The Comics Curmudgeon

77 responses to “Metapost: The comics: America’s shame”

1. Mic
   May 10th, 2006 at 8:39 pm [Reply]

   Honestly, whenever I see a letter to the editor that ridiculous I automatically think that it’s meant satirically.

2. music maniac
   May 10th, 2006 at 8:40 pm [Reply]

   I don’t know that enemas are so much offensive, but I will say that this particular comic is sdupid in general. I feel like I just wasted seconds of my life to read that a writer learned how to use alliteration.

3. JayJay
   May 10th, 2006 at 8:47 pm [Reply]

   A religious tenant would be, say, a monk renting from Lovey. I wager you meant “religious tenet”. Which doesn’t detract from your point.

   JayJay

4. Jason
   May 10th, 2006 at 8:58 pm [Reply]

   If a letter was to be written, it should be concerning the overall lameness of the strip. Pastis is such a hack. The gyrations he goes through just to make a weak pun or a bad punchline are so painful. I scan the strip from a car wreck standpoint. I find it interesting that he’s friends with Darby Conley. Get Fuzzy is sly and has layers in the jokes. That’s a funny strip.

5. Howland Owl
   May 10th, 2006 at 9:09 pm [Reply]

   That’s interesting, I thought this PBS was one of the best I’d seen in a while. I guess it must have something to do with your tolerance level for horrible puns.

6. lilybdcsa
   May 10th, 2006 at 9:56 pm [Reply]

   I loved it. But I love puns in general.

7. AWM
   May 10th, 2006 at 10:00 pm [Reply]

   I suppose this has been pointed out, but those are not anemones, but sea urchins.

8. monkey
   May 10th, 2006 at 10:16 pm [Reply]

   Growing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I used to delight in the rantings of the Rev. Brink, a local Third Christian Reform minister who wrote frequent missives, in the form of letters to the editor of the Kalamazoo Gazette, on the general decline of humanity, often using comics, tornadoes, and popular music to illustrate his point that Armageddon is nigh. Hilarious. You can’t make this shit up.
   I love PBS, Zeeba accents and all. Sometimes the beauty of the humor is that painful “oof” you feel when you experience a god-awful pun, but still find it amusing almost against your will.

9. 2fs
   May 10th, 2006 at 10:34 pm [Reply]

   I love this PBS – but you have to read it out loud. Sorry – but this level of (intentionally-)bad punnery just kills me. #7: So, you’re urgin’ Pastis urgently to search for a surgeon surgin’ to purge urchins of any anemone-emanating animated mayhem any men an’ he…

10. 2fs
    May 10th, 2006 at 10:36 pm [Reply]

    (The previous post was terminated prior to its conclusion for the public good. Thank you.)

11. jeanne
    May 10th, 2006 at 10:58 pm [Reply]

    If her letter wasn’t meant to be sarcastic, I think we all need to say a prayer for Polly, perhaps eliciting the help of the Sisters of Saint Dymphna, patron saint of the insane.

12. AwfulArt
    May 10th, 2006 at 11:49 pm [Reply]

    “PBS” can blast every friggin nun from here to the Vatican..Bunch or overbaring religious zealots. Majority are dikes & uglier then sin..I still have nightmares from my catechism classes 50 years ago..Say no to nuns..

13. Anonymous
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:26 am [Reply]

    Dear god, can someone please explain the pun to me? I just can’t wrap my brain around it, and I really don’t want it to bug me for the next week.

    Thanks.

14. Ugly Kidd
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:34 am [Reply]

    The “decline and fall” of our civilization? And the plunge, drop, deterioration, and tumble also?

15. Other_Sally
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:41 am [Reply]

    I just wanna congratulate AwfulArt on boorishly insulting both religion and lesbians in one go. Faggot.

    The Family circus documentary is golden, though.

16. Zinco
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:49 am [Reply]

    13: “Anenome, anenome, anenome, anenome etc. etc.”

17. mooselet
    May 11th, 2006 at 1:27 am [Reply]

    I think we need to say a prayer for Polly for believing that Mark Trail and Prince Valiant are “two of the most decent comics” in the Baltimore Sun. Egads!!!

18. Mister Nobody
    May 11th, 2006 at 1:44 am [Reply]

    Hey Music Maniac (Post #2), you wrote: ” I feel like I just wasted seconds of my life to read that a writer learned how to use alliteration.”

    That ain’t just alliteration Pastis has “discovered”. It’s assonance and consonance too.

    And from now on, when a post begins: “Awful Art Says” – I will just skip it. There’s nothing more useless than a bigot.

19. Lor
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:00 am [Reply]

    What made me laugh out loud at this PBS was that the punning was so over the top, plus you knew he was building up to it so it was sort of like an in-joke, and best of all, Pastis makes fun of it himself in the person of Rat. I love a writer who can laugh at himself.

20. Mibbitmaker
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:14 am [Reply]

    “Awaiting Moderation”? Jeez, a guy can’t even type a classic comedy bit in the motif of the strip being commented on without the blog’s machinery getting all suspicious – even when I included my e-mail address to avoid that!

    No wonder I got this odd gobbledegook when I first hit “At long last…”

    I know it’ll be fine. Josh understands 1968 Tonight Show Dragnet parodies…… right, Josh?………..

21. Lor
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:21 am [Reply]

    Crude Curmudgeonite insults the devotion of nuns

    In light of all the calamities confronting Mary Worth and Brenda Starr, it might seem rather mundane to write a letter to the Comics Curmudgeon concerning the behavior of one of his readers. However, there are so many ways that careless commenters chip away at any of the core values left in America.

    One of the most decent groups around, women who have taken religious vows, was dumped on in the comments following the Comics Curmudgeon’s posting of May 10.

    Could it be that those women were dissed because they dared to mention God at various intervals?

    On Wednesday, AwfulArt hit a new low when he said “’PBS’ can blast every friggin nun from here to the Vatican..Bunch or overbaring religious zealots. Majority are dikes & uglier then sin.” How disgusting.

    I have a dear friend who earned a doctorate in chemistry at a prestigious university before discerning a vocation to the religious life. She left a promising and potentially lucrative career to join the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville. The nuns there are devoted to education and on my first visit, I was impressed at how many young women were there, how many new vocations they get each year, and what a spirit of joy and love they have.

    AwfulArt’s comment is a slap in the face to each of these self-sacrificing women.

    EVEN WORSE, it appears the nuns AwfulArt knew weren’t able to get spelling and grammar through his head.

22. Happenstance
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:27 am [Reply]

    Meh. PBS is always much funnier when it isn’t trying so hard. And I’m with Rat on this one. OH LOOK! “ENEMA!” HA HA HA Ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaah. (*frrrrrt*)

    I’d rather talk about the new Sally Forth. Am I wrong to enjoy seeing the two of them writhing in flesh-burning agony? It excites me in ways I am not comfortable describing to strangers.

23. Tiara
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:41 am [Reply]

    Am I the only one whose first thought, upon reading the PBS strip, was:

    “Beware the sea anenemone
    It doesn’t like you very much
    It’ll kill you and your famimily
    With its one strong tentacle touch

    BEWARE THE SEA ANENEMONE
    IT’S YOUR GREATEST ENENEMENY!”

    ?

24. detrater
    May 11th, 2006 at 6:39 am [Reply]

    Actually, PBS is one of the most humorous comics available today. It’s like everything else, some just feel required to be insulted by something inocuous and innane. IMO papers run BS like this letter just to keep us informed as to how stupid some people are capable of becoming.

25. Justafoob
    May 11th, 2006 at 6:58 am [Reply]

    “A child needs his grandmother when he is sick.”

    That’s because you are a saint, Elly and the laying on of your hands will cure Robin. Deanna is evil and knows nothing. All she is good for is for breeding more Saint Pattersons.

    Submit, Deanna, Submit.

26. Ianscot
    May 11th, 2006 at 7:04 am [Reply]

    Mark Trail mentions God?

    It’s always interesting to see what those buggers on the “social right” will come up with. Has the MT strip taken a stand against evolution somehow, even? It must have at some point to have gotten an award from Reagan back in the day… Essentially the characteristics that I imagine appeal to the right are that the strip is a) lobotomized; and b) sexless.

27. Zipper the Mule
    May 11th, 2006 at 7:04 am [Reply]

    The only time I’ve read PBS is when Get Fuzzy stole the story line and I had to go read the original because I was seriously disturbed. Then I learned that it was just as disturbing in the original. The speech patterns in PBS are like the verbal vomit of a mildly innebriated cajun kindegartner. If I want my head to hurt that much I just hit the Bombay bottle against my skull while watching Full House re-runs.

    As for AwfulArt, hey buddy, if you’re ever in Baltimore look me up. This big ol’ nun loving dyke would like to personally kick your ass.

28. Chet McCord, Wildlife Defender
    May 11th, 2006 at 7:05 am [Reply]

    First to point out the misspelling of “steroids” in BC.

    That is all.

29. Josh
    May 11th, 2006 at 7:46 am [Reply]

    Not that it hasn’t already been said, but let’s please back off on the “dykes” and the “faggots”. Thank you.

    Jeez, maybe Polly’s right.

    The management

30. Jives
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:07 am [Reply]

    Happenstance, I’m with you on Sally Forth. It’s an awkward leap to have such a direct set up and then be presented with that bizarre and disturbing image of Ted and Sally. It looks like they fell asleep face down on a barbecue grill.

    And then Hillary’s ghostly form appears above her horrified disfigured parents. Ces … did you rent Hostile or something before doing this one?

    By the way people … as long as we’re bemoaning often ignored comic strips … I really like Sherman’s Lagoon. How right or wrong am I?

31. Dan
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:23 am [Reply]

    Foobland is so poorly drawn, Lovey looks like she has a thick mustache in that first panel.

32. Pelagius
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:26 am [Reply]

    It looks like I’m riding in Polly Thornton’s sidecar down the boulevard of broken minds – Family Circus actually made me chuckle today.

33. Anonymous
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:39 am [Reply]

    16: Thanks! I was looking for something more along shaggy-dog lines. Like “a super calloused fragile mystic plagued with halitosis.”

34. BassoGap
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:49 am [Reply]

    Yes, Jives, there are other Sherman’s Lagoon fans here. I think it’s great.

    MW – Miraculously, Kelly seems to have dropped 20lbs. while on the phone to Mary. And Mary’s date, whatever-his-name-is, looks slightly disheveled. Probably because Mary interrupted their couchside rendezvous to call Kelly…what we can’t see is that he’s not wearing pants, and Mary’s wearing nothing below the blouse. Yeah, that’ll scar your brains for the day, I think.

    MT – No, money wasn’t spent to convince the commissioners…

    PBS – Rat’s going to be pissed when the explosion wakes him, I’d say.

    SF – 3hrs.? Didn’t occur to her that maybe her parents shouldn’t be in the sun for that long? Hilary…skin cancer isn’t the best route to their life insurance money.

    (DT)GT – Um…no, Coach, maybe we shouldn’t discuss Donnell *in front of him*. Not sure that comment is going to help much, now that he knows we have no confidence in him.

    Frazz – “Too much information.” “No, it’s usually USA Today.” Priceless.

    GF – Cat’s going right down Bucky’s wishlist, isn’t he?

    Luann – Yeah, TJ. Like you’ve got a chance in hell with Toni. What, you don’t remember your first week of paramedic training, before you dropped out?

    Foob – “Milk and brandy were for his parents. I brought him down here, and gave him a full snifter. Slept like a baby, he did. Cures what ails him, I say.”

35. Smitty Smedlap
    May 11th, 2006 at 8:55 am [Reply]

    This is the worst comic I’ve ever seen. And I read Gil Thorp on a daily basis.

36. Hogenmogen
    May 11th, 2006 at 9:58 am [Reply]

    I read the PBS strip a few times. The nun was credited with reforming the treacherous anemone, but was not included in giving Marshall Mathers a high colonic. The writer is mistaken.

37. Chris
    May 11th, 2006 at 9:58 am [Reply]

    Zipper the Mule, get in line. Right there with you, buddy.

38. Ferd Berfel
    May 11th, 2006 at 10:05 am [Reply]

    I think we should submit Polly’s letter to TDIET…

    9CL – Ooooh! Thorax is laying down some smack! This strip is suddenly interesting again.

    A3G – Parenting has replaced passion in you and your husband’s lives Lucy? Boo – effing – hoo. Guess you never should have had children then. Try contraception next time. It’s legal in all 50 states and is available in several different methods. As an alternative, you can keep nagging at Ted. I guarantee that if you do that long enough and he will no longer see you from an erotic/romantic viewpoint.

    A&J – The Dirtiest Strip in Syndication has been teasing us again. Janis was in a bikini last week and this week we found out that Arlo keeps an electric razor in his bedside table so that Janis can’t use the ‘razor burn’ excuse.

    FBOW – I’m ashamed to admit it, but I like Lovey. She’s about the only thing I enjoy in this loathesome, pretentious, preachy, treacle-smeared, blood pressure spiking, insulin dependent, train wreck of a strip.

    GF – Note to the Hit Cat: When threatening to kill a debtor’s loved ones in order to force them to pay, first make sure that the debtor has loved ones.

    MT – Just thinking ahead here… We know Andy the Dog can fight off sharks and crocs, right? I wonder if he can defuse dynamite bombs too?

    (DT)GT – It’s not his arm, Coach, it’s his head. Finally, a self-referential remark from the trained lemur who draws this strip. It isn’t that the lemur’s hand or arm is damaged in anyway. It’s the cerebral deficits of the ‘artist’ that is responsible for the ‘art’ and not any physical handicaps.

    MW – Dr. Jeff is at Mary’s apartment drinking a cup o’ coffee and his hair is mussed!!! Did we miss something during the Stirling’s Flying Fingers o’ Doom Dinnertime Donnybrook?

    Luann – Anyone else want to put Brad in prison with Dirk? The charge would be criminal stupidity.

    RMMD – So Skanky Capri is going to kill herself unless Harry I’m not Vincent Price, really Ellis doesn’t get the 50,000 smackers? If her clothes get any tighter they could do the job for her.

    SF – Yawn… Someone tip me off when either 1) Ralph appears or B) the block party begins.

39. Irina
    May 11th, 2006 at 10:06 am [Reply]

    Reverse order: Smitty … I usually enjoy Frank and Ernest. Their puns usually arent’ that bad — and their best usually are usually scientific in nature. But I have to agree … taken as a snapshot, this strip smells worse than Sunday’s fish special.

    Zipper. I have three nephews who are mildly innebriated cajun kindegartners. Thanks to them, I can feel better about my own children’s comparatively lesser deficiencies. That post is a slap in the face of all these good-hearted youngsters.

    Polly. Prince Valient features Christians who fully endorsed and participated in the Crusade, and depicts people “shrieking in pain as they die horribly” in a haunted castle. Honestly did anyone READ sundays PV? Gave me the flying heebie jeebies. If that’s your idea of a good, wholesome comic, Polly, I pray for your soul.

40. Hogenmogen
    May 11th, 2006 at 10:14 am [Reply]

    #38 Ferd, I confused that one at first. In RMMD, she doesn’t say “I’ll kill myself”, she says “I’ll kill YOU myself.” So subtle a difference.

41. Irina
    May 11th, 2006 at 10:37 am [Reply]

    For those who have become upset by the multilayerd puns in the recent PBS strip, I’ve translated the final panel into something less offensive, to allow you the full enjoyment of of Pastis’s delightful humor:

    “Yes, a woman who has devoted her life to Jesus and I (an anthropomorphic coelenterate polyp, named Annette) along with my asexually produced sibling named Ann, who is a cleaner of houses by trade, no longer hold any animosity toward you, pig.

    We have, however, begun practicing a regular regimine of flushing out their lower intestines, and recently did with Marshall Mathers, a rap artist, popularized by the cable channel, Music Television.”

    See how funny it is?

42. 420
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:09 am [Reply]

    FBOW- When did Mikey get glasses? I missed the memo. He looks more like John with each passing day.

43. Jives
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:16 am [Reply]

    A&J – The Dirtiest Strip in Syndication

    So I wasn’t the only one who raised an eyebrow askance at the content of this strip …

44. dlauthor
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:26 am [Reply]

    41: I see that you’ve decided to prove, once and for all, that sarcasm _can_ be a lower form of humor than punning. Bravo!

45. Ferd Berfel
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:37 am [Reply]

    #40/Hogenmogen – D’oh! Guess it’s time for that eye doctor appointment…

    Thanx for the head’s up. :)

46. dlauthor
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:37 am [Reply]

    Curtis: Dang. Curtis’ Mom can frost an entire cake in three lines of dialogue. And Curtis can grow a goatee in the same amount of time!

    Fuzzy: Total Melvin. Yay.

    Spidey: MJ got the part, clearly, for her punctuation-enunciation skills. Uh-oh, look out — I used two words that sound similar for humorous effect! People are gonna be pissed!

    Bliss: Um … dark much? I don’t even know where he’s going with today’s strip. Is it autobiographical? Does he mean to imply that the _cartographer_ got dumped in Kittery? Huh?

    Pluggers: Who needs health insurance when Mom can kiss it better? I’m George W. Bush, and I approve this message.

    Mallard: Yeah, townhall.com — almost as reliable a source as freerepublic.com! Now you nasty liberals, stop pestering the duck for his one-sided hyperbole!

    Heart of the City: Oooh, a slam against Michael Bay and a Tim Burton-is-weird joke in the same strip. Nicely done. I have to say, while this strip sorta leaves me thinking “meh,” most of the time, Tatulli’s rendition of Burton is genuinely entertaining.

    Foob: Him, I took to my place, which is where I keep the laudanum.

    Prickly: I’m very confused. Did Aaron MacGruder decide to take his vacation by killing Scott Stantis and taking over his strip? Or did Stantis suffer a head wound and switch sides?

47. Benicillin
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:52 am [Reply]

    “Benicillin’s Lament”

    Nuns and Puns should be so Fun
    Let’s not all get mad
    Nuns and Puns should be so Fun
    whether you’re Phil or Bing or Brad

    Nuns are not “uglier than sin”
    and not all fat people are jolly
    Stereotyping is a bad, bad thing
    It can only lead to folly

    So Art if you’re mad at nuns
    because of some class on catechism
    You’re only hiding your true anger
    at the priests who filled you with jism

    See that was another stereotype
    It was wrong I know it’s bad
    All curmudgeonists should get along
    Mean-spiritedness makes Josh mad

48. rich
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:59 am [Reply]

    18: The “writer who learned alliteration” referred to Polly Peachum, not Pastis (“Of all the calamities confronting our country…”)

49. mysticpenguin
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:07 pm [Reply]

    So if this is legit, then does Danny Kaye’s estate need to worry about angry letters from this nut about all the fun he made of the noble calling of royal food tester? Because telling the vessel with the pestle from the chalice from the palace can be damn’ hard, man.

50. Library Cat
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:17 pm [Reply]

    # 34

    BassoGap: “Didn’t occur to her that maybe her parents shouldn’t be in the sun for that long?”

    Um, hasn’t Hilary been in the sun for three hours as well? That’s why she’s now a charcoal briquet. Sleeping for three hours while your ten year old daughter plays on a beach full of half-naked strangers; that is a very un-Sally Forth scenario. “Faye is a bad influence Hilary, but I’m sure you’ll find someone wholesome to play with on the public beach while I sleep off my hangover…from that party…we talked about having….”

51. BigJoe
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:31 pm [Reply]

    #47 – Benicillin, good one. I was reading it with mild amusement when all of a sudden I hit the end of the 3rd paragraph and was jolted into laughter. Didn’t see that coming. (No pun intended.)

52. Lyman Returns
    May 11th, 2006 at 12:50 pm [Reply]

    Library Cat-that’s a great explanation for blacked-out Hillary in today’s SF. The other explanation is that the artist wasted a bunch of black ink. Honestly, isn’t it weird to have an object in the FOREGROUND of a picture appear as a silhouette, instead of something in the background? If I saw this phenomenon in real life, I think I would be heading to the eye doctor or a psychiatrist.

    FBOFW-Where did Ellie come from? She’s all of a sudden just THERE, in the apartment building, helping take care of Robin, with no preamble. Did they show Mike and Deanna calling her? Does she have a ‘Clue’-like secret tunnel from her own living room to theirs? Does she have access to a Star Trek-style transportation device? Or is she a sorceress, weilding magical powers beyond our ken? Actually, any of these elements would make FBOFW at least 150% more interesting.

    By the way, what kind of name for a boy is ‘Robin’? They’ve doomed that kid to a lifetime of wedgies in the locker room. The only guys who can pull off being named ‘Robin’ are Robin Williams and Robin Hood, and so far, Mike’s son ain’t a funny comedian, and he sho as heck ain’t been shootin’ no arrows at no Sheriff of Nottingham. All that kid be doin’ is cryin’ and keepin’ his parents awake. He’s doomed, I tell you.

53. Benicillin
    May 11th, 2006 at 1:10 pm [Reply]

    Thanks BigJoe.

54. bismuth+paregoric
    May 11th, 2006 at 1:41 pm [Reply]

    Sorry if I’m being a killjoy, but I must quibble with the use of the word “pun” to describe the punchline in PBS. A pun plays on the similar sounds of two words that are different: Q: Why does Marmaduke always hump the dog house? A: You would too if you had a mastiff erection!
    The PBS punchline is essentially a tongue-twister — a rambunctious roller-coaster for the mouth (Though he does use puns at other times.) And personally, I think it’s a very funny strip. Yeah, it’s a stretch, but then comics are such a visual medium and when they’re able to reach across and grab the physical world of (in this case) sound & speech, it’s fun. Pastis knows how far he’s stretching, and that’s the point; Bound and Gagged (which often uses puns) is pathetic because there’s no self-conscious “I bet I’m making people all over American try and say this out loud before they’ve finished the first cup of coffee” glee that I’m sure Pastis has. Enough!

55. Happenstance
    May 11th, 2006 at 1:59 pm [Reply]

    #50: Now that’s funny.

    *** SICK “HUMOR” WARNING ***

    Hillary: “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It’s just…you smelled so good when you were roasting! And Daddy’s got like this Ball Park Frank– (*thwak*) owwwwwwww!”

    Sally: “This is just what you did to your baby brother when he fell down the steps! You sat there and watched him!! We’re sending you to the facility, Hillary!”

    *** SICK “HUMOR” WARNING (end) ***

    #52: Just wait until “Lovey” starts moaning about how people have too many rights. (A while back that strip was mistakenly posted online for a couple of hours.) She’s talking about The Kelpfarts, fueling suspicion that Old Man Kelpfart’s stogies are making Robin sick.

    You forgot Christopher Robin–that skinny, disturbing-shorts wearing sissy whose mental illness predates Calvin by a long stretch. (At least Batman’s sidekick got rid of the short pants and elfin boots. “Sure, Bats, you wear the armored ninja suit, and I’ll run around practically starkers in yellow, red, and green with my legs shaved, getting manhandled and tied up by big burly thugs. Oooooooooooo! I just had me a little one.”)

    Ball Park Franks–they plump when you cook ‘em.

56. Chet McCord, Wildlife Defender
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:02 pm [Reply]

    Agreed, it is not a pun. Also, anenomes don’t have anuses, and can’t receive enemas. The tubular gut was a major invention of some sort of worm.

57. Library Cat
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:04 pm [Reply]

    After reading Polly’s letter a few more times I have become convinced of two things: “Polly” is jerking the Baltimore Sun’s chain and I need to find something more productive to do at work.

58. TEM
    May 11th, 2006 at 2:26 pm [Reply]

    Benicillin, I hope you’re the quote of the week. Your poem was genius, and the catechism rhyme inspired.

    Polly, of course, will swear that you, too are evil incarnate, and will call for a pox on your mortal soul.

    Don’t worry about it, though. All of us heathens here, led by our fallen comic angel Josh, will be right beside you.

    For the record, I thought that PBS strip was funny as…

    Wait for it…

    …hell.

    Gotta keep the theme going.

59. Josh Renaud
    May 11th, 2006 at 3:04 pm [Reply]

    It’s always interesting to see what those buggers on the “social right” will come up with.

    I love it when folks take one letter and use it to perpetuate their own stereotypes of a group of people. Not all “social right” or “fundamentalist Christians” (or whatever you want to call us) stick to a daily diet of Mark Trail, BC, and Mallard Fillmore. In fact some of us loathe those strips (though I will admit the lunacy of Mark Trail makes me laugh at its unintentional humor)

    Long live PBS!

60. jeanne
    May 11th, 2006 at 4:04 pm [Reply]

    There is also Robin Cousins, the figure skater from England,though I guess that doesn’t really speak to the masculinity of the name, either.

61. Mainspark
    May 11th, 2006 at 4:18 pm [Reply]

    Robin Ventura was a former major league third baseman. Best known for charging Nolan Ryan on the mound and getting his A** kicked for taking on the Express.

62. Mainspark
    May 11th, 2006 at 4:20 pm [Reply]

    Robin Yount. Two time AL MVP for the Brewers. Two different positions, SS and CF.

63. AwfulArt
    May 11th, 2006 at 5:21 pm [Reply]

    Ouch !! I’m getting smacked around !!

64. treedweller
    May 11th, 2006 at 6:40 pm [Reply]

    thanks, #13, 54, & 56. Just cause some people don’t like puns doesn’t mean they should casually toss other low forms of humor like tongue twisters in with them. If you like puns, you like them. The rest of you will find nun of them funny, but you should at least learn what qualifies as punny.

65. Thores
    May 11th, 2006 at 11:24 pm [Reply]

    I had to reread today’s FBOFW like three times before realizing that was Elly. Man, is it just me or has the artist been not as up-to-par as usual?

66. AwfulArt
    May 12th, 2006 at 7:55 pm [Reply]

    Since no one is going to read this except maybe managment here goes..
    My rant the other day # 12 about nuns was over the top. I was to nasty. For this my apologies.. I will never again do a post after taking my sleeping medication.. Ambien, restoril & nortriptyline.. Strong stuff.. Need to get this off my chest.. And a short reply to my fan club…
    #15 Don’t accuse me of being boorish & insulting and then insult me. Tiny bit hippo-critical..
    #18 I’m really not a bigot. Just don’t like religion..
    #21 You really know how to hurt a guy..I can’t spell so I do use spell check. As far as grammer goes, I’m from Jersey.. Enough said..
    #27 If I go to Baltimore it would be to see the Orioles not you. You sound to mean..
    #37 You sound even meaner..
    #47 Nice poem. Right on. Except regarding the priest & jism.. Maybe you meant Alter Boys ??

67. Jonny A
    May 13th, 2006 at 9:27 am [Reply]

    10-13 MW :

    Only two panels. Let’s play spot the differences.

    1. The sofa they were sitting on dissapeared in panel 2. Must be repo men.
    2. Her “ode to cannibus” art work on the wall has expanded significantly. Time to harvest.
    3. Looks like Jeff gave her a pearl necklace in between panels. Subtle…and you thought they were celibate.

    On the plus side all the colors on both panels matched.Speaking of matching colors I was wondering why in all of the comments about Mallard in these posts Nobody ever mentions why he often changes from black to green in the same strip? This can’t be a colorist oversight, I mean it happens in the same strip, not day to day, not weekday to sunday, but the same strip. Drives me nuts. *Right “wing” conspiracy, no doubt

    *an actual pun

68. deeeeeeeeelightful
    May 13th, 2006 at 1:08 pm [Reply]

    to #66: I’m a tiny bit hippopatumus, lol

    And the laughs keep rolling in!

69. deeeeeeeeelightful
    May 13th, 2006 at 1:14 pm [Reply]

    to #50:
    I’ve explained to the curmudgeons before that Sally forth is at least ten times worse then the wenchwhore of foobsville therese. Therese wouldn’t fall asleep and let her baby wander around, she would find somebody to take care of it at home, then get smacked around verbally because of her choice. I’m telling you people!

70. Jim Walsh
    May 14th, 2006 at 1:08 am [Reply]

    Watch for Polly to get her own talk show on Fox any day now…

71. Malc
    May 14th, 2006 at 8:03 pm [Reply]

    It’s Stephan Pastis having a bit of fun with the hicks, that’s all.

    No-one would seriously submit a letter like that.

    I’m getting a little tired of those long tongue twister gags though. The set-ups are a chore to read, and rarely do the punchlines kick ass.

72. Wackd
    June 13th, 2006 at 7:06 pm [Reply]

    I think this strip could’ve been better (the alliteration easier to undersatnd), and since I don’t know what religioun nuns are, I don’t know what to say to AwfulArt, except if everybody else has got nuns figured out right, you are really awful (oh, s**t, I made a pun)…

73. Tyler
    December 2nd, 2006 at 5:59 pm [Reply]

    This is a very funny comic, and it may say something regrettable every so often, but when the make fun of anyone but religious people you don’t do anything. So stop reading comics and saying they are terrible. Just stop reading them. We don’t want to hear you complain. And I’m sure Pastis won’t care if he loses a few sensitive readers. Get a life!

74. Ty
    January 30th, 2007 at 9:19 pm [Reply]

    Calm the heck down. It’s a comic. Pastis may not be the best artist, but he is funny. Take a zoloft and take a nap, ypu whiner.

75. tobias
    February 18th, 2007 at 8:29 pm [Reply]

    Relax. its not a big deal.

76. Polly...was I called Peachum?
    August 27th, 2007 at 10:24 pm [Reply]

    I have to admit, I laughed out loud at the PBS strip, showing a woman at the beach bemoaning the fact that she has to leave now, to celebrate her anniversary with her husband, while stroking her companions hair. The dog, not shown, whom we assumed was a lover, barks. Steve is then told to stop trying to write romance novels. (Sure wish I could get mine published.)

77. James
    December 20th, 2007 at 9:00 pm [Reply]

    PBS is hilarious for its randomness, and this comic is no exception. People need to chill while reading it.

All the cool kids…

…buy Comics Curmudgeon merchandise!

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