They just want to “screw”
Apartment 3-G, 9/3/06
Ted: I could use some decorating tips.
Tommie: I’m afraid that’s not my strong suit.
Ted: Never mind, because that’s NOT ACTUALLY WHY I’M INVITING YOU UP TO MY APARTMENT. Jesus, you’re dense. How about dinner? Will dinner work? Great. See you at seven. Don’t wear underwear.
Ted at least can pull off his smooth talk without resorting to scare quotes, unlike some people would-be lotharios we could mention…
Mary Worth, 9/3/06
Note that “talk” and its variant “conversation” only appears in pervert-quotes when Aldo uses it. Mary is too forthright to resort to that kind of euphemism. Still, since nobody ever discusses this subject with Mary, we need somebody to just tell it like he means it:
Of course, we all are desperate to know just what it is that Aldo is looking at in the last panel, but sadly we won’t find out until at least Tuesday, since Monday will inevitably be a recap of today, and because Monday is a holiday, Tuesday may need to be a recap of Monday. My guess: a phalanx of cops, or the exhumed corpse of his wife. I’m enjoying the look on Mary’s face in that final panel; she’s thinking, “Oh, Aldo, I didn’t want it to come to this, but, well, you started things: I’m just finishing them.”
For Better Or For Worse, 9/3/06
“You kids are right into the ‘pop culture’?” Christ, even by Canadian standards you couldn’t possibly say anything dorkier than that without collapsing into some sort of black hole of dweebishness. The quote marks are just icing on the cake. No, there’s only one word that can properly describe Dr. P.:
Of course, 4Evah and Eva’s bassist is wearing a turquoise tank top, so maybe they aren’t exactly arbiters of cool themselves.
angry black woman
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:49 am
I knew Margo would be showing up with her mad finger quotin’ ways! But I love Pervert-Quotes! Josh, we need that on a mug. a mug full of pervert-quotes.
dan b
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:57 am
My guess? Dr. Jeff Cory and Zed, with Dr. Jeff dressed up as The Gimp. Aldo thinks it’s his birthday.
amoosebitmysister
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:59 am
I think Aldo is just disgusted by the “conversation” swing that Mary set up for them.
Dingo
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:09 am
When Tommie says, “I’d love to see it, Ted.” to what is she referring? Is it the apartment or something… inside of it (and a pair of Sansabelt slacks)? This may be the first possible orgasm for Tommie since 1974, so I’m thinking the howls could drop 7 WTC.
Non-Shannon
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:13 am
Imagine that this A3G were a movie. I dunno about you, but I think I might be compelled to vomit from the bi-phrasoid perspective changes (or is it a constant spinning around Tommie and Ted?). It’d be worse than that darned Blair Witch dealy, which actually did make me hurl, might I add!
CHA5NCE
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:16 am
Please, dear Jebus, let it be sad, drunken Rita in Mary’s apartment. A boozy, swan-breaking, lamb to the slaughter offered up to Aldo’s insatiable libido.
Doug Puthoff
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:18 am
Is anybody besides me getting annoyed with “Dilbert?” The strip has become a black mark to working people and management every where. In the real world, any corporation as incompetent as the one depicted in this strip would be out of business within ninety days. No boss like the PHB would last more than a month. Go back to the early ’90s, Scott. They were great strips and gloriously surreal. Your current strips are a bunch of crap.
Capisce
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:30 am
I congratulate today’s “Zits” for featuring Jeremy sending text messages with an actual cell phone. If he was in FBOFW, he’d probably be sending them with an iPod. Or an eBook. Or a PS3.
Dan
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:35 am
7 – At no point has the strip been presented as an exact representation of real office life. Each character is a caricature; the situations are realistic, but they’re exaggerated – which is why the characters can do such bluntly incompetent, offensive stuff with such consistency.
Aldo sees Rita, who is really his wife who he THOUGHT had died.
Ok, maybe not. What he really sees is Toby with a double-barreled shotgun.
James Schend
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:45 am
Brilliant idea for labor day cartoons:
One of those cute precocious kids is forced to do chores by their mean parents, and says to their companion/pet: “Now I know why they call it Labor Day!”
It’s brilliant. Do you think any of these artists have thought of it yet?
Wha?
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:46 am
April’s band must suck. The musical notes are always quivery and broken. And boom fwap twang doesn’t make me think good.
James Schend
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:48 am
Oh, my idea would also work with one of the non-pants-wearing husbands in the comics, perhaps Bumstead himself.
yellojkt
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
Ted should have just invited Tommie up to see his “etchings”. That’s a come-on line from the decade A3G seems to be set in.
AppleGirl yesterday accused Ted Forth of being a flat-chested lesbian. If that were so, the team would have been coached a lot better.
lesles
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
random thoughts –
lucky ted pulled that “titian” line out when he did, ’cause if he’d left it till today, the colouring monkeys’ creative approach to continuity would have made him look like a right knob.
i’m thinking maybe aldo’s wife isn’t so dead – and he’s just been using that story to make himself extra smooth and irresistable – and our toby’s gone and dug her up. although if she really did die in the bath, it could explain aldo’s attraction to depigmented wrinkled corpses.
and i hope to god those GT kids know about safe sex, ’cause if von and mandy bump uglies without due care, their spawn’s bound to be a toilet brush. and we don’t need that.
12802 crackers
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:59 am
FBoFW:
The secret behind John’s approval of 4evah’s suck music is that he’s tone deaf. The band sucks so much that the kids radiate force fields of suckness. The drummer and keyboardist are playing the latest hit from Disturbed, the others are playing an impassioned polka, and John still says that they were great. Only the dog tells the truth.
Poteet
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:00 pm
FBOFW — Not only is John a foob, but the entire “joke” in this strip is so hackneyed, stale, and overused that Lynn ought to call the band “Phoning It In.” She’s definitely ready to say farewell to Foobville, and if there were any doubt, the ever-more-manic efforts on the official website to sell goodies is a major clue.
I agree with a previous Curmudgeon that Lynn deserves credit for significant comic achievements over the years. But right now, it’s hard to see that achievement in perspective because I’m too busy hating the Pattersons. Gaaah.
AppleGirl
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:02 pm
#14 – Brilliant, lesles!
AppleGirl
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:06 pm
A3G – This is the most exciting episode of A3G I’ve seen EVER.
MW – This is the most exciting episode of MW I’ve seen EVER.
Sex-starved ladies going to apartments with creepy men! I love this. Great cliffhangers! And “now I know why they call it Labor Day!”
Canaduck
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Well, I always love this site, but this was one of the funniest updates in a long time. Thanks, Josh.
Von Zeppelin
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:12 pm
On the coffee table in Mary’s apartment are (A) the dry, faded husks of the dozen roses he sent her several weeks ago, and (B) the pipe wrench he used to cause his wife’s “bathtub accident,” still crusted with hair, blood and brain tissue, and covered with his fingerprints. Aldo had kept it in his sock drawer until Toby, cleverly disguised as his cleaning lady, found it. In the last panel, Mary is signalling the rent-a-cops from Charterstone Security to let him have it with the tazer while he is still numb with shock. The Captain Kangaroo Show just got CANCELLED, buddy!
12802 crackers
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:18 pm
SF: If I were Ted, I’d contemplate using the butter knife to cut Hillary’s throat too.
Blondie: As usual, Dagwood’s an idiot, he’s going to fill up their gas hog of an SUV with their pathetic surplus. Recycled joke. He shold get a hotel room with Blondie and have her do a stripper dance while he shoves cash into her ‘money box’.
MT: Damn, no houses or people to give wildly entertaining perspective errors today.
RMMD: GO Rex! He knows that the best time to hit on a woman is when she’s emotionally vulnerable. See him hint twice to Lily that she should come home with him and have a menage a trois with the little wife. Bet you know what he’s doing with both hands in his pocket right about now.
lesles
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:22 pm
#18 – “Sex-starved ladies going to apartments with creepy men!”
that’s just given me very disturbing images of anne coulter and karl rove. uuuurgh.
Rusty
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:25 pm
Foobs: 4 Evah and Eva appears to have rounded up every person of color in a thousand mile radius, I guess it’s only apparent on the Sunday versions. What kind of rock band features acoustic guitar and tamburine, since the Partridge Family? Lynn J.’s crew of people who actually write and draw the strip nowadays must be stuck in 1974. Maybe it’s just a Canadian thing, I would’nt understand.
MW: From the look of Aldo’s face, Toby is waiting with a strap-on.
Mac Thomason
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Part of 4Evah’s problem may be that lead guitarist April seems to be playing an acoustic guitar.
Hysterical Woman
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:35 pm
“How could you…redecorate the apartment by yourself! It looks terrific!”
Cue three weeks of talking about the redecorated apartment.
Anonymous
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:40 pm
#18 (AppleGirl) MW – This is the most exciting episode of MW I’ve seen EVER.
Yah that, or the CREEPIEST. Yikes, what is this, sweeps week? They even got Ann Coulter sauntering by in a kicky checkered number.
#14 (Lesles) i’m thinking maybe aldo’s wife isn’t so dead – and he’s just been using that story to make himself extra smooth and irresistable
Maybe she’s only mostly dead.
- spoi
Anonymous
September 3rd, 2006 at 12:54 pm
#9 (Dan) At no point has the strip been presented as an exact representation of real office life. Each character is a caricature; the situations are realistic, but they’re exaggerated
Many years ago I worked at a software company, and when the CEO decided we should get ISO-9000 certification (or try to), some of the things in Dilbert were the literal dead truth and (in retrospect) hysterical.
I agree that Dilbert has gone downhill, but in its prime it was great. The books are good, because they still let you find the gems in the larger overall crapfest.
- spoi
Dan
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:05 pm
27 – Yeah, I agree it’s not as good, but most things aren’t. The trouble is, he sometimes runs out of good ideas – a lot of them come from readers, incidentally. (As they would, of course, since he’s been out of an office environment for a long while, now.)
But the short-lived TV series was pretty darn cool.
phil
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Wow Canada is so diverse! Every color of the rainbow in that band. Look out Guess Who and Bauchman Turner Overdrve there’s a new act in town, Ps this was the best Mary Worth ever. PPs – did John get laid in Garfield today?
anon
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Re foob: I was convinced until the last set of panels that the good dr p would turn out to have earplugs in or something. Bizarre…
See, the last two panels or so should have had one of the band members asking april “wtf — pop culture?” and her replying “don’t worry about it, he’s been smoking his pot again…” Or, “Naw, he was playing peter paul & mary on his ipod.”
I think there was a pun or word play intended between “pop culture” and april calling him her pop…right. har har.
bonnach
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
I think Aldo’s in for a little Mary style intervention with her all of her past “accomplishments” there to testify!
bonnach
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:14 pm
On the other hand it could be a chainsaw wielding gimp.
lesles
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:15 pm
maybe what’s got aldo so freaked is he’s just realised mary’s sold his contract to gil thorpe.
fillmoreeast
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:16 pm
Acoustic lead guitar isn’t entirely unheard of in Canadian rock — given that our musical heroes are Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, there’s a fairly heavy folk influence in many Canadian bands, even now. But that’s only used sometimes, and if Apwil’s ever laid a hand on an electric guitar, I’ve never seen the signs. Also, one has to wonder why the whole damn band looks constipated. And why they all stand in a circle, facing inward. And why they’d shut the poor dog in the garage with them. And what the hell is up with Evah’s hair.
And why I care.
Oh, and Josh? The reflexive Canadians-are-dorks jokes every time Lynn coins a weird phrase, never heard before in the English language? Got old a long time ago.
Also, in Family Circus, proof positive that Thel is stoned to the gills. Even the nicest unmedicated mom would become a shrieking maniac when confronted with that kind of mess.
Anonymous
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:17 pm
In other news (9/3)
MF – …and “Mallard Filmore” will change its name to “Get Fuzzy”
MT – ya know, for all of the good-natured ribbing that goes on here at Elrod’s expense, you gotta at least give him some genuine kudos for his Sunday strips. Compare this to what Crock did with ITS supersized colorized Sunday space. Sheesh.
And speaking of Get Fuzzy, I don’t care who you are, any episode in which Bucky points is funny…
- spoi
AeroSquid
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:06 pm
Mary’s apartment is full of dead cats hanging by meat hooks. Each cat has a sign around it’s neck stating: ‘Me Aldo. Me Dead.’
Sinig
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:58 pm
In the last panel, Mary is making an ‘L’ sign with her hand with three fingers below it. She has to be signalling to Toby to ‘Let him have it – three rounds just to be sure.’
Justin
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:33 pm
I haven’t actually tried it, but Aldo’s face in the last panel looks like one of those drawings that would look like a different person if you turned it upside down or squinted. Like, ugly old woman? Or beautiful young lady?
Just a lot of superfluous-looking lined and such, is my meaning.
Colin
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:09 pm
Mary Worth: I was guessing it was something like, an effigy, or mabye a scale replica of aldo’s head on a spear. or the police, or jeff.
For better or for worse:could there be a worse band setup? yeah, we’re going to make it on just an acoustic guitar, bass, keyboards, tambourine, and drums. By the way, does anyone listen to a single modern band that has a designated tambourine player? ANYONE?!
tycho anomaly
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:15 pm
Ted at least can pull off his smooth talk without resorting to scare quotes
That’s because in today’s A3G, no one has visible hands, so BOLD ITALICS have to substitute for “scare quotes”.
paddywhack
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:20 pm
As lame as John’s comment was, he’s really just calling the kids on their shit. They have an acoustic guitar, keyboard, and tamborine in their band. John is indirectly saying “You’re a 50 year old’s idea of cool.” Thats a shattering insult to a teenager. The other possibility is he was being sarcastic, hence the quotes on “pop culture”.
Snapdragon
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:59 pm
A3G: Oh, come now. We all know this homewrecker storyline will end, not with Tommie actually getting some, but with her wracked with guilt that she’s trying to get some with Ted.
Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll see any finger-quotin’ Margo lesbian action as a result.
Da Scrodfather
September 3rd, 2006 at 8:48 pm
#43: Iburl, it may not be from the Classics like last week, but ya made me smile.
When I worked as a telemarketer, Dilbert wasn’t “surreal”, it was MY LIFE!
And at the pace of Mary Worth, do we have time to start a betting pool as to “What’s In Mary’s Apt?” So far, “Aldo’s Not-Dead Wife” is high in the standings.
EZ_e
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:18 pm
38 – ‘I haven’t actually tried it, but Aldo’s face in the last panel looks like one of those drawings that would look like a different person if you turned it upside down or squinted. Like, ugly old woman? Or beautiful young lady?’
Try it – upside down, it’s Captain Kangaroo.
Today’s 3G makes me dizzy, like they had a camera on a swing crane and it goes around and around – ted right profile, ted left profile, ted 3/4 front, ted right profile, ted 3/4 rear..
ben
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 pm
When Jon Arbuckle and April Patterson have better love lives than I do, is it time to kill myself?
posthumous
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Family Guy stole your (Quotin’ Margo’s?) penis vagina joke! I’m not sure how they managed it, logistically speaking, but there’s no doubt!
Prehumous
September 4th, 2006 at 12:46 am
Prove it, my undead pal.
Poteet
September 4th, 2006 at 12:54 am
While it’s fun to read all these fantasies about April, I suspect she’ll stay on the boring straight and narrow, given the nature of the strip. What’s needed, perhaps, is an alternate Foobian universe wherein creative fantasies could really go wild. I remember that one humorist, thoroughly sick of cleancut radio family dramas back in the 30s, created The Jukes Family, a clan wherein shoplifting, arson, fraud, and time in the pokey were matters of family pride. Perhaps the Curmudgeons could create the Puttersin family and give them a really slutty trash-talking teenage daughter named July. And give her band a better name.
rich
September 4th, 2006 at 12:59 am
This “Web” site of yours…it’s all good! You kids are right into the “pop culture”! …Hohhh yeah-h-h!
Reid
September 4th, 2006 at 1:02 am
I guess Mary wanted to show Aldo his freshly boiled housepet bunny. That’ll show him.
http://www.reidaboutit.com
angry black woman
September 4th, 2006 at 1:07 am
Who called intervention for Aldo? They win.
Damn I was REALLY hoping for a stuffed corpse.
angry black woman
September 4th, 2006 at 1:08 am
Who called intervention for Aldo? They win.
Damn I was REALLY hoping for a stuffed corpse.
Where are thy pervert-quotes now, stalker, a old?
angry black woman
September 4th, 2006 at 1:09 am
Who called intervention for Aldo? They win.
Damn I was REALLY hoping for a stuffed corpse.
Where are thy pervert-quotes now, stalker, a old?
(my comment keeps getting some weird spam thingy…)
GotFuzzy
September 4th, 2006 at 5:55 am
So is that an intervention in MW or just a freak show lineup? And who would have thought that the chainsaws would show up in (DT)GT?
Da Scrodfather
September 4th, 2006 at 7:24 am
Dammit Mary Worth! Leave it to you to kill any chance of a shock ending!
Snapdragon
September 4th, 2006 at 7:57 am
That’s not an intervention. It’s an ORGY waiting to happen.
Albatross
September 4th, 2006 at 8:05 am
I just got back from five weeks overseas, and the Mary-stalked-by-Aldo plotline hasn’t budged an inch in that entire time. What the hell have they been doing, passing each other in the hall and nodding?
If I were Aldo I’d have copped my feel weeks ago, and the restraining order would already be stuffed into the effigy.
Hm. Perhaps I’ve said “too much.”
Tyler
September 4th, 2006 at 8:07 am
Does every man in MW get his clothing from the Salvation Army? I love that green and black jacket on the dude with the chinstrap.
Sinig
September 4th, 2006 at 9:08 am
No, no, they’re doing it all wrong! Mary’s ‘intervention’ committee should be carrying pitchforks and torches.
Jim
September 4th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Ha ha! Take that, Keeshan! Quail against the combined might of Ann Coulter, C. Everett Koop, and Clint Howard!
I know that trio would get rid of my pervert quotes in a hurry, if you know what I mean.
jimb
September 4th, 2006 at 9:41 am
Does anyone else think that Mary Worth’s Aldo bears a a strong resemblance to Bob “Captain Kangaroo” Keeshan?
Jim
September 4th, 2006 at 9:47 am
Does anyone else think that joke has gotten really old?
anonymous
September 4th, 2006 at 10:57 am
#48 – I believe the Jukes family was not invented by a comedian, but was a real family that was studied to learn about inherited criminality. I’m computer-stupid, but I’m sure google.com and Wikipedia have reams of stuff on the Jukes’.
sunshinelollipops
September 4th, 2006 at 11:01 am
WHAT? THAT’S IT?
Katal
September 4th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
I can’t find today’s Mary Worth anywhere online. What happened?
I can’t believe I just wrote that. =/
Sandbag
September 4th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
At first, I gave the Aldo storyline some credit as being about as edgy as MW has ever been. It started getting creepy, and I was really hoping that MW had called the government’s TIPS hotline and turned him in as a ter’rist or something. I mean, my day hasn’t started without reading Mary Worth for so long, I was hoping for a little return love. I was a little disappointed today. Damn you, MW. You know, it’s true when they say that in any relationship, one person loves the other person more.
Hysterical Woman
September 4th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Don’t intervention usually feature your friends and family and not just a bunch of vague acquaintances?
“Um, hello Mr. Kelrest, I haven’t met you before, but I’d like to tell you to stop…help me out Mary, is he a wino or a junkie or both? He’s a sex addict? That’s it, I’m leaving.”
Junior Tracy
September 4th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Actually, the final panel in MW shows Aldo at his most Captain Kangaroo-ish to date. One almost hopes that some set piece from the old Captain Kangaroo show will occur at this point – Mr. Moose causing a great many ping pong balls to be dropped on Aldo, or Tom Terrific showing up with his wonder dog Manfred. It’s got to be better than any denouement that’s likely to result in the actualy strip.
poodlemama
September 4th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Perhaps characters from Aldo’s past will appear at the intervention. That could be interesting. In any case, I hope it’s run just like the ones on the A&E show “Intervention.”
I used to work at a place where Keeshan’s son (a dead ringer) was a big cheese. You were told to never, ever bring up the Cap’n, but you couldn’t think of anything else when you were in a meeting with him. An unpleasant guy, not like his pops.
Dags
September 4th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
“The Arbiters of Cool” would actually be a decent name for a band.
damselfly
September 4th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
I think Aldo would have preferred his dead wife to this. After all, the dead criticize less.
BlueDot
September 5th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Based on the dilated pupils, I’d say those kids are right into the “hardcore meth culture”.
joeypants
September 5th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Wow, I’ve had Tom’s exact conversation with my ex-girlfriend.
Oh God, I’m pathetic.
comic femme
September 5th, 2006 at 5:57 pm
I am going to stop getting the news paper…period.
FBOFW looks so much better on the internet than in the bathroom.
I know I can get the internet in the john if I hold my laptop just right.
Anonymous
September 12th, 2006 at 4:47 am
I haven’t read the other comments, so I appologise if I’m repeating someone else’s:
Dr Patterson intentionally embarrasses April. He considers it his duty as her father, and says so on his own ‘blog’ at: http://www.fborfw.com/char_pgs/john/index.php?page=letters
A corny line, yes. But genuine? – no.
Anonymous
September 27th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
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