countries, some people are compelled to travel abroad to seek medical treatment in another country to have quality of life improving procedure in a more timely fashion than may be available back home. I respect that this can be a serious issue for some people, and it is not a decision to be taken lightly by those who need it.

However, the gag is not about medical tourism itself but rather about Norton’s typical innocent uninformed assumption about a topic, and Wilfrid’s ability to enlighten his little brother about it. It is also about the absurdity of Norton having foam fingers and pennants related to supporting surgery, as opposed to a sports team. Seriously, where does he get these things? Are they commercially available or does he custom make them? Maybe that’s a topic to be explored in a future comic strip.