Editing 2910: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

{{comic
| number    = 2910
| date      = March 22, 2024
| title     = The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
| image     = the_wreck_of_the_edmund_fitzgerald_2x.png
| imagesize = 463x672px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = You know that asteroid that almost destroyed Earth in the 90s? Turns out the whole thing was secretly created by Michael Bay, who then PAID Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck to look heroic while blowing it up!
}}

==Explanation==
The comic features [[Cueball]] performing a {{w|narrative song}}, which parodies {{w|Gordon Lightfoot}}'s song '{{w|The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald|The Wreck of the ''Edmund Fitzgerald''}}'. This song, which was one of the most recognizable and successful of Lightfoot's career, recounts the fate of the {{w|SS Edmund Fitzgerald|SS ''Edmund Fitzgerald''}}, a {{w|Great Lakes}} freighter which famously sank during a storm on {{w|Lake Superior}}, resulting in the deaths of the entire crew. 

Cueball's song begins with lyrics based on the original song (though with a line modified), but quickly shifts into a (completely fictional{{citation needed}}) account of Lightfoot deciding to bribe a mechanic to sabotage the ship, implicitly causing the disaster for the purpose of writing a song about it.  

In real life, the cause of the ship sinking remains unknown, but it's speculated that the ship's hull broke up in the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIg90sVSwSE rough waters of a storm.] Lightfoot wasn't involved with the ship at all, [https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/the-ship-sank-all-over-again-families-of-victims-in-wreck-recall-gordon-lightfoot/article_8cb6b84d-5576-5344-ba20-d5b06e3370d9.html devoted considerable time, effort, and money to the families] and of the disaster's victims. In addition, while the parody presents Lightfoot as desperate for a career-making song, he was already internationally famous, with multiple hits, when the wreck occurred. 

As a punchline, the verse goes on to claim that a greater maritime disaster, the {{w|Sinking of the Titanic|sinking of the RMS ''Titanic''}}, was somehow caused by director {{w|James Cameron}}, implying that he did so in order to make a {{w|Titanic (1997 film)|film about it}}. While the tale of Lightfoot causing the first disaster is theoretically possible (the song came out only a few months after the accident), the second tale clearly is not. The ''Titanic'' sank in 1912, 85 years before the film was made, and over 40 years before Cameron was even born.

The title text continues this particular cycle by suggesting that an even bigger potential disaster was orchestrated {{tvtropes|RecycledInSpace|in space}}, as the real life basis for yet another film, ''{{w|Armageddon (1998 film)|Armageddon}}''.

All 3 of these are rather unrealistic conspiracy theories.{{citation needed}}

A YouTuber has turned Randall's text [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGsi9Ry6TsU into a song] in March 2024.

==Transcript==

:[Cueball is holding a guitar and singing on a pier. Two pairs of connected eighth notes are on the left and right of Cueball, as well as a detached eighth note on his right. Three seagulls fly in the background on his left. Four pillars of the pier and the water below it are also shown. Throughout the comic, alternate pairs of lines of the song are indented as indicated below.]
:Cueball:
:The ship was the pride
:of the American side
::It was due to set
::sail for Cleveland
:As the big freighters go,
:it was bigger than most
::With a crew and good
::captain well seasoned

:[Zoom on Cueball facing to his right, still holding the guitar, without the pier, water, and seagulls. A pair of connected eighth notes to his right, a half note and a detached eighth note to his left.]
:Cueball:
:But taking a walk on
:the shore by the dock
::Was a songwriter named
::Gordon Lightfoot
:He was humming a tune
:but it didn't have words
::For it's challenging
::trying to write good

:[Close-up on Cueball's face. A quarter note and a pair of connected eighth notes to his right, a detached eighth note and a quarter note to his left.]
:Cueball:
:Poor Gordon sought glory
:but needed a story
::His career in folk
::music imperiled
:He mulled over this as
:he watched them do work
::On the hull of the
::''Edmund Fitzgerald''

:[Zoom back to second panel. Cueball is now facing to his left. A pair of connected eighth notes to Cueball's right, a separated eighth note and a pair of connected eighth notes to his left.]
:Cueball:
:Perhaps it was wrong,
:what he did for a song
::He should never have
::bribed that mechanic
:But his maritime crimes
:are no worse than the time
::Young James Cameron
::sank the ''Titanic''

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring real people]]
[[Category:Songs]]