Why We Kichel

“What’s your goal when creating the Kichels?” is the thoughtful, insightful question that reporters have never asked us while they’re busy not interviewing us. Thanks for nothing, reporters.

The answer is simple: while our strips are wrapped in a beguiling cloak of humor, our ultimate goal is to shed light on our society and illuminate some of the challenges that face us, in the hopes of effecting real change.

This comic from a couple weeks ago is a prime example.

Here’s a window into what inspired it:

It was a warm, blissful day, and the sun beamed into my kitchen, where I was happily cooking yet another Yom Tov meal for my beloved offspring. I used a package and a half of chicken, if you must know, and started wrapping up the leftover half of the package, so that I could cook it later (in 2.6 seconds, when it was time for the next meal). Humming serenely, I opened the drawer, reached for the Saran wrap…and that’s when my world shattered.

Let’s draw a curtain over that unpleasant time—this is a family email list, after all—and fast forward fifteen minutes in the future. The very light had gone out of the kitchen; the sun had withdrawn behind a gloomy cloud, as if in shame. I was clutching a rope of tightly wound Saran; next to it, the raw chicken glared at my tear-streaked cheeks balefully, brazenly, as unwrapped as could be. My entire kitchen needed to be decontaminated from raw-chicken-touched-me germs.

And that’s when it hit me: This thing is a myth.

But we don’t have to suffer this tyranny any longer. Please, if you want to make this world a better place, let’s act! Remove any Saran wrap you may have in your drawers, for once and for all. Box it up. Mail it to your senator, labeled The emperor has no clothes.

Let us never stand by in silence again.