The Comics Curmudgeon

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Everyone loves me, though, right?

Dick Tracy, 2/8/10

Dick Tracy has been even more incomprehensible than usual lately, and what I have been able to understand has just irritated me, but I do read it diligently, in case any gems pop up that ought to be shared with my readership! And lo and behold, panel two is just such a gem. “…Not everyone loves you, and you must die.” Couldn’t this sinister, gnomic pronouncement be uttered about each and every one of us? None of us is so lovable as to earn the affections of all, and each of us is mortal! Of course, most of us won’t be terribly maimed by an exploding Stradivarius, with a square-jawed fascist saying something pithy over us as we die in agony, for which we can be thankful.

Luann, 2/8/10

Speaking of people nobody likes, it’s Luann! It actually took me a minute to get my head around the punchline here (i.e., everyone will finally know Luann DeGroot, who will be in disguise, as a Puerto Rican); I at first assumed that we were meant to laugh at Luann’s cheerfully proposed brownfacing. Still, I rather think that her classmates will remember her for her performance, if only as “that girl who got the school picketed by the National Council of La Raza.”

Popeye, 2/8/10

Speaking of incomprehensible and irritating, Popeye just ended one of its stories that I half paid attention to and is about to start another one in which I’ll probably be equally uninterested. Still, you have to admire this strip for showing that even a plot that is extremely grim and all too real for too many people today — a desperate attempt to hide the extent of your financial ruin from your family, who depends on you economically — can be made hilarious through ersatz dialect. “I yam out of monies!’” Ho ho ho!

Marmaduke, 2/8/10

Look, lady, if you keep marrying them, he’s going to keep killing and eating them. I’m not sure why this is such a hard concept for you to grasp.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 8, 2010 at 04:35 pm and is filed under Dick Tracy, Luann, Marmaduke, Popeye. |

119 responses to “Everyone loves me, though, right?”

dmac
February 8th, 2010 at 4:43 pm [Reply]

Just how many Popeye storylines revolve around allowances?
Carly
February 8th, 2010 at 4:45 pm [Reply]

“Not everyone loves you, and you must die.” I “must” start working that into my every day conversations.
“How are you doing today, Carly?”
“Not everyone loves you, and you must die.”
Should it be said in a deadpan, or with overdone theatrics?
zenvelo
February 8th, 2010 at 4:49 pm [Reply]

I could really use a T-shirt that says “I yam out of monies!’” !!

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a t-shirt today….
Jordan
February 8th, 2010 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

“There’s a disturbance, sir. Just look at my eyebrows! Aren’t they disturbing?”
AmazingThor
February 8th, 2010 at 4:50 pm [Reply]

Marm: I think the lady has a valid point. Where is she going to find another Adolph Hitler clone?
TruthOfAngels
February 8th, 2010 at 4:53 pm [Reply]

Any comic strip with the byline ‘Starring Poopdeck Pappy And Popeye!’ ain’t a comic strip that TruthOfAngels is going to read. Who is this Bud Sagendorf, and why isn’t he in jail?
Hibbleton
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

Luann: Evans rejected using “Porgy and Bess” for the school play and ultimately this joke for its being too obscure for a modern audience.
skullcrusherjones
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

Yeah, Hitler husbands are grown in labs not on… ah crap, beat to the Hitler clone joke.
Naked Bunny with a Whip
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

Luann makes an appearance in today’s “Brad, Toni, ‘n Teej” strip, I see. She’s, what, the wacky neighbor who never knocks?
Master Softheart
February 8th, 2010 at 4:54 pm [Reply]

I want to take a moment to Softheartedly thank Josh for the dedication involved in reading the comics so I don’t have to, because the comics I don’t read – like Popeye and Dick Tracy – would leave me gibbering in Lovecraftian horror within a few weeks of daily exposure, but without his selfless service I would miss nuggets of pure awesome like today.

Anyway, on with the show:

9CL: You know, I wouldn’t have actually thought that there was a market for a really pretentious version of Hogan’s Heroes starring imprisoned Nazis who run circles around their oafish, incompetent captors and help Hitler win the war while romancing naive allied women to gain their treasonous assistance.

Actually, I still believe that, so never mind.

JP: Now featuring even more Exciting Luggage-Moving Action! I do love it when Judge Parker strips feature a punchline, like mentally unstable, violent Rocky telling Sam that he’s a prince. Just in case anyone doubted Woody Wilson’s status as one of the premiere social critics and ironists of our age, this comic has to put those doubts to rest.

Phantom!: Super-heroine Rebound Woman knows how to make a date with the Ghost Who Flirts. Promising an evening of cathartic violence is a technique that would usually only pay off if you were trying to pick up Dick Tracy, but here we see that our favorite emotionally vulnerable deadbeat dad swings that way, too. Well played, Savarna!

GT: I could have just stopped reading the comics after Gil Thorp today, because it was that good. Cassie breaking off her inappropriate relationship with a deadbeat older guy because of “the age thing [and] the parent thing” only to start plying slacker college drop-out janitor/coach with cookies is such obvious but brilliant humor that it lit up my morning.

Garfield: Fortunately, I didn’t stop and got to Garfield. I honestly think that the Jon-Liz romance might be my favorite ongoing story in the comics. Consider that well, writers of the various actual, accredited soap strips.
TruthOfAngels
February 8th, 2010 at 4:56 pm [Reply]

Also, re: Marmaduke, actually, Mrs. M, husbands do grow on trees, if your husband is Hitler. Haven’t you seen The Boys From Brazil?
chrishocker
February 8th, 2010 at 4:56 pm [Reply]

I would certainly not be surprised if the baby was ever drawn with a corn cob pipe sticking out of its mouth in Popeye.
Anonymous
February 8th, 2010 at 4:57 pm [Reply]

@AmazingThor (#5):

There was a bunch of boys from Brazil. . .
Robert Pope
February 8th, 2010 at 4:58 pm [Reply]

How old is that Popeye strip? Bud Sagendorf must have drawn it during some PREVIOUS recession, ’cause he passed away years ago!
skullcrusherjones
February 8th, 2010 at 4:58 pm [Reply]

A debilitating $1000 a day spinach habit would put even the most wealthy yams on skid row. Skid row being a step up from the scuzzy docks Popeye’s pop-eyed clan inhabits.
Kibo
February 8th, 2010 at 4:59 pm [Reply]

“Dick Tracy” makes me realize I should be thankful that everyone loves me. And now that the strip has served its purpose, they can shut it down.
yellojkt
February 8th, 2010 at 4:59 pm [Reply]

Just like the lily-white suburban schools that insist on putting on The Wiz or Dreamgirls.
Fountain Mountain Dew
February 8th, 2010 at 5:00 pm [Reply]

@Hibbleton (#7): I guess I’m not modern, though, as I understand the joke. It also helps that I live in Charleston SC . . . I’m currently only a few blocks away from “Cabbage Row,” or what became “Catfish Row” in Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

And yep, Luann is indeed awfully lighthearted about the whole brownface thing.
Ed Dravecky
February 8th, 2010 at 5:06 pm [Reply]

GT: Ah, so 18-year old Cassie has moved on from 22-year old pizza flipper Ray to 22-year old janitor/coach/college dropout Steve Luhm? This can only end very, very well.

A3G: Not to worry, Bobbie. Aristotle Pappagoras is so unobservant… (Studio audience: “How unobservant is he?”) Aristotle is so unobservant that he doesn’t know you’re a pill-seeking, husband-stalking loon with at best a tenuous grip on reality.

JP: When Sam tells Rocky, “I’ll drive around back and we’ll load up!” is that still gay subtext or has it crossed the line into full-on text?

Luann: Luann will be on stage in dark-face makeup? This can only end with shouted protests, picketing, and eventually building up to having cable news pundits wonder “how this grim devastation could have been averted” as rescue workers are diverted from Haiti to the soon-to-be-former site of Luann’s high school.
Pozzo
February 8th, 2010 at 5:11 pm [Reply]

Are all Marmaduke strips now going to consist of Mrs. Hitler greeting Marmaduke at the door after his latest killing spree? Not that there’s anythig wrong with that; I’m just asking.
Bootsy
February 8th, 2010 at 5:14 pm [Reply]

Comics? What comics? I’m hunkered down in my office. It’s very quiet because no one showed up to work today. The streets, at least around my building, are empty. The schools are closed. I think Armageeddon is nigh. I suppose everyone is sleeping, hungover, or in the 1/4.

You guys out there?
bats :[
February 8th, 2010 at 5:16 pm [Reply]

There needs to be a Luann/La Cucaracha crossover. And if something unfortunate happens to Luann, so much the better.
Ms.X
February 8th, 2010 at 5:18 pm [Reply]

@Fozzo (20) : I think I’d have to start reading Marmaduke if that happened not glancing over it and guiltily averting my eyes like I do when I see a wreck on the highway.

Can we talk about why Luann is sensually massaging and singing a love song to her gross brother? Actually…let’s not talk about that. Ever. It’s almost as disgusting as TJ.
queek, Source of Cuteness, Kawaii Commando
February 8th, 2010 at 5:26 pm [Reply]

so, Popeye inspired both cats, dogs and our national symbol? who knew!
Charles Kuffner
February 8th, 2010 at 5:26 pm [Reply]

In re: Dick Tracy:

Count de Monet: It is said that the people are revolting.
King Louis XVI: You said it! They stink on ice!

Gotta love Mel Brooks.
Professor Fate
February 8th, 2010 at 5:31 pm [Reply]

9CL: “By this this time the Korean War had started so the whole thing seemed rather useless.”
Hibbleton
February 8th, 2010 at 5:35 pm [Reply]

If husbands did grow on trees, you can be sure Marm would piss on them. And then eat them.

FMD@18: I can’t decide which is more offensive today, La Cucaracha or Luann.
tb4000
February 8th, 2010 at 5:59 pm [Reply]

Luann: I pray for a scene in which Luann says the phrase “dios mio!”, so as to showcase her ethnic rape even moreso.
odinthor
February 8th, 2010 at 6:02 pm [Reply]

Luann. — Y’know, with just a little tweaking, this production of West Side Story could be made much less bizarre: North Side Story: An edgy new musical highlighting the tensions and tragedies between The Lutefisks, a gang of depressed Swedes, and The Smørrebrøds, a gang of ever-partying Danes, in a small farming community in Minnesota. The score, by Leonard Bjornson, includes such exciting numbers as “I Feel Bored” (“I feel bored/Oh so bored/I feel bored, suicidal, and depressed…”), “Dear Lay Minister Lofgren” (“Deep down inside me is Köttbullar”), and “Kølig” (“Get kølig, boy! / Got a Tuborg in your pocket”).
Mardou Fox
February 8th, 2010 at 6:03 pm [Reply]

MW: Cool! with a name like “Toots,” maybe he’ll be a coke-head. I want Cue and Toots to get into a fight over Brook.

MT: The Parker Brothers are getting hairier by the moment! Can the punching be far behind??
Ukulele Ike
February 8th, 2010 at 6:13 pm [Reply]

Luann: Eh. Natalie Wood didn’t wear brownface.

RMMD: Wasn’t there a discussion a few days back about Daniel Clowes guest-arting for this strip? Cause “Toots” here is the spittin’ image of Dan Pussey.

http://bclaymoore.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/pussey.jpg
Carly
February 8th, 2010 at 6:17 pm [Reply]

@Jordan (#4):

Personally, I feel like the eyebrows are one of the less disturbing body parts in Dick Tracy. But then, how do you choose?
fishmorgjp
February 8th, 2010 at 6:20 pm [Reply]

When we next see Luann, she will be all blackened up like Al Jolson… “Guess I used too much, huh?”
cj
February 8th, 2010 at 6:21 pm [Reply]

The Brad and Toni Show:
Luann, people don’t ignore you because of your personal flaws, they ignore you because of your hick name (LuAnn DeGroot). No one really likes Tiffany Farrell (except herself), but by god, get that court order name change as soon as you can! You might find the wig and dark skin useful after the play as well.

Really, this girl’s parents are morons!
Howland Al
February 8th, 2010 at 6:27 pm [Reply]

@Carly (#2): It cries out for a Paul Lynde impersonation.
Écureuil Écumant
February 8th, 2010 at 6:30 pm [Reply]

@10 Master Softheart

the comics I don’t read – like Popeye and Dick Tracy – would leave me gibbering in Lovecraftian horror within a few weeks of daily exposure.

Just because those strips are so horripilating today doesn’t mean we should leave out our regulars that likewise channel Lovecraft on a daily basis:

MW: In which we see that Dawn is surely Wilbur’s child, since she’s inherited his eerie talent for psychokinetic typing-from-a-distance. Don’t ask for a cheek swab as proof! At that close range, I’d be swallowed up forever in the maelstrom of those piercingly mesmeric eyes.

MT: The MoeJoe Bros. threaten a senator with death in the maw of their canoe-sized batrachian familiar. Poor fools, little do they suspect the presence of that Nautilus-sized coelocanth lurking in the Stygian depths of their fetid tarn, a primeval ur-denizen that heeds the vile whims of only Nyarlathotep himself!
Mibbitmaker
February 8th, 2010 at 6:34 pm [Reply]

@AmazingThor (#5): Hey, I have someone almost perfect for her….. Hey, Jameson! Could you come here a moment…?
Écureuil Écumant
February 8th, 2010 at 6:37 pm [Reply]

DT: By the looks of him, that sinister figure in shades is surely one of the Lumpenproletariat. But that’s no ambassador; it’s Gaddafi himself, sporting the Iron Cross he earned by his perfidy at Tobruk!
AndyL
February 8th, 2010 at 6:43 pm [Reply]

I love how the comics are the so badly stuck in a 50s-style ultra-white fantasy land, that it’s just taken as a given that the high school drama club auditions for the part of a Puerto Rican character will be a contest between two white girls.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:46 pm [Reply]

MW: Dawn is researching so she can show up on Helen’s doorstep pretending to be the love child of Martin and Abby. At last she will be free of Charterstone.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:48 pm [Reply]

A3G: Uhm, Bobbie, you met him as your psychiatrist. I think he already knows you’re a nut case.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:50 pm [Reply]

Crankshaft: This takes on a totally different meaning if you think of it in an S&M context…
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:51 pm [Reply]

FW: We’ll start you out back, this will give the patrons a running start when you flip out and start shooting.
kanomi
February 8th, 2010 at 6:52 pm [Reply]

Pluggers: You’re a Plugger if your only escape from soul-crippling loneliness is to stand hour after hour along a rural post road, forlornly clutching a jars of pickles.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm [Reply]

RMMD: Did they steal this scene from “Reefer Madness?”
Bitter Scribe
February 8th, 2010 at 6:54 pm [Reply]

I could never watch West Side Story because I kept forgetting which ones were supposed to be the Puerto Ricans and which were the Anglos.
seismic-2
February 8th, 2010 at 6:55 pm [Reply]

“Not everyone loves you, and you must die.” Isn’t that basically Dick Tracy’s mission statement?

FW: “Wally, we want to help you get over your post-traumatic stress at heaving been held prisoner in that cave for all those years, so we’re going to give you a job where we keep you locked alone in the basement.” Wally’s response, however, is as sure-fire a taunt to Masky McDeath as I have ever heard. The gauntlet has been hurled. At least Wally already has a nice headstone waiting for him in the cemetery across the street.

MW: And why is it that the mission statement of this strip has now become, “Keel da Google”?

MT: Actually, I’d be inclined to heed the Parker Brothers’ warning to stay away from their end of the lake, since it appears to be the habitat of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 6:56 pm [Reply]

Zits: Sorry, your parents had to have had sex at least twice to account for your existance and your brother ~~Chuck Cunningham~~ Chad.
Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol
February 8th, 2010 at 6:56 pm [Reply]

@Hibbleton (#27): FMD@18: I can’t decide which is more offensive today, La Cucaracha or Luann.

The answer, of course, is 9CL.
Mibbitmaker
February 8th, 2010 at 7:02 pm [Reply]

After all the trouble at the “Late Night Wars”, Dave Letterman goes and gets together with Jay Leno (and Oprah!) to do a Superbowl ad for Dave’s show. After all the pride Team Coco had in Dave tearing Jay and NBC apart over their screwing of Conan, we see what has all the appearence of a betrayal. A scene that would’ve been really cool 2 months ago, but is disappointing (if funny) now.

Of course, Dave did want Conan participating (which would’ve really been cool), but rapping up his Tonight Show, likely hard feelings, and NBC’s gag order on Conan (yeah, thanks alot, First Amendment!) got in the way, so no Coco. Now Jay, a villain in the fiasco (NBC moreso), gets just the attention and good will he wants, but doesn’t deserve.

Who could’ve manipulated this whole furshlugginer thing to such a conclusion? Who else?

Mary Worth, you’ve really done it THIS time!
Joshua
February 8th, 2010 at 7:07 pm [Reply]

@Robert Pope (#14): From what I can find, there hasn’t been a new daily Popeye strip since 1992, when Bobby London was fired. And since the dailies are all the work of Bud Sagendorf, they must all have been written and drawn no later than 1986, when Sagendorf stopped doing the daily strip.

The Sunday strips are still new, though (written and drawn by Hy Eisman).
Joe Blevins
February 8th, 2010 at 7:11 pm [Reply]

Luann: Luann’s dialogue here is hilarious if you just imagine it being said in a Peter Lorre (or Ren Hoek) voice. Go ahead and try it. You’ll see I’m right.

DT: The Ambassador has certainly won over my affections with that pithy rejoinder: “See to it.” I wish I could be that cool if a coked-up California Raisin were plotting my demise!
Paperboy
February 8th, 2010 at 7:19 pm [Reply]

Aw, C’mon, give Luann a break- it’s the theater; you suspend disbelief. So she wears make-up in her part. Next you’ll be complaining those were really people dancing around in “Cats”. Lighten up. (or darken up, depending on your character)
gnome de blog
February 8th, 2010 at 7:22 pm [Reply]

So what is the Didactic Duo’s version of the bat-signal?

Ladies, please slide into your pencil skirts and riddle me this: when did “per cent” become one word? I admit to being one of those who remembers the comics from the Truman Administration, but it was two words , as written above, every time it appeared on any spelling test I ever took. In fact, I have seen texts – admittedly older than I – where it is written “per cent.” as an abbreviation of “per centum.”

It has slowly slipped into one-word-dom in ordinary usage over the last couple of decades. Now it has even permeated legislation under consideration by the Oregon House of ~~Reprehensibles~~ Representitives. Legalese has long been the last stronghold of grammatical orthodoxy.

What say ye?
queek, Source of Cuteness, Kawaii Commando
February 8th, 2010 at 7:26 pm [Reply]

@Mibbitmaker (#50): *insert standard statement about the First Amendment being about governmental control of speech, and corporate speech/contracts having nothing to do with it here.*
gnome de blog
February 8th, 2010 at 7:27 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#54): Rowrbazzle! It’s “Representatives,” not how I spelled it up there! It was a typo, not a spelling error, honest.

I proofread it too, or so I thought. I have little defense but to throw myself on the mercy of the court.
Zla'od
February 8th, 2010 at 7:46 pm [Reply]

Come on, it’s possible to have blonde Latinas. Mexican TV is full of them.

Gnome de blog (post no. 54), isn’t this a UK / US distinction? (Like abbreviating it “pc”.) Hmm, I wonder if they would say “ninetieth per centile”?
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 7:48 pm [Reply]

@Ed Dravecky (#19):

Aristotle is so unobservant that he doesn’t know you’re a pill-seeking, husband-stalking loon with at best a tenuous grip on reality.

But he does at least know that she’s married—although I suppose that if Ari hears the words “my husband,” oh, six or seven hundred times, he’s bound to catch on.

@Bootsy (#21): That sounds like the DC area—but I think your reason is much happier than ours, right?

@gnome de blog (#54): Huh. I don’t know. I’ve seen it written as two words, and I think I’ve even written it as two words, but I don’t remember when I stopped doing so. And now I’m wondering if maybe “percentage,” which works better as one word, led to “percent.”

I’m also wondering what the bat-signal should be; most punctuation could be easily confused with a contrail.
queek, Source of Cuteness, Kawaii Commando
February 8th, 2010 at 7:51 pm [Reply]

@Zla’od (#57):

google gives us this discussion for what its worth.
Aviatrix
February 8th, 2010 at 7:58 pm [Reply]

@queek, Source of Cuteness, Kawaii Commando (#59): That’s pretty cool. I considered it a trans-Atlantic difference, (Canadians come down on the British side in this instance) but it’s fascinating first that so many people on both sides of the ocean didn’t know there was an alternate spelling, and second that the word(s) started separate, joined, and then split again on only one side of the ocean after the divergence in culture.

I think that sentence is going to attract some pencil-skirted attention. Rroww!
ElkMeadow
February 8th, 2010 at 8:02 pm [Reply]

@AndyL (#39):
Not just that: Two girls who haven’t paid a moment of “dues” to the drama department. Any other high school, and both Tiff and Luann would have been stuck selling tickets and ushering. Drama clubs do NOT roll over and play dead for new-comers, which is why High School Musical is a fantasy and this story arc is abominable
wossname
February 8th, 2010 at 8:03 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#54): I’d say a good bat-signal substitute, which would catch our attention immediately and have us running for the pencil skirts and Vespas, would be turning on the neon sign that says “BAR.”

As far as your query, I should tell you that Grammatica and I come to our Punctuation Avenger avocation from different branches of the Great Tree of Punctuation. I’m from the copy editor side, so my Bible is the AP stylebook; she’s from the academic side, so her scripture is the MLA stylebook. So we may have different answers.

AP stylebook has it as one word, always preceded by figures, with decimal points if necessary. It does not address the question of whether this is a neologism. Strunk and White, a holy book to all who revere punctuation, doesn’t address percent/per cent at all, at least not the edition I have, which cost $1.95, so it’s been around for a while. I have a Merriam-Webster dictionary from 1974 (also with a cover price of $1.95) and it has it as one word.

So I guess my answer is – I don’t know.
Buck Ripsnort
February 8th, 2010 at 8:05 pm [Reply]

DT: What language is this strip in, originally? It makes so much more sense if you realize it’s translated from, say, Norwegian or some rare Hindu dialect.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 8:06 pm [Reply]

Marmaduke: Think this missing ~~Hitler~~ husband joke looks familiar? You’re right.
Rusty
February 8th, 2010 at 8:07 pm [Reply]

Luann: Here’s hoping the fat kid from Baldo starts hitting on her.
gnome de blog
February 8th, 2010 at 8:12 pm [Reply]

@bourbon babe, unbuckled (#58) said:

I’m also wondering what the bat-signal should be; most punctuation could be easily confused with a contrail.

What about one of the symbols editors use? That backwards-P sort of thing used for “paragraph” might work. A graphic designer could even give it elements of “G” for Grammatica and a “P” for Precisiona.
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 8:20 pm [Reply]

@wossname (#62): Hee! I’d coming running if the sign said, “Cocktails,” too.

As for per cent / percent, I think we can’t place the moment when it changed because it’s been written different ways across decades and countries. This is exactly the kind of thing I love about English and writing: the mutability of the language. It’s quirky and playful and … uh-oh, here I go, getting all geeked up again…..
gnome de blog
February 8th, 2010 at 8:21 pm [Reply]

In my experience, it’s always been two words. However, since I graduated from college in the late ’60s and have no journalistic experience beyond the early ’70s I could be way out of date. I do remember that we dwelled on it in high school journalism class and two words was the law!

It’s been one word in our local paper for a long time. I was surprised to see it as one word in legislative text, which is usually more orthodox. If the people who draft legislation had their way, we’d still have Mass in Latin.
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 8:22 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#66): Ooh, I like that symbol! I use it all the time in my comments on student papers, which tells you something about their skill with paragraphs: “What’s the topic of this paragraph?” “Paragraph coherence?” “Best place for this paragraph?”
seismic-2
February 8th, 2010 at 8:24 pm [Reply]

@bourbon babe, unbuckled (#58): I think the best bat-signal would be the interrobang, a punctuation mash-up that would make an appropriate sigil for the Diacritical Duo. Perhaps you could just make it your new name, which would be pronounced as “the-poster-formerly-known-as-Bourbon-Babe”.
BigTed
February 8th, 2010 at 8:34 pm [Reply]

I doubt the audience will notice the strangeness of Luann playing Maria — they’ll be too busy trying to figure out how Tony, a lifelong New Yorker, ended up with that Australian accent.
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 8:48 pm [Reply]

@seismic-2 (#70): Hmmmm… and the beauty of the interrobang (beside the fact that it’s fun to say!) is its connection to comics and their use of typographical symbols.

As for me—well, I’m not yet prepared to be released from the binds of letters and words and go fully symbolic, even if it is just my online name. =-)
wossname
February 8th, 2010 at 8:54 pm [Reply]

@bourbon babe, unbuckled (#72): Oh yes, I love the interrobang too!?!?!
seismic-2
February 8th, 2010 at 8:55 pm [Reply]

@BigTed (#71): Think “Olivia Newton-John” and “Grease”. Make the role of Tony be that of a transfer student from the Italian district of Perth.
BananaSam
February 8th, 2010 at 8:55 pm [Reply]

when did things like a character’s ethnicity even start being an issue in High School Drama? Macbeth is supposed to be Scottish and Ghostbusters is supposed to have more than five dollars in special effects but that never stopped us.
Mibbitmaker
February 8th, 2010 at 8:59 pm [Reply]

@queek, Source of Cuteness, Kawaii Commando (#55): Thanks for the salt in the wound.

Perfectly good Mary Worth quip shot to hell (since I just, now, paraphrased Frank Burns from M*A*S*H, I’ve effectively added salt to myself! ;o) )
commodorejohn
February 8th, 2010 at 9:00 pm [Reply]

@BananaSam (#75): You performed Ghostbusters!? You must have gone to the awesomest school ever.
Josh
February 8th, 2010 at 9:01 pm [Reply]

@zerowolf (#64): Oh, God, and I made pretty much the same joke then too as well. THE SHAME! At least in the current version, I acknowledge the recurring nature of the event. In fact, we’ll say that my current post riffs off the fact that joke keeps happening, by saying that she’s had many husbands, all of whom Marmaduke ate! Yeah, that’s it.

Josh
Thomas B.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:06 pm [Reply]

Is the Ambassador’s assistant trying to hold in a fart?
Joe Shlabotnik
February 8th, 2010 at 9:12 pm [Reply]

DF How much can one aardvark endure?

GAMP Once again the Foibles are overdressed for probate court.

DF&P I can’t believe the Big Button Bordello hired Gags Galore.

LAL Is that a Jimmy Hoffa bobble head in panel three? Well, that explains Kitty’s broken finger.
gnome de blog
February 8th, 2010 at 9:14 pm [Reply]

@BananaSam (#75): Some years ago a local Shakespeare company had a 17-year-old black girl playing Juliet. They changed the setting to Spain and made the Capulets Moors, which in my view posed more difficulties than it solved (the priest as the intermediary? socially prominent Moors in 16th Century Spain at the height of the Inquisition? etc., etc.). They should have just let her play Juliet without explanation and been done with it.
ElkMeadow
February 8th, 2010 at 9:19 pm [Reply]

@BananaSam (#75):

I did not know “Ghostbusters” had a play–or was it written as a English class assignment?
exapno
February 8th, 2010 at 9:24 pm [Reply]

@commodorejohn (#77):

In 75, our high school did TOMMY. I was a dweeb freshman in the chorus, but still – cool city!

And of course, no one paid royalties or anything….
Écureuil Écumant
February 8th, 2010 at 9:24 pm [Reply]

@58 bourbon babe, unbuckled said:

I’m also wondering what the bat-signal should be; most punctuation could be easily confused with a contrail.

And in light of your later stated preference for letters over symbols, may I humbly suggest “C-”? (Admittedly it’s a hybrid, but then, aren’t we all?)
Anselm
February 8th, 2010 at 9:26 pm [Reply]

Gnome de blog: not to mention that the reconquista of Spain was completed in 1492 with the expulsion of remaining muslim influence from Granada. At that time Ferdinand and Isabella forced all Jews and Muslims to convert, leave or be killed. Unless Juliet was depicted as only the descendant of Moors or perhaps her family were moriscos (nominally Catholic but covertly and illegally Muslims) then a 16th century moorish family in Spain makes no sense.
Écureuil Écumant
February 8th, 2010 at 9:28 pm [Reply]

@Écureuil Écumant (#84):

To stay with the genre, another possibility for Luann would be THE WALL.

All in all, it’s just /
Another Brad in the wall.
Écureuil Écumant
February 8th, 2010 at 9:32 pm [Reply]

*sigh* #86 wasn’t meant to be the epitome of self-referentiality. I meant to link back to

@exapno (#83):

But as usual, the “reply” HTML didn’t post on the first try. So I went back hastily, and bollixed it… ;-)
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 9:34 pm [Reply]

@Écureuil Écumant (#84): Given the essay drafts I just read this weekend, “F” might work just as well.

I had thought of “DD,” but then I realized that that promises something that I cannot deliver—speaking just for myself, of course; wossname might be a different story!
Thomas B.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:39 pm [Reply]

@zerowolf (#64): If the *ahem* writer of Marmaduke is going to use the same gag why cant Josh make the same observation?
Uncle Lumpy
February 8th, 2010 at 9:40 pm [Reply]

@Josh (#78):

Hey, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure everybody still loves you, so you don’t have to die.
Dean Booth
February 8th, 2010 at 9:44 pm [Reply]

Am I alone in liking Popeye? Every day it fills my head with question marks and exclamation points, and makes my hat fly off!
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 9:52 pm [Reply]

@Dean Booth (#91): A noggin full of interrobangs?! It must get noisy in there!
Ukulele Ike
February 8th, 2010 at 9:54 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#81): Never apologize, never explain. I was in Peter and Wendy as an undergrad at the Yale Dramat in 1981, with a black Peter Pan, a black female Mr. Smee, and all of the Indians were played by Anglos.

(I was Bill Jukes, one of the minor Pirates. I was costumed as a Hell’s Angel, and I said my lines in a thick Swedish accent. Yes, it was “modern.”)
Ukulele Ike
February 8th, 2010 at 9:56 pm [Reply]

Oh, yeah…Tinkerbell was played by a laser.
Uncle Lumpy
February 8th, 2010 at 10:06 pm [Reply]

If Margo were played by a laser, the world would be all cinders.
Beebo
February 8th, 2010 at 10:07 pm [Reply]

@Ukulele Ike (#93):

I agree. Never explain or apologize. I was in the Vagina Monologues even though I was a 43 year old, overweight, balding male.
ElkMeadow
February 8th, 2010 at 10:12 pm [Reply]

From today’s CC heading: Everyone loves me, though, right?

I do! I do! and without that creepy stalky FOOB attitude–no salt for me, thank you.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 10:14 pm [Reply]

@Josh (#78): In all fairness Marmaduke’s gags of the day repeat more than “I Love Lucy.”
KarMann
February 8th, 2010 at 10:16 pm [Reply]

@Écureuil Écumant (#86): With Brad in there, could it be a crossover with “The Cask of Amontillado”? I’ve done both, so I can pitch in where needed.
zerowolf
February 8th, 2010 at 10:18 pm [Reply]

@BananaSam (#75): Oh no, you wrote the “M” word. Never refer to the Scottish Play by its real name or bad things will happen.
Vince M
February 8th, 2010 at 10:27 pm [Reply]

@zerowolf (#64): The weird thing is, the Popeye cartoon on that page is running an allowance-themed story too. Wasn’t Popeye about “fisk fights” at one time?

I was picturing the tiny student body in Luanne’s school play looking something like Monty Python’s school production of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (but couldn’t scrounge up a video clip on YouFace, unfortunately).
NoahSnark
February 8th, 2010 at 10:46 pm [Reply]

If Morrissey sang the second panel of today’s Dick Tracy you would have the perfect hold music for a suicide hotline.
exapno
February 8th, 2010 at 10:59 pm [Reply]

@Ukulele Ike (#93):

Our ‘Uncle Ernie’ in TOMMY was a girl – renamed Aunt Matilda……and so was our ‘Tommy’….
Rusty
February 8th, 2010 at 11:15 pm [Reply]

reFoob: Question on the hip jargon that Phil is using today: What the hell is a “banana” supposed to mean in this context? Is Lynn just making shit up again?
ElkMeadow
February 8th, 2010 at 11:47 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#81): I remember in the ’70’s, the magazine for high school drama clubs had an article about Juliet’s family being black, and Romeo’s white. I have no memory of what races the prince and the priest were.
ElkMeadow
February 8th, 2010 at 11:49 pm [Reply]

@Rusty (#104):

Over at binky_besty it was combed over, and the decision was that it was Lynn’s made-up, just like her strips teens use the term “foob” and “roadside”. I would have chosen something other than a banana–it reminds me of a certain vulgar tee-shirt I saw one time.
bourbon babe, unbuckled
February 8th, 2010 at 11:51 pm [Reply]

@Uncle Lumpy (#95): If Wilbur were played by a laser, he’d have precision-toasted sandwiches. If Mark Trail were played by a laser, he’d specialize in laser hair removal.

If I were played by a laser, all the snow on my back deck would be gone, and I could soak my aching laser back, sizzling, in my hot tub.
Rusty
February 8th, 2010 at 11:57 pm [Reply]

@ElkMeadow (#106): That’s what I assumed, but I figured maybe in the “classic” strips she still relied on somewhat contemporary slang. I can recall “dough” meaning money back in the late 60’s.
Muffaroo
February 9th, 2010 at 12:21 am [Reply]

@bourbon babe, unbuckled (#58): The Didactic Duo’s bat-signal has to be distinctive enough not to confuse it with the Bats-signal — :[ — or you can be sure there’ll be a wacky mix-up. Or should I say a mash-up?

Y’know, users of bad grammar are a cowardly superstitious lot… I’m not really going anywhere with this, but I thought someone should say it.
Muffaroo
February 9th, 2010 at 12:21 am [Reply]

(Awww, the interrobang previewed okay, but then WP yanked it away from me.)
bats :[
February 9th, 2010 at 1:08 am [Reply]

@Mibbitmaker (#50): Letterman’s been brutal to Leno (not that he doesn’t deserve it), and I think Leno had to play along with this to demonstrate that he can take a joke.
Then again, maybe all it took was some big wads o’ cash thrown in his general direction.
Average American
February 9th, 2010 at 1:10 am [Reply]

What I love most about the Dick Tracy narrative flow is that it makes the ambassador’s aide out to be some sort of living version of the magic mirror letting his employer know he is not actually loved by all.
The LAME Caulfield
February 9th, 2010 at 1:27 am [Reply]

As someone who enjoys a good racist joke, I find that “Luann” strip to be one of the more offensive things I’ve seen in a good while. And not funny.
OHoneyNo
February 9th, 2010 at 2:27 am [Reply]

Carly: There’s an ellipse there, right? So you must take a pregnant, meaningful pause before you say “not everyone loves you.”
Just some guy
February 9th, 2010 at 5:57 am [Reply]

How the hell does Popeye exist as comic strip?
Seriously!!!
Someone actually pays cash for this?
Yeah, I know the same can be said about Crock.
gnome de blog
February 9th, 2010 at 12:29 pm [Reply]

@Ukulele Ike (#yy93): Exactly. Problem is, by making the Capulets Moors they were trying to explain, and it didn’t work (see @Anselm (#yy85)).

It’s been so long that I almost forgot the other teeny-weeny problem with that production: having a 17-year-old girl do a nude sex scene. Gee Mr. Director, if you have to tell everybody how hip and avant-garde you are, you aren’t.

I’m no Shakespeare scholar, but I’ve seen most of the plays at least once. Seems to me they work best in their own time and place.
nil zed
February 9th, 2010 at 3:03 pm [Reply]

@gnome de blog (#68): GdB, How old was your instructor? This standard may well have been already fallen far enough beside the way that it had become their pet peeve. And being in the bully pulpit they dwelt upon it.

I have always known it to be percent, and I’m old enough to think it odd that you haven’t seen it as one word for so many years and in so many places as to make it already unremarkable. I have always known it to be percent with per cent being an acceptable variation.

When the UK born spousal unit returns from work, I shall ask him if this is one of those differences he noticed. After nearly 20 years, he still has the occaissional WTF on what American’s have done to various Latin & Greek terms.

(This would have led nicely to the link someone sent me about bad Latin tatoos, but I can’t find it. Google at your leisure.)
Kim Scarborough
February 10th, 2010 at 3:20 pm [Reply]

I posted the second panel of the Dick Tracy strip out of context on my Facebook page, and a friend asked, “Who is that on the TV? Susan Boyle?”
CPE Gaebler
July 12th, 2010 at 10:57 pm [Reply]

That Marmaduke comic is quite an artistic masterpiece! Given the final word on the subtext of that amazing comic strip (which can be perused at this URL: http://wondermark.com/the-comic-strip-doctor-marmaduke/), the meaning is clear, but just subtle enough to make this a work of genius. As always, the deprived housewife is coyly suppressing her desires to release her carnal nature and fulfill her wild fantasies, represented by the enormous and overpowering dog (who is, I note, unhampered by mankind’s attempts at leashing him). “Do husbands grow on trees?” she asks, afraid that a moment’s indulgence in her dark wishes would upset or shatter her idyllic married life.

Truly a work for the ages.

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