The Comics Curmudgeon

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Dying to be thin

Family Circus, 10/18/06

I’m going to ignore the main joke here, which involves the sort of smothering middle-class suburban overparenting that’s going to leave Jeffy a bed-wetting basket case well into his thirties, and just say: what the hell is wrong with Mamma Keane’s waist? I mean, look at it. I could put one of my hands around that. As if it isn’t enough that Big Daddy Keane made her pop out four kids with enormous heads, it looks like he also bullied her into getting some ribs removed to maintain that girlish figure. Yipes.

Pluggers, 10/18/06

A plugger knows he has to keep his Oedipus complex pushed deep down inside if he doesn’t want to get a divorce.

People ask me why I read Pluggers every day. If you pay attention over the long term, patterns and character traits and plotlines emerge over time. I would urge you to revisit this cartoon, involving the same family, to really get a sense of the psychodrama going on here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 10:07 pm and is filed under Family Circus, Pluggers.

188 responses to “Dying to be thin”

Martin
October 18th, 2006 at 10:11 pm [Reply]

Shouldn’t the Family Circus say be Billy and not Jeffy? You know, since Billy is always taking a circuitous path to get somewhere. Wait, was it Billy? Those names are all confusing.
Harry Paratestes
October 18th, 2006 at 10:13 pm [Reply]

A Plugger’s key to a successful marriage is in not mentioning that he spent time alone with a priest in his formative years, which gives him an 81% chance that he was cornholed.
Harry Paratestes
October 18th, 2006 at 10:17 pm [Reply]

The kids in FC are so interchangeable that they should just be called P. DoJelly. Hey, that could be an asset if they get into urban music!
Mac Thomason
October 18th, 2006 at 10:19 pm [Reply]

I guess it’s my turn to point out that Jeff Keane is drawing his mother like that. So yeah, bed-wetting basket case seems pretty much accurate.
Beasley
October 18th, 2006 at 10:19 pm [Reply]

I once submitted a “Pluggers” idea: Had to do with the “pinstriping” along the side of your vehicle being created from spitting the “chew-backy” glissing across the sides. Guess it didn’t fly. Or it hit too close to home. Still….it’s true for REAL pluggers! Hmph!
Steve S
October 18th, 2006 at 10:21 pm [Reply]

This Pluggers is wrong, though. A Plugger is just the kind of stupid asshole who would respond to a completely harmless question like “Would you like meatloaf or spaghetti tonight?” with “My mother cooks either better than you!” or possibly “Just looking at you causes my bear penis to retract into my body!” Then they could have a domestic disturbance, because a Plugger marriage counselor is an episode of Cops.
carla
October 18th, 2006 at 10:22 pm [Reply]

Wow. That Family Circus is waaaaaaay funnier without a caption. It’s definitely an easy one for all the FC parody sites.

You can see poor, schlubby Bil standing there, tomorrow’s undoubtedly brilliant comic in hand, thinking “I’ve created a monster with this one.”
Miss Alexandra.
October 18th, 2006 at 10:22 pm [Reply]

Mary Worth: “I haven’t heard from him in awhile and I’m concerned! I hope he got that bottle of Johnny Walker I sent him…”
Virginia
October 18th, 2006 at 10:25 pm [Reply]

A COPS episode featuring pluggers, complete with Budweiser can, wfie-beater shirt and confused explanations can only bring life into this strip
Hondo
October 18th, 2006 at 10:29 pm [Reply]

Keane’s finally decided it’s no longer worth drawing the entire joke. ‘Imagine the dotted line yourselves, dammit!’
Harry Paratestes
October 18th, 2006 at 10:29 pm [Reply]

You know that you’re a Plugger if you beat your spouse and it turns out that the cop who responds to the call is a cousin of the manager of the trailer park where you live.
Larv
October 18th, 2006 at 10:32 pm [Reply]

Binoculars? It’s what, maybe 100 ft from the house to your average suburban mailbox? Did the Keane clan move out to a country house with a long, winding driveway when I wasn’t looking? More likely she’s checking out the hunky workmen putting new siding on the house across the street. God knows she needs a little excitement in her boring, boring life. Even it’s only the vicarious thrills of spying on sweaty guys in wife-beaters from the safety of her front window.
Chance
October 18th, 2006 at 10:34 pm [Reply]

…a Plugger marriage counselor is an episode of Cops.

Genius. Submit that bad boy!
Rusty
October 18th, 2006 at 10:34 pm [Reply]

Pluggers is a bottomless treasure chest of snark. Feature it every day, Josh, I never get tired of slagging Pluggers.

Plus, I look at the Pluggers and get to feel superior, even though they are comic book characters of large animals wearing human clothing. Still, they represent real people and their hackneyed musings.
AwfulArt
October 18th, 2006 at 10:44 pm [Reply]

The Raiders being the worst pro football team got some dubious recognition in Wednesdays “Girls & Sports”… Way to go Al Davis…Oakland sucks.. Oakland sucks…!!!
Opus
October 18th, 2006 at 10:47 pm [Reply]

I’d say there’s something profound going on in the Family Circus panel, what with Mom with the binoculars, and Dad with no eyes at all…but then again, it’s Family Circus, so…never mind.
treedweller
October 18th, 2006 at 10:49 pm [Reply]

Following close on the heels of the WKRP turkey-episode reference, this week Adam is channeling Les Nessman. I hope this means we can look forward to Mark going Johnny Fever on us in “Doonsebury” soon. Maybe he’ll get fired for saying “booger.” It won’t be so bad for him; he can get a job at GF.
Heckler123
October 18th, 2006 at 10:50 pm [Reply]

I don’t think Thelma’s waist is any worse than Blondie’s or Cookie’s. But the Bumstead women definitely have better boobs.
Heckler123
October 18th, 2006 at 10:53 pm [Reply]

#11, Harry Paratestes – Crap. My attorney assured me that those court records had been permanently sealed.
SurpriseWitness
October 18th, 2006 at 10:54 pm [Reply]

Josh, I’d like to commend your uber-hip “Big Daddy Kane” reference. Unless it was inadvertent, in which case I’m simply giving you way too much credit in the Classic Hip-Hop Knowledge Department.

Either way, I like that Mrs. Plugger is wearing one of Hubby’s flannel shirts as an apron.
Blueline
October 18th, 2006 at 10:56 pm [Reply]

I guess Ma Keane is incapable of walking to the mailbox herself, and instead pawns the chore off on one of her chil’ens, with the hope they mess up so Pa Keane can break in his new leather belt.
Topliff
October 18th, 2006 at 10:57 pm [Reply]

JP: Oxymoron alert “bona fide zillionaire” I suppose that’s better than a “phony billionaire”.

9CL: How does shoving your arm down a cow’s throat move the storyline along? Will she pull out the priest?

A3G: “Lucy called and said she me missed me and…”

a. She asked me to move in with her and her new boyfriend.

b. I told her about us and she said to bring you along as well.

c. I told her next time she should shoot from closer range!”
iburl
October 18th, 2006 at 10:57 pm [Reply]

Check out Mommy Keane’s positively waspish figure in the blasphemous Apple Turnover cartoon among these ancient Family Circus “Burger Chef” promotional materials from a forgotten epoch:

http://www.freewebs.com/burgerchef/newfamilycircus.htm

I think on Saturday nights after beddie-bye Mommy may have driven to the Sunset Strip and transformed into Vampirella. I also think PJ may have huffed Bela Lugosi’s formaldehyde. ’tis the season.
leo
October 18th, 2006 at 11:02 pm [Reply]

#23, when you said Sunset strip
I just had a though….
Ma Keane…as a stripper
JB
October 18th, 2006 at 11:06 pm [Reply]

It is worth noting that this particular panel leaves FC territory for a self referential world normally associated with Zippy comics. Jeffy, we assume, is taking the letter to the post office box, tracing his way around hedges, over the dog, through sandboxes and any other obstacle that he can find. Normally, the viewer would see this in the context of a circular â€œbinocularâ€ image that defines the window to the world of Family Circus. This time, however, the reader looks through the FC binoculars only to see Mama Keane looking through a second set of binoculars, in effect reading the strip for us. In this way, Bill Keane finally admits that the strip has been for years an inside joke that no outside reader will ever get.
mooselet
October 18th, 2006 at 11:12 pm [Reply]

Jeffy is obviously on his way to post the final payment to the plastic surgeon who gave Mama Keane that itty-bitty Posh Spice waist. No wonder she doesn’t want him to lose it. If she pisses off the plastic surgeon Papa Keane will never get than chin implant.
GodWithFire
October 18th, 2006 at 11:19 pm [Reply]

23: I’m not sure what scares me more: That I REMEMBER that Burger Chef comic-book campaign thing with Family Circus, or that the mailing label is from Middletown NY — where I’m from originally.

Yikes.

That said, Thel was always competing with Blondie Bumstead as the most stacked cartoon Mom, Brandy from “Liberty Meadows” being childless afaik.
monkeyhawk
October 18th, 2006 at 11:20 pm [Reply]

FC’s promotional whoring made Burger Chef what it is today!
HonestAbe
October 18th, 2006 at 11:25 pm [Reply]

A plugger never sweats the outcome of inter-species breeding.
PreparationH
October 18th, 2006 at 11:31 pm [Reply]

A recipe file? You know you’re a plugger if…you have one of these. …you still need to use it. …you’re using it in some dumb show of giving a poop about the family meal to “spice up” your marriage.

Wait. ….she needs a recipe for spaghetti? I’m never letting a kangabbit feed me.
camster
October 18th, 2006 at 11:35 pm [Reply]

Zoinks! My eyeballs nearly fell out when I clicked through the A3G website to the following:

http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/apt3g/charactMaina.htm

This looks to be from the A3G “middle period,” but everybody looks so… vacant.
Rob H.
October 18th, 2006 at 11:37 pm [Reply]

“Shouldnâ€™t the Family Circus say be Billy and not Jeffy?”

No it should be Jeffy. Being the idiot of the family (which has been addressed on this site before, I believe), only he would actually lose the letter from the house to the mailbox. Billy just suffers from ADHD and will walk all over the place before either: a) delivering the letter or b) remembering that he forgot to grab the letter in the first place. Either way, Thel can trust Billy to eventually deliver the letter without watching his every move.
Ron
October 18th, 2006 at 11:55 pm [Reply]

FOOB Iris comes up with another doozie Thursday when, told that post-stroke Jim has the mind of a child, she gazes off into space and says, “Then…at least he’s happy!”

Barf.
Other_Sally
October 18th, 2006 at 11:59 pm [Reply]

You know you’re a plugger when you have to fight the urge to be an asshole to your wife.

Really now, what part of “would you like meatloaf or spaghetti” requires any comparative mention of your mother’s cooking? That’s like being asked “paper or plastic” at the grocery store, and replying, “my cousin makes the best handmade shopping bags!”
Ed Minchau
October 19th, 2006 at 12:02 am [Reply]

I grew up on a ranch; we raised Hereford cattle. MacEldowney has got the look of the polled version of the animals right, but wtf is that vet doing? I have never seen a vet shove an entire arm down a bull’s throat. Yeah, I have seen a vet put an entire arm in the other end of an animal, but that’s for the cows, not the bulls.
Ed Minchau
October 19th, 2006 at 12:03 am [Reply]

… and trust me, you do not want to know.
AppleGirl
October 19th, 2006 at 12:07 am [Reply]

MW – First panel: Apply directly to the forehead! Apply directly to the forehead! Apply directly to the forehead!
Mumblix Grumph
October 19th, 2006 at 12:12 am [Reply]

Is it just me, or are the female Pluggers sexy beasts? The men are just animals.
Power of 1000 Lemons
October 19th, 2006 at 12:17 am [Reply]

Here’s my question: I don’t read FC every day, thank God, but isn’t it a little unusual for the parents to be talking, and particularly the only ones talking? I bet you could count the number of previous FCs with a Bil or Thel line in the caption on one hand. Usually Thel’s thought here would be in a speech bubble, and then the caption would be attributed to Dolly, standing nearby and saying something pseudo-adorably incoherent in response.
Wave Man
October 19th, 2006 at 12:18 am [Reply]

#37: I thought of those stupid Head-On commercials right away too.

In Thursday’s Mark Trail, it looks like Mallard Filmore has made an appearance in the second panel. That, or it’s another random talking duck like the ones from yesterday.

And in Thursday’s Judge Parker, is this young hot blonde chick supposed to be married to Horace? First Ian with Toby and now Horace? I think the old geezers writing these strips have a little too much of an imagination.
mumbles
October 19th, 2006 at 12:25 am [Reply]

A3G: Oh, Tommie Tommie Tommie. What are you thinking? Nobody’s afraid of YOU. And quit interrupting, you rude bitch. Ted was going to say, “she’s afraid your frustrated sexuality will go all Fatal Attraction on us and we just got a new pet rabbit.”

FOOB: the thing is, I bet Chinballs has more on the ball than Iris. I mean, she’s even DRAWN stupid.

JP: Who’s the blonde tomato? Please don’t tell me Horace is hitting that.

[Applegirl: you beat me to the Headon reference...that was my first thought too. ]
blase
October 19th, 2006 at 12:31 am [Reply]

#40: if that was Mallard Fillmore, it’d probably work a tie-in about Bill Clinton WRT the comment on “Snake” — speaking of whom, has just escorted Molly into the bathroom…
Edward
October 19th, 2006 at 1:04 am [Reply]

I think we’re missing the point here…Bil and Thelma have obviously decided to become Warriors of Christ. That ‘letter’ is a bomb, going to the nearest Planned Parenthood centre. She’s got the binoculars out to make sure the Feds aren’t trying to turn Jeffy in an attempt to infiltrate the Family Circus Compound.
Anonymous
October 19th, 2006 at 1:23 am [Reply]

10-19-2006 Plugger’s

“The heavyweight boxer plugger”

WTF does that mean?
Bobdog
October 19th, 2006 at 1:24 am [Reply]

I think the problem with the FC Mom is a misguided attempt on the part of the artist to enhance her bust size.

I’m also pretty sure she’s check’n out some hot hot action of some kind across the street — she just doesn’t want her husband to know about her voyeuristic indulgence. If FC wasn’t limited to a single circular panel, I’m sure we’d see that Jeffy is actually standing right behind her.
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 1:39 am [Reply]

If Thel had longer hair that she always kept tied up — always restrained by her strict Christian environment from letting it cascade over her milky white limbs and her firm high breasts with their rosy nipples and the paleness of her slender waist accentuated by her glossy dark tresses; but always giving the sultry promise that she might — well, then “Family Circus” would be quite a different strip.
Mibbitmaker
October 19th, 2006 at 1:50 am [Reply]

#25: Thel reads her own strip so you don’t have to.

FOOB: Iris couldn’t be more evilly clueless if she were to arrange a phony ‘intervention’ that browbeats Grampa Jim into a drunk driving fatality.

(DT)GT: “Ma, Stormy just caught Osama bin-Laden single-handedly! And got information that’ll defeat al-Qaeda once and for all!”
“How could he get so close? He’s really working for them. Friggin’ traitor!”

A3G: Quick to bobble, ain’t she?

Adam: Okay…back away from Adam….slowwwlyyy…keep grinning…thaaat’s it…

SM: Forget a guy in a spider costume and a fake mechanical octopus – the MEDIA WARS [tm] are the battle of the century!!

FC: Thel, I think it’s time Jeffy went into a…’special’ class…

Nancy: Sluggo…friggin’ traitor!

Curtis: Aw, she beat up his hat! No fair!
condimentalist
October 19th, 2006 at 1:52 am [Reply]

FC: How far away is the mailbox that she needs binoculars? Also, since Jeffy began taking on the writing duties at FC (we can all attest to Billy’s crappy illustrative abilities), has anyone else noticed a Jeffy-heavy agenda? The tide has turned and the panels are much less Billy-oriented and much more Jeffy-is-awesome.

Don’t believe me? Take the Jeffy Challenge: for the next month, I’m counting the number of Jeffy-centered panels vs. the Billy-centered panels. I bet Jeffy wins by a landslide.
wocket
October 19th, 2006 at 1:54 am [Reply]

I think we’re missing a very very important point with Thel.
…Namely, THAT WOMAN’S ARMS ARE BEEFY. Seriously, they’re as wide around as her tiny tiny waist.
Bobdog
October 19th, 2006 at 2:05 am [Reply]

#49 – She also appears to have man hands.
Mibbitmaker
October 19th, 2006 at 2:06 am [Reply]

MT: More information on Shake ‘n’ Bake’s lethal intentions can be found from a talking duck (Can that duck be any more obviously connected to that speech balloon?[/Chandler])

Which is which? Shake is the one who’s softening on the killing thing, while Bake… Bake’s name is Earl! Karma won’t like this, Earl.

JP: “You know what the doctor said about cigars!” …Dr. Freud? Yeah, we know…
Crankenstank
October 19th, 2006 at 2:10 am [Reply]

Shades of “Kevin and Kell” in this household. A better question for Papa Bear might be: what kind of meat?!?
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 2:26 am [Reply]

Curtis: I don’t understand Michelle’s hostility towards Curtis saying what he said. Is it that she refuses to bow to modern pornocultural norms by shaving down there? She’s distressed by the seeming plight of the Republican party in the coming elections? She’s a Houston Texans fan still distraught about the outcome of the 2006 NFL draft?
bestmann
October 19th, 2006 at 2:39 am [Reply]

FC: The binoculars are real, taken from a photo – why couldnÂ´t they draw cartoon binoculars?
AppleGirl
October 19th, 2006 at 3:07 am [Reply]

A3G – Oh Tommie, I feel your pain.

I’ve gotten that speech: “Good news! Me and (whatshername) are back together! So you are now dismissed from my life! Forget my promises! Forget your hopes and dreams! Okay, have a nice day!”

And I’ve given that same response that Tommie is giving: “I’m so glad!” Smiling that fake smile, all the while feeling like my heart has just been ripped from my chest. Smiling that smile yet wanting to cry and run out of the room. Run, run, run, to my car and let the tears flow as I drive my car down the rain-slicked streets of New York, driving west, further west, always west, speeding down thruways and turnpikes and expressways and freeways and not stopping until I reach the mighty blue Pacific which is the only force more powerful than the guy who just broke my heart and changed my life forever.

Oops, sorry about that. I just know that Tommie is hurting, is all.
compass rose
October 19th, 2006 at 6:09 am [Reply]

#55

…”Run, run, run, to my car and let the tears flow as I drive my car down the rain-slicked streets of New York, driving west, further west, always west, speeding down thruways and turnpikes and expressways and freeways and not stopping until I …..”

….reach Santa Royal where the guardrails are missing and the pavement ends in a cliff leading to death and destruction and ‘Oh no,’ I say, arm across my face, bottle-clutching hand outstretched as my car topples over the edge…..

(Sorry A-girl, couldn’t resist. Still thinking of Aldo – sigh-)
arlo
October 19th, 2006 at 6:53 am [Reply]

Mary Worth is quite a mess today. First panel, Toby and Mary characteristically show no concern for the woman who has fallen to her knees in anguish and is holding her brow. Possibly she has fallen to her knees to give birth all alone like Sheilaugh Shaughnessy.

Second panel, Mary’s going to try another route to reach Dr. J C? I think I get what’s intimated here but the way she said it it sounds like she may have just realized that the world is in fact round – he’s so far away! But I can try another route, heading west to get to the Indies instead of our usual eastern trade route! That will show you all.
yellojkt
October 19th, 2006 at 7:08 am [Reply]

Judging from the sidemeat angle, Thel had a little silicon added to the funbags while the ribs were being removed.
compass rose
October 19th, 2006 at 7:21 am [Reply]

#57 MW “… he is on the other side of the world. Maybe I should try a different route…”

Or maybe a different time? She’s probably been calling him at noon, Santa Royale Time, hoping to say “Wish you were here with me, Dr. Jeff Corey, lunching at the Bum Boat, our old familiar!” while over in Kampuchea, Dr. Jeff slumbers sweetly, ringer turned off.
Harry Paratestes
October 19th, 2006 at 7:22 am [Reply]

MT: I love the way the giant radioactive Duck-Ra (Mothra’s cousin) tells us about Jake and Snake. Maybe it is coming to rescue Molly and save the city from Snake’n'Jakezilla. And as for panel 3, it’s setting us up for an unspeakable climax: Tomorrow, Jake will say “Yew got a purty mouf, bear” and Snake will add “Squeal like a pig, bear!”
Harry Paratestes
October 19th, 2006 at 7:27 am [Reply]

MW: Who’s the midget in blue? I didn’t know Mini-me’s mother lived in Charterstone.
Ran
October 19th, 2006 at 7:29 am [Reply]

FOOB: ‘Your husband can’t walk and has the mind of a child.”

“Then at least he’s happy.”

Yeah, Happy as a child who CAN’T WALK!.
Harry Paratestes
October 19th, 2006 at 7:33 am [Reply]

FOOB: We’ll see how long Grandpa Chinnuts is allowed to live when all he’ll be able to do is lay around watching cartoons, farting and making poop jokes to Iris.
yellojkt
October 19th, 2006 at 7:51 am [Reply]

Harry (#63),

How will Iris know the difference?
roydrink
October 19th, 2006 at 8:02 am [Reply]

# 22/35/36 about 9CL

Like I said a few days ago, I was hoping the arm would go up the other end. Not only does it remind me of my favorite James Herriot story, but it would be a breakthrough first time activity on the comics page… unless you read those naughty, naughty, naughty papers.
colorado
October 19th, 2006 at 8:04 am [Reply]

Anyone here a fan of the comic Sinfest?

http://www.sinfest.net/
Jennifer
October 19th, 2006 at 8:08 am [Reply]

#55 re. AG3

I think what we’ve all learned from Tommie — but by which lesson she herself will remain touchingly unchanged — is this: Don’t be the rebound girl. I’m sure Margo would have said that a lot better. And by better I mean WAY bitchier.
yellojkt
October 19th, 2006 at 8:21 am [Reply]

Roydrink (#65),

Gene Weingarten who is muhc less knowldegeable about comics than Josh, but is unaware of it, has a daughter Molly that is a veterinarian. He has posted a picture of his daughter up to her elbow in the backend of a cow.

Weingarten talks about the pictures here.

Yesterday it was aroused Clydesdales. Today it’s cows getting the full fist exam. I am one sick SOB.
Prudence
October 19th, 2006 at 8:28 am [Reply]

at least Thel doesn’t have any cameltoe
Ianscot
October 19th, 2006 at 8:29 am [Reply]

We’ve dispensed with the lame pretext for Mom Keane’s use of roof prism binoculars — to see her suburban mailbox. The psychodrama behind this panel is rich with possibilties that aren’t “What’s she really looking at?” too.

– This was the second day in a row when symptoms of alzheimers were attributed to the FC children. Yesterday Billy lost his cell phone. Bil Keane’s anxiety over aging is the raison d’etre for the strip now. (Well, that and his bitter marriage. Speaking of what Thel’s really gazing at.)

– As someone else mentioned, we’re seeing someone with binoculars IN the Famiily Circus “through binoculars” circular panel. We also have Dad Keane in the panel, holding his drawing tablet — and then someone (presumably Jeffy) has drawn him in turn. It’s a veritable tesseract, this one. The crease where the box folds has somehow involved Mom’s waspish waist disappearing into space.

– If Thel is, in fact, watching shirtless workers laying pavement across the street, that would certainly explain Bill’s hapless, neutered expression. Gawd. The eyeless gaze, the homely nostrils to one side of his nose, the eyebrows seemingly frozen in hapless plaintive reaction… The man is utterly adrift and hopeless. The shirt — the little poochy waist to it! No wonder Thel looks elsewhere.
Justafoob
October 19th, 2006 at 8:35 am [Reply]

Good thing that Gwampa has a mind of a child. Now Iris can be on an even level with him.

C’mon, I have know several people who have had strokes and they get frusturated when people treat them like they have a mind like a child. They have their own mind, they just can’t communicate effectively anymore!!!!

You know what is going through Gwampa’s mind now (soon to be a feature here at the Comics Curmdgeon, lets get those Gwampa thoughts coming boys and girls)

“Here comes the airplane??? Take that goddamn spoon and shove it up your ass Iris! I am a man. A veteran!!!! Treat me with respect or if I gain the use of my right side ever again, you are going to get a major whooping.”

Either that or

“mmmmmmmm, tapioca. Tank you mama”
Ianscot
October 19th, 2006 at 8:35 am [Reply]

Wait!

– Bill Keane, eyeless.

– The circular panel (binocs style) and the binoculars in the image. The cartoonist depicted with his drawing tablet, drawn by someone else.

– The nostrils, out of perspective with the rest of the drawing.

– Thel’s waist, lacking apparent substance.

This Family Circus panel is plainly some sort of coded reference to the “observer effect” with respect to “dark matter.” We are using optical instruments (the binoculars) to look remotely for something we can understand by looking much closer — perhaps through quantum mechanics rather than astonomical instruments?

Jeffy Keane — president of his local astronomy club?
Bombcar
October 19th, 2006 at 8:40 am [Reply]

#66, I do follow it. Decently good.
Jennifer
October 19th, 2006 at 8:42 am [Reply]

Anyone following Musical Week in Big Top? Big Top is fantastic.
Inspector Chalupa
October 19th, 2006 at 9:00 am [Reply]

Wearing the customary reddish turtleneck, Thel spies on Apartment 3G, hoping to learn the secrets of Margo’s body language. Subsequent strips will feature Thel finger quotin’ every time one of the kids produces their “adorable” malapropisms.
Splinky
October 19th, 2006 at 9:01 am [Reply]

Meanwhile, the Not Me is stealing Dad’s wallet and setting the kitchen garbage can on fire.
mattt
October 19th, 2006 at 9:04 am [Reply]

MW – The woman in the first panel made me think of the head-on commercials, too. Then I thought we finally got to see a female Oompa-Loompa.

MT – The Giant Crime-Fighting Ducks take flight! Hang on, Molly, they’re coming to save you!
reader-who-posts
October 19th, 2006 at 9:12 am [Reply]

I always read Family Circus and put into Jeffy’s perspective. In this case, the description of this is “Jeffy hates his mother because she thought he was such a loser he couldn’t put a letter in a mailbox.”
2fs
October 19th, 2006 at 9:14 am [Reply]

Judging from the looks of the male plugger, his real answer is “Both! And lots of ‘em!” This explains the “heavyweight boxer” cartoon as well: “pluggers” apparently refers to ceaselessly plugging one’s food-hole. Incidentally: has anyone ever seen a pair of boxers with little red hearts on them in real life?
roydrink
October 19th, 2006 at 9:26 am [Reply]

TDITET Scaduto’s kinda doing ok today:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20061019&name=TDIE:

Bad:

There haven’t been commercials since the 50’s where a talking guy is waving his arms over a car in a studio.

Every vehicle gets recalled, there’s even been one for overheating brakelights.

Good:

The â€œPOX-TV Newsâ€ in the background.

â€œRemission of the Transmissionâ€ – sounds like a Gilbert & Sullivan lyric.

â€œEngine Refluxâ€ – even the Car Guys haven’t come up with anything as good as that.
Da Scrodfather
October 19th, 2006 at 9:43 am [Reply]

I know questioning BC is like questioning Divine Providence, but . . . what the foob is a “Pitbroad”? Is it like Pitbull?
bootsybooks
October 19th, 2006 at 9:48 am [Reply]

#55, Applegirl, you weren’t by any chance clutching a bottle of “Johnny” on your cross-country heartbreak, were you?

#79, 2fs. Yes, yes, I have. Let us never speak of it again.

RMMD: June has a halo while she talks about the little monster who’s sending her to D.M.V. hell! Do we need the periods? Most people dispense with them when writing about the DMV or WMD or the EEOC.
arlo
October 19th, 2006 at 9:50 am [Reply]

Re: the FC mise en abyme effect (or, Family Circus Circus Circus Circus Circus…), let’s not forget that the whole thing is also being watched by Grandma and Grandpa up in heaven! Hell, they’re probably watching us watching them too.
smacky
October 19th, 2006 at 9:54 am [Reply]

In today’s Sally Forth, her iemasculation of Ted is complete. But in her defense, he is being such a little bitch this week.
smacky
October 19th, 2006 at 9:56 am [Reply]

Sigh, typo: emasculation. And Horace’s wife is a fox. He doesn’t care if she is 15. And his granddaughter.
Inspector Chalupa
October 19th, 2006 at 9:58 am [Reply]

That damn Mallard Fillmore just can’t shut up for a whole panel even when he’s making a guest appearance as a non-anthropomorphic duck in “Mark Trail”.
trish
October 19th, 2006 at 10:04 am [Reply]

http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF187-Way_Too_Much.png#177

ever see this one? :)

you always brighten my morning, and i never did say thanks yet, so :) thanks mister curmudgeon :)
pelagius
October 19th, 2006 at 10:06 am [Reply]

#81: I had to read BC a few times this morning before my un-caffeinated brain cells kicked in, and it still doesn’t make any sense, but I see where HART was going with it. Pitbroad indeed.

You know you’re a plugger if you refer to women as “broads”.
Lenore
October 19th, 2006 at 10:06 am [Reply]

I don’t get offended very easily, but I have to say, that Plugger’s really pissed me off. So what, his wife isn’t a Plugger just because she wants a life outside her home? I hate to think what sort of crazed, no doubt fanatically religious, crap grandma is teaching the kid while mom is off earning money to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.
Ned Ryerson
October 19th, 2006 at 10:07 am [Reply]

#68 (yellojkt): Bovine rectal palpation labs are part of any veterinary school curriculum and it seems that without fail, someone is always there with a camera. So Gene Weingarten’s daughter is actually one of many bright young students who can be seen posed with an arm up to the elbow in the back end of a cow.

In researching this, I stumbled a bovine rectal palpation simulator! Whoa! I’m not sure if the idea took off, but I can’t imagine too many colleges of veterinary medicine would be able to maintain their accreditation if they didn’t have access to a real live cow.

Why am I talking about this? I guess the topic is too funny not to comment.

Perhaps, in the theoretical future of FBOFW, April Patterson will be Ticka-Tappiting an email to her family during her first year of vet school about how she’s “up to her elbows” in school work. n’yuk n’yuk n’yuk.

I’m off to ebay to look for a second hand bovine rectal palpation simulator.
bitter law student
October 19th, 2006 at 10:19 am [Reply]

The fact that there are none of the mongrel children present in this Family Circus gives me hope that one day we’ll find out they never existed. It was all dementia and farce. Then, at long last, it will come crashing down like the last twenty minutes of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

I hate the Family Circus with a passion.
2fs
October 19th, 2006 at 10:24 am [Reply]

The Onion weighs in on lame comics.
rich
October 19th, 2006 at 10:32 am [Reply]

RMMD: Pay attention, Rex!! She just told you she’d be going to the DMV today, 22 days ago (Sept. 27)! …I mean, “yesterday”.
Jessied
October 19th, 2006 at 10:40 am [Reply]

TDIE annoys me.

The guy could at least come up with something that made sense instead of important-sounding gibberish.

Remission of the transmission? What the hell does that even mean? The transmission slowly shrinks over time?
rich
October 19th, 2006 at 10:41 am [Reply]

I’m sorry, but I don’t think a real health care provider would make such a stupid statement as “Right now…he seems to have the mind of a child.”

…well, small favors, at least he didn’t say “the mind of Mencia.”
tefflan
October 19th, 2006 at 10:43 am [Reply]

MW: Mary, speaking to Toby: “I think I’ll just call Jeff’s practice and see if they know anything…(dials phone)…dum de dum da da…oh, hello, this is Mary Worth. Hey, yeah, nice to talk to you again. Do you know if Dr Jeff Cory is on his way back from the Far East yet? Uh-huh…right…oh, really? No kidding…uh, okay, thanks for the info. No, no messages. I’ll catch him later.”
Toby: “What did they say, Mary?”
Mary: “His secretary said he got back into town about two weeks ago, with his new wife. She’s old enough to be his daughter and she is ONE HORNY, HOT ASIAN MAMA, STACKED LIKE A BRICK SHITHOUSE!!!!! Yeehawww!!!! WooooHoooo!!!!”
Wave Man
October 19th, 2006 at 10:45 am [Reply]

#86: The giant flying duck in Mark Trail still manages to be far more entertaining than anything said in Mallard Filmore.

I also noticed that in today’s Mark Trail, Molly has been replaced by a hand puppet in the last panel. She also has no teeth.

Today’s Pluggers, it’s always the poor Rhino man who gets used in the fat jokes. From looking at past Pluggers, (did I just say I look at past Pluggers?) the Rhino man is single, broke because he had to pawn off his TV, and a fatass because he eats McDonald’s and pizza all the time. What a sad life, even for a Plugger.
Flan
October 19th, 2006 at 10:46 am [Reply]

Finally, a cutting-edge comic …

http://www.kingfeatures.com/pressrm/PR238.htm
johnw
October 19th, 2006 at 10:48 am [Reply]

A3G: The only thing we can hope for is that Ted’s wife wants Tommie for a session of hot 3-way action.

More information on alternative sexual practices can DEFINITELY be found on the Internet.
mere cog in the machine
October 19th, 2006 at 10:55 am [Reply]

I am pleased to see references to both “meat” and “bush” in today’s ‘Curtis’. And I hate myself for saying this but I thought Garfield belching on the other line was kind of funny. That Garfield!
Dactyl
October 19th, 2006 at 11:00 am [Reply]

Believe it or not, it used to be worse:
http://www.familycircus.com/files/60/6070808.htm

Sadly, I remember as a kid hoping to have a waist like Mama Thel’s someday. Now I just realize that everything about her life is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Ham Gravy
October 19th, 2006 at 11:06 am [Reply]

Re: BC – Get with it Hart. You can’t be calling them “broads”. In this day and age, the dames just won’t tolerate that kind talk.
yellojkt
October 19th, 2006 at 11:11 am [Reply]

Ted: Do these jeans make may ass look fat?

Sally:, No, your double scoop of Rocky Road ice cream everytime we go walking makes your ass look fat.
johnw
October 19th, 2006 at 11:11 am [Reply]

#101: Good god, who is that lummox in the early FC? Is that what the husband used to look like? Now I know where CBS got the inspiration for “King of Queens,” “Still Standing,” and all its other interchangeable sitcoms featuring an ugly brute married to a supermodel.

JP: Speaking of horrific couplings, is that Horace’s wife who just sashayed into the room in a nightgown? And he’s had CHILDREN by this woman? Truly a mental image to avoid at all costs.

On the positive side of the funny pages, today’s “Piranha Club” includes the first-ever use of the sentence “I’m not letting some cabbage-bender out-octopus me!” Unforgettable.
bootsybooks
October 19th, 2006 at 11:11 am [Reply]

#98 Happy Musings? Anything described as witty observations about life is almost sure to suck, especially if the example in the linked story is anything to go by.

I must admit, I hate whimsy. I am predisposed to hate anyhiing described as whimsical. sorry

I think it’s genetic. My mom hates whimsical stuff too..
Gabe
October 19th, 2006 at 11:11 am [Reply]

Yeah, Garfield has lazy backgrounds and most of the time lazy jokes, but every once in a while they have a good one that reminds me why I loved it so much as a child.

Then I remember that damn movie(s).
jules
October 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am [Reply]

#98 I followed that link and have the following to say: Eeeeeeuuwwww. Please God my paper doesn’t pick up that drivel…I already have to face Fambly Circus every day!
Ned Ryerson
October 19th, 2006 at 11:20 am [Reply]

Good god, who is that lummox in the early FC?

I kinda like that guy. He’s seems to always have a cigarette dangling off his lip and he smuggles booze into the football game when he takes the kids on an outing. He must be the Dick York to today’s Dick Sargeant.
tefflan
October 19th, 2006 at 11:27 am [Reply]

You’re full of sit, I’m full of sit, we’re all full of sit.
tefflan
October 19th, 2006 at 11:28 am [Reply]

I think it was Dick Amsterdam on the old “Bewitched.” The later episodes had Dick Lieutenant.
tefflan
October 19th, 2006 at 11:29 am [Reply]

Yeah, yeah, I know, but they were both Dicks.
Mibbitmaker
October 19th, 2006 at 11:36 am [Reply]

#98: So we have this woman ripping off MW-worthy platitudes from other people and conveniently having married a guy who can get them in the newspaper so “Dinette Set” characters can clip them out and put them cloyingly on their fridges.

I’ve learned one thing from this: deconstructionist satire leads to run-on sentences!
D.A. Pennington
October 19th, 2006 at 11:36 am [Reply]

FOOB: Friggin Iris. You see the way she acts around the doctor? Looking down demurely, unable to make contact, because she knows it would be wrong to try to seduce the doctor while her child-like husband shits himself in his own bed.
Come on, if you look at the 2nd to last and last panel, she even takes the time to primp up by putting lipstick on.

Fucking whore.
Harry Paratestes
October 19th, 2006 at 11:39 am [Reply]

Happy Musings? I call it ‘grotesque Hallmark bullshit (GHB) in a comic strip format’. And it’ll knock you out and leave you feeling vaguely violated, just like the real thing.
Mibbitmaker
October 19th, 2006 at 11:46 am [Reply]

The above FC has gone post-modern, surrealist, and, maybe, Dadaist. In today’s, Thel and Jeffydummy are lost in the abyss (which is no surprise, it’s just more obvious today).
TitteeMcGee
October 19th, 2006 at 11:49 am [Reply]

A Plugger’s recipe card for spaghetti is just a crude crayon drawing of a Chef Boyardee can and a pair of tin snips.

No fancy new-fangled can o-pee-ner for them, no siree.
Frank Drackman
October 19th, 2006 at 11:51 am [Reply]

Et’ tu? Mary…So who’s the stalker now, Bee-otch?? Sucessful ENT surgeons don’t just traipse off to Thailand for 3 months because of the Hippocratic oath. If he wanted to treat destitute 3rd world patients he could have gone somewhere less exotic, like Atlanta. I’m thinkin its Bangkoks hot young prostitutes…and the women are pretty fine too I’ve heard.
Ned Ryerson
October 19th, 2006 at 12:01 pm [Reply]

I thought Happy Musings was a quaint little Charterstone shop next to that delightful new eatery, Delicious Pursuits.

The strip might have to go back to its original name, Closetful of Aphorisms.
ChefMike
October 19th, 2006 at 12:09 pm [Reply]

I don’t follow Adam at all, but when I followed the link posted earlier, I just had to wonder. “Is he really so surprised the kid can walk thru walls, when the ‘walls’ are just lines drawn on the damn floor??”
MW: “I’m going to try a different route! I’m going to fly down to Cambodia myself and give Dr. Jeff Cory a piece of my mind. How dare he never return my calls and make me worry so?” it reminds me just a bit of a Doonesbury episode from a while back where BD’s buddy Ray is still entrenched in the war and having a video chat with his wife. “uh I’m sorry I haven’t called dear, but I am in the middle of a firefight”
FOOB: Jim has the mind of a child, but somewhere in his consciousness, where he’s not able to physically express it, is a man who is aware that just three weeks ago he was able to communicate and function normally. I remember when my grandpa was put in the nursing home, he just gave up his will to live, he didn’t like the nurses trying to feed him, so he just wouldn’t eat. it’s hard to lose your independence all at once like that.
I also just happened to skim over “The Meaning of Lila” and this week they’re discussing plastic surgery. in the last panel, the man is showing off the pec implant samples he found, but the blonde lady who had been talking to Lila is more interested in the extra implant he’d shoved down his pants
Pozzo
October 19th, 2006 at 12:19 pm [Reply]

#23 – re: the Color FC/Burger Chef crossover –

Thel got back!
Pozzo
October 19th, 2006 at 12:21 pm [Reply]

Also #101 (”Classic” FC). Don’t you feel you could just substitute the “Baby Blues” characters, change the format from round to rectangular, and just re-run it? Family humor is timeless.
benro
October 19th, 2006 at 12:36 pm [Reply]

Happy Musings – “Love is…” for the 21st century
kostia
October 19th, 2006 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

I don’t get how a bear has a kangaroo for a mother, and how they appear to be the same age. Certainly he’s old enough to be on his own by now.

Or do Pluggers not actually age?
Splinky
October 19th, 2006 at 12:38 pm [Reply]

Today’s Mark Trail just reiterates my belief that a Phantom/Mark Trail crossover is long overdue. Right about now, he should come busting through a skylight and meting out some jungle justice on Mullethead and Friend:
MH: What the hell are you supposed to be?
Phantom: I am The Ghost That Walks, come to put an end to your villainous imprisonment of this innocent beast.
MH: Oh… um… you like Skynnyrd?
Phantom: *THWAK!*
MH: Why did you say “THWAK?”
Phantom: That was onomatopoeia, fool! JUNGLE onomatopoeia!
*THWAK!*
kostia
October 19th, 2006 at 12:39 pm [Reply]

Oh, wait. The kangaroo is the bear’s wife, not his mother.

I still don’t think it’s right.
sarahnade
October 19th, 2006 at 12:40 pm [Reply]

In case you missed it, someone wrote about our overwhelming love of all things Aldo on CNN today:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/10/18/eye.ent.worth/index.html?section=cnn_latest
colorado
October 19th, 2006 at 12:54 pm [Reply]

Thanks #73, I was wondering if it had any kind of a following…. :)
ohyes
October 19th, 2006 at 1:03 pm [Reply]

Thursday’s A3G: Lucy is afraid that Tommie will talk on and on about how Ted kisses with his eyes open and he didn’t turn her on at all. And, that guy from the poetry group, Tommie noticed that he kissed Lucy with his eyes closed, and he is cute, and so now he’s available?

MT: I’m confused. I thought they were poachers. But, as the officer explains it, they kill for the sake of killing, so they’re just hunters.
ohyes
October 19th, 2006 at 1:11 pm [Reply]

A3G: Does this mean Ted’s apartment is available? It has a great view.

Or is Ted making it available for Lucy’s assignations with poetry guy, to help the marriage work? Does he have to clean up after them?
thelotuseater
October 19th, 2006 at 1:38 pm [Reply]

I don’t know if any of you have seen this yet. It combines the heartbreaking suburban worldview of Family Circus with the deeply disturbing deconstructionist philosophy. Please read the Nietzsche Family Circus.
Anonymous
October 19th, 2006 at 2:17 pm [Reply]

FBOFW

Notice the look of growing alarm on the nurse’s face in the final panel, as he realizes he’s put a man with the mind of a child in the hands of a woman obviously in the throes of dementia.
King Folderol
October 19th, 2006 at 2:18 pm [Reply]

#70 – I, too, noticed Bill’s look of utter, abject defeat before I noticed Thel’s unusual proportions. He’s being crushed by the suburbs, the children, the mortgage, the mediocre life he’s cobbled out for himself. I initially thought that Thel was being overly protective, but the bubbly look on her face in profile does make me think she’s checking out some juicy slice of man, perhaps pumping weights in the house across the street. So maybe Bill knows she’s having an affair and isn’t man enough to do anything about it.

I find it interesting that Pluggers seems to have plenty of interspecies relationships. In the animated PBS cartoon Arthur, all of the parents are the same species and, thus, so are their kids, but no species repeats itself. I’ve wondered what will happen when the animal children are adolescents. Will they be attracted to each other, or will the faux suburban paradise they’ve been created have to be destroyed due to Arthur and his peers leaving to quite literally follow their animal instincts? Pluggers seems to have answered this question quite tidily, with rabbits and bears happily married and pretending to like each other’s cooking. Whenever I see talking animals in a comic, live or printed, my mind can’t help thinking that the writer is positing a post-apocalyptic world, where the animals have mutated into semi-human form and all bets are off. But that says more about my warped mind than the intent of Pluggers or Arthur.

#23 – Nice link. The Adam and Eve joke/commercial tie in is priceless, and I can’t believe Bible Bill Keane didn’t blow a gasket when he saw that.
michael
October 19th, 2006 at 2:19 pm [Reply]

This early FC is, gasp, half decent:
http://www.familycircus.com/files/60/6070804.htm
in the same way that early Dennis the Menace didn’t suck, either.

I notice they started to go down hill rapidly though in the 70’s. It’s fairly remarkable how quickly they went from decent to complete and utter crap with little to no intermediate stage.
Mibbitmaker
October 19th, 2006 at 2:22 pm [Reply]

#126: Great article. But I can’t understand the hostility of those ads that cover up the article’s beginning. They just stay there with no way of x-ing them off. Jeez, talk about stalking!

…or stalk about talking.
Flan
October 19th, 2006 at 2:24 pm [Reply]

I bet true Pluggers will love Happy Musings. While Happy Musings will appreciate that love, it will not return it in kind.

All Happy Musings’ love will be directed to her cat, her paintbrush and her Nora Ephron DVD collection.
benro
October 19th, 2006 at 2:26 pm [Reply]

Did you ever notice that Friedrich Nietzsche looks just like Captain Kangaroo?
Albatross
October 19th, 2006 at 2:39 pm [Reply]

Despite the fact that he is a Canadian citizen, U.S. Senator Bill Frist has already diagnosed Grandpa Chinnuts as being lucid, awake, and ready to run the Boston marathon, based only on his brief appearance in FBOFW panels since the stroke. President Bush is expected to fly back from clearing brush in Crawford, Texas, in order to sign emergency legislation authorizing him to conduct total war on Canada in order to prevent Iris from feeding Grandpa any more of that horrid hospital pudding. The President had this statement,

“I hate puddin’. Gran’pa Chinnuts has a raght t’freedom. Freedom from puddin’! An’ we gotta fight the war on puddin’ down there in Canada a’fore we faght it here.”

Meanwhile, characters from B.C., Mallard Fillmore, Kudzu, and Family Circus have gathered outside the hospital where Grandpa Chinnuts is recuperating. Billy was dispatched to bring some water to the afflicted gentleman, but while sighted in most other rooms of the hospital (including the gynecological labs and surgical theaters) has not yet been seen in the old man’s room. Janitors, mostly from the “Pluggers” comic, are working to scrub all traces of a thick dashed line which has appeared in many areas of the hospital.

A spokesman for MSAGOPB, or Meddlesome Self Appointed Guardians of Other People’s Business, had this to say.

“Whether or not Grandpa Chinnuts is brain-dead is known only to Lynn Johnston and maybe God, so it would be wrong to pull the plug on the old man. Many, many of our comic-strip compatriots are brain-dead, yet they continue to live full if unamusing lives in such tired old strips as B.C., Beetle Bailey, Garfield, and Momma. If we begin playing God with these strips, soon all that will be left are a small collection of humorous, insightful, and possibly even funny comic strips, with absolutely no golf jokes whatsoever. It is this kind of intolerance towards bedraggled, lifeless old comics that typifies the intolerance of modern America.”

Grandpa Chinnuts did not respond to calls for comment, or any other non-pudding external stimuli, as of press time.
jules
October 19th, 2006 at 2:53 pm [Reply]

#122 Eeeeww, you’re right. That must be why Happy Musings made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
Justafoob
October 19th, 2006 at 3:07 pm [Reply]

A sneak peak at Gwampa’s November Letter

“mmmmm unnnnnnnn pudding…..

tttthhhhh aaa…..nnnnn….kkkkkk yyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyy yyyyyy yyyyy yyyyyooooou ssssssssssss sssssssss sssssssss ssssssssss shhhhhhhhh shhhhhhhhhhhhh shhhhhhh
shhhhhhhennnnnnnnnnnoooon foorrrrr cummmmmmmmminnngg byyyyy tooooo spellllll irissssssssssssss yousssssssseeeeee flyyyyyyy the airpane gooooood.”
Anonymous
October 19th, 2006 at 3:12 pm [Reply]

michael: I actually like early FBOFW and Penuts as well

perhaps this is all just a way of sayin’ thank god calvin/hobbes and the farside retired, else we’d be rippen on them today
LittleGuy
October 19th, 2006 at 3:12 pm [Reply]

139: Grandpa Jim is a zombie? WHo knew Lynn would end the strip like this?

First he eats the brains of the Kelpfroths.
Then he eats the brains of Therese, Rebecca, and Howard.
Then he goes after Mira and Wilfred.
Gradually, he depopulates the strip, until Elly is left.

Last line, the only literate one from Zombie Grandpa: “You…. were…. my…. favorite!”
MossMoses
October 19th, 2006 at 3:26 pm [Reply]

Iris is creepy in all respects. Her role as junk food spoonfeeder to the brain dead does seem appropriate for her anyway. I think ChinNutz was delusional since before he married that senile hag. “He has the mind of a child and the chin ‘nads of a strapping young porn star”. Foob characters with glasses all seem to have those hypno whirls for eyes. They should make them spin on the foob site rather than those stupid blinkies. Those swirlie-whirlies could hypnotize people into buying the $50 autographed Foob copies.
dimestore lipstick
October 19th, 2006 at 3:27 pm [Reply]

Dang–I was ready to put money on Skeevey McMullet turning out to be the one named Snake. The beer-gutted half of the pair appears to be calling him Jake, though.

I’m so disapointed.
Robert Whitaker Sirignano
October 19th, 2006 at 3:30 pm [Reply]

You have to slap PLUGGERS because the Stanley FAMILY is no longer around.

There was a beltway radio show that announced daily “Today, for the 2 hundred time in a row “The Stanley Family” is not funny…”

There was even a book of PLUGGERS published. I suppose it might show up on eBay from time to time. Even though I collect strip compilations, I thought it would be a waste of time and effort and money.

I think the strip has much to do with Red Neck humor, but I’m missing something.

Maybe it’s Dada humor, the way the older Ernie Bushmiller NANCY was.

As for BEWTICHED, the term for the two male actors who played Darren is “the Dick Switch”.
Lyman Returns
October 19th, 2006 at 3:38 pm [Reply]

Want to bet that if you’re a Plugger, you are possibly a grown man who can’t cook for himself? Even spaghetti?
dimestore lipstick
October 19th, 2006 at 3:50 pm [Reply]

Happy Musings?!

Oh, m’god–They syndicated Peggy Hill!

“My husband calls me his better half because I “better half” dinner on the table when he gets home!”
big_old_geek
October 19th, 2006 at 3:53 pm [Reply]

More important question – what the hell species is the wife in this Pluggers cartoon? A kangaroo? So we have a bear and a kangaroo getting it on? Those mixed marriages never work.
MossMoses
October 19th, 2006 at 4:02 pm [Reply]

147. B_O_G: How about an evil inbred poacher and a miniature bear getting it on? Would that work?
Mazeville
October 19th, 2006 at 4:07 pm [Reply]

Pluggers aren’t strictly rednecks. Or, if they are, it’s just a small subset of rednecks — one that does NOT include most of the cast of Dukes of Hazzard.

I finally realized what it is that Pluggers remind me of: “The American People.” Not the ACTUAL population of America as a whole, but the hypothetical group addressed by various hack politicians in speeches, as in: “The American People believe that blah blah blah” or “The American People won’t stand for blah blah blah.”

I’ve never once heard a politician say that and thought “hey, he’s talking about me!” Now, the more I think about it, the more I think they’re pandering to Pluggers.

Apparently, Pluggers vote. (Not that I don’t, but you get the point…)
Mazeville
October 19th, 2006 at 4:09 pm [Reply]

Happy Musings has potential…

Anyone remember Deep Thoughts?
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 4:17 pm [Reply]

#149:

“Some … were on the side of what they called “The People”. Vimes had spent is life on the streets and had met decent men, and fools, and people who’d steal a penny from a blind beggar, and people who performed silent meracles or desperate crimes every day behind the grubby windows of little houses, but he’d never met The People.” — Terry Pratchett.
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 4:17 pm [Reply]

is = his
meracles = miracles
my typing = not what it used to be
Dennis Jimenez
October 19th, 2006 at 4:36 pm [Reply]

http://www.cco.net/~jpete/deepthou.htm
Rob H.
October 19th, 2006 at 4:44 pm [Reply]

#133 That is freaking awesome. What happened? Being a child of the 80s, I think that I’ve grown up in such a PC/”protect the children at all costs” age that if I were to travel back in time to the 60s, it would appear that everyone is a cruel, drunk child abuser.
Chris
October 19th, 2006 at 4:49 pm [Reply]

#144 Robert Whitaker Sirignano

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pluggers-Calm-in-the-Face-of-Disaster-by-Jeff-MacNelly_W0QQitemZ150045454101QQihZ005QQcategoryZ378QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
NightRaven
October 19th, 2006 at 4:52 pm [Reply]

I’ve been reading some of those old FC now, and I came across one that I’m going to have to have some help from you guys to understand. I mean, just what the Kelrast is going on here ?
http://www.familycircus.com/files/60/6070809.htm
Is it some kind of word-play, or what ? It just seems completely bizarre (which is good), but I suppose there is some kind of joke here also ?
Also, what happened to the husband, did they have a divorce ? In Family Circus ?
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 4:55 pm [Reply]

Thel used to be married to a chain-smoking thug. Now she’s married to a sexless cypher.
Dingo
October 19th, 2006 at 5:05 pm [Reply]

#148 The inbred poacher and miniature bear concept only works if you have a genormous duck fly overhead commenting on the proceedings:

Contrary to popular myth, many poachers have normal to oversized genitalia â€” the type that can bring pleasure to woodland fauna.

btw, is it just my imagination or had Molly been drawn to look like she’s interested in fellating Snake? Maybe it’s the jetlag of the night shift but I swear there’s an invisibe “Yeah, daddy.” thought balloon above her head.

Y’know what amazes me about Mary Worth (well, other than Moy should be reading this site and have found a way to rid Camella [Toeby] of her stretchy jogging suit problems)? According to the King Features Syndicate web site â€” and what syndicate doesn’t want its own web site, eh Gambinos? â€” the reader “is asked to remember that Mary Worth stories are not about Mary. They are about a continuing parade of people who enter Mary’s life. If you look closely, you may recognize one of your neighbors â€” or even yourself” (KFS, 2006). They’re right! I have no interested whatsoever in the daily walk of Mary and Toby. Someone, please someone, tell me why there’s a woman on the jogging path with a package of frozen peas on her forehead. A woman who looks like she’s in the throes of what passes for good Christian orgasm in the town of Santa Royale. A woman who puts on Jungle Red lipstick before exercise. I’m interested in her! A few weeks ago in our time but just a day or so for Mary, she and Aldo were at the door to the complex when two teenage females were leaving. What were those two moppits doing at Charterstone? Did their testicularly-chinned grandfather have a stroke? Um… I meant of the heart with that. Why didn’t anyone find it peculiar they were on the premises? At the beginning of the Aldo Kelrast (who, someone told me, looked similar to a childrens’ television host) affair, Mama Celeste and Celeste Holm sat on a park bench seemingly talking about the size of their husbands’ genitalia or relating the latest Larry the Cable Guy joke about flatulation.

Mary Worth is made up of these moments, similar to a married couple going through the motions of matrimonial bliss and every so often reminiscing about a youthful indiscretion so that they can tolerate the thought of seeing their spouse naked. We, as comics curmudgeonites, put up with the murderous Mrs. Worth and her Charterstone Gang for the rare moments when someone else gets a moment in the spotlight.

Huzzah, frozen pea woman! Huzzah! This is your day. Revel in the glory that you have taken the burden of narrative off of the shoulders of Mary Worth and given the public something into which to sink their teeth. We will never know your name, your identity, your past, or your dreams. Yet, you will always be woman jogging while holding frozen peas to her forehead and, for that, I thank you.
jules
October 19th, 2006 at 5:48 pm [Reply]

I’ll bet those frozen peas are a damn sight more refreshing than a sweatband or a bandanna. And way cheaper than one of those Sharper Image things we see ads for every summer, “it’s like air-conditioning for my neck! Thank you, Sharper Image!” That does it, next time I go jogging I’m taking a pack of frozen peas with me! (And it will be extra-refreshing, because if I’m jogging, Hell is freezing over.)
UnkleSam
October 19th, 2006 at 5:50 pm [Reply]

that waist might mean Ma Keane is a better candidate for the name ‘Barfy’
Raznor
October 19th, 2006 at 6:09 pm [Reply]

Wait, I’m confused, is the woman plugger a kangaroo or a coyote? Either way, the marsupial/canines can never remain married to bears. It’s a match doomed to failure.
Raznor
October 19th, 2006 at 6:11 pm [Reply]

And wait a minute, just how far is the FC mail box anyway?
dramashoes
October 19th, 2006 at 6:19 pm [Reply]

The entire cast of For Better or For Worse must be set on fire. Now. I have seen elderly loved ones weaken and pass on, as I’m sure many on this thread have, and you know what? There ain’t nothing cute or sweet or endearing about it. They lose everything that matters to them and then they’re gone. I don’t read the comics so I can be reminded of my impending doom. That’s what real life is for. If you don’t know what I’m talking about read today’s fbofw. It’s unspeakable.
Fred P.
October 19th, 2006 at 6:37 pm [Reply]

Jumpin’ Jesus, but Mark Trail sure has turned into a boring old pedant lately. Blah! blah! blah! GALLBLADDERS Blah! blah! blah! POACHING!!! Goddamit, Trail, get off your ass and go save Molly!
blase
October 19th, 2006 at 6:39 pm [Reply]

#147: “So we have a bear and a kangaroo getting it on? Those mixed marriages never work.” A little Googling turned up this family portrait showing Poppa Bear, Momma Kangaroo and what looks like a bear cub.

So apparently there used to be a Mama Bear at one time, but since this is Pluggerville, her cheatin’ heart musta led her astray, leaving Poppa Bear stuck with the kid. So Poppa bear prob’ly figgered that gettin’ in on with a genetically incompatible species would avoid any more rugrats or child support payments in the future.
Heckler123
October 19th, 2006 at 6:44 pm [Reply]

I don’t know much about interspecies marriages in general, but I’ve heard that once you’ve tried marsupial, you never go back.
ben
October 19th, 2006 at 7:10 pm [Reply]

“Why couldn’t she be the other kind of mermaid, with the fish part on top and the lady part on the bottom?”
libraryspy
October 19th, 2006 at 7:29 pm [Reply]

I recently purchased a Molly the Bear t-shirt because the message called out to me. As someone who is bullied and harassed at work, I think the shirt will be perfect for casual day. However, what I would really like to purchase is a coffee cup to display on my desk at all times. I’m sure there are other harassees who would like to keep a coffee cup on their desks or in their cafeterias. Can we, the bullied, get coffee cups?
Josh
October 19th, 2006 at 7:50 pm [Reply]

Hi libraryspy–

Ask and you shall receive:

http://www.cafepress.com/joshreads.82127975

Josh
jeffwik
October 19th, 2006 at 8:38 pm [Reply]

156: It’s a current-in-1960 ref to the USSR’s disruptive behaviors during UN meetings.
AppleGirl
October 19th, 2006 at 8:39 pm [Reply]

79 – 2fs asked: “Incidentally: has anyone ever seen a pair of boxers with little red hearts on them in real life?”

Um, yes.

Actually, I mean: mmmm, yes.
AppleGirl
October 19th, 2006 at 8:46 pm [Reply]

82 – No, I wasn’t clutching a bottle of Johnny on my cross-country heartbreak. I’m afraid it was much worse. An iPod. An iPod full of Cyndi Lauper.
Audible Sigh
October 19th, 2006 at 8:48 pm [Reply]

Nyet, Nyet! Molly’s future looks bleak, don’t let them ply you with HoneyVodka
AeroSquid
October 19th, 2006 at 8:52 pm [Reply]

I find it disturbing that Mama Keane has Soviet military surplus binoculers always at the ready. Did Daddy Keane take them off a dead Iraqi during Desert Storm ?
Bobdog
October 19th, 2006 at 9:13 pm [Reply]

MW: The woman in blue with the towel pressed to her head in the first panel — what’s the deal? She looks like younger, Mary Worth with a pony tail. Her size and relationship to the Mary and Toby suggests she’s standing right behind Mary and is a good two feet shorter.

Perhaps the artists is convery to us that Mary is in fact haunted by a younger vision of herself, a vision of her self that is mopping herself down from the sultry heat or has a really horrid headache (the look of pleasure on her face suggests the fromer). A vision no doubt brought on by her ruminating over the whereabouts of Dr. Jeff.
blase
October 19th, 2006 at 9:17 pm [Reply]

MT: Mark’s slacking off, chatting with the game officer about getting his hands on things while leaving ducks to do the dirty work.

Why, doesn’t he remember the memorable episodewhere bears were used to fight terrorists? He owes our ursine friends, dagnabbit!

(Just found out the Washington Post doesn’t delete its archives. Yay!)
Uncle Lumpy
October 19th, 2006 at 10:00 pm [Reply]

#176 blase – great link!

Terrorists with facial hair, of course!
Summerhouse
October 19th, 2006 at 10:18 pm [Reply]

Is everyone too distracted by the giant talking duck flying over Central Park West, I mean, Lost Forest, to note that it has been revealed that mullet-head is Jake and orange t-shirt is Snake? My money was *totally* on mullet-head as Snake. Maybe they’re using the wrong names to confuse Molly, so she’ll look bad if there’s ever a trial.
Craig Shergold
October 20th, 2006 at 3:10 am [Reply]

170: You good! It would be more explicit if he did it with his shoe, but that would be too Commie.
Marnie
October 20th, 2006 at 7:53 am [Reply]

Considering that Mrs. Plugger’s kitchen is comprised of a cobwebbed counter, a cupboard out of her reach, and a shoebox marked “recipes” with blank index cards, I have to assume he’s humoring her after her brief trip to the funny farm.

Pluggers know when happily eating hamburger helper out of the box is more politically advantageous than challenging your wife’s fragile view of reality with the Oedipal psychodramas that probably sent her to the ward in the first place.

“Sure you can cook, honey!!! In your ‘kitchen!’”

Either that or he’s such a Mama’s boy that he shouldn’t bitch either way. Bottom line: with that waistline, he’s probably eating bacon grease out of crisco tin on the stove when she doesn’t look, regardless of what’s for dinner. If they have a stove. Pluggers do NOT go hungry.
Frank Drackman
October 20th, 2006 at 9:35 am [Reply]

Umm I’m not a plugger, and not into bestiality, but IF I was…that little coyote,dingo,rabbit? in the kitchen is pretty hot…
Frank Drackman
October 20th, 2006 at 9:39 am [Reply]

AHH Kangaroo,,,that makes it even better,,shes got that pouch thing goin on.
treadwell
October 20th, 2006 at 9:42 am [Reply]

156: I believe the hubby is watching a game on TV, and is pretending to be (or is actually) so into it that he’s pounding the table as his guy goes for a TD or whatever. I think it might be something couch quarterbacks used to do, akin to stomping your feet in the bleachers.

To avoid the honey-dos with the rake she’s so blatantly and annoyingly demanding.
libraryspy
October 20th, 2006 at 1:25 pm [Reply]

Thanks for the coffe cups. They’ll make great gifts!
Baron Von Foobenstein
October 20th, 2006 at 6:45 pm [Reply]

Larry King sez:

Wet T-shirt contest between Thel Keane and Blondie Bumstead… Who wins?? GO!
Craig Shergold
October 21st, 2006 at 1:21 am [Reply]

John Q. Public, that’s who!
Lettuce
October 22nd, 2006 at 11:02 pm [Reply]

Is there any reason Pluggers need recipies for spaghetti or meat loaf?

I had a freakin’ stroke last Wednesday and even I get how stupid that is.
Mica the magician
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:21 am [Reply]

No offense to your wonderful post complaing about a stupid comic, but….who cares? Unless you know them personaly, what’s the point of complaining about somebody’s comics? I’m sure you could have more success if you actually had one of your own, so astonish me….

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