The Comics Curmudgeon

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One-panel Thursday

Family Circus, 1/31/08

So you’re telling me that Billy’s day at school consisted of him wildly swinging chairs around as teachers and school administrators swarmed on him, desperately trying to calm him, and you’re showing us the moment hours later when he just strolls into the house? You’re telling me that his classroom was a scene of carnage, with broken noses and black eyes and many tears, and you spent your energy drawing the bits of snow clinging to Billy’s sneakers? You’re telling me that he spent the afternoon with a school psychiatrist, desperately trying to figure out just what motivates this ticking time bomb, and you’re giving us a little mixed-games gag? Well screw you, Family Circus, for ruining all my good times.

Dennis the Menace, 1/31/08

This joke has been brought to the present by an experimental time travel device from the year 1952!

Pluggers, 1/31/08

I don’t really feel a need to go into today’s Pluggers joke — like so many others, it boils down to “pluggers are old” — but it’s worth noting that it was submitted by “Tom Furrh.” Do you think that with Tom’s last name he found himself strangely drawn to read and submit to the Pluggers strip? I’m surprised there weren’t more TDIET entries from people named things like “Bob Gripe” or “Sally Misplacedrage.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 09:29 pm and is filed under Dennis the Menace, Family Circus, Pluggers.

228 responses to “One-panel Thursday”

Champ
January 31st, 2008 at 9:32 pm [Reply]

I don’t care what anyone says, Alice Mitchell is really hot.
Frank Parsnip
January 31st, 2008 at 9:32 pm [Reply]

In today’s “Love Is”, apparently naked chick is praying for a man in uniform to take her away.
Underclassed
January 31st, 2008 at 9:33 pm [Reply]

You’d be a menace, too, if your dad dressed like George Will.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
January 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm [Reply]

I didn’t know what a “trivet” was, and I don’t know what a “furrh” is.
commodorejohn
January 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm [Reply]

Say, why is Billy proportioned like a gorilla today? Did the musical-chairs roughness result in severe spinal compression?

Also, “Tom Furrh?” Sounds more like the dude’s probable username on VCL than his real last name.
Yaanu
January 31st, 2008 at 9:36 pm [Reply]

Don’t worry Champ, you’re not the only one.
commodorejohn
January 31st, 2008 at 9:39 pm [Reply]

#2 Frank Parsnip – No, no, that’s Love Is…Dude. You can tell by the pupils that are like two abysses from which abominations against all that is good and holy crawl when you turn your back to the funny pages. It’s seriously OH GOD WHAT IS THAT THING AAAAAAIEEEE CTHULHU FHTAGN
doug rogers
January 31st, 2008 at 9:43 pm [Reply]

Ohmugawd I’m a Plugger! Actually, this is one of the reasons I am thinking of switching from Loblaws. Stop playing the music of my youth in an attempt to hit your market demographic.
Tracer Bullet
January 31st, 2008 at 9:43 pm [Reply]

I think I’m going to love Toggle’s mother. A flabby, inappropriately-dressed homophobe with 80’s New Wave hair? Oh, HELL yes.
Jamus Of The Jungle Patrol
January 31st, 2008 at 9:45 pm [Reply]

1/31
Okay…let’s see here..
9CL: Now…i’m supposed to believe that a woman who wears leopard skin panties is trying to sell her daughter on “saving her maidenhood for marriage”? You know, I bought the thing about the virgin birth because it got me some sweet swag at Xmas, but this is a bit much…
Dick Tracy: Okay….Locher is SO playing with us. It’s like in physics, where particles behave according to the intents of the experimenter.
FOOB: I used to think Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” was the ultimate in breakup-revenge art, ripping on James Taylor in a Top Ten hit, and having Mick Jagger sing backup vocals to boot. Lynn’s just sort of drawing things out. It’s time to move on, Lynn. Really.
My Cage: Violet’s lookin’ good….I should give her a call…
Mary Worth: So…Vera’s boyfriend/boss is sleeping with his sibling too?
bugboy
January 31st, 2008 at 9:45 pm [Reply]

OK, take off the last two words of the Pluggers narrative. NOW read the sentence. Makes a whole lot more sense.
The Spectacular Jungle-Brick
January 31st, 2008 at 9:52 pm [Reply]

Alice Mitchell’s skirt is made of the same fabric as the Jungle Patrol applicants’ T-shirts. I know I’ve seen that fabric somewhere before…
ltrftp Hedly
January 31st, 2008 at 9:54 pm [Reply]

Stargazer
Several threads ago you gave this marvelous babyname site.
Thanks!!!!!
yellojkt
January 31st, 2008 at 9:56 pm [Reply]

The plugger is Lincoln Duncan complaining about how thin the walls were and how he had to constantly ignore the sounds of the couple having wild human-animal hybrid sex in the next room.
Eric
January 31st, 2008 at 9:58 pm [Reply]

Heh, bugboy, I actually thought it was supposed to be that joke, and the last two words were just randomly thrown in there. Now that I see what it’s supposed to be, it’s a lot worse of a joke.
Hysterical Woman
January 31st, 2008 at 10:00 pm [Reply]

A better DtM punchline: Stop with the bullshit about him being my son. We both know I wasn’t in town that week.
Hysterical Woman
January 31st, 2008 at 10:01 pm [Reply]

Shoot, forgot to close tags.
commodorejohn
January 31st, 2008 at 10:02 pm [Reply]

#14 yellojkt – I don’t think anybody in Pluggerville ever has wild sex, human-animal hybrid or otherwise.
Hasty Penguin
January 31st, 2008 at 10:03 pm [Reply]

Dennis the Menace is a tragic story of a young man who has to hear his parents continually bicker back and forth about whose fault he is and why neither of them want to claim ownership of him. The slightly snide look on his father’s face in the second panel says “I wasn’t the one who forgot to take my pill.”

The saddest part is he probably only ate an extra cookie or threw a snowball and hit Mister Wilson.
Frank Parsnip
January 31st, 2008 at 10:08 pm [Reply]

FC: Billy was penalized for unnecessary roughness during musical chairs, but I think Geraldo was asking for that broken nose when he put Billy together with those minority kids.

DtM: That joke’s not the only thing out of date. It’s possible that Dr. Drew Corey is the only other person to wear that jacket since the Kingston Trio were on top of the charts.

Pluggers: That one about the elevator music actually resonates with me ever since the first time I heard Muzak versions of Led Zeppelin and The Police (perhaps that is what prompted them both to do reunion shows) but there are a few problems with the execution of this.

First off, elevator music usually doesn’t have lyrics. Sure, the vocal line may be played by a cheesily by a bunch of violins, but the key is proper Muzak has nothing that might excite the senses. Basically Muzak is the musical equivalent of a short stay in John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium — the easy-to-digest notes getting regularly flushed from your system and forgotton within moments of being heard.

Brookins probably found himself challenged to find a way to show someone hearing a “familiar” song while in an elevator, but perhaps this could have been accomplished more accurately by simply showing notes coming out of a speaker and the Plugger saying (either to himself or to another grossly obese manimal) something like: “Fuck, Jim Morrison would be rolling over in his grave if he heard this shit…” or some other similar sentiment expressing surprise at hearing a familiar song.

Second, Morrison died nearly 40 years ago. I hate to say it, but as mentioned above, there is also much more recent “Muzak” playing. I just went onto the Muzak company’s website and see that they’re offering REM, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Gwen Stefani, and others that would also make any listener rapidly feel middle aged. Of course, there’s also nothing quite like looking across the crowd at a Police reunion stadium concert and realizing certain similarities to a Hair Club for Men convention… but I digress.

Third, he actually drew a Plugger who wears a suit and carries a briefcase? Who looks like he’s actually in town that has buildings tall enough to have elevators?! I have to congratulate Brookins on breaking out of the rut of my usual expectations. I normally would have expected him to simply show a fat chicken-manimal strolling through a supermarket with rollers in its comb, a housedress and/or stretchable polyester pants, and a shopping cart containing at least one chicken.
Rusty
January 31st, 2008 at 10:11 pm [Reply]

FC: Billy’s goober hat is enough to cause his classmates to stone his ass with classroom chairs. I don’t buy this story that he was giving out the punishment, instead of taking it.
brb
January 31st, 2008 at 10:12 pm [Reply]

DtM: Yeah the joke is ancient, but I have to give props to the artwork. The two panels have a mirrored perspective, and for once in the comics I didn’t immediately see some contradiction.

I also love the expression on Dennis in the second panel – it’s like he is pondering the question of his parentage.
Mumblix Grumph
January 31st, 2008 at 10:18 pm [Reply]

Hey…why in the hell is that Plugger wearing a suit? Is he going to a funeral?
Sally Misplacedrage
January 31st, 2008 at 10:19 pm [Reply]

Yo, thanks for the shout-out Josh!
Carter
January 31st, 2008 at 10:23 pm [Reply]

Don’t feel too weird, champ. I had a thing for Calvin’s mom.
Frank Parsnip
January 31st, 2008 at 10:25 pm [Reply]

commodorejohn (7): I haven’t quite figured out the “Love Is… ” deal yet with these war-related panels, particularly because it’s a New Zealander-created strip. Shouldn’t they be banning nukes, keeping bees and climbing glaciers?

Yesterday, they showed a naked chick by one of those military headstones, today they showed naked chick praying for the soldier. My guess, given the lack of clothing and absence of breasts, is that “Love Is… ” centers on the adventures of Short-Time Sally, who works the donkey show at Club Mabuhay just outside of Clark Airfield. But that’s just a guess… I don’t actually know her.
Mooncattie
January 31st, 2008 at 10:27 pm [Reply]

DtM – Coincidently, an identical conversation on the subject of Ruff the dog some years back resulted in the Conception of Dennis.
Harry Paratestes
January 31st, 2008 at 10:29 pm [Reply]

Mr Mitchell to Mrs Mitchell: “Shut up or I’ll put a bruise on your right cheek too!”
Mac
January 31st, 2008 at 10:32 pm [Reply]

According to the Internet, where more information can be found about family names, the “Furrh” surname is most commonly found in Texas. Typical.
Harry Paratestes
January 31st, 2008 at 10:32 pm [Reply]

Happy day, I’m not a plugger yet! At least not until they start playing some Sex Pistols, Plasmatics or Motorhead in the elevators…
Muffaroo
January 31st, 2008 at 10:33 pm [Reply]

DT – If you concentrate on the white area adjacent to Tracy’s hatchet face in panel 1, it looks kind of like Alfred Hitchcock. If you take this approach to the level of storytelling, and find the opposite of what’s happening in the strip, it’s almost worth reading. (The three repetitive critics, croaking out the same choppy little phrases over and over, seem more like props in a video game than characters in a story.)

H&L – Ditto’s fear is well founded. It’s so unfair to the kid — he spends six hours under the knife, and then the thing washes right off.

Luann – At least Brad’s getting a little butt feel at the water cooler.

MF – I wonder if the artist knows what the characters are supposed to be saying when he draws the strip, or if he just has a bunch of blanks drawn up for the word guy to fill in.

MT – “GET DOWN, ANDY! I DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE UP TO!”
They’re building a dam, idiot.

MW – Vera and Narcissus have so much in common! They’re both self-starters. I’m surprised either of these wankers even cares if they meet anybody else.

RMMD – “…but we can PROTECT ourselves if he catches us!” (Close-up of the gun and a small label: “FOR PREVENTION OF DISEASE ONLY.”)
sally
January 31st, 2008 at 10:34 pm [Reply]

#20 from yesterthread —

Josh, I know I’m way behind the thread here but I just wanted to say that I thought “Creepy Lack of Affect Ad Agency” was funny but I DIDN’T REALIZE UNTIL TODAY THAT THE AGENCY WAS ACTUALLY CALLED “AFFECT AGENCY” — I thought you were just reacting to the ad folks’, well, creepy lack of affect. That has got to be the lamest name for an ad agency ever.

In other yesterthread news: MY GOD, THAT’S HARRY DINKLE????!!!!
Bunnë
January 31st, 2008 at 10:37 pm [Reply]

Ah, I remember the first time I hear Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”, reduced to Muzak. Shoot, that was at least 15 years ago.

Whenever I’m grocery shopping and find myself singing along, I think, ah crap, I’m the target demographic for right now. They used to play New Wave on weekday evenings, but now it’s Saturday afternoons. Apparently my generation doesn’t shop at night anymore.

I tell you, these kids today with their hair and their shoes…
sally
January 31st, 2008 at 10:38 pm [Reply]

Oh, and my rage is very well placed, thank you very much.
Mac
January 31st, 2008 at 10:43 pm [Reply]

Sally, that is not Harry Dinkle. Harry Dinkle is eternally young, and in his uniform, pushing band candy. The old man is an obvious impostor.
Bunnë
January 31st, 2008 at 10:44 pm [Reply]

Clarification: I do not mean to imply that Madonna is or ever was “New Wave”. Nope.
Greg
January 31st, 2008 at 10:49 pm [Reply]

This joke has been brought to the present by an experimental time travel device from the year 1952! Just like Dad’s sport coat, I was going to say, but Frank Parsnip beat me to it! Good one, Mr. P!
Hysterical Woman
January 31st, 2008 at 10:55 pm [Reply]

Rubes: Like Momma before, another comic that’s bad for people with dirty minds.
magic8ball
January 31st, 2008 at 11:00 pm [Reply]

#10 Jamus: I thought “You’re So Vain” was supposed to be about Warren Beatty?
Bobdog
January 31st, 2008 at 11:03 pm [Reply]

DtM: Now it’s clear. Dennis acts out because he wants his father’s affection. Because he has been lead to believe that only when he is bad does he become his father’s son, he believes must do bad things in order to be worthy of being considered the progeny of his father and therefore worthy of the love and attention he craves. He has even taken on the appellation “the Menace,” even though it clearly does not suit him. If only this misunderstanding of his relationship with his father had been corrected when he was young, then we could have avoided that whole “serial killer” thing that happened later on.
Bobdog
January 31st, 2008 at 11:04 pm [Reply]

Grr, darn the closing tags.
DAS
January 31st, 2008 at 11:07 pm [Reply]

Second, Morrison died nearly 40 years ago. I hate to say it, but as mentioned above, there is also much more recent “Muzak” playing. I just went onto the Muzak company’s website and see that they’re offering REM, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Gwen Stefani, and others that would also make any listener rapidly feel middle aged. – Frank Parsnip

Indeed. The fact that my parents’ music has been Musak-ified doesn’t bother me. The fact that my parents’ younger siblings’ music (i.e. the Doors, etc) has been Musak-ified doesn’t bother me. It’s the fact that my generation’s music is starting to appear as Musak that makes me unsettled. And I’m hardly middle aged.

OTOH, I’ve been to Chinese restaurants and heard Dona Dona and other very sad, Yiddish songs done as upbeat Musak-type instrumentals … and that’s just freaky.
Les
January 31st, 2008 at 11:12 pm [Reply]

My my, the mother looks nipply in the last panel of zits. What’s with the recent comic forays into Oedipial territory? That’s a lot to deal with over corn flakes.
NosferatusCoffin
January 31st, 2008 at 11:22 pm [Reply]

magic8ball says:
I thought “You’re So Vain” was supposed to be about Warren Beatty?

Yes, it was about Warren Beatty.
Will
January 31st, 2008 at 11:22 pm [Reply]

Maybe I’m just a huge angry editor, but the pluggers caption needs an apostrophe.
Ruthie
January 31st, 2008 at 11:22 pm [Reply]

33 Bunne: Don’t forget the damn baggy pants.
Charlene, Arctic Jungle Patrol Waitress
January 31st, 2008 at 11:23 pm [Reply]

5: there really are Furrhs, and they mainly live in Texas – unsurprisingly, around the town of Furrh, TX.

20: there are music services other than Muzak that provide elevator music, and some of them provide actual oldies hits. The last time I was in a highrise downtown, they were playing, of all things, the Safeway Radio Network. It made me listen to Peabo Bryson all the way to the 41st floor.

The building does not to the best of my knowledge contain even a local Safeway office.
Mr. O'Malley
January 31st, 2008 at 11:27 pm [Reply]

254 previous thread. bats, ADJP :[

Genesis 6:19
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.

Genesis 7:2
Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee seven and seven, the male and his female; and of the beasts that are not clean two, the male and his female:

The “Higher Criticism” developed in the 18th and 19th century postulates these come from two sources, the P version and the J version, which were combined. P consistently uses God, J uses Jahweh. P says the flood lasted 370 days and Noah sent out a raven. J says the flood lasted 40 days and Noah sent out a dove.

There is also a D and E version. This is for the first 5 books.

(Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible?)
Charlene, Arctic Jungle Patrol Waitress
January 31st, 2008 at 11:30 pm [Reply]

44: Carly Simon said it was not about Warren Beatty, despite the urban legend.

It might have been about William Donaldson (google it) or it may just have been about every guy Carly Simon ever knew mixed up together.
Tex LeBeauf
January 31st, 2008 at 11:33 pm [Reply]

isn’t Dennis the Menace brought to us via the experimental time travel device from 1952 every day?
Mr. O\'Malley
January 31st, 2008 at 11:33 pm [Reply]

4. Skullturf.

Believe it or not, people around here are having furious arguments about muntins.
Eats Shoots And Leaves
January 31st, 2008 at 11:35 pm [Reply]

I like Dennis’s look of casual distain in both panels. He’s actually in trouble for the same musical-chairs-gone-wrong fiasco that Billy was bragging about regarding his “unneccessary roughness.” Except Dennis actually killed someone.
And it was Jeffy.
Hah.
Deborah
January 31st, 2008 at 11:38 pm [Reply]

I think the caption at the bottom of Family Circus isn’t really a continuation of what Billy is saying. I think it’s the disembodied voice of the Demon That Inhabits Billy®.

Go ahead, re-read it that way. It’s way big fun.
Niall
January 31st, 2008 at 11:48 pm [Reply]

Wheee – my return flight fromSan Jose to Ottawa through Chicago was a big No Way today. So I was rerouted on the San Francisco-Boston red-eye withthe morning flight to Ottawa fro there. I always wanted to see Boston… though I’ll only see its airport between 6:50am and 8:30am…

I have another 90 minutes or so in San Fran before my flight leaves. Thank goodness I have my DS. Most of te 7 hour time bwteen my original flight departure and this new one was spent with a good friend with whom I saw San Fran proper and Santa Cruz. Fu stuff! Fog City indeed for San Fran… but grat Golen Gate Bridge pics!

Airport meter about to run out…
Poteet
January 31st, 2008 at 11:53 pm [Reply]

# 49 Charlene — I’m pretty sure I remember that the subject of “You’re So Vain” is a deep secret, and that for a charity event, Carly auctioned off the answer, on the condition that the winner, to whom she whispered the name of the real subject of the song, never tell the name to anyone else. I can’t remember how much the winner paid. Unless that story is an urban legend also.
ph
January 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm [Reply]

You know you’re a plugger when you’re old enough to remember when they actually played music in elevators.
Mel
February 1st, 2008 at 12:04 am [Reply]

DtM: I think Alice picks these fights because she likes angry sex.
She’s going to have Henry’s tie spinning like a Leslie on a Hammond B3 as soon as “his son” is safely tucked in.
Rainbird
February 1st, 2008 at 12:05 am [Reply]

DtM

I think Dennis would be much happier if he just moved in with the Keanes and got it over with. The look of his sorry face in the second panel shows he knows his menacing skills have waned, and it is time to move on.
boojum
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 am [Reply]

9CL:

Honey, theyuh AIN’T no monosyllabic words in Texan — at least, none you’d want to call someone when you’re mad at ‘em. Beeyutch is about as short as we’ve got.
kippetje2000
February 1st, 2008 at 12:16 am [Reply]

?Harry Dinkle? Now there’s a Plugger name I can get behind. Here is a partial list of some of the other contributors in the last couple months.
John T. Unick
William Kitiman
Rebecca Clutts
Sandy Love
Dick Dahl
Barry Marks
Jeff Burdick
Al Lovaas

Another Plugger question comes to mind, has there ever been a same species marriage in that strip?

Bears and kangaroos
Dogs and chickens
Dogs and rabbits
Seems as though dogs will breed with anything.
It’s obvious Brookins isn’t a cat person.
Shmousie
February 1st, 2008 at 12:17 am [Reply]

It seems to me that “Well, screw you, Family Circus, for ruining all my good times” is a statement that could be used in response to every Family Circus ever printed.
Tats
February 1st, 2008 at 12:18 am [Reply]

I’m intrigued by the fact that Billy appears to be wearing an amalgam of fabrics gleaned from this week’s Dennis the Menace — maybe the authors of the respective comics decided to make this attempt at visual synchronicity to distract their readers from the fact that neither strip has been funny for about twenty-five years.
Poteet
February 1st, 2008 at 12:20 am [Reply]

STONE SOUP — Kill Max. Kill Max. Kill Max. *grinds teeth uncontrollably*
Eloise at the Plaza
February 1st, 2008 at 12:20 am [Reply]

“You’re So Vain” – The stories I always heard were that it might be Warren Beatty, Frank Sinatra (go figure) or Mick (even though he did indeed sing on the back-up vocals). In any event, it was definitely not about James Taylor, and I think it actually preceded his tenure.

MT- Mark is obviously too stupid to live, so they might as well shoot him; wow, that first beaver is named Andy, too!
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 12:23 am [Reply]

TGIFunnies!

A3G: ah, remembering that old Sara Lee jingle fondly:
“Everybody doesn’t like something,
And everybody doesn’t like Margo McGee!”

DtM: you’re going to have even more dirt after you plug Joey in the hole…so much for your cunning plan, Master Mitchell.

FC: “BFD, Dolly!”

FW: I’ll give a bright, shiny quarter to anyone who PhotoShops a nekkid Harry Dinkle…

MT: so exciting, no beavers needed!

MW: oh, crap, Drew, you’re out of luck. Ryan gave her “The Wink!”!
Atomic Bird
February 1st, 2008 at 12:24 am [Reply]

FW: Remember when you were a kid and you’d make a face, and someone would say, “If you keep doing that, it’ll stick like that”? That’s how Mrs. Dinkle looks. Really that’s how most FW characters look.
blueberrygrrrl
February 1st, 2008 at 12:28 am [Reply]

MW: That wink is over the top–he’s giving this little charade away. I’ve decided “Ryan” is actually Von, pretending to be Vera’s boss/boyfriend just to jerk Drew’s chain. The whole “Drew is egotistical” preface was too perfect a set up. Drew’s in for some premeditated public humiliation is what I say.

This hypothesis would mean the omniscient narration box announcing “Ryan”’s arrival a few days ago is messing with us, which does seem a little edgy for Mary Worth. Still.
Frank Parsnip
February 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am [Reply]

A3G: Today, the part of Blaze will be played by Keanu Reeves.

MW: “No, we’re one of those enlightened companies,” said Ryan winking, “we have all our employees sign waivers agreeing to sexually service me. We plan ahead.”

MT: Hey, I’ve got a genuine Mark Trail rifle — never fired and only dropped once!

Sex Organ, M.D.: Yeah, it pretty much took no time for Lee to find them in the lit cabin with a good cash fire going. The smell of burning money led Lee right to them…

BB: Awwww, that’s cute! Otto gets to boss around a Chihuahua!
Niall
February 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am [Reply]

Also, wonderful Jungle Patrol stuff while I was away! I’m a week behind every strip… aieeee…
blueberrygrrrl
February 1st, 2008 at 12:39 am [Reply]

re. “You’re So Vain”:

According to Wikipedia, Carly Simon has said the subject of the song has the letters A, E, and R in his name, implicating either Warren Beatty, James Taylor, or Mick Jagger. Or…

Andrew “Drew” Cory.

I can totally see him “borrowing” Mary’s apricot scarf.
blueberrygrrrl
February 1st, 2008 at 12:41 am [Reply]

“walking onto a yacht” = The Bum Boat
True Fable
February 1st, 2008 at 12:49 am [Reply]

#63 Poteet, my queen! – I second your opinion, my wise liege. I admit I never did like the little creep Max, who needs to be placed in the same holding pen as the Keane kids, Dennis, the Patterspawns and the Flagston tots, and unleash Lio on their asses.

That would be sweeeeet.
Poteet
February 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am [Reply]

# 72 — Sir Fable MTK, what a delightful idea! Lio would definitely give Max something to yell about. The more I think about it, the more I like it. Thank you. *replaces teeth-grinding with sinister smile*
brb
February 1st, 2008 at 1:09 am [Reply]

#67 blueberrygrrrl: I’m still holding out hope for “Ryan”=Von as well. Vera must be tired of Dr. Drew’s maudlin telephone messages, weeping and wailing about how he messed up and begging for another chance. Public humiliation seems like Vera’s style.

I’m really thrown by Vera’s bipolar personality since they got to Cafe. Throws herself at Drew smiling. Sits and looks sad and depressed. Irritated at Ryan for arriving early. Deliriously happy that they have so much in common.

I have to admit – I have no real idea where this storyline is going, but something is off.
Rainbird
February 1st, 2008 at 1:20 am [Reply]

74 brb Yes, I feel the same way about mary worth. How could they write a strip where she is really dating the boss, for real?

I mean, I know that everyone looks like they are still stuck in some era I can’t identify, but still.
Poteet
February 1st, 2008 at 1:28 am [Reply]

RMMD — C’mon, c’mon, make Lee see double and trip over his own gun and shoot himself in the foot and get this lame storyline over with. Even Widdew Sawah would be an improvement.
NotThatJunglePatrolGuy
February 1st, 2008 at 1:33 am [Reply]

RMMD: So how come Lee was looking all romantic and dangerous lying in bed, but now that he’s on his feet, he’s just another guy with a fat face and stubble?
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 1:35 am [Reply]

Rex Morgan, now with 90% less pedophilia!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9545446@N07/2234415914/
NotThatJunglePatrolGuy
February 1st, 2008 at 1:35 am [Reply]

MT: And you remember that wonderful collage o’ squirrels? I’d like to see one with today’s (02/01/08) feats of leaping.
pccmdoc
February 1st, 2008 at 1:37 am [Reply]

Marmaduke – does ‘bong’ refer to the clock above his dog-house, or how often he gets high? I mean I know he is a Great Dane, but it would help to explain his voracious appetite…
BigTed
February 1st, 2008 at 1:40 am [Reply]

“Why is Dennis my son ONLY when he misbehaves?”

“Well, I hate to tell you this, darling… but not even then. Haven’t you ever noticed that he looks nothing like you? And why do you think he’s always hanging out with Mr. Wilson across the street? I’ve been having an affair with that big ol’ bear since we moved to this neighborhood. That red face of his isn’t from high blood pressure, but Viagra.”
True Fable
February 1st, 2008 at 1:55 am [Reply]

BC OMG, this is GREAT. Way to go, Mason!
A3G I agree with Blaze but he really needs to stop being so touchy-feely with Alan. And whose nude is that in the background of panel two? Hmm.
Cathy (Must Die) Not included: The Bulk Ego.
DtM Must…resist…obvious…snark…
(WT)DT So Liz’s portrait is disgusting?? Oh, it’s drawn like the comic strip; gotcha.
Doonesbury I really like this.
FC Must… resist…obvious…snark… unless Keane is just so fucking CLUELESS he doesn’t realize what he’s done.
FBoFW Elly should have taken a tip from the House of Fable, and had the stereo on low, turned to a classic oldies station or playing an album she liked. Good God, just listening to baby talk bounce off the bare walls would drive anyone up the wall.
FW Yeah, chick; this is Funky Wankerbean. Everyone has a care in the world, usually terminal.
GA I’m going to guess that panel two occurred after they got out of the car, otherwise that is the quickest Chinese Fire Drill on record.
(DT)GT Moral of the story: Even someone who is 100% Asshat can have a tiny little heart of pewter.
Heathcliff Except for that Number Two you left in Judge Souter’s chair.
Scenes from Suburban Hell Oh yeah?? then explain that tatt of Thel Keane you have on your left asscheek, Hi.
JP *blinks* Sam’s an uncle? He never let on…!
Lola Heh. Pretty good.
Luann Okay, I’m going to write to Greg Evan and complain. This shit’s gotten WAY past its expiration date.
MT Excitement! Adventure! North by Northwest action! Although Mark is less Cary Grant and more Ulysses S. Grant.
MW Suddenly, Drew decided to change jobs.
PBS Pastis is a Comics God, Part Two.
Phantom Tough Waitress better have a Tough Fall-Back Plan in mind until then.
Pluggers Well yeah, if you wear a size XXXXX-L shirt, you’re bound to have pockets the size of a suitcase.
RMMD Well, he got all the way up the hill carrying a rifle, lady, I hardly think he’s going to shrug and say “you’re right, let’s just go on our merry way.”
SFx I can’t look at this with a straight face without thinking of Pastis’s PBS today. XD
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 2:00 am [Reply]

Slylock Fox — I think that rabbit bongs every mealtime, if you know what I’m saying.
Joe Btfsplk
February 1st, 2008 at 2:05 am [Reply]

(Thursday)

Phantom – We obviously have a Pleasantville-type situation here. Two characters from the real world have been transported into the Phantom universe, and are pointing out its logical holes to the bewildered inhabitants. Suddenly, poor Colonel Chinbeard has a couple of women wanting to join the Jungle Patrol, and making him actually think for the first time ever about how this whole “unknown commander” setup actually works, and his wildly bobbling head can barely process what his ears are hearing.

Family Circus – Musical chairs was so violent today, he’s come home with most of a La-Z-Boy still stuck to his head.

Mark Trail – For the rest of his life, Andy the Beaver could never live down the time he thought a human in a canoe was yelling at him.

I must not be following this thing closely enough. I was unaware that Mark had a gun along with him. When did he get that?

Marmaduke – I went to thesaurus.com to try to find a suitable synonym for disaster to describe the drawing of Marmaduke’s anatomy today. I have settled on unhappy situation.

Actually, anything that comes anywhere near Marmaduke’s bone is something that I don’t want to get back. I’ll stay away from his bone, and he can keep his bone away from me.

Blondie – Unexpectedly poignant today.
Trilobite
February 1st, 2008 at 2:33 am [Reply]

Ah, the first of February’s comics…

A3G: “Sorry I lost my temper, Blaze. I had a rough night. I got drunk, kissed someone who wasn’t my girlfriend, got drunker, and then I slept with another woman. Or a man wearing lipstick. Or maybe it was a ghost woman, or carbon monoxide fumes wearing lipstick…oh hell, I don’t know, I’m probably still drunk right now, or maybe just really, really high. And since we’re on the subject, why DO you dress like a cowboy?”

Crankshaft: “Smelling fear in a crowded theater”? Even for Crankshaft, that’s a miserably unfunny pun. Please, please, tell me that some kind editor is going to put this awful comic strip out of our misery.

Dick Tracy: Oh, it’s a collection of portraits. No wonder that trio of art critics has spent the whole week standing there talking about how disgusting and ugly the paintings are!

Family Circus: Insert filthy and obvious “clam shouter” joke about Dolly here. You might as well, since I find it difficult to believe that Jeff and Bil didn’t think of it first.

Mary Worth: This is either leading up to the most awesome revelation in the entire history of Mary Worth as Vera and her new guy reveal all the sordid details about how they’re gettin’ it on during conference calls with clients, or it’s going to be completely inane and pointless and leave us all wondering just who the hell is supposed to care about what goes on in this comic strip. And really, the awesome thing is never going to happen — I only mentioned it to make it abundantly clear how incredibly tedious and disappointing this story is going to be.

The saucy wink isn’t helping, either, but I do appreciate that he actually winked instead of just saying “Wink!” It’s not much to be thankful for, but you have to settle for what you can get in Mary Worth.

Phantom: You know, the Phantom is supposedly a hero and a defender of the innocent, but his response to having unlicensed murals painted of him was to gather up his tribe of “poison pygmy people” to paint over the offending graffiti and terrify an innocent couple by invading their home in the middle of the night. So what do you suppose the heavily-armed pirate-descended Jungle Patrol is going to do with the news that their closely-held secret is being talked about in diners over in Mawitaan? You just know this has to end with machetes and flamethrowers and blood running down the streets.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 2:40 am [Reply]

Incidentally, the chowder/shouter thing in Family Circus is more of a stretch of you’re Canadian.
Mibbitmaker
February 1st, 2008 at 2:41 am [Reply]

2/1:

Hey, A3G and Crankshaft, let us do the snarking here!

FW: Oh, Lord. Pollyanna’s been reading FW, and she just commited suicide!

FOOB: Oh, look: a perfect picture of Mike and Liz! ….What? Whaddaya mean that’s an old strip?!

Nancy: The teddybear’s thought continues: “…if only those stupid spikes on her hair would stop stabbing me in the head! Damn, I think I’m bleeding…”

FC: Man, that Dolly is a chowderhead! Or she will be if Thel there comes to her senses with that pot on the stove.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 2:42 am [Reply]

#86 me — that should read if you’re Canadian
ChattyGenes
February 1st, 2008 at 4:28 am [Reply]

Boy, is it ever a relief to sneak over here after hours of tedious figuring of final grades and find things to laugh at. I thank you all!

#82 True Fable.

“FBoFW Elly should have taken a tip from the House of Fable, and had the stereo on low, turned to a classic oldies station or playing an album she liked.”

Yep! That was the House of Genes method too. And not only that–had Elly played music for her kids, they might have turned out more intelligent.

#84 Joe Btfsplk

“Phantom – We obviously have a Pleasantville-type situation here…”

Boy, did you ever hit the nail on the head. What an apt comparison!

(*sigh*) Back to the old grind.
Frank Parsnip
February 1st, 2008 at 4:43 am [Reply]

DT: OK, I think I have it figured out why the critics were all so disgusted. The “portaits” were all done in the style Koons used when he was doing those explicit statues of him and wife Ilona Staller getting it on. The Fembot chief is afraid that someone is right now wanking away over this rather revealing exposure of her internal circuitry.

Although the actual Koons art is certainly available online, it’s definitely NSFW, and so I will simply link to actual footage of Dick Tracy’s Fembot chief getting it on with another robot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA
zooby
February 1st, 2008 at 5:22 am [Reply]

As much as I would love a happy ending for Harry Dinkle… I didn’t think I’d have to actually witness it happen on a massage table in Vegas.
Frank Parsnip
February 1st, 2008 at 5:23 am [Reply]

ChattyGenes — Best wishes to you on the upcoming lunar year of the golden mouse, as we leave the year of year of the golden piggies and the Century of the Fruitbat. As cold and rainy as it is here in glorious Daian-ku, Taihoku City, Taihoku Prefecture, I am hoping that the weather will improve when I go to Okinawa soon with the wife and little Parsnips. (The twins’ first time on a plane.)
ChattyGenes
February 1st, 2008 at 5:31 am [Reply]

#92 Frank Parsnip. Thank you. And the same to you!

And good luck with babies on a plane! I’ll spare you all my tales of 13-hour flights back in the day when mine were small—let’s just say I don’t envy you!:-) Have a great time in Okinawa!
gleeb
February 1st, 2008 at 6:35 am [Reply]

H&L: Won’t Ditto feel left out?
AhClem
February 1st, 2008 at 6:54 am [Reply]

MW – Just how many more days are these clowns going to keep taking up space in the Santa Royale Toroid Museum gift shop and snack bar?
jnoble
February 1st, 2008 at 6:59 am [Reply]

As my own little inside joke and reference that only the regulars here would get, I shall from now on say (or think) outloud “GROAN!” whenever a situation requires it.
jnoble
February 1st, 2008 at 7:00 am [Reply]

As my own little inside joke and reference that only the regulars here would get, I shall from now on say (or think) outloud “GROAN!” whenever a situation requires it.
Loppie Scaduto
February 1st, 2008 at 7:12 am [Reply]

Alice Mitchell? Sure. Lois Flagston and Rose Gumbo? Boo-yah!
Gregoire
February 1st, 2008 at 7:15 am [Reply]

JP – (cell phone rings) “Gloria… where’s my goddamn liver on rye!!!
Gregoire
February 1st, 2008 at 7:19 am [Reply]

MW – “enlightened” must be code for “who cares if we turn a profit or get sued, at least we’re all getting laid!”
Lolsworth
February 1st, 2008 at 7:22 am [Reply]

Hey, it’s the last TDIET tomorrow, isn’t it.
Anythingbutwork
February 1st, 2008 at 7:25 am [Reply]

MW: I really really hope Mary shows up and ends this awkwardness with some well-chosen words: “Ryan! If Vera works for you, that’s wrong! It’s supposed to be called “INTRA-departmental dating!”
Chance
February 1st, 2008 at 7:40 am [Reply]

“This joke has been brought to the present by an experimental time travel device from the year 1952!”

Hypothesis: joke wasn’t funny back then, either.

Conclusion: yep.
AeroSquid
February 1st, 2008 at 7:46 am [Reply]

Mythtickle & Jane’s World Classic: Both are Pastis Product Placements today ! Any others ?
Pozzo
February 1st, 2008 at 7:56 am [Reply]

Why is it that we only see after-the-fact reportage of Dennis and Billy’s misbehavior? Wouldn’t it be good if someone invented a Comics-Page Rewind (CPR), so that we could judge for ourselves if they really have the balls to be called “menaces”?
man behind the curtain
February 1st, 2008 at 8:04 am [Reply]

A3G — To the nude woman in the painting in Panel 2, be glad your back is turned because you don’t want to see what’s about to happen.
Pastor Z
February 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am [Reply]

Bizarro: What’s up with the dynamite and blueberry pie at the funeral home?
John E.
February 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am [Reply]

MW – and by “we’re an enlightened group” I mean “we’re the swingingest bunch of swingers ever, baby!”
oldskool138
February 1st, 2008 at 8:27 am [Reply]

This joke was done a long time ago on “Rose is Rose” (I think). Two people get into an elevator and they listen to the music for a the middle panel. In the last panel, one of them says, “Was that Black Sabbath?”
Calico
February 1st, 2008 at 8:28 am [Reply]

#78 – Crimony, that is wonderful.
Reminds me of the Zappa album cover “Weasels Ripped my Flesh” from the 60’s.

Speaking of sixties tunes, Pluggers was actually kind of funny! We need more Kinks (music) and Zep in elevators, though.

Today we seem to have a panel deficit (JP, MW, MT, 3G) and are being cheated out of some very exciting and riveting scenes (yeah, sure, right).

FC – Fer Crissake, Dolly, Clam up for once!
Pastor Z
February 1st, 2008 at 8:29 am [Reply]

One more – in the first panel of today’s Gil Thorpe, I thought she said, “I’ve told you Helen, we’ve had too many fries!” I then thought, “What’s the chief doing monitoring their french fry consumption?” But seeing this is Milford, I suppose nothing is beyond the realm of possibilities.
Calico
February 1st, 2008 at 8:40 am [Reply]

FOOB – I see Mike’s vocabulary hasn’t changed much over the years.
gabacho
February 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am [Reply]

blueberrygrrrl & brb re: Mary Worth – This is a definitely a very special episode of “Punked” where Dr Drew gets a taste of his own medicine. What really pisses me off is that there will be a happy ending, and no, not a Vegas kind.

Mark Trail – This is the awesomest Mark Trail in forever. First, the talking beavers yesterday, then today Andy the wonder dog (I wonder if he’s a dog?) does a half gainer out of the canoe. Just frikkin’ awesome, baby.

Gil Thorp – Speaking of talking beavers, I know who Maureen and Anne are, but who the hell is Helen?
Tracer Bullet
February 1st, 2008 at 8:53 am [Reply]

PBS: Ooooh, he’s going to get letters.

Archie: I laughed, dammit. I’m so ashamed.

MW: I think he means Vera is great at taking “dictation.” Eeew.
Bobdog
February 1st, 2008 at 9:01 am [Reply]

MW: Dude, Where’s My Editor? I’m quite sure the authors meant intradepartmental, seeing as how Vera works, uh, under Von — I mean Ryan. And instead of enlightened, I think they meant to say “lawsuit crazy.”
The Spectacular Jungle-Brick
February 1st, 2008 at 9:03 am [Reply]

A3G: The way Blaze phrases his sympathies makes it clear he has been on the receiving end of Mistress Margo’s boot heel and flogger before. He doesn’t actually swing that way, but it’s good money.

Archie: You mean to tell me that at this point, it’s just a rumor? I think that unlike other strips that are supposedly “frozen in time,” Archie actually takes place in a temporal fugue state, in which all events take place literally simultaneously. Time as humans see it has little meaning to something that thinks in megahertz.

BF: Maeve doesn’t care if she has anything in common with Todd; the BF she’s interested in doesn’t stand for “Between Friends.”

Cathy: I do not want to see Cathy taking a “bulk dump.”

C’Shaft: “Hello, psych? We’ve got another of yours wandering around down here thinking he’s an orderly. No, he’s not being violent, but could you come get him right away anyhow?”

Dr. Q: The greatest thing about this strip is how nobody even acknowledges he’s a duck. But… Dr. Muscovy?! Let’s not push it.

FC: Shut your clam hole, Dolly! And your mouth.

GT: The plight of children with progeria makes Andrew weep until his mascara runs.

H&J: I wonder, do black cartoonists look at February as an opportunity to educate the public about the achievements of African-Americans, or with dread, as they are societally obligated to abandon their usual funny antics and punchlines for dry, pedantic exposition? I think Herb & Jamaal’s writer sees it as a relief — a whole month he doesn’t have to even try.

Marvin: Swell job, coloring monkeys. Burberry’s signature plaid is tan, not red. Ah well, could be worse. We could be treated to a week of Baby Designer Labels, like “DOOKY” or “Ralph Lauren’s Poolo”.

PUD: They’re supposed to dress up for Mardi Gras? Um, have you looked at how they dress now? They’ll probably show up in three-piece suits.

S-M: Arachnidda, please. You so did not expect the World’s Smallest Prison Van to be pulled up a ramp into the back of a moving truck by a humongous electromagnet. Quit trying to sound like you have the slightest idea what the hell is going on. Nobody buys it.
Bobdog
February 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am [Reply]

Pluggers: Brookins’ War on Pluggers continues. Pluggers are morbidly obese, hence their shirts must be XXXL in size and thus their shirt pockets are large enough to contain an otherwise unwieldy number of objects. You might think that by “computer,” Brookins means perhaps a Palm Pilot or iPhone, but remember Pluggers are old too, so really it’s an AS/400 IBM Mainframe. Gawd those Pluggers are FAT!
Calico
February 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am [Reply]

#114 – MW – Richard Notes – yessiree!

#115 – I hope the other mules at AAAAAaaaaack Ad Agency are avoiding the supply closet for a while. Yecch.
Edgy DC
February 1st, 2008 at 9:15 am [Reply]

Scarecrow to Base Two. We’ve got a white-collar plugger in captivity. Repeat. White-collar plugger in the bag. Over.
Jude, Jude, Jude of the Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 9:23 am [Reply]

2/1 DTM: Is Dennis implying that he’s violated the First Law of Thermodynamics? Surprisingly menacing!
dyslexic dog
February 1st, 2008 at 9:29 am [Reply]

Nos. 10, 39, 44, 55, 64, 70:
You’re all somewhat mistaken. “You’re So Vain” is all about ME!
Allie Cat
February 1st, 2008 at 9:34 am [Reply]

#9 Tracer – Agreed. Doonesbuy – THIS is how you do a strip about a serious subject and keep people entertained at the same time, without smirking in the last panel. Doonesbury nails it again.

PBS – I thought this was pretty damn funny. But then, I’ve also had my garden ravaged by bunnies.

MW – Seeing RyVon winking was off-putting, but at least they didn’t spell out “wink” over his eye like they did when that nosy doc was grilling Drew Cory about dating Dawn.
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 9:54 am [Reply]

MT I love Andy! He has more expression on his muzzle than any of the humans (if they are human) ever do. I just wish he carried one of those little casks under his collar with brandy or whiskey inside, like rescue St. Bernards do in pictures, I bet he wishes it too.

Andy wants his own thought balloon with “Groan!” in it.
Revenge of Chesnut
February 1st, 2008 at 10:01 am [Reply]

Something about the combination of disturbed Plugger facial expression and out of context song lyrics is really creeping me out. I mean, I know creeped out is a normal reaction to a giant man-dog in a three-piece suit riding an elevator, but this panel is making me imagine that he’s remembering himself as a giant teenage boy-dog awkwardly attempting to grope his giant teenage girl-rabbit and/or chicken girlfriend while listening to this song in an old Chevy pick-up truck. GOD CURSE YOU PLUGGERS FOR THIS MENTAL IMAGE.
John C Fremont
February 1st, 2008 at 10:07 am [Reply]

I liked today’s Mark Trail. Does that make me a plugger?

A3G – Well I, for one, am glad that Alan has graduated from painting doofuses to painting nudes. The poor dope.

MW – Von. Ryan. Von Ryan? “Von Ryan’s Express?” Is this some sort of Sinatra reference? Well, new guy could possibly pull off the Sinatra look if he would stop winking like that. Or maybe it’s an eye infection. Looks painful. He should have that looked at. I mean, I’m no geologist, but…

RMMD – Hey, it really is going to turn into “Straw Dogs” after all!
Dean Booth
February 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am [Reply]

MW: Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Am I too late to join the Jungle Patrol?
smacky
February 1st, 2008 at 10:08 am [Reply]

GA: No! Clovia aged 25 years on their vacation! And she got the “Alice Mitchell” nose job! What the hell? She was in a backless bathing suit before they left, and now she’s a contemporary of Mary Worth?!?
Meanwhile
February 1st, 2008 at 10:10 am [Reply]

Here is what Carly herself has said on the matter. I’m thinking a composite makes the most sense. She’s tried to tell people, but no one seems to listen. So now she just messes with anyone who asks.
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 10:18 am [Reply]

Dean Booth! Jungle Patrol always needs someone with your skills.

People, I’m off for the next four days. To you, it may be another ordinary Sooperbowl weekend with back to work on Monday. For me, it’s Mardi Gras. I’ll be back in the office on Wednesday.
rich
February 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am [Reply]

I wonder if the Dick Tracy art exhibit — which includes a shocking portrait of Policewoman Lizz — was inspired by the story of the artist who paints unauthorized nude portraits of famous hockey stars, like this one of Bobby Orr?

http://boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/11/29/in_artists_vision_an_icon_in_the_flesh/
The Divine O’F
February 1st, 2008 at 10:40 am [Reply]

Dean Booth: Excellent! And of course you can join the Jungle Patrol!
Squeezit
February 1st, 2008 at 10:41 am [Reply]

Wow, the Pluggers dog (hound?) looks really terrified by his trip in the elevator… more likely because of some sort of dissociative fugue than the music.
Dennis’s expression is creepy, too. He’s observing the argument very closely. In fact, I’d even say that he puts tension on his parents just so he can watch their marriage disintegrate. I love dad’s jacket, though.
Bunnë
February 1st, 2008 at 10:53 am [Reply]

107 Pastor Z
Pirarro inserts blueberry pies, dynamite, UFOs, and other random doodles into all his strips. My impression is that we’re supposed to think there’s some kind of higher meaning but actually he’s just messing with us.

Though there may in fact be a code to explain which doodles go in which comic. Like, maybe the UFO is code for “everyone should be a vegan like me,” while the dynamite means “animal testing is wrong”.

I sure I don’t have the energy to figure that out. Hell, I’ve shoveled snow three times in the last 12 hours and it’s still coming down; my energy is spent.
Gold-Digging Nanny
February 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am [Reply]

133 Bunne of the fabulous “e”:

I can’t remember who, but one curmudgeon a while back decoded it for us. It was something to this effect:

Pie: Really bad.
Alien: Don’t read.
Dynamite: Absolutely horrid.
Two of the above: Will make your brain hurt.
All three: Flee! Flee!
Poewar
February 1st, 2008 at 11:03 am [Reply]

Do you know what your son did?

No, but if it’s anything short of assault, I will once again be disappointed.
commodorejohn
February 1st, 2008 at 11:13 am [Reply]

#116 The Spectacular Jungle-Brick – Are you suggesting that the ALGJU3K is a quantum computer? Now there’s a depressing thought. Give it up, governments and laboratories, all it will get you is jokes written from the standpoint of something struggling with the very concept of humor.

#117 Bobdog – I dunno, I’ve met a few Pluggers who were so technologically advanced as to be running a ham radio setup from a VIC-20.

9CL – You know this is just a transparent attempt on Brooke’s part to draw Edda in such an outfit, but I’m not complaining.

Crankshaft – I was hesitant about this storyline at first, but as long as we get to keep watching ‘Shaft screw around with patients and staff, I endorse it.

DT – Thank you, Chief, for reminding us all why pleated pants are a horrible idea.

FW – Nice try, Batiuk, but you’re no Eduardo Baretto.

GT – He may be an arsonist, but he’s such a family man! And…what the hell is going on with the scenery in the final panel? There’s just…that does not computer.

MT – And Mark Trail gives us a strip as visually jumbled as any given panel of Gil Thorp. And wow, villains, knocking him out of the canoe with your pontoon is so much more effective than, I don’t know, shooting him.

MW – “Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more!”

Popeye – Then report identity theft. Geez, Popeye, this isn’t exactly a difficult situation to handle.

SM – I’m not entirely sure Spider-Man understands what’s going on here. Maybe he should carry a portable TV with him so he can catch the news and hope it includes items relevant to his present situation.

Edison Lee – can take his anti-fast-food self-righteousness and shove it up his healthy, regular ass.
Tonio
February 1st, 2008 at 11:17 am [Reply]

Champ, male comic artists are much more likely than their female colleagues to draw attractive women. There’s also a tendency by the men to give the female characters larger busts. It’s interesting that in the two most popular female-drawn strips, Cathy and FBOFW, the stand-ins for the artists are so abstract as to look unhuman. Why has Cathy never had a nose? Did she lose it in a drunken duel like Tycho Brahe?
Sully
February 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am [Reply]

You know you’re a Plugger if you read ‘Pluggers’.

In my burb, The Toronto Star doesn’t run Pluggers, but bad as it is, it could easily replace several that do: Foob, Retail, Tina’s Groove (or Grove, I can never remember), Get Fuzzy, Adam @ Home (other than caffeine addicts, does anybody read that anymore), Doonesbury (Other than Iraq war vets, does anybody read THAT anymore?), Beetle Baily, Hi and Lois… Hell, I guess it could replace just about any of them. Bah.
blueberrygrrrl
February 1st, 2008 at 11:39 am [Reply]

#74 brb, #75 Rainbird, #113 gabacho: Glad I’m not alone. In spending way too much time analyzing Mary Worth, that is.

Yeah, something’s off. Especially now that Drew has called them on the intradepartmental dating thing–if we take the storyline at face value, this sets him up to occupy the moral high ground, which contradicts the characterization of him as a jerk in the preceding week.

And heaven knows we wouldn’t see anything so illogical in this strip!

Also, brb, good observation about Vera’s weird moods–maybe that’s why she called Dr. Drew. Her meds are off and she needs him to write her a new prescription.
Darkefang
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am [Reply]

A3G: Dear God, Margo is your boss? You look like a man who needs to be held, Alan.

Archie: The lack of morals amongst the Archie teens is absolutely astounding. They make the girls from Laguna Beach look puritanical by comparison.

DT: The Dick Tracy universe might be poorly drawn and batshit insane, but it does have one advantage over our own: Since the top of every building describes the tenants in giant granite letters, it has to be easy to find whatever you happen to be looking for.

GT: So if I’ve got this correct, Andrew sets things on fire so he can video tape them and sell them to the local newspaper, then uses the money to support his little brother and sister, whom he gained custody of when their parents were killed in an accident with a firetruck. Yup, that sounds like a typical Gil Thorpe plot.

Also, I see we’ve been introduced to a new Milford business in panel two: Coffee. There’s nothing I enjoy more than unwinding in Coffee after eating at Diner, then heading out for a night on the town at Pub.

JP: Steve might not be as well-adjusted as he’s been letting on. He’s feeding those pigeons rice laced with nitroglycerine.

MT: Today’s Mark Trail is what North By Northwest would have looked like if Alfred Hitchcock was a terrible director.

MW: Like a picture, a gesture is worth a thousand words. Ryan’s wink, for instance, gives us a thousand variations of “ewww,” “creepy” and “biohazard.”

RMMD: If Lee kills Rex, then we get June every day, 365 strips a year. I’m just saying…

S-M: Tomorrow, Spidey takes a slow ride to Funkytown where the strong Persuader’s smoking gun will lead to some kung-fu fighting.
boojum
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am [Reply]

138 Sully:

I don’t have a dog, never had a cat, and am not a war vet. But Get Fuzzy and Doonesbury are two of the very few comics I have bookmarks to and read every day. I agree with most of your other choices, but including those two in your list is. . . decidedly odd. In my opinion, of course.
Mary Worthless
February 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am [Reply]

138 Sully: I’ll conceede that all of those EXCEPT Doonesbury are in need of the ax, or at least the threat of it. In this thread there’s been quite a few of us praising Doones. I’m the farthest thing from an Iraq war vet, too (that being a 20something researcher). It took a few weeks for me to really get into Doonesbury when I added it to my chron page, but it’s well done.
Inspector Dim
February 1st, 2008 at 11:52 am [Reply]

Some advice for our would-be killers in Mark Trail today: instead of trying to bonk him inconclusively with your pontoons, why not try shooting him with your bullets? If you lose track of him, just listen for the sound of someone yelling instructions to his dog.
Mary Worthless
February 1st, 2008 at 11:52 am [Reply]

I also do like Get Fuzzy but lately the plots have gone on tooooo loooonng. Especially that writers strike one. sheesh.
Electro of Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

While the non-joke in Dennis the (former) Menace does indeed date from 1952 (and probably a century or two earlier), I find it telling that the author would include the hoary my son/ your son trope as this indicates that the target audience is either A) too young to have heard it before, or B and much more likely) too senile to remember having heard it before.

It’s called demographics, baby!
Anonymous
February 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

That line interdepartmental dating made no sense at all but I sure like Ryan’s forced wink! Assuming Ryan is Vera’s boss and that she has stated that she works directly under him (get it?), how would they be in different departments? I guess that means they do it missionary style but I pictured Ryan on his back in the frothing perch position, firmly grasping Vera’s stiff ponytail.

Jump, Andy! Good thing Andy is so well trained! Most dogs don’t respond to the “jump” command.

Prediction – Mark will probably be held hostage and that clever note he put in Andy’s little collar barrel will end up saving him.
Darkefang
February 1st, 2008 at 11:55 am [Reply]

#113 Gabacho –

“Gil Thorp – Speaking of talking beavers, I know who Maureen and Anne are, but who the hell is Helen?”

Helen is the editor of the school paper. She played a prominent role in the Tyler Jay story from last year.
Moss_Moses
February 1st, 2008 at 11:56 am [Reply]

Doh! I posted 146.
Gagott68
February 1st, 2008 at 11:57 am [Reply]

GT: See…A-Train IS 45 years old. And he has 2 little rug-rats to prove it.

MT: I’m sure Mark just watched the plane bearing down on him while he tells Andy to “get down” and get funky! All while ignoring the rifle in his hand with which you could have, I dunno, taken at least a couple of shots at the plane? Nah.

BeBa: Is that a chihuahua with Otto or a bug? Either way, I think Otto wouldn’t issue it orders except perhaps, “Get in mah belly!”

FOOB: The harried retro Elly is wearing as thin as Luann’s Brad and Toni storyline. Maybe we’re just supposed to be reminded why Elly turned out to be such a shrill and dumpy hag.

PSB: Anya was right! Bunnies are evil. It’s time to call out the little National Guard Duck for deployment to Aftgardenstan.

S-M: Where is the power for that ginormous magnet? Where is the ginormous magnet for that matter. And wouldn’t a ginormous magnet that could suck a van into the truck like the Death Star’s tractor beam have caused lots of havoc with smaller metallic items like the guards’ guns, bullets and belts, Godero’s handcuffs or Spidey’s webshooters and the plate in his head?
Electro of Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 12:03 pm [Reply]

@113 Gabacho. I agree completely about Mark Trail. I’d say the last three strips have contained more awesomeness than the previous 60 years. I particularly enjoy tiny Mark / giant Andy in the 30 January strip.

Or maybe I’m just high.
Tats
February 1st, 2008 at 12:14 pm [Reply]

A3-G: I don’t know if things are about to get as Brokeback as Blaze’s salmon-shirt-and-bolo get-up imply, but I think our good friends at 3-G may be taking their Heath Ledger tribute a touch too far.

DT: Gotta love Dick Tracy, making broad steps for transgendered community with every strip. No one in this comic has had identifiable sex organs since 1988.

FOOB: Sadly, thirty years later, Michael still won’t have reached the pinnacle of maturity he’s displaying in this strip.

Luann: This “Brad loves Toni” storyline, quite frankly, bores me. If I want to see a wannabe lothario with no game strike out again and again, I’d be reading Mary Worth, thank you.

MW: You know, Doc, I gotta doubt Vera’s too concerned about the moral implications of “interdepartmental dating,” considering she probably just got back from having sex with her brother.

TDIET: I certainly hope one of those unlabeled bottles in the bathroom is a depilatory, considering the mother in this strip’s disconcerting shock of blonde chest hair.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 12:15 pm [Reply]

My mother got me a couple of Get Fuzzy collections for Christmas, and I have to say, the strip was better in the early days. It’s still better than the really tired strips like Hi & Lois or Heathcliff, but lately, it disappears a bit too much into the characters’ fevered imaginations. I preferred it when there was a little more interaction with humans outside the Wilco household.
commodorejohn
February 1st, 2008 at 12:17 pm [Reply]

#140 Darkefang re: RMMD – Damn straight. That’s why I was rooting for that match to go out. Heck, June Morgan, R.N. is even a better title, wouldn’tcha say?
Mr. Coffee Nerves
February 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pm [Reply]

MW: I was going to note how those hard-charging “self-starters” still find time to take three-hour lunches and randomly boff in the copy room, but then I thought “Have we ever seen Dr. Drew actually practice medicine, or just watched him stalk, mope, finger his clothing, make broad insane gestures in public and be ogled by random women who probably think he’s a serial killer?”

Mary is the most productive worker in the strip!
Rainbird
February 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm [Reply]

84 Joe Btfsplk I looked back, and Mark has had that gun since Tuesday. It wasn’t in his boat before that.

Now, why he didn’t take it and shoot at the plane is beyond me.
Gabacho
February 1st, 2008 at 12:25 pm [Reply]

Darkefang – 147 – Thanks. Helen’s not that attractive, is she?
Rainbird
February 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm [Reply]

92 Frank Parsnip I love the idea of the century of the fruit bat. Could we have all centries with weird animals ascribed to them? What was the 20th century? The year of the banana slug?
liz
February 1st, 2008 at 12:29 pm [Reply]

MW – Are you sure that’s a wink or did his glass eye just pop out?
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 12:31 pm [Reply]

85. Trilobite re MW: you’ve got to cut Dr. Drew’s physician associate a little slack (you know, the one who said “wink!” to him). Dr. Claudius, while a brilliant neurosurgeon in theory, exhibits a broad variety of body tics — not only has his career been cut short by them, but they also reduce him to having tell people when he’s making a conscious, voluntary gesture (”Wink!” “Leer!” “Puke!”).
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm [Reply]

#154, Mr. Coffee Nerves, the only people who work in Mary Worth have Charterstone-based companies. Tommy the Tweaker made meth in his mom’s apartment, Ella had a home-based fortune telling operation.

Charterstone, a hotbed of entrepreneurship.
Chip
February 1st, 2008 at 12:36 pm [Reply]

Dennis the Menace:
Dennis’s mom says, “Do you know what your son did?” It looks like in the first panel, what Dennis did was draw a picture of himself on the wall.
Sully
February 1st, 2008 at 12:36 pm [Reply]

#141 & 142

Okay, you guys, I’ll concede that Doonesbury has its merits. I mean, any strip that takes shots at that disaster Dubya can’t be all bad! Have a good day.
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 12:36 pm [Reply]

I should add, even though it is apparently against the condo association rules.
Rainbird
February 1st, 2008 at 12:37 pm [Reply]

139 blueberrygrrrl

I’ve been thinking of what will happen in Mary Worth, but with the Mary Worth sort of thinking. So, here is what I think will happen.
a) Drew will go away, sad that Vera is lost to him.
b) Vera will have a fight with the Von look-alike, and realized that she can’t work with him anymore.
c) Vera will come back to Drew and say she was wrong.

But what I would love to happen next is Vera files a lawsuit again the von-look-alike for sexual harassment, stalking, and general sleaziness, win big, get him fired, get enough money to start her own company, and forget about Drew entirely.
tymime
February 1st, 2008 at 12:43 pm [Reply]

Lemme see if I can find a logical explanation for Ziggy today: By saying “the last person who rubbed my lamp took everything”, he means that he got his wish-granting powers stolen.
Now, If Ziggy were a continuing-story strip, I’d like to see who it was that did it. Is he using his powers for good or evil? (i.e. “I wish I could go to the ball” or “I wish I were dead”?)
Of course, that would mean he would have to create more human characters other than Hairy Cook and Lady Behind A Counter.
Paperback Rifler
February 1st, 2008 at 12:46 pm [Reply]

Geez. It’s Groundhog Day Eve, and all I have is snark that makes me want to hibernate for six more weeks:

Diesel Sweeties: Yep, it’s better in color. It doesn’t necessarily add anything to the punchline, but at least the color version is more interesting to look at.

Ripley’s Believe It or Not!: I don’t believe it. (Well, they DO give you that option, you know.)

Luann: To help make Brad appear less pathetic, I’m just going to imagine that in that last panel, Brad is breaking into a pirate persona: “Arrrugh! That Toni be the comeliest wench that this barnacle-covered sea dog ever did come across! Aye, I have a fierce fire in my belly to let her trim me mizzenmast! Arrrugh!”

Okay, so maybe that really doesn’t help. Well, I tried.

Mary Worth: Vera! This “Ryan” fellow is no good for you! Don’t you recognize him? He was that Junior Nazi who tried to rat on the Von Trapps in The Sound of Music! Yes, I’m sure it was all very romantic when you snuck out to have that pas de deux with him in the gazebo during that thunderstorm; but what will you do when he tries to hand you and your curtain-wearing musical theater family over to the hated Nazis? Who’ll help you then, huh? Perhaps Mother Superior Mary, who’ll be so busy singing “Chime in with Bromides” (to the tune of “Climb Every Mountain”) that she won’t notice that the iron fist of fascism has already dragged you off in chains? I don’t think so!
Paperback Rifler
February 1st, 2008 at 12:57 pm [Reply]

166. (me): Well, I’m fairly confident that none of you is wondering what “Chime in with Bromides” sung to the tune of “Climb Every Mountain” would be like, but here are some lyrics anyway. Apologies to Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and everybody everywhere:

Chime in with bromides,
Lecture with zest;
You know all the answers;
You know what is best.

Chime in with bromides
And platitudes.
Who advises better
Than a smug, old prude?

A prude who will pry
And won’t leave folks alone;
Who’ll intrude on affairs
That are none of her own . . .

Chime in with bromides
And platitudes.
Who advises better
Than a smug, old prude?
Darkefang
February 1st, 2008 at 12:58 pm [Reply]

#156 Gabacho –

“Thanks. Helen’s not that attractive, is she?”

It’s difficult to pin down what’s attractive and what isn’t in the Gil Thorpe universe. Andrew is supposedly cute, yet he looks like Lenny or Squiggy after they’ve had their heads crushed under a steamroller.

#160 Bootsy –

“the only people who work in Mary Worth have Charterstone-based companies. Tommy the Tweaker made meth in his mom’s apartment, Ella had a home-based fortune telling operation.

Charterstone, a hotbed of entrepreneurship.”

Don’t forget Wilbur. He’s Charterstone’s version of Ann Landers.
Sans Sense, Jungle Patrol Admin Specialist II
February 1st, 2008 at 12:58 pm [Reply]

#126. Dean Booth -

While the Jungle Patrol would certainly require you to fog a mirror, your talents may be better suited to work at Affect Advertising. At Affect, when management has their eye on you… they REALLY have their eye on you… ;-)
Perky Bird
February 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm [Reply]

#143–
Hahahahaha! I love the phrase “trying to bonk him inconclusively with your pontoons” !! Must try to work into conversations as much as possible.

Is that how Abby tries to instigate sex with Sam?
Sans Sense, Jungle Patrol Admin Specialist II
February 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm [Reply]

RMMD:

Dear Comic Gods –

Please let there be gunplay. Please let Niki neatly dispatch Lee with one round then gut shoot and disarm Rex. As Rex slowly and painfully bleeds to death please show Niki counting the loot, making out with Faith and tossing her a few Benjamins to go buy herself “something pretty.” If you do this, I will be good. I will continue to read your strip, buy your merchandise, talk it up to everyone I know. Please…
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 1:07 pm [Reply]

Darkefang and commodorejohn, re RMMD: it’s not about June Morgan, and you know it! You’re not interested in her career…you’re angling for some depictions of her “conjugal visits” with Rex while he’s incarcerated. Or at the very least, June visiting him on a Sunday afternoon and pressing herself against the glass separating them.
Well, that’s what I’m angling for…
Blue Knight, Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 1:13 pm [Reply]

126: It’s never too late to enlist!

On a highly related note, I hope that the Phantom stays genre-savvy. I’m getting fond of lady cops and waitresses.
Bunnë
February 1st, 2008 at 1:16 pm [Reply]

Attn PBS fans: Pastis makes another guest appearance today in Jane’s World, where he is known as “Shallow Breast Guy”:

http://comics.com/comics/janesworld/archive/janesworld-20080201.html

I believe he and Paige Braddock are friends.
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 1:18 pm [Reply]

166. PF re MW: no, no, NO! Ryan can’t be Rolf! Even so, Rolf wasn’t “one of them”! He’d never be “one of them”! Captain von Trapp said so!
No…wait. Could Ryan be “one of them”? If yes, then Ryan and Rolf aren’t the same. If Ryan couldn’t be “one of them,”
then they ARE the same! Oy, these logic puzzles confound me every time.
I’m just going to see if I can turn “Rolf” into “Ryan” by replacing one letter at a time, but making a new word (a real word, not a made-up one) each time. This should take hours…

(Thanks for the lyrics for “Chime in with Bromides,” too. If Charterstone ever becomes a convent or monastery (Our Lady of the Glorious Busybody), Abbess Mary will already have a theme song. Not that abbesses have theme songs, you know.)

126. Dean-Booth, my hero! As always, subtle and hysterical.
kingklash, Bungle Patrol in the Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 1:21 pm [Reply]

For some reason, early on in the thread (#20), I thought Frank Parsnip said Klingon Trio. Now that would be some interesting folk music.

Mad Magazine did a verson of the joke years ago, under the heading “You’re Ready For Rock Retirement When….,”
The song that got you banned in nine states is now being used to sell fruit drinks on TV.
Darkefang, Anthropomorphic Pirate Captain of the Jungle Patrol
February 1st, 2008 at 1:23 pm [Reply]

#172 – Bats

“it’s not about June Morgan, and you know it! You’re not interested in her career…you’re angling for some depictions of her “conjugal visits” with Rex while he’s incarcerated. Or at the very least, June visiting him on a Sunday afternoon and pressing herself against the glass separating them.
Well, that’s what I’m angling for…”

Actually, I was hoping that in the aftermath of Rex’s death, a distraught June would move with Heather to a beach community and open a combination bikini-lingerie-bathrobe shop.
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 1:26 pm [Reply]

ROLF
GOLF
GOOF
GOON
LOON
LOAN
ROAN
RYAN
Lindsey ^_^
February 1st, 2008 at 1:27 pm [Reply]

Today marks the first day of my life that I have ever laughed at an A-3G because it’s funny. I like Blaze. He’s a funny guy. Too bad he’s gay.
boojum
February 1st, 2008 at 1:28 pm [Reply]

175 Bats:[

Too many steps, but…

Rolf
Golf
Gold
Goad
Road
Roan
Ryan
boojum
February 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm [Reply]

CURSE YOU, SQB! YOU AND YOUR QUICKNESS!!
Zaq
February 1st, 2008 at 1:30 pm [Reply]

Is today’s BC really creepy to anyone else? I mean, we wouldn’t have a human dangling from a noose (that it’s highly implied he tied himself, of course) and wryly comment that he isn’t taking unemployment well, would we? Not to mention that frying ants is a messy business to begin with… and that the giant magnifying glass had to come from somewhere, so someone GAVE this little unemployed ant something with which to kill himself, which he gamely sets up and stoically sits under, waiting patiently, Ziggy-like, for death. Creepy.
Girl Reporter
February 1st, 2008 at 1:31 pm [Reply]

Nos. 10, 39, 44, 55, 64, 70, 121:
I thought it came out about a month ago that it was about Caroline Kennedy.
bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[
February 1st, 2008 at 1:31 pm [Reply]

178. Skullturf: dang, you’re good! And here you were, complaining about chowder/shouter/who gives a rat’s patoot pronunciation issues!

(Does this mean Rolf is Ryan? Mary is the Mother Superior? Vera is Maria? Drew is a jerk? Everyone should wear garments made out of flower-patterned draperies?)
Chromium
February 1st, 2008 at 1:35 pm [Reply]

I saw that “Pluggers” joke in a “Hi and Lois” cartoon like 6 years ago.
Lindsey ^_^
February 1st, 2008 at 1:36 pm [Reply]

Oh, and Spiderman’s line in that second panel is horrible.” Now, let the good times roll?” What? >_>
Bunnë
February 1st, 2008 at 1:39 pm [Reply]

183 Girl Reporter
I’m pretty sure it’s actually about me.
Sans Sense, J. P. Admin Specialist II
February 1st, 2008 at 1:45 pm [Reply]

Jungle Patrol Internal Memorandum
From: The Desk of Colonel Worubu
To: All Jungle Patrolees

The recent application for employment in the Jungle Patrol by two women has prompted the Unknown Commander to have me remind all Jungle Patrolees that we are NOT an enlightened group. The following fraternization with the new female candidates are FORBIDDEN as prejudicial to good order and discipline:

Personal and business relationships. Personal relationships include dating, cohabitation and any sexual relationship. Business relationships include loaning and borrowing money and business partnerships.

Nothing in the fraternization regs forbids the long time Jungle Patrol tradition of same-sex dating, cohabitation, sexual relationships, money lending, business partnerships, gambling and discreet piracy for personal gain.

Further, none of these rules apply to the Unknown Commander or his Unknown Wife, the respected Mawitaan attorney Diana Palmer. Neither of whom I know or have ever met except for that one time at The-Company-Picnic-That-Shall-Go-Unremembered.

San Sense
J.P. Admin Specialist II
Skullturf Q. Beavispants
February 1st, 2008 at 1:48 pm [Reply]

Yeah, but yours was better, boojum! Fewer steps!
gh
February 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm [Reply]

So now The Phantom is Ghost-Who-Approves-All-Expenditures-Over-$50?
Girl Reporter
February 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm [Reply]

186 Lindsey…What?>_>

Peter is off to join Bootsy for that party invented by the fun Cat’lics.
commodorejohn
February 1st, 2008 at 1:51 pm [Reply]

#172 bats, Avian Division of the Jungle Patrol :[ – Rex? Hell no, he can go crawl in a corner and die to make way for the one really interesting character in the strip. It’s all about June. Maybe she can partner up with the post-Lee’s-death-from-pneumonia reformed Faith and go on crime-busting sprees across the lower forty-eight, toting her daughter along for the ride. That’d be entertaining, way more than the World’s Dumbest Hostage Situation.
Josh
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm [Reply]

#127 smacky — That’s not Clovia, that’s Mrs. Sheezix (no, I don’t know her name). Clovia is Sheezix’s daughter-in-law, or possibly daughter, or (since this is Gasoline Alley) possibly both.

Josh
lostsynapse
February 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm [Reply]

182 Suicide machines are the economic stimulus package of the future. Not only do they improve our economy by killing off the worthless unemployed but they improve the economy of whoever makes the giant magnifying glasses.
Artist formerly known as Ben
February 1st, 2008 at 2:04 pm [Reply]

2/1

PBS: Pastis, my man, you are going to get some letters.

MW: Aargh, such a horribly smug wink. At this point the only reason I’m not rooting for Drew to deck Ryan is because I don’t want Vera to have the satisfaction of two ment fighting over her.

FW: So, readers, are you enjoying your mostly naked Dinkle?

BB: What the hell is that?

Luann: Save you a seat, slip you some meat, just have to change a few letters.

DT: The picture shows the chief getting friendly with some nice crisp vegetables.

SSmith: Comic books changed from Penthouse in the first draft.

S-M: Thank you for that non sequitur, Ric Ocasek.

RMMD: “Oh, and that whole cold blood thing? Totally boss idea! Thanks Faith.”

GT: Why is Andrew Gregory beating himself up with two glove puppets on his hands?
Josh
February 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pm [Reply]

#153 commodorejohn — though the initials have a nice ring to them, I reasonably sure June is actually an NP (nurse practioner), not an RN. An NP is a graduate degree, whereas an RN may only have a two-year college degree. Though laws vary from state to state in the US, in many states NPs can have their own practice, or work autonomously within a doctor’s practice, doing a lot of the sort of basic GP stuff people have traditionally gone to the doctor for, including drug perscriptions. It’s sort of in line with a PA (physician’s assistant) degree.

Josh
man behind the curtain
February 1st, 2008 at 2:05 pm [Reply]

LuAnn — What Brad doesn”t realize is that Toni isn’t known as “Daytona 500″ for nothing. Of course she’ll hit the sack with him.
queek
February 1st, 2008 at 2:08 pm [Reply]

not a lot to say about todays strips that haven’t already been said, but i’m really liking 9CL this week. Today may have been an excuse for cheesecake, but its still been a fun read.
man behind the curtain
February 1st, 2008 at 2:09 pm [Reply]

#151 TATS — Your A3G remark is definite COTW material.
Bunnë
February 1st, 2008 at 2:28 pm [Reply]

198, queek
Cheesecake and beefcake. Something for everyone!
Sans Sense, J. P. Admin Specialist II
February 1st, 2008 at 2:28 pm [Reply]

Jungle Patrol Internal Memorandum
From: The Desk of Colonel Worubu
To: All Jungle Patrolees

To whoever has been stealing my lunches out of the refrigerator, this is NOT cool. I spend a lot of time making my Dagwoods and need it to keep my Jungle strength. Colonel Worubu has promised to punish the offender severely.
Artist formerly known as Ben
February 1st, 2008 at 2:28 pm [Reply]

#85 Trilobite,
Re: Crankshaft: I knew it was a miserably unfunny something, but wasn’t sure exactly what.
Mel
February 1st, 2008 at 2:33 pm [Reply]

MW: I think that guy in blue in the first panel is taking his time with his coffee stirring, sure that a lingering look at his sweet, sweet ass will secure him self-conscious sex with someone at that table.

Sorry pal, you are humping up the wrong tree. You want the one without brother bangers, underling fingerers, and diddling docs in it.

Try the Starbucks.
Trotzenbonnie
February 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm [Reply]

FW – You know, I’m up to my eyeballs with work – and, yes, preparing for Mardi Gras is more labor intensive than you might think what with making and packing jell-o shots for a few thousand people (it’s nice to share) and trying to glue glitter onto a pair of tights without the legs sticking together – but it seems as though there’s always time to bitch about Funky Winkerbean.
As I rapidly disintegrate into old age and realize that, when men talk to me these days, they’re looking me more in the eyes because it’s too much trouble for them to figure out where the hell my ba-da-bings have gone, the last thing in the world I want to do is send my darling husband to some two-bit Las Vegas tart for a massage – especially a tart with a chest full of boobies desperately trying to make a break for it from that belly shirt she’s wearing and a perky crotch that winks right into the guy’s face, for crying out loud. How the hell is that supposed to make him relax? The man is going to be one big bundle of tangled nerves thinking about how big the knife is that I’m going to stab him with after some other woman has rubbed her oily hands all over his body parts.
And don’t give me any crap about therapeutic massage either, all of you legitimately licensed professionals with years of intensive training and experience who deserve nothing but respect out there in the listening audience. If Mr T needs to relax, I know right where the Bare Butt Booty Oil is, thank you very much!

We’re heading two hours due east on I10 tomorrow so Happy Mardi Gras everybody!
Paperback Rifler
February 1st, 2008 at 2:47 pm [Reply]

I was just catching up on the comments, and . . .

25. Carter: “Don’t feel too weird, champ. I had a thing for Calvin’s mom.”
Oh, my gosh! I did, too! It’s not something that I ever understood since Calvin’s mom was built like a stick and wore clothes that were dowdy at best and mannish at worst. Oh, well; some things are just beyond explanation.
commodorejohn
February 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm [Reply]

#196 Josh – Could be; I’m not a Rex Morgan trivialist. I maintain it would be a more interesting strip, though.
Poteet
February 1st, 2008 at 3:01 pm [Reply]

PBS — When I contemplate, as someone recently converted to PBS, the varied humor in this strip, I envision Pastis dipping a cup, day after day, into a deep blue pool of funniness. Whereas FC is desperately scraped out of a tiny mud puddle.
teenchy
February 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pm [Reply]

## 127, 193: smacky, Josh is correct. It’s Skeezix’ (Skeezix’s?) wife, Nina. Clovia is their daughter. Pity I know that; I guess you either have to be from Wisconsin or know someone who is.
Cheeky Wee Monkeys
February 1st, 2008 at 3:13 pm [Reply]

Do. Not. Want. To. Think. Of. Pluggers. Touching. Other. Pluggers.
Calico
February 1st, 2008 at 3:20 pm [Reply]

#196 Josh – are “drug perscriptions” something they give to the closed-eyed, conjunctivitis-infected hillbillies in BG/SS?
Ukulele Ike
February 1st, 2008 at 3:33 pm [Reply]

Re: The Cheesecake in 9CL Today: Is panel three Edda’s front parts, or her butt? I really can’t tell, and it bothers me.
mollificent
February 1st, 2008 at 3:35 pm [Reply]

#92 FP: Welcome to the Century of the Anchovy! ;) (Or was it the Cobra? I believe there is some confusion on this point…)

#204 TB: LMAO! :D
commodorejohn
February 1st, 2008 at 3:43 pm [Reply]

#211 Ukulele Ike – That looks more like her pinky closest to the camera than her thumb, so I presume we’re looking at her derriere.
teddytoad
February 1st, 2008 at 3:48 pm [Reply]

I highly doubt that Pluggers wear suits, or, for that matter, ride in the devil’s chamber, this so-called “elevator.” The wish to “elevate” one’s self smacks of pride. And we all know exactly what pride did to Nebuchadnezzar, Caiaphas, and Nimrod, don’t we? (If you do, you’re a Plugger.)

Most likely the Plugger believes the devilvator is itself urging him to touch it, which explains his alarm.
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 3:59 pm [Reply]

Trotzenbonnie,

Look for me Tuesday! I’ve decided my favorite costumes are any where I can wear a moustache. Last year Mr. B was a hooker and I was the pimp.

Our home base is Tujague’s on Decataur Street. We can also be found near Jackson Square taunting the fundamentalists who come to town every year to tell us we’re goiong to hell. Sheesh. They think I don’t already know that?

As Peter Parker would say, laissez les bon temps rouler!
Uncle Balustrade
February 1st, 2008 at 4:02 pm [Reply]

I found the final panel of Thursday’s “Luann” extremely suggestive. Instead of going into detail, I’m calling my shrink.
Bootsy
February 1st, 2008 at 4:02 pm [Reply]

kingklash Your Duchess of Malfi quote theopther day a la Mary Worth was priceless.
Gal Friday
February 1st, 2008 at 4:18 pm [Reply]

MT: Oh, please let Mark punch the pontoons!
Joe Btfsplk
February 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm [Reply]

#’s 25, 205 – Hey, me too! And I don’t know why, either.
Little Guy
February 1st, 2008 at 4:22 pm [Reply]

Luann: I’ve been bored with Toni ever since she refuse to dump Dirk the first time he threatened Brad. Heck, if T.J is thinking about her, *I* would even suggest he run farfar away.

GA: It took three weeks to kick Mac out of his job, and now we’re gonna see that Mac’s instincts were correct.

9CL: I forget. Is he one of the gay guys? Are there *any* non-gay guys? I’m not so sure about the former priest who got married, and I *know* Thorax isn’t straight.
Little Guy
February 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm [Reply]

Add: Today’s Phantom, as written by Scott Adams.

NEXT! The Unknown Pointy-Headed Commander!
UncleJeff
February 1st, 2008 at 4:27 pm [Reply]

#176 — “the song that got you banned in nine states is now being used to sell fruit drinks on TV”

We’re getting a lot of inappropriate rock songs of my youth being used to sell products: “Lust For Life” being used to promote family-friendly sea cruises…”Walk On The Wild Side” on (if I remember right) a jeans commercial.

#215 — Oh Bootsie, I wish I could be there in NOLA with you for Mardi Gras but what Peter Parker would really say is “what time is “Emeril” on hun?”
queek
February 1st, 2008 at 4:55 pm [Reply]

200: “Cake. Beef or cheese, its all good.” :-D

211: what 213 said, and why. dat’s Eddabooty.

207: no need to post any more until Tuesday, folks, we have our CotW winner right here.
Poteet
February 1st, 2008 at 5:17 pm [Reply]

# 215 Bootsy — I will probably go to my grave not knowing what it’s like to dress as a pimp, so thanks for the vicarious thrill:-).

# 223 — Why thank you, queek! Definitely the nicest thing someone’s said to me all day.
Girl Reporter
February 1st, 2008 at 5:22 pm [Reply]

It’s no Menacing House, but here’s another installment in the saga My Cat Has Had More Adventures Than Anthony Caine. Previous installments included A Whole Cream Pie Dropped On The Kitchen Floor Right In Front of Him, and The Snow In The Back Yard Is As Deep As His Neck:

Machka came home in a squad car like a teenage boy the other night. I got home at almost 9pm from the gym and Mr. Girl Reporter said he’d been calling and banging the supper dish for him for a couple hours. We called some more and kept checking the back door every couple minutes. Then at 10pm the Village police dispatcher called. The ladies taking the pottery class at the community center (waaaaaaay down the street and around the corner) called the police all worried that a poor cat was out in the rain and trying to get down in the window-well outside their classroom. They were afraid the cat was going to get stuck. Machka wasn’t stuck, of course, and came to the police officer and presented his belly as soon as she called “here, kitty” to him. She called the dispatcher with the phone number on his collar, and the dispatcher called us to find out where he lived. I turned on the porch light, and a couple minutes later, here comes a police car around the corner to deliver him home just like a juvenile delinquent.
Mamzelle Hepzibah
February 1st, 2008 at 8:11 pm [Reply]

Clearly, Tom Furrh is a close relative of Dr. Hfuhruhurr of The Man With Two Brains fame.
nemryn
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:19 pm [Reply]

Huh. I always thought “You’re So Vain” was about me.
Tom Furrh
January 1st, 2009 at 1:45 am [Reply]

I enjoyed the comments about Pluggers. They are much more entertaining than the strip itself. BTW, I am a so cal native, although Furrh TX is our traditional singles dating spot…

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