Beau Leste
Crock, 7/18/06
If there was ever a time in the thirty-year history of Crock — a comic strip about a group of Western military men engaged in a seemingly unending mission somewhere in the Arab world — in which it ought to by right match up to the geopolitical moment, this is it. Unfortunately, and yet to the surprise of nobody, it hasn’t lived up to the challenge. One doesn’t expect Ph.D.-level theses on interactions between Western and Islamic culture, but one does expect someone identified as a “nomad” to look less like a parody of a cold-war era spy, complete with totally-inappropriate-for-the-desert all-black clothes, and more like, oh, I don’t know, a middle-eastern nomad. Surely a picture could be found in a book or magazine to serve as a guide. Interestingly, the artist may be somewhat embarrassed about this: in panel three, the nomad is forced almost completely out of the frame, giving up screen space to a lovely palm tree.
They’ll Do It Every Time, 7/18/06
Some of you commentors have reacted to this TDIET with disparaging comments along the lines of “What the hell is wrong with this guy” and “Nobody does this ever.” You people don’t understand that you’re seeing a master at the top of his game. Look at how he diagrams the entire joke for you along the right of the word balloon. In the hands of a lesser artist, revealing how the process works like this would be an open invitation to host of imitators, but even if you see all the individual pieces of the puzzle, you can never fit them together in that oh-so-special TDIET way. It’s like the time I saw Penn and Teller and they did a trick twice, the second time explaining what they were doing as they were doing it, and you still came away amazed. The “P.S.” at the end is just a little reminder that you that this, in fact, is how we roll in They’ll Do It Every Time. Oh yeah!
Marvin, 7/18/06
Ha, ha! You see, in the west, we’d use “sticks and stones,” but in the east, they’d use “bamboo and pebbles.” Because, see, they don’t have trees in China, just bamboo. Lots and lots of bamboo. And pebbles are … um … zen … oh, Christ, this strip is just totally appalling to me.
DaveyK
July 18th, 2006 at 11:07 pm
When the guy in Crock says he’ll make him sweat, for a horrifying moment I thought Crock was going to make some sort of Abu Ghraib/torture joke.
The reality is less appalling than what I feared. Not funny, but less appalling. And, I suppose that’s progress.
Honey
July 18th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
How do these people SLEEP at night?
Austin
July 18th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
I am going to try to work the phrase, “like thus” into my conversations as much as possible.
At the drive thru: “I’m about to order my food like thus.”
At the movies: “Watch me get the tickets like thus.”
At the beach: “I’m going to get sand in my bathing suit like thus.”
I’ll do it every time.
treedweller
July 18th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
It’s so much more than just the process as outlined that makes this strip so great. Leadbutt Wonderful is this guy’s name. The heading/intro is “Living on the edge” (not livin’, surprisingly). He uses words like “lotsa” and “coupla” and “hunka”. He wants his sardine “well-grilled”, not just a little grilled. Of course, there’s the sum total of the snack/meal–mmm, nothing goes with apple like sardines, rye toast, onions, peppers, cheesecake, and green tea. And, best of all, the never-spoken-in-this-world phrase “like thus.” You can’t teach that kind of genius, and you can’t give it away.
OH, YEAH!
treedweller
July 18th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I forgot to mention the chairs. I assume this is the suburbanite version of the old tradition where a woman must walk ten feet behind her man. Mrs. Wonderful sits in her recliner ten feet behind Leadbutt like thus, inches from the doorway to the kitchen, ready to jump up and fetch apples at a moment’s notice like thus. If only Leadbutt didn’t get so greedy like thus, it would be a perfect arrangement, since it goes without saying Mrs. Wonderful doesn’t want to watch that damn baseball game, anyway.
Yup, pure genius.
P.S. Oh, Yeah!
mentarman
July 19th, 2006 at 12:08 am
It looks like Leadbutt is not so much watching a baseball game as watching a baseball player smash in the skull of an opposing player. Or fend off an attacking cobra.
Then again, since Leadbutt appears to be sitting at a right angle to the TV, perhaps he is simply looking out the window enjoying a nice day and not watching baseball at all.
mentarman
July 19th, 2006 at 12:10 am
Also I think “Thanx to quite a number of wives all over U.S.A.” is code for “I made this up myself, and yet it is no better than the crummy ideas sent in by the lobotomized who regularly read TDIET.”
Holy Prepuce
July 19th, 2006 at 12:28 am
OK, must share this: so there’s this educational strip called “Flashbacks” that runs only in the Sunday Washington Post. It can be actually quite interesting, recounting obscure bits of both national and local DC history. Last Sunday’s strip has to be my all-time favorite, because it features what surely must be the only graphical depiction of the Reagan assassination attempt ever to appear in a Sunday comics section. Unfortunately, the Post doesn’t make “Flashbacks” available online, but I’ve put a copy of the key panel here for your viewing pleasure.
Herold
July 19th, 2006 at 12:37 am
I’m more horrified by the implications in Marvin that all children are, in fact, telepathic. But I’ve never seen much Marvin before, so the whole sordid thing is new to me.
Scumbaggioni
July 19th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Consider Martin above: Spawn-Of-Satan-West and Spawn-Of-Hello-Satan-East are communicating via thought balloons. Telepathy! Nevertheless, SOSW is still moving her lips like some goober trying to read the text of TDIET, while SOHSE calmly keeps thumb crammed in maw – indicating her intellectual superiority in spite of her age.
Even our scanners are ‘tards. You sure you wanna hang around, Raju?
Crock meets 24: Yeah, I know how to make him sweat, too…stand back and watch. Like Josh pointed out, you’re in the middle of the ****ing desert-with-one-’s’ and he’s dressed head-to-toe in black. Another five minutes and he’ll be ready for serving twelve.
You know what would make this actually funny? If White Spy came racing over the dunes to save his old foe. “Oh my God – what have they done to your FACE?!?”
Non-Shannon
July 19th, 2006 at 12:37 am
Josh is also at the top of his game. Oh? Yeah!
Scumbaggioni
July 19th, 2006 at 12:55 am
Gasoline Alley: I know, I know…there’ll be a cop-out. (Look at the cross appearing in the air above him in the last panel.) Nevertheless, until then…YES! YES! YES!
DIE!
Dawn Weston
July 19th, 2006 at 12:59 am
I’m appalled by the ethnic stereotypes in Marvin. Perhaps next week we’ll see Ming Ming tell her pacifer “sucky sucky five dolla”
mooselet
July 19th, 2006 at 1:06 am
Why is the head of the Western forces dressed just like the Nomad spy??? He’s even got the evil thin mustache look happening. And why do they always make the boss 2 feet shorter than everyone else?
Mrs. Leadbutt should be sure to bring out a big ole bottle of Pepto Bismo when she brings out that bizarre food combination – or force Leadbutt to sleep outside so she won’t have the stench all night.
Pat Faraday
July 19th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Crock, as far as I’m aware, is set in the past. Those guys are the French Foreign Legion and nothing occurs any more recent than fifty or so years ago.
Also, many nomads wear black. Somehow it allows them to stay cooler than white. Watch Lawrence of Arabia if you don’t believe me.
I somehow thought that my first post would be funnier. Oh, yeah!
Morgan
July 19th, 2006 at 1:29 am
I have to agree, the “joke” (note appropriate use of quotation marks) in Marvin is obscure at best, horrifying at worst. I didn’t even understand what the comic was getting at, at first. My first thought was that it involved Pebbles of the Flintstones and was trying to figure out which of the two girls looked more like the pony-tailed baby Pebbles.
As for TDIET, I can’t imagine how this is “Living on the Edge.” Unless there’s a hope that Mr. Wonderful’s wife might kill him.
Silly
July 19th, 2006 at 1:30 am
I thought it had something to do with Bam-Bam and Pebbles.
Uncle Lumpy
July 19th, 2006 at 1:32 am
When I was a kid, They’ll Do It Every Time sat next to Our Boarding House in the Milwaukee Journal’s Green Sheet .
They’ll Do It Every Time is the only thing that could make Our Boarding House seem even remotely funny.
Fap!
Oh, Yeah!
Liosliath
July 19th, 2006 at 1:50 am
Pat is right – many of the nomads around where we live (Southern Morocco) wear dark clothes.
http://amos.indiana.edu/library/scripts/packing.html
The hat, however, is incomprehensible.
Mysterio
July 19th, 2006 at 2:12 am
12/19 Curtis: How many times has Curtis done this exact same series? It’s like an unfunny version of Tom and Jerry.
And I think Bruce Tinsley has been taken over by a pod peson-two days is way too soon for Mallard to stop flogging the New York Times horse.
Carrots
July 19th, 2006 at 2:51 am
I like the fact that 4-year-old Cousin-of-Marvin is using the word “plebe” in her thought bubble communications.
Scumbaggioni
July 19th, 2006 at 3:17 am
Now THAT’s funny.
(If you aren’t already familiar with PBF, get there. That’s PBF, not PBS.)
Rob
July 19th, 2006 at 3:31 am
what the hell is wrong with this guy
nobody does this ever
Adam
July 19th, 2006 at 4:28 am
Will someone PLEASE explain the punchline in Crock already!!?
Debt On
July 19th, 2006 at 4:31 am
Until now, I thought that Beetle Bailey had the most oddly out of place setting, as Beetle loafed around in boot camp and none of his buddies ever got sent to Iraq. (Come to think of it, he did the same thing during Vietnam…)
Anyway, now I know it’s Crock.
BigBlueGopher
July 19th, 2006 at 6:05 am
The only thing I found amusing in Crock is the fact that, in the last panel, the Western military guy appears to have crudely drawn male genitalia emanating from his face. That’s all I could get from it, sorry.
Badly_Computer_Animated_Boy
July 19th, 2006 at 8:03 am
Leadbutt Wonderful is one of the most legendary, yet undiscovered, blues guitarists of all time. He was a huge influence on Clapton, who saw him at the Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago in the 60s. So it’s a little shocking to see him settled so comfortably into a sedentary, suburban existence. I guess the love of a good woman has fulfilled him. And anyone who listens to the blues knows they don’t do that every time. Oh yeah!
Frank Drackman
July 19th, 2006 at 8:21 am
I think the joke in “Crock” is aimed at long term readers of the strip, who are familiar with Crocks effeminate Aide de Camp. A continuing theme is a situation where you would expect the response to be very severe(Hmm a spy, I’m thinkin torture followed by summary execution) and the Aides response is a game of Rock Paper Scissors, so that hopefully the losing spy gets a series of painful slaps on the forearm.
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 8:31 am
#22 – Scumbaggioni – Oh yeah!
http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/archive.html
treedweller
July 19th, 2006 at 8:41 am
MG&G 7/19: I don’t get it. Grimm is exiting the school to find a row of insects with placards. There are dog names on the placards.
So, I’m thinking of limo drivers at the airport first. But this ain’t the airport, and dogs don’t ride in limos (Fluffy Hilton excepted).
Then I’m thinking the bugs are the instructors, providing nametags to their pupils. But what school has one instructor per student? And what stretch of imagination makes that sensible, or ironic, or humorous in any way?
Then I’m thinking they must be fleas, and they are waiting to latch onto a particular dog as it exits the building. But most dogs would be thrilled to have only one flea, and fleas drop in for a bite but mostly reside on the ground.
So, will someone please explain the joke to me?
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 8:42 am
22, 29: Yes, I loved the latest PBF. At first you might not realize what happened, ya gotta go back and study the panels closer. It’s great. I especially like how the green guy’s expression changes in the last panel when he realizes he’s “on deck”.
TDIET: What exactly is the batter doing? He surely isn’t batting, based on how he’s holding the bat. Leadbutt is so busy with his food order that he’s missing an exciting brawl. The batter is just about to pummel the pitcher over the head with his bat.
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 8:46 am
30: You’re right, it is screwed up. It’s supposed to be similar to limo drivers waiting for their passengers to arrive. But it’s backwards, you don’t see the passengers holding cards with the names of their limos on them. Which is what’s depicted here.
treedweller
July 19th, 2006 at 8:49 am
#22 thanks, scumbaggioni! That’s good funnies!
treedweller
July 19th, 2006 at 8:52 am
32 thanks, BigJoe. I bet that’s it. I like to play dumb when mocking the comics, but I really couldn’t understand this one.
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 8:57 am
Is TDIET supposed to be ironic somehow?
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20060719&name=TDIE
All I see is that this kid built up muscles lugging all his books around so that now that he’s grown up he can carry his golf clubs with ease. Strange, or simply expected?
How’s this: Looka Mugabo the Kenyan running up and down mountains as a kid…
But when he hits his 20’s it’s all about winning marathons like thus… Oh yeah!
googoodoll
July 19th, 2006 at 9:03 am
The god-awful strip is CALLED “They’ll Do It Every Time”. Is the P.S. really necessary?
Dan B
July 19th, 2006 at 9:08 am
#35 – That was my first reaction too. Apparently what Hekkie does everytime is get older and stronger…Oh yeah!
A3G – Such were the grounds for divorce I know. Lucy should know better – who in the hell wants Tommie? She’s the homely roommate!
MW – Norma Desmond? Mary’s glossed-over look in the last panel thoroughly creeps me out. Tramp. She’s totally thinking about it. I guess when Stalkeraldo shows up in her bed naked later tonight (three months from now?), she’ll just HAVE to give in.
Mallard Fillmore = TDIET, right? Joe Sitonass calls for service for his home computrix, and don’cha know the guy on the other end is harder to understand than the manual? Oh yeah…!
ez_E
July 19th, 2006 at 9:09 am
I love the little arrows TDIET uses. Just in case, just in case you’re so dim as to not be able to put together the narration and the dialogue, never fear. There’s a handy arrow to lead you forward.
And the guy is obviously stoned, based on the eyes, and has the munchies.
8 – the Reagan thing is bizarre, I laughed out loud. Looks like two guys hoisting Reagan’s wax figure from Madam Tussaud’s into a car. Jim Brady appears to be a some sort of anguished dwarf.
Dan B
July 19th, 2006 at 9:13 am
PS – Why is the title of the TDIET posted here “Living on the Edge”? Is it on the edge of sanity? The edge of my seat? The edge of divorce? Dammit Scaduto…
Oh yeah!
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Here’s the Mallard/TDIET crossover:
Republicans are all about outsourcing for financial gain. “Gotta compete in the global marketplace!”
Until one of them is forced to talk to someone with an accent. Oh, yeah! “Looka, I’m jus’ tryin’ to fix da whazzit on my compewtur. Lern t’speek English, you little Raju!”
Treadwell
July 19th, 2006 at 9:23 am
22: THANK YOU for introducing me to PBF. Oh, man…funny, funny shit.
David V. Matthews
July 19th, 2006 at 9:37 am
My TDIET submission:
Floozie makes time with every fella in town…
Except you, despite your fluency in Klingon, your extensive Space: 1999 memorabilia collection, your regular spot on the Comics Curmudgeon message board, and your Yugo with the avocado-colored flames on the side! Oh yeah! What you said! Um, er…
Dan B
July 19th, 2006 at 9:47 am
maybe my favorite PBF of all time:
http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/PBF071ADAHitForBobby.html
Sourbelly
July 19th, 2006 at 9:53 am
I offer an explanation of the “pebbles” reference in Marvin.
sticks=bamboo: indeed, there are no trees in the Far East, just bamboo poles.
stones=pebbles: Your Orientals are a wee people, much to small to be throwing stones. So they throw pebbles instead, like thus. And those pebbles do in fact break their tiny, tiny bones.
Well, at least a gong doesn’t sound every time she appears in a frame.
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 10:06 am
43: I think this one is mine:
http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/PBF048ADOneMoreDay.jpg
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 10:25 am
Josh sez: Interestingly, the artist may be somewhat embarrassed about this: in panel three, the nomad is forced almost completely out of the frame, giving up screen space to a lovely palm tree.
I dunno, if the arteest hasn’t thoroghly embarrassed himself enough in the three decades of Crock (of sh!t), I doubt one minor foible will ruin his day. I personally believe it was intentional, to show the cold-war-era spy cowering upon the realization that he will be unendurably tortured by the mere presence of Crock’s answer to Lt. Fuzz. Alternatively, the final frame could be defended as the spy instinctively crouches low in the panel, trying to keep a low profile. If that’s so, then why is he dressed like a spy? I mean, if he wanted to spy, he’d try to fit in. Say, wearing a foreign legion uniform, or a turban or something other than a trenchcoat, sunglasses and oversized fedora.
MotoMike
July 19th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Re #40 (HogenMogen) and Mallard’s point: Oh, yeah! All of a sudden Mallard’s bitchin’ about outsourcing call centers, but has been curiously silent about the business community that, while purportedly consists of American companies run by American management and owned by American shareholders, seems absolutely hell-bent on creating jobs for lots of non-Americans. Quit whining, duckface, and get back to the business at hand, which is the constant blaming of every single frickin’ thing you and your redneck “readers” don’t like about Merica on bald-headed liberals that teach in elite universities. When you’re not doing your monthly reminder telling them about what Ted Kennedy did 37 years ago.
… okay, sorry, that was over the top. I apologize to all rednecks that might have been offended by the previous diatribe. But, gee, Mallard, yeah, I deal a lot with tech support folks that have accents and you know what? They speak way better English than my Hindi or … well, anything other than English. Maybe that’s a possible TDIET: Joe Gimmecap goes to France and offends the crap out of everyone there by making fun of the accents they have when they speak English to him (as he expects)… but back home in (whatever his home state is) he makes sure to eliminate any possibility that American kids would ever be taught another language besides English! Oh Yeah!
MaryAnnTheRest
July 19th, 2006 at 10:52 am
35, 37: Today’s TDIET confused me too, until I realized the point was that the guy had grown up before the invention of golf carts. You know, back when teens said things like, “I’m bushed” without giggling like Beavis and Butthead. Oh, yeah!
Also, am I the only one who can’t read A3G this week without singing “Come and knock on our door… We’ll be waiting for you… Where the kisses are hers and hers and his…”
Ghastlymess
July 19th, 2006 at 10:54 am
Ok, I’ve been staring at the TDIET for a bit now. In fact, I’ve been going over all his comics and I cannot stop thinking the following thoughts, that
But what I wonder about is why in this strip, in the illuminating postscript, he emboldens the word ‘do’?
P.S.- They’ll do it every time!
And when the poor wife pokes her underappreciated head out the door to enquire as to his desire for an apple, she looks terrified. “You…you w-want an apple?”
And what god-given scenario could there possibly be for a batter to hold his hickory thus? Is he charging the mound? Is it an ohsosubtle dollop of foreshadowing to the fate of the husband?
2fs
July 19th, 2006 at 10:56 am
#8, #38: Actually, it looks sorta like a disturbingly puffy blow-up Reagan doll. Or an unsuccessful attempt to crossbreed Reagan and Newt Gingrich. Deeply frightening.
Also: hey – I’ll bet nobody else has noticed that the guy in MW not only has a name that’s an anagram of “stalker” but also…he looks like Captain Kangaroo? For that insight alone, I deserve COTW dammit.
MotoMike
July 19th, 2006 at 11:06 am
2fs, good point on Captain K. I think I have dibs on a prior instance of this observation:
MotoMike says:
July 7th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Aldo Kelrast is really Captain Kangaroo. You don’t sport a hairstyle and droopy moustache like that without getting paid for it.
Abbey the Wonderdog
July 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am
Sorry, I was out hiding a bone.
But, don’t you think Rex is worried that when Dr. Troy is exposed as a big fat phony that he is going to be sharing the cell next to him?
“Rex, I have been pretending to be a Doctor.”
“Me too. Let’s go into the exam room a play Doctor some more.”
BARK! BARK! BARK!
iburl
July 19th, 2006 at 11:16 am
In this new post-Abu Ghraib world, I did read the “Rock-Paper-Scissors” line as a kind of euphemism for doing something nasty and painful to the nomad’s gonads. On a 2nd read I guess it’s innocent though. Crock always confuses me, I always assume it is also filled with cryptic messages like B.C. is, you know, the DiHarti Code.
D.A. Pennington
July 19th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Today’s FOOB: In the 3rd panel, Ellie tells Michael that Liz’s cat hates the apartment.
How the hell does a cat tell you it hates the apartment?
Most cats sleep 20 hours out of a 24 hour day. The other 4 hours are spent chasing dust bunnies under the bed, eating and chewing on the window shade drawstrings.
I think Lynn has been hitting the Mitahickhackwaki peyote a little too hard today.
D.A. Pennington
July 19th, 2006 at 11:25 am
TDIET: Who the hell eats a sardine, onion and hot pepper sandwich these days? Is that some sort of half-assed artistic liberty the artist took with a nod to the Dagwood sandwich?
MotoMike
July 19th, 2006 at 11:35 am
D.A. Pennington says:
“How the hell does a cat tell you it hates the apartment?”
Um. There are ways. If a cat is really upset, it bypasses the whole chewing/scratching thing and goes straight for the corner with the hardest-to-replace-or-clean carpet. The assaults are of short duration but numbingly repetitive, and, like Al Quaida, Al QuittyKat can not be reasoned with. The only solution is outsourcing the cat to your least favorite relative … and moving, leaving no forwarding address.
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 11:40 am
51: Uh, I think 2fs was being sarcastic in that approximately 74 people have now made that observation, each thinking they’re the first.
monkeyhawk
July 19th, 2006 at 11:41 am
You’re a Plugger if you post for the umpteenth time that Mary Worth’s stalker looks like Captain Kangaroo.
Pluggers DO it every time! Oh yeah!
Ghastlymess
July 19th, 2006 at 11:47 am
Dang BigJoe, er-um-yeah…in a similar vein to my last comment, didja notice the same thing, I also just realized that everyone and their nearsighted great aunt has commented on th’ peculiar bat-handling in our antihero’s favorite sports program, and thus feel like a dunce.
And come on Scaduto, they’ll do it every time? There’s not a single time when they will NOT do it? Well, if they do in fact do it every single solitary time, that explains my previous problem with the look of abject fear in the wife’s eyes when the apple is discussed.
Dark Star
July 19th, 2006 at 11:50 am
What’s with the thought bubbles in Marvin. Are the communicating telepathicly?
gnome de blog
July 19th, 2006 at 11:51 am
#18 Uncle Lumpy:
You didn’t grow up somewhere around Klamath Falls, Oregon did you?
Egad.
mc_frontalot
July 19th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
The only way for the end of Crock to be a joke is if he really means bludgeoning, castration, and papercuts. This strip is, I think, more timely than you give credit for.
I’d like to point out that leaning to muscle the nomad out of the frame is just plain old expert cartooning. It conveys well the threatening posture and sinister intent of whoever that legionnaire is. I don’t mean to say that the cartoonist thought really carefully about the composition, but it is clearly the hand of a weathered pro dashing things off and not some amateur’s error.
Why is my first post to your blog a defense of Crock? Crock is not a good comic strip.
BassoGap
July 19th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
“You’ve been pretending to be a doctor? But…but…how can that be, you’re so good at GOLF! Wait…does this mean you’re a urologist…for FUN?”
“Turn your head and cough, Rex…”
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
62: Why is my first post to your blog a defense of Crock? Crock is not a good comic strip.
Wait, Crock is a comic strip?
Glenn
July 19th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
MC Frontalot posts here now? Damn Josh, you’re moving up in the world. Or at least, your blog is.
Now I’m stackin’ little floaters
and I’m bandin’ them together
I can travel
over water
in this manner
to wherever
(Oh, yeah!)
roydrink
July 19th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Nobody noticed in today’s T.D.I.E.T. who the contributer is?
“J. Lewis from Miami, FL” !?
Jerry Lewis is selling his jokes? Well with Marvin, Crock, Mother Goose & Grimm and Family Circus, I can see who’s buying them today. Yup, they’ll do it everytime…
Benicillin
July 19th, 2006 at 1:22 pm
My name is Frontalot
I have fun a lot
And if I was a baseball player
I’d bunt a lot
Don’t dis the Crock
Cause the strip can rock
Nomads dressed in black
you should not mock
Howard Erk
July 19th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
“Who the hell eats a sardine, onion and hot pepper sandwich these days?”
I just had one for lunch.
**Burp**
and it was good.
I need something to keep my co-workers away.
Terrantula
July 19th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
Is anyone else reminded of the Kool-Aid man crashing through the living room wall when they read the “Oh yeah!” ? Because that’s the voice I always imagine.
Bob Dobbs
July 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Green Tea? Leadbutt doesn’t look like a Green Tea kind of guy.
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
#62 – Frontalot, I have to disagree. It wouldn’t be at all funny if they say
Panel 1: “Ok, we caught a spy.”
Panel 2: “Let me torture him.”
Panel 3: “I’m going to beat you with a rock.”
If that’s funny, Guantanamo must be a barrel of laughs – like fraternity pranks.
Sorry, my response to #62 doesn’t rhyme.
jonnya
July 19th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Dagwood’ll do it everytime! Animated!
http://acebonestudios.com/pages/blondie.html
See ‘em all at :
http://acebonestudios.com/pages/funny%20funnies.html
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
#69 – Terrantula – yes it’s been commented on several times. That’s what I was trying to get at in #29 above: http://70.86.201.113/imageserv2/stilltemporary/archive.html
Hogenmogen
July 19th, 2006 at 1:36 pm
So sorry, the link only takes you to the menu. The “Kids are thirsty” strip was what I was after. Maybe that would clear up some of the confusion.
FleaBailey
July 19th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
Mary looks a little…how shall I put it…giddy? awed? giddawed? in today’s strip when extolling the pleasures of being hit on by Bob Keeshan’s greasy son. There’s almost a “Song of Bernadette” glow to her, like she’s been involved in a one-on-one with the Supreme Being.
Odds that she does something stupid to lure him on, protesting the entire time that she’s faithful, FAITHFUL DAMMIT! to Dr. Jeff?
Cornwhacker
July 19th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
#70- The tea is a necessary part of his tea diet.
TDIET! Geddit? Geddit??
Oh all right, I’ll go away now.
lushj
July 19th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
When I read the comix page regularly (before my local paper became so atrocious that I wouldn’t clean up my dog’s poop with it) I always skipped Marvin because it was:
1. Atrocious
2. Unfunny
3. Did I mention atrocious?
Glad to see it’s still the same. Thanks for reading this dreck so we don’t have to!
Scumbaggioni
July 19th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
#73 / 74: When you run into this sort of situation, right-click the object, then select “View Image.” That’ll isolate the image and the URL you want to use as your link.
Smokey Stover
July 19th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
Some batters have very odd stances. The TDIET player’s reminds me of Craig Counsell’s:
http://tinyurl.com/ewlu4
“This unorthodox batting stance belongs to Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers. Baseball fans everywhere became familiar with Counsell’s stance during his World Series appearances with the Florida Marlins and the Arizona Diamondbacks. He has two World Series rings. Counsell joined the Brewers before the 2004 season.”
Justin
July 19th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
TDIET: The Movie.
I mean, like, er, well, um…THINK about it!!!
Oh yeah!
velouria73
July 19th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
i like how in today’s TDIET, the usual “oh yeah!” is replaced by an “oh no!” scaduto’s mixing it up a bit!
Library Cat
July 19th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
Okay, I’m hacked.
Scumbaggioni, BigJoe, Dan B. and Hogenmogen you’re all in trouble. You knew about this PBF comic strip and didn’t share before now? Keeping the funny to yourself; how rude. And MotoMike can tell you what happens when you make a cat angry. (# 56)
J Shiggity
July 19th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
The endless beating taken by TDIET is really undeserved. I know that may sound strange, but come on, it is quite obvious that this strip was written about fifty years ago and newspapers are just rerunning it (thankfully not mine). The real blame lies with the papers that haven’t glanced long enough at their comics page to notice that they are running strips from the Eisenhower administration. Yes, most everything on the comics page is just rehashed old “jokes” (Garfield likes lasagna, Dagwood runs into the mailman, etc.), but at least those strips are still being drawn anew. I cannot believe the same is true of TDIET, but if so please enlighten me!
Josh
July 19th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
Mr. J Shiggity, TDIET is in fact still produced today. Note the existance of an email address in the panel by which you can contact the author. In fact, several brave Comics Curmudgeon readers have submitted their own ideas in an attempt to get into the strip and have received word back from artist Al Scaduto. It’s possible that he has such a huge backlog of material that the jokes were actually submitted in the 1950s, and thus the Curmudgeonites will only see their material in cartoon form somtime in 2061.
Crocktanamo
July 19th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
You’re missing the point of the Crock strip. Read it with more menace, like the aide de camp is the Nazi interrogator from Indiana Jones, or the dentist from Marathon Man.
Rock, paper, sisscors. Rock smashes fingers. Paper leaves paper cuts, which we fill with salt. And sisscors? Well, Mr. Sisscors just goes clip, clip, clip.
You see? A nice little joke about torture, all dolled up so it can pass the censors. They’ll bring out a surfboard next time, make a joke about waterboarding.
gnome de blog
July 19th, 2006 at 4:16 pm
#79 Smokey:
If that guy is trying to imitate Craig Counsell, he’s batting cross-handed.
Dan B
July 19th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
#82 – uh, yeah, my bad. I usually come here to read bad comics – my good habits stay at home.
Junior Tracy
July 19th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Josh-
For God’s sake, get over this deeply bizarre fixation you have for TDIET! It hasn’t changed since I first saw it in the Goshen, Indiana Republican-Penny Saver (or whatever) in about 1968, and it seemed lame and dated then. Look at the TDIET you’ve attached – the only things in the comis that suggest it’s not from the Eisenhower administration are the flat panel monitor, and mention of green tea. I can smell the mothballs.
Bob Dobbs
July 19th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
#83 and 84, It really is difficult to tell whether TDIET is recycled or written fresh… For every anachronism (fedoras on men, manual typewriters in office scenes, mentions of “bicarb” for indigestion) there is an occasional contemporary depiction (cell phones, flat-panel TVs, backwards baseball caps on teenagers). Maybe he just draws in an old style but sometimes slips in a current reference, as is done in so many strips that have been around for decades.
Tracibub
July 19th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I found out why the girls in A3G are so frickin’ cranky all the time. They’re dealing with the ugly cats in A3D.
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d2/Tracibub/fourUglyCats.jpg
TheMagicMel
July 19th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
#13: Hee.
#69: Raises hand.
jonnya
July 19th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Real world Crock. Keep on Crockin’ in the free world! Animated!
http://acebonestudios.com/pages/CROCKY.html
ohgrl
July 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Scumbaggioni: Thanks for another great workday timewaster. I heart “Love Lizard”
Hogenmogen/40: OH YEAH!!
BTW, at what point do we lose the ability to communicate telepathically with others?
ohgrl
July 19th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
J’ever notice how picky HTML is? Like thus:
I missed a ” in my previous post.Here.
They’ll do it every time.
Vince M.
July 19th, 2006 at 6:19 pm
48: Re. Beavis & Butt-Head: Uhh, huh huh. They’ll “do it” every time. Huh huh.
Len
July 19th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Wednesday’s Pibgorn:
Miss Nicholla Bottom, banged in the head with a donkey spell, looks suspiciously like Oognat, the Hair Fairy, despite her swishing tail and donkey ears.
And Titania, Queen of the Faeries, will fall in love with this hirsuite jack- …I can’t use such language, children may be listening!
Or would you rather be a mule?
Hee-haw! (Shee-haw?)
http://www.comics.com/comics/pibgorn/archive/pibgorn-20060719.html
jailbird
July 19th, 2006 at 7:01 pm
# 69, Dude! – I always read it like the Kook-aid man says it. Oh Yeah!
Too much TV growing up contriubted to that I guess. How many of us knew the Preamble because of School House Rocks?
libraryspy
July 19th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
I think the cartoon in the Milwaukee Journal’s Greensheet that ran next to OUR BOARDING HOUSE was called THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW. But same idea
messy
July 19th, 2006 at 8:40 pm
Please remember, people, that Crock is a product of the CIA (for real)
Mibbitmaker
July 19th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
#99: Yeah, because the CIA said there were WMDs in Iraq (at least in the Tenet-approved itel), which turned out to be a Crock. And Dumbguy and his sidekick BadAim were the perfect fall guys.
I’ve got a TDIET idea:
So there’s this crudely-scrawled arcaic strip about the French Foreign Legion that takes place in the MidEast desert while we actually have troops there, but never a comment on current events…
Then we all get saddled with Doonesbury, Mallard Filmore, Non Sequitur, Candorville, Boondocks (until recently), Prickly City, Funky Winkerbean (huh??Wha???), etc, etc, etc, and they make us GLAD to be stuck with Crocky McOutofit! Oooooo, YEAH!!
BigJoe
July 19th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
82 – Re: PBF
Sorry about that, it’s more fun to bring up the crappy strips.
Actually I know myself and at least one other person mentioned this strip before…but a long time ago. Not sure when, I ain’t searching all around for it. The only “problem” with the strip is that he only produces at most one a week.
If you go through the archives there are some real gems. Some NSFW, as you’ve found out by now.
Uncle Lumpy
July 19th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
#98 Libraryspy
I do believe you’re right – thanks! So a cheap knockoff of “They’ll Do It Every Time” made “Our Boarding House” seem funny.
Kaff, kaff, kaff!
Library Cat
July 20th, 2006 at 11:39 am
#87 and #101 aw, ya know I’m kidding. I come here for the bad comic snark but I have been alerted to so many good ones I never knew existed like Agnes, Brewster Rockit, Bliss, Pooch Cafe, etc. TDIET and Mallard Fillmore, I could have lived long and well without knowing about their existence.
Ghastlymess
July 20th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Ok.
And after this, a moratorium on TDIET from me, I swear.
Doesn’t anyone else out there get the feeling…I don’t know, that Scaduto is like an amateur film director who just leaves the camera on far too long? Gives some feeble direction, and then just has his characters go for it? “You’re in a long line, right, Wilbur? And in this shot I’m gonna have you get really upset when someone tries to cut you, even though you yourself are the kind of man who likes to push to the fronts of lines! Oh this irony is DELICIOUS, Oh Yeah! Ok! Mark it……ACTION!! GO WILBUR!!”
“Say, whaddya think yer doin pal cuttin in the line like so see? I had to wait here for a long time….yeah, you know what I’m tryin’ to say pal? I…pushin’…
pushin in front of me…
can’t even….golf clubs…..kitty for the boys….
ohhum….”
CUT!
“WE GOT A WRAP BOYS!! OH YEAH!”
Megan Komouri
July 23rd, 2006 at 2:58 pm
“Crock” is the most poorly drawn strip I’ve ever seen, bar none. I thought “Rhymes with Orange” was bad, but this takes the cake.
Hippocrass
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Say, does anyone remember when Marvin was about a baby named Marvin?
Reader
July 24th, 2006 at 7:23 am
Bamboo and Pebbles: Weren’t they the kids on The Flintstones?
Holy Prepuce
May 28th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Link update for #8: the Reagan assassination attempt comic is
now archived here.
Carly
November 19th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I thought it was a Flintstones joke at first until you explained it. But the baby is Bambam, not bamboo.