Metapost: Early bird COTW
Post Content
Would you like a comment of the week for your long holidy weekend, or perhaps your one-day return to work, or perhaps you don’t even live in America or have a job? Well here it is, whatever your circumstances:
“They may have gotten the font wrong, but at least they still used a banner headline, which is what newspapers do for stories of mildly passing interest.” –Missal
Your runners up are also here for you to enjoy!
“Marvin’s recent shift to speaking instead of just thought-bubbling was weird, but developmentally made sense. But narratively this means everyone has to talk now, including the animals, and I don’t really like the implications of this. It takes things from ‘Magical realist whimsy about the inner lives of children and animals’ to ‘Cats are intelligent and have declared economic war on mankind with their only weapon: shitting.’” –Schroduck
“Mary, meanwhile, pays her respects by mournfully grabbing Jeff’s ass. Considering that she hooked up with one of her many suitors at his mother’s passing, it’s clear that funerals really get the ol’ gal going. No wonder she was so eager to arrange all this dead fish silliness: If she can spice up her stagnant love life with the deathly pallor of eroticism, she’ll happily put up with Wilbur’s blathering about ‘closure’ or whatever.” –2+2=7
“You’d think given how much newspaper cartoonists love golf at least one of them would put in the effort to work out what hands look like when holding a golf club.” –Veronica
“There are a lot of extremely nasty and unhealthy relationships in the comics, some of which are even noticed by the cartoonists who make them. The Halftracks’ marriage has always been in the mix, but this vaults them from the low-boiling comfortable contempt of the Lockhorns up to just south of the outright substance abuse and domestic violence of the Thurstons and Capps. Sure, Mrs. Halftrack hasn’t taken to ‘humorously’ beating her husband yet, but she has reached the point of abject hatred where every single thing her husband does infuriates her and prompts her to aggressively impose her will over him. Grim stuff. Almost as grim as a cartoon that thinks a drawing of a putting green makes for a serviceable comedic punchline.” –jroggs
“Hi and Lois having another strip about golf: Stop this, no one but cartoonist cares about golf! Hi and Lois having a strip where they are having a mental breakdown and need to be held: Stop this, I don’t want this to be relatable!” –Ettore Costa, on Bluesky
“[Stellan floating head approaches] Mary: [shakes head] [Stellan floating head recedes]” –Kevin on Earth
“3/15/2024: The National Association of Realtors announces a settlement ending their standard 6% commission. 7/1/2024: Lois experiences a very bad day. Coincidence? Probably. Grim? Oh my, yes. [Chortles darkly]” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“Nice of this strip to show the perils of making a phone call while on the can.” –taig
“The print media pool has shrunk so much in Milford that the newspaper doesn’t even bother putting their name on the banner. Which newspaper? The news paper. You know the one.” –pugfuggly
“It’s nice to see Gil worrying if he held his ex-wife back as he sits there comfortably reading the newspaper while his new girlfriend cooks his breakfast for him.” –Tabby Lavalamp
“Clover Wins First Championship, Sedge Takes Second, Moss a Distant Third, Grass a Surprising Last in National Groundcover Competition” –Voshkod
“My sympathies lie with the Dad in the background who clearly doesn’t want to be there and who’s about to get an earful from his wife as he hands his kid a stick of cotton-candy by the spun sugar end.” –Hibbleton
“I would not call slipping into a deep depression after the loss of a goldfish a quirk.” –Liam
“Dolly stares with cool curiosity. ‘These humans experience violent distress,’ she thinks. ‘I can turn this to my advantage.’ She’s packed more menace into this look than Dennis has accomplished in seventy-plus years.” –matt w
“Walt is canonically 124 years old and still both mentally sharp and able to stand on his own. He should be making millions from all the scientists studying him for the secrets to immortality. $7,000 is a pittance compared to that.” –The Ghost of Jarrod
“Mr. Huff? Glenwood Police Department here. We want to let you know that we’ve recovered the missing sleeves from your undershirt, as well as the missing ‘g’ from the word ‘calling’ whose elision by you, together with the undershirt you’re wearing, identify you unmistakably as a cartoon member of the Exposition Lower Classes.” –Bob Tice
“So Randy’s problems are environmental AND hereditary: a brutish father and a genetic predisposition to crew cuts.” –MKay
“The first guy here appears to be drinking a shark smoothie, which he blended up in his Bass-o-Matic. Meanwhile, the other guy is sipping pure shark’s blood through a straw, which is how you know he’s a rage-aholic weirdo. We can only hope a shark attacks both of them out of pure revenge, but it’s more likely we’ll just get three more months of two-person dialogue scenes, which are far easier to draw.” –BigTed
“The right way to celebrate our independence was to ditch Wilbur.” –Little Blue Bicycle
“I want to hear the rest of this kid’s tight five. How many more questions does he have in that chamber? ‘Which one was funnier — Lewis or Clark? What was Jamestown really like? Were you a bigger fan of the Angles, Saxons, or Jutes? What are your thoughts on people who sell bad copper?’” –els
“In the world of Hagar the Horrible, they have window glass and chef’s costuming (kerchief, spatula, chef’s hat), but nobody can hem a goddamn shirt sleeve.” –Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
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46 replies to “Metapost: Early bird COTW”
Springboard Shadow CsOTW
Needless Exposition
July 1st, 2024 at 8:31 am Reply
@Voshkod: Mary Worth: [Smash cut to black screen. James Bond theme starts. White text appears.]
Stellan will return in “Goldfish are Forever.”
——————————————————
I already saw “Mayopussy,” “The Exes Who Loathed Me,” and “The Man with the Golden Fish.”
——————————————————
@Needless Exposition: The early ones – “Dr. Hell No,” ‘Goldfisher,” and “On Mary’s Secret Service” are classics. The series did go downhill with such flops as “Goldenfish,” “Tomorrow Never Happens At All,” and “Fishfall.”
——————————————————
@Voshkod: I don’t know what they were thinking with “Santa Royale” or “Spectacle.”
——————————————————
Everybody Posts, Nobody Reads: “The Fish Who Loved Me (But Who I Filleted Anyway)”, featuring the hit song “Nobody Grills It Better.”
——————————————————
Voshkod: Shamelessly ripped-off by Duran Duran when in “A View to a Grill.”
Needless Exposition
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:51 am Reply
@Hibbleton: Mary Worth: Jeff is still ‘on book’ as he stares past Mary to read his lines off a placard.
——————————————————
I hope he starts reading the stage directions. “Nod and smile politely,” “Look at menu,” “Swallow down the bile rising up your throat.”
.
.
.
Special Long-form Shadow CsOTW
Ukulele Ike
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:23 am Reply
Gil Thorp:
Get you a barmaid wife
She will fix up your life
Not like a golf pro wife
Don’t bring your Miller High Life
Long carefully shaded legs
Scramblin’ up your breakfast eggs
Get you a barmaid Muddy Boots wife
Oh yeah
Cleveland Mocks
July 3rd, 2024 at 9:53 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “How’s Parker?”
“Things are pretty normal. The ER attendant pushed him around a little bit before the doc pulled him off. Then they took him to radiology, and the x-ray tech made fun of him. During transport, the orderly gave him a wedgie and a wet willie. When we got to his room, a couple nurses dragged him off the gurney and slammed him onto his bed. Then the lab assistant enjoyed the blood draw a little too much if you ask me. There’s just something about him that makes people hate him. His only friends are pathetic losers . . . uh, present company excepted, of course.”
“C’mon Corey, we’re outta here.”
Special Extra Long-form Shadow CsOTW
But What Do I Know?
June 30th, 2024 at 8:15 am Reply
Mary Worth:
Charterstone’s Web:
“Where’s Ian going with that ax?” asked Toby
“Some new tenants moved into the building last night.” Mary Worth put a tray of muffins on the table.
“But why does he need an ax?”
“One of them is a guy named Wilbur. He’s kind of an annoying self-centered a**hole, and your husband-father has decided to do away with him.”
“OK, cool,” said Toby. “It will save us trouble later on.”
The End
Navigator
July 4th, 2024 at 11:04 am Reply
Judge Parker: “There are no lifeguards. The rip current is very strong. Shark sightings keep going up. There’s that ISIS stronghold just down the coast. Underwater geysers occasionally boil large parts of the ocean. The tide pools have those crabs from that government experiment whose claws can crush a 747. Also, you know how you never hear about acid rain anymore? It’s because all of it was concentrated onto this one beach. Oh, and I’m pretty sure the police never caught the North Beach Strangler OR the East Beach Slasher. And I think I heard something about it being one of those rapid-aging beaches like in that movie.” *takes long, leisurely sip from glass of wheat juice* “What was my point again?”
Needless Exposition
July 5th, 2024 at 4:29 am Reply
Mary Worth: Let’s pick apart Mary’s words here.
He has a daughter and friends who love him
-A daughter whose existence he often forgets, especially when he showed more favoritism to a young man because there was a chance that he was his son as well as his dead goldfish who he referred to as his son. Considering nobody bothered to check on Wilbur for several weeks, I don’t think Mary and the rest of Charterstone’s insane asylum can be considered his “friends.” And, no, the goldfish don’t count.
A successful career that he enjoys
-Last I heard, his advice column (which he won in a contest) was axed and he was practically begging to stay employed. All we know is that he’s just “a columnist” who is able to work from home.
A willingness to keep trying until he gets it right
-Didn’t he spend several weeks isolating himself from the world because he was such a bad date that the woman went to make out with a waiter?
.
.
.
Special Extra Extra Long-form Shadow CsOTW
Bob Tice
June 29th, 2024 at 4:35 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Hello, Wilbur. Are you ready to go?”
“Well, Jeff, it might help if you suggested some first-person parodic karaoke for me to fortify myself with, singing, as Stellan does his last glub, glub, glub descending to the murky depths. Can you suggest something?”
” ‘The problem is all inside your head,’ Jeff said to me
The answer is easy if it’s staked teleologically
I’d like to help you, in your rubble, to be free
There must be fifty ways to leave your glubber’
“He said, ‘It’s really not my habit to delude
Furthermore, I hope demeaning won’t be cross or mispursued
But I’ll repeat myself at the risk of being rude:
There must be fishy ways to leave your glubber
Fishy ways to leave your glubber’
“You just slip out the back, hack
Make a new plan, man
You don’t need to see koi, boy
Just set your pal free
Hop on it thus, plus
You don’t need to disgust much
Just drop off the quay, see,
And set your pal free
“Ooh, slip out the back, hack
Make a new plan, man
You don’t need to see koi, boy
Just set your pal free
Hop on it thus, plus
You don’t need to disgust much
Just drop off the quay, see,
And set your pal free
“He said, ‘It peeves me so
To see you in such strain
I wish there were something I could spew
To make you rile again’
I said, ‘I’ll alleviate that
And would you please explain about the fishy ways?’
He said, ‘Why don’t we both just keep on it tonight
And I believe, in the mourning, you’ll begin to see the plight.’
And then he dissed me, and I realized he probably was right
There must be fishy ways to leave your glubber
Fishy ways to leave your glubber
“You just slip out the back, hack
Make a new plan, man
You don’t need to see koi, boy
Just set your pal free
Hop on it thus, plus
You don’t need to disgust much
Just drop off the quay, see,
And set your pal free
“Slip out the back, hack
Make a new plan, man
You don’t need to see koi, boy
Just listen to me
Hop on it thus, plus
You don’t need to disgust much
Just drop off the quay, see,
And set your pal free”
[outro]
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 1
Hibbleton
June 29th, 2024 at 5:08 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: The Pentagon wisely de-armed Camp Swampy years ago. Their war games now consist of crabby soldiers playing king of the hill.
BigTed
June 29th, 2024 at 5:14 am Reply
Shoe: Why does the Perfesser smell so good? In keeping with a strange new punk fad that’s been sweeping the bird community, he’s wearing No. 11 Eau de BBQ — that is, the KFC cologne.
Charterstoned
June 29th, 2024 at 5:32 am Reply
Mary Worth: What could turn this story from abysmal to AWESOME is if Jeff, at a moment when Mary and Wilbur’s backs are turned, picked up his boat rod, slipped Stellan’s little corpse onto a fish hook, and cast his line into the water.
matt w
June 29th, 2024 at 6:00 am Reply
Team Shoe read our complaints about the Goggle Eyes of Horror and gave us a new facial expression: Roz’s heavy-lidded come hither look as she hits on the Perfesser. Come back, Goggle Eyes of Horror! All is forgiven!
astroboy
June 29th, 2024 at 7:46 am Reply
Mary Worth: Jeff freshly whitened his Paulie Walnuts hair-wings for the occasion.
White Rabbit
June 29th, 2024 at 12:20 pm Reply
Beetle Bailey: “Beetle, climb that hill and tell me what you see.”
“I can’t see anything, my helmet’s over my eyes.”
Horace Broon
June 29th, 2024 at 1:50 pm Reply
Family Circus: I don’t often sympathise with HTT Grandma, but her expression of “I know that, you brat, but I thought I could get maybe ten seconds of you melonheads shutting up until you forgot what you were looking for!” speaks to me.
Needless Exposition
June 30th, 2024 at 4:29 am Reply
Marvin: This is probably the most tolerable poop joke in all of Marvin. Cats really do make things better!
Schroduck
June 30th, 2024 at 4:41 am Reply
Marvin’s recent shift to speaking instead of just thought-bubbling was weird, but developmentally made sense. But narratively this means everyone has to talk now, including the animals, and I don’t really like the implications of this. It takes things from “Magical realist whimsy about the inner lives of children and animals” to “Cats are intelligent and have declared economic war on mankind with their only weapon: shitting.”
MKay
June 30th, 2024 at 4:49 am Reply
Mary Worth: I’m having this dream that I can’t wake up from. See, I’m at this funeral for a goldfish with Mary Worth, you know, from the funnies. Then, I wake up, but I’m STILL at a funeral for a goldfish with Mary Worth…
pugfuggly
June 30th, 2024 at 4:50 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: So, the joke is that the General has given up the last pretense of actually doing any work in the office. I assume that the brandy hose is just out of frame.
Hibbleton
June 30th, 2024 at 4:56 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Look, Mary! It’s the rainbow bridge!”
Jeff answers, “Nah, it’s just an oil slick.”
Fathom Haunt
June 30th, 2024 at 5:41 am Reply
Rex Morgan: From the reactions of the students from the past few strips, I expected to see a hole punched clean through Parker, or his nose pushed in all the way.
taig
June 30th, 2024 at 5:56 am Reply
Mary Worth: Stellan pulls out a little set of oars and makes it for the nearest body of fresh water.
Victor Von
June 30th, 2024 at 6:48 am Reply
Mary Worth: I’m in love with the image of Stellan’s body plummeting 30 feet into the Pacific, followed by the awkward jump cut to his cardboard raft floating into the sunset. In my headcanon, this is where they roll the credits at the end of “Mary Worth: The Motion Picture.”
jroggs
June 30th, 2024 at 8:53 am Reply
Judge Parker: Yeah, that Glen was a real jerk to Lucas, what with him politely greeting his guests and cheerfully mentioning how Lucas has spoken positively about them in conversation. What an unbelievable prick.
Schroduck
July 1st, 2024 at 4:41 am Reply
Snuffy Smith: It’s “wake” in the sense of an Irish funeral party, and Hootin’ Holler put that sign on the lake specifically to keep Wilbur from disturbing the peace with his constant weepy fish funerals.
taig
July 1st, 2024 at 5:40 am Reply
Hi and Lois: Who knew existential dread could be so funny? I certainly didn’t.
MKay
July 1st, 2024 at 5:55 am Reply
Mary Worth: I am certain that to Stellan, Heaven has a great, big “No Wilbur Weston” sign at the gate.
2+2=7
July 1st, 2024 at 6:06 am Reply
Hi and Lois: “I need a hug, Hi. Sunbeam wasn’t there, so I had to actually watch Trixie for once” (starts unabashedly bawling.)
Tabby Lavalamp
July 1st, 2024 at 7:22 am Reply
Dick Tracy: I don’t follow “Dick Tracy” but I assume this current story is about a male prostitute who does Col. Sanders cosplay and the customer who is consumed with shame over his own kinks but can’t fight the urges. Surely the comic isn’t going to show him deep throating a chicken leg, right?
erdmann
July 1st, 2024 at 7:33 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Wait… Parker… lives with their aunt… bullied and wears glasses… Great Googly Moogly! This is the secret origin of non-binary Spider-Person from Earth-1197!
Cleveland Mocks
July 1st, 2024 at 8:38 am Reply
Mary Worth: Wilbur must think that not only do All Dogs Go To to Heaven, but that All Fish and All Selfish Jerk Humans do as well.
Ukulele Ike
July 1st, 2024 at 1:18 pm Reply
Family Circus: Given that dress, I figured Thel was on her way to a fancy afternoon cocktail party and looking for a barren field to leave the kids in for a few hours while she gets liquored up.
taig
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:23 am Reply
9 Chickweed Lane: Wow, some of my brain cells audibly died.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 2
Uncle Lumpy
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:24 am Reply
Gil Thorp: Is this the most amicable divorce in history? First Mimi jokes around with Gil’s replacement squeeze, and now Gil hopes their marriage “didn’t prevent her from pursuing her dreams sooner.” Where are the lacerating revelations? Pressuring the kids to take sides? Nondisclosure of marital assets? I feel cheated.
Chance
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:52 am Reply
Gil Thorp knows the secret to being attractive to the ladies: that irresistible one-two punch of constantly bringing up your ex and guiltily sighing you probably weren’t good enough for her. Hot!
TheDiva
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:46 am Reply
Gil Thorp: I mean, “My ex’s life improved exponentially after we broke up; I wonder if there’s a connection” does indicate a certain level of self-awareness, but it still counts as a red flag in my book.
MasterMahan
July 2nd, 2024 at 7:18 am Reply
Mark Trail: I would pay any amount of money to see Mark Trail vs. Disgruntled Office Employees reach its logical conclusion with Mark punching Dilbert right in the mout… right in the chi…. just punching Dilbert anywhere.
I speak Jive
July 2nd, 2024 at 7:27 am Reply
Mary Worth: Porpoise: “It’s bad enough that that goldfish was obviously sitting around for too long, but I’m sure that it was frozen, too.”
Guillermo el chiclero
July 2nd, 2024 at 8:59 am Reply
Family Circus: Billy’s got this look on his face that says, “Man, she’s swallowing this bullshit hook, line, and sinker!”
Peanut Gallery
July 2nd, 2024 at 9:58 am Reply
Pluggers: No worries. Even with the grease stains, he’s still overdressed for Golden Corral.
Only Here For The Ads
July 2nd, 2024 at 12:45 pm Reply
Mary Worth: “Wilbur, take it easy when you get home. You’ve been through difficulties and may need time to come to terms with it all. I mean, you had a goldfish die. Never has a man suffered so!”
Garrison Skunk
July 2nd, 2024 at 3:11 pm Reply
Gil Twerp: I like how Gil’s mug says YOUR AD HERE instead of #1 DAD
Bob Tice
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:32 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Aunt Judy looks like a cross between Lucille Ball and Eraserhead’s Henry Spencer.
pugfuggly
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:47 am Reply
Mary Worth: I’d like to think that Wilbur is at the table, just out of frame, still quietly sobbing as these two pat each other on the back.
Hibbleton
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:49 am Reply
Rex Morgan: The Bully gets his comeuppance when Flo from Mel’s Diner tells him to “Kiss my grits!“
Joe Momma
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:49 am Reply
Mary Worth: “If I can help him through this rough patch it is the least I can do, and I am all about doing the least in any situation—that’s just who I am.”
The Quiet Man
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:53 am Reply
Sally Forth: Hilary’s future self is thinking ‘I could be having farewell sex with Nona and Faye right now, but nooooo…’
taig
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:25 am Reply
Family Circus: One of the ride wranglers must have told Jeffy about the “You must not be a melonhead to ride this ride” rule.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:44 am Reply
Family Circus: If you stop scrolling before you get to the text under Family Circus, you just get a very pleasant image of Jeffy crying and you can imagine all the things Thel might be calmly saying to him. “You’re adopted.” “We’re going to drop you off at lost and found.” “Your dad and brothers are dead.” “Santa isn’t real.” “Paw Patrol isn’t real.” “You’re not real.”
Little Guy
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:03 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “The Dr. Morgan? I read his diagnosis! I read all his diagnosis!”
Voshkod
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:29 am Reply
Family Circus: “This is supposed to be a FUN place,” Ma Keane intones to a child surrounded by devices that hurl him around at high speed and raise him to terrifying heights. A clown’s face, slowly morphed by societal norms from the guise of a happy prankster to the mask of a serial killer, looms over the scene. Cry your honest tears, child.
Hibbleton
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:36 am Reply
Family Circus: It all started when Billy pointed at the clown and whispered to Jeffy; “That’s your real dad.”
2+2=7
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:39 am Reply
Rex Morgan: So all this time, Parker was actually being picked on for being raised by Little Orphan Annie.
knockinghats
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:42 am Reply
Family Circus: Holding behind her back the pair of scissors she plunged into Jeffy’s leg seconds ago, Dolly thinks “yes, that’s about how I thought that would go…. what’s next.”
Lord Flatulence
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:56 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Is this the part where Parker gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets super powers?
TheDiva
July 3rd, 2024 at 7:00 am Reply
Dustin: Don’t mind me, I’ll just be over here imagining Dustdad getting trampled by bison.
Ukulele Ike
July 3rd, 2024 at 7:17 am Reply
Dick Tracy: Ominous G.K. Chesterton: “Rather than bleed them out slowly, my blackmail method is to bankrupt all my victims at one stroke. Now — card, check, or large canvas bags marked with dollar signs?”
Liam
July 3rd, 2024 at 8:00 am Reply
Family Circus: “No I’m not going to sell you to the carnies. I would have to pay them to take you away.”
Inspector Gotcha
July 3rd, 2024 at 10:40 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Yes, Mary, if you have any other neurotic screwball friends who need a boat ride to cure them, please feel free to make another gigantic imposition on me. Now, can we get on with the peck on the cheek you promised me? I’ve been fantasizing about it for two days.”
Horace BroonJuly 3rd, 2024 at 10:44 am Reply
Judge Parker: Okay, I guess it is Lucas who Ces’s random AITA? spinner ended on. Shame he didn’t wait for it to stop before he started writing the story.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 3
Gream
July 3rd, 2024 at 12:02 pm Reply
Great news, Frazz gang! That lot on Butler is going to be the “Hello, Larry Experience” for the rest of the summer before Dow Chemical breaks ground.
Bob Tice
July 4th, 2024 at 4:29 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “Mr. Huff? Glenwood Police Department here. We want to let you know that we’ve recovered the missing sleeves from your undershirt, as well as the missing ‘g’ from the word ‘calling’ whose elision by you, together with the undershirt you’re wearing, identify you unmistakably as a cartoon member of the Exposition Lower Classes!”
MKay
July 4th, 2024 at 4:36 am Reply
Rex Morgan: So Randy’s problems are environmental AND hereditary: a brutish father and a genetic predisposition to crew cuts.
Ettorre
July 4th, 2024 at 4:56 am Reply
Rex Morgan: The graphics would suggest that Randy’s father is negligent, but actually he seems an attentive and present parent. For example, he’s aware his son is an idiot!
2+2=7
July 4th, 2024 at 6:05 am Reply
Judge Parker: Boy that Pauper’s-Blood Smoothie did not calm Lucas’s nerves at all.
Little Blue Bicycle
July 4th, 2024 at 6:05 am Reply
Mary Worth: “The right way to celebrate our independence was to ditch Wilbur.”
Cleveland Mocks
July 4th, 2024 at 6:11 am Reply
Pluggers: Why is remnant Christmas glitter exclusively a plugger problem? Does Colorado Springs have a glitter removal service that is available to only non-pluggers? That would seem discriminatory.
SabeHombre
July 4th, 2024 at 6:51 am Reply
Mary Worth: Watch it, Jeff. After 234 “dates”, a hand on Mary’s shoulder is going a little too far, my friend.
TheDiva
July 4th, 2024 at 7:04 am Reply
Gearhead Gertie: Not looking forward to Gearhead Gertie: The Final Solution, I can tell you…
2+2=7
July 4th, 2024 at 8:06 am Reply
Rex Morgan: So it turns out that “Randy Huff” Bully was just lashing out due to his frustration with being saddled with a porn name.
Noel
July 4th, 2024 at 8:53 am Reply
Luann: Hey, I haven’t read “Luann” in a while, I wonder what– gah!
Inspector Gotcha
July 4th, 2024 at 9:50 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “So you’re calling me to tell me that my boy won the fight? Awwrriiiggghhhttt! Thanks! Bye.”
Hibbleton
July 5th, 2024 at 4:39 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “I have no idea where he is…but then again, I’m sleeping it off on a sofa in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express downtown. They probably want me to put my pants on.”
Bob Tice
July 5th, 2024 at 4:45 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Jeff, dear, would you mind terribly if I gnawed on the wood of this pier for a bit? — today’s malocclusion and the ratlike look on my face pretty much make it a ‘must’ that I do so!”
Liam
July 5th, 2024 at 4:47 am Reply
Dustin: “Did you wear a coonskin cap?” “No. My grandfather only made lampshades of the people he killed never caps.”
2+2=7
July 5th, 2024 at 4:59 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Principal: “We can’t find him. He keeps changing his name on us and we can’t track him down. Tomorrow he could be ‘Raquel’.”
Arabella
July 5th, 2024 at 5:00 am Reply
Rex Morgan: It’s good to see Lampy is still getting work, although it’s often “character” roles these days. At least they let him maintain his dignity here – no rips, stains, or drunken angles.
Pozzo
July 5th, 2024 at 5:17 am Reply
Hägar the Horrible: Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for the buffet to be called a “smorgasbord?” I mean, if you want to be true to their Scandinavian roots…oh, wait, this is “Hagar the Horrible.” Carry on.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 5th, 2024 at 5:40 am Reply
Hagär the Horrible: And by “eat dinner at,” Hagar means “raid your monasteries, establish my rule over, intermarry with your women and leave a permanent dent in your language,” right?
Cleveland Mocks
July 5th, 2024 at 5:49 am Reply
Family Circus: The Lord doesn’t like it when Big Daddy stands in front of the big picture window in his underwear. Put some pants on, perv.
Tonio
July 5th, 2024 at 6:11 am Reply
Hagär the Horrible: Shave that massive shag of red hair and beard, and Hagar is Homer Simpson, who once nearly bankrupted The Frying Dutchman.
Daisy
July 5th, 2024 at 7:19 am Reply
Mary Worth: You know that icky feeling you get when the guy in the car ahead of you at the red light opens his car door and spits out a huge mass of phlegm and then the light turns green and you realize you just drove your brand new tires right over that gelatinous vile glob of spit and it’s all over your tire now and you can’t do a thing about it and you just want to scream…that’s the feeling I get with this strip.
Daily Shadow CsOTW
Saturday
————
Liam
June 29th, 2024 at 4:31 am Reply
Shoe: “I’m marinated in seven herbs and spices.”
pugfuggly
June 29th, 2024 at 4:39 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Sadly, just moments later Sarge and the gang were taken prisoner by Colonel Jerk and his Loser Brigade.
Sunday
———-
Bob Tice
June 30th, 2024 at 4:28 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Go ahead and jump (jump)!”
— Van Halen
cheech wizard
June 30th, 2024 at 6:14 am Reply
Mary Worth: So they didn’t even bury the fish, just let it float away in a little box? That’s not how a burial at sea works. Which means this story is going to keep going, possibly with Wilbur being retraumatized when a rotting Stellan washes up at his feet on the beach, still in its little box, before Old Man Wynter’s dog grabs it and runs off.
Monday
———–
Kevin on Earth
July 1st, 2024 at 5:08 am Reply
Mary Worth: [Stellan floating head approaches]
Mary: [shakes head]
[Stellan floating head recedes]
2+2=7
July 1st, 2024 at 8:44 am Reply
Mary Worth: The sea: “I have already rejected him twice, foolish humans. No means no.”
Tuesday
———–
Ukulele Ike
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:37 am Reply
Gil Thorp: (At the bodega) “One giant sandwich, please. Hold the non-binary, ethnically-confused friendless chronically depressed cartoonist-humping.”
Voshkod
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:35 am Reply
Gil Thorp: Clover Wins First Championship, Sedge Takes Second, Moss a Distant Third, Grass a Surprising Last in National Groundcover Competition
Wednesday
—————
Needless Exposition
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:24 am Reply
Mary Worth: I see that Mary decided to ditch her “good friend” because apparently taking Wilbur out to eat is such an inconvenience for her…unlike, say, a wake and a burial at sea for a goldfish. After all, everyone should be ready to drop everything to cater to a middle aged man with the emotional maturity of a four year old. But going out to eat in this economy? What a hassle!
Braniff
July 3rd, 2024 at 8:26 am Reply
Family Circus: The censors had to cut out Mommy’s REAL words: “I paid $150 f***** so that you and your melonheads have some f****** fun. We’re going home right now and you’re going to bed without supper! Or do you want that clown to take you home to his crawl space?”
Thursday
————
Dennis Jimenez
July 4th, 2024 at 5:31 am Reply
Rex Morgan: The freedom to pulverize pencil necked geeks predates the Magna Carta…
Inspector Gotcha
July 4th, 2024 at 6:29 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary swells with pride as she gazes at the inspirational spectacle in the sky and softly murmurs, “Suck it, Limeys.”
Friday
——–
Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
July 5th, 2024 at 5:06 am Reply
In the world of Hägar the Horrible they have window glass and chef’s costuming (kerchief, spatula, chef’s hat), but nobody can hem a goddamn shirt sleeve.
taig
July 5th, 2024 at 5:08 am Reply
Mary Worth: Yeah, Wilbur was really demonstrating a “willingness to keep trying until he gets it right” by spending several weeks in his own filth.
.
.
.
Shadow COTW
——————
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 2nd, 2024 at 3:24 pm Reply
Six Chix: The last couple of weeks Bianca asked random people if they had an idea for a comic strip. Sad to say it appears that one of them did, and it was, “You getting boinked by a giant hoagie.”
Congrats to all and thank you, Josh and Baja. The commentary here is so fast, furious and fun that it’s hard to keep up when I wade in.
Congrats and many thanks to Josh and Baja. I must be springboarding so much that I should be a seesaw.
Congratulations and thanks to all.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
[Egregious Oversights of the Previous Week Category]
Ukulele Ike
June 27th, 2024 at 8:00 am Reply
JP: Jeez, Lucas. When you invite a pair of young ladies to your country home, the first thing you do is show them to the bedroom or bedrooms set aside for their use, with the attendant bathroom(s), so they can “freshen up*.” Especially after a long ride on the LIRR.
*wash their pussies
Charterstoned
June 29th, 2024 at 4:40 am Reply
MW: I just realized that Karen Moy IS Mary, June Brigman is Dr. Jeff, and we, the readers—WE are Wilbur. And Stellan? Stellan is this absurd story, the whole ridiculous plot with its baffling motivations and its dysfunctional characters and its lidded goldfish and its stale muffins and its enormous yacht. So when Mary asks, “Are you ready to let STELLAN go?” she’s really asking if we’ve finally had enough. UNCLE! UNCLE!
Needless Exposition
June 29th, 2024 at 4:43 am Reply
@Charterstoned: If we’re Wilbur, Moy must really see the audience as overweight validation seeking sociopaths. So it’s about her average level of audience insulting.
MW: I don’t think there’s much to say except how everyone looks weirdly off model. Brigman must be inhaling paint thinner fumes to prepare for tomorrow’s strip which is hopefully going to have much rejoicing when that box hits
the port side of that behemoththe water.Old School Allie Cat
June 29th, 2024 at 5:07 am Reply
MW – This strip starts to make so much more sense when you realize Charterstone is a group home.
Needless Exposition
June 29th, 2024 at 5:10 am Reply
@Old School Allie Cat: It’s the kind of group home that no one visits because they’re about as functional in the real world as monkeys who regularly fling their own feces at each other. Except the monkeys have a lot more charm and personality.
MKay
June 29th, 2024 at 6:02 am Reply
MW: Poor Jeff doesn’t know that Mary’s counting this as their monthly Date Night.
Gladly, the cross-eyed bear
June 29th, 2024 at 11:00 am Reply
MW: Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but for Crissakes it’s just a fucking goldfish!
Bob Tice
June 29th, 2024 at 4:45 am Reply
RMMD:
“Somebody go get a teacher — I’m playing Candy Crush!”
Anonymous
June 29th, 2024 at 4:39 am Reply
RMMD: This strip occupies a weird point on the realism/cartoony scale. on one hand it’s a very serious drama about adults dealing with serious issues, but on the other, that punched-out middleschooler seems to have literal stars circling his head? I guess having little birds and a ‘waa-waa-waa-waaaaa’ sounds would have been a bit over the top.
BigTed
June 29th, 2024 at 5:14 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “I’m calling 911”?! All these kids are about to get in trouble for going outside their school’s nurse’s-office-based healthcare apparatus and detention-based justice system.
taig
June 29th, 2024 at 5:52 am Reply
RMMD: Parker got knocked out so hard, he’s shedding atoms. Considering the source of his jokes, though, he’s got a 90-year rate of decay.
Banana Jr. 6000
June 29th, 2024 at 5:54 am Reply
RMMD: I love how all the wrong words are emphasized. “Go get a teacher“, as if to emphasize he doesn’t want a circus clown. “I’m calling 911,” as if to clarify he’s not hailing a taxi. “I’ll go, as if begrudgingly accepting that this tiresome duty has fallen to her. Not a single exclamation point anywhere. It’s all dripping with ennui and Xanax.
The Grandstander
June 29th, 2024 at 6:30 am Reply
Will rex take this opportunity to give young Parker his first ever prostate exam?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
The Quiet Man
June 29th, 2024 at 4:59 am Reply
SF: Ces will get a bit of grudging respect from me if he can tie all three of these storylines together a la ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.’
JP: ‘I’ll be right back. I just need to get my gun/hatchet/butcher knife/family sword/whatever it is I’m going to use to threaten you into staying and having sex with me and my brother.’
Cleveland Mocks
June 29th, 2024 at 11:18 am Reply
JP: Lucas has got to go, um, relieve himself.
Hibbleton
June 29th, 2024 at 5:08 am Reply
B. Bailey: The Pentagon wisely de-armed Camp Swampy years ago. Their war games now consist of crabby soldiers playing king of the hill.
KMD
June 29th, 2024 at 5:30 am Reply
BB: How long did it take Beetle to climb the hill? Enough time for Killer to grow a moustache between the panels, apparently.
Tabby Lavalamp
June 29th, 2024 at 6:21 am Reply
I don’t have much military knowledge but Beetle and the gang don’t look like they’re equipped for any sort of official exercises, so it seems likely with these characters that they were just out for a walk to enjoy a pleasant day and got lost and these men’s emotions are already raw. It’s just surprising that the first “fragging” we’re going to get to witness in the comic is Beetle for being an asshole, and not Sarge, Gen. Halftrack, or Lt. Fuzz. I’m just happy I didn’t do any wagering on this.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Myrtle
June 29th, 2024 at 5:38 am Reply
FC: “Grandma, remember you gave PJ your keys to play with! And he’s poked his eye out!”
Daisy
June 29th, 2024 at 9:15 am Reply
FC: I wonder what kind of car Grandma drives with those old-fashioned keys? I’m guessing a 1970 Cadillac Deville sedan. She doesn’t seem to be the type to drive a Cybertruck.
jroggs
June 29th, 2024 at 5:24 am Reply
FC: Sets of keys are of course famous for being non-reflective and completely silent when shaken, so it’s totally understandable how this situation is remotely plausible.
CS: What, no Crankshaft today? Did he finally leave or is he waiting for Pete and Mindy in bed?
The Quiet Man
June 30th, 2024 at 4:36 am Reply
JP: From the way Sophie is hiding behind the word balloon in the final panel, she better be whipping off her bikini top…
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
The Rambling Otter
June 30th, 2024 at 5:23 am Reply
Marvin: Is “putting down a deposit first” some sort of code for “Marking your territory”?
“”We pissed and pooped in this sandbox before you did so we own it!”
Hibbleton
June 30th, 2024 at 5:26 am Reply
Marvin: “You cats got it made. I tried to get my playmates into communal outdoor shitting but they were too shy. Cowards!”
Marvin:
“We’ll need you to draw some cats.”
“Any type of cat, specifically?”
“Uh, make ’em look like stuffy British bankers.”
Needless Exposition
June 30th, 2024 at 4:29 am Reply
Marvin: This is probably the most tolerable poop joke in all of Marvin. Cats really do make things better!
Dennis Jimenez
June 30th, 2024 at 6:17 am Reply
Marvin – Hey, try slipping the maitre’d a turd….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
pugfuggly
June 30th, 2024 at 4:50 am Reply
BB: So, the joke is that the General has given up the last pretense of actually doing any work in the office. I assume that the brandy hose is just out of frame.
MW: /meanwhile, back at Charterstone/ “I…I really thought we would be invited on the boat. We all got dressed up to humour him in this ridiculous little ceremony, I assumed we’d at least get a little cruise out of the deal. So…do we go home now, or what?”
But What Do I Know?
June 30th, 2024 at 5:29 am Reply
MW — I believe that quote is from Charlotte’s Web, in which the eponymous heroine is attempting to console Wilbur about her own impending demise. If so, this may set the Mary Worth record for a Quotation Used In the Precise Opposite of Its Original Context. . .
Needless Exposition
June 30th, 2024 at 5:31 am Reply
@But What Do I Know?: Wilbur is Some Pig, all right.
Pozzo
June 30th, 2024 at 4:56 am Reply
MW: Alternate first-panel quote:
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun for sorrow will not show his head. – William Shakespeare”
Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!
June 30th, 2024 at 5:05 am Reply
MW: So it’s come to this, folks! The dramatic denouement you’ve been waiting for… I hope you have your tissues ready. You’ve had plenty of time, so no excuse. Today Stellan becomes MORE than a “f***ing Goldfish!” He becomes a golden symbol of the treasured bonds of friendship, the heartbreak of lost love, the transient nature of life itself! A reminder that we’re all just dots on the timeline of history! (snif) Excuse me, I need a moment…
That’s a lot to ask of a Goldfish, and today Stellan meets the challenge of his career as he performs his final corpse scene of this saga. Yes, that’s the REAL Stellan floating into great beyond with the setting sun reflecting off his glimmering scales! But don’t worry, we had a Coast Guard lifeboat as well as an air-sea rescue helicopter just off panel ready to swoop him out as soon as the director yelled “cut”! He’s now back home at his condo, safe and wet. And folks, that’s a (Fish)wrap!
ValdVin
June 30th, 2024 at 5:15 am Reply
MW: Moy/Brigman Entertainment Simulation Extrusion Enterprises cut off the last panel of today’s strip, where a viking cosplayer shoots a flaming arrow into the floating box to complete Stellan’s Norse funeral.
Cleveland Mocks
June 30th, 2024 at 5:39 am Reply
MW: So that’s it? Stellan’s just going to float on the water like a piece of plastic until he washes up on some shore and rots in the kelp? Yeah, real touching ceremony, Wilbur.
allangary
June 30th, 2024 at 5:41 am Reply
MW – In the next-to-last panel, Wilbur drops the fish from the bow. The boat does not appear to be underway. In the last panel, the fish is floating on the wake with no evidence of having been run over by the boat. Splain pleeze?
Fathom Haunt
June 30th, 2024 at 5:41 am Reply
MW: Prepare for a week of strips as Mary and Wilbur rehash the “lessons learned” portion of this storyline during the return boat-ride, as Mary speaks in redundant and meaningless “meaningful” affirmations and Wilbur goes on about what a shut-in hermit he’d become but he’s learned to not be one, and so on and so forth.
Peanut Gallery
June 30th, 2024 at 5:41 am Reply
MW – Wilbur: “He was a goldfish who saw me through the best of times and the worst of times! Through the age of wisdom and the age of foolishness. Through the epoch of belief and the epoch of incredulity.”
Dr. Jeff: “Incredulity is right!”
Rosstifer
June 30th, 2024 at 6:11 am Reply
If they’ve been sailing since morning and it’s now sunset in the middle of summer, they’ve definitely reached international waters, right? Jeff, you could push Wilbur off and end this. Nobody on or off this boat will care.
cheech wizard
June 30th, 2024 at 6:14 am Reply
MW – So they didn’t even bury the fish, just let it float away in a little box? That’s not how a burial at sea works. Which means this story is going to keep going, possibly with Wilbur being retraumatized when a rotting Stellan washes up at his feet on the beach, still in its little box, before Old Man Wynter’s dog grabs it and runs off.
Victor Von
June 30th, 2024 at 6:48 am Reply
Mary Worth: I’m in love with the image of Stellan’s body plummeting 30 feet into the Pacific, followed by the awkward jump cut to his cardboard raft floating into the sunset. In my headcanon, this is where they roll the credits at the end of Mary Worth: The Motion Picture.
Ettorre
June 30th, 2024 at 6:42 am Reply
MW: “Hi Mary, how are things at Chatterston?”
“Well Dawn, you father’s goldfish died, so he entered into a self-destructive spiral of depression, but then we had an elaborate funeral for the fish with burial at sea”
“Coolcoolcoolcoolcool”
“Maybe you should spend more time with your father”
“From what you say, I should actually spend less“
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
MKay
June 30th, 2024 at 4:49 am Reply
RMMD: I hope Parker’s parents are of a litigious and vengeful bent.
Where’s Rocky?
July 1st, 2024 at 4:30 am Reply
JP. It’s been a long time since I saw “Fast times at Ridgemont High,” but I bet it hasn’t been that long for Marciuliano
Baja Gaijin
July 1st, 2024 at 7:33 am Reply
Dustin: This is the intro to the most boring temp agency porno ever. Repellant too.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Daisy
July 1st, 2024 at 8:21 am Reply
I love today’s “Arlo and Janis” – especially the last panel where the house sitter tells the cat “You can be very useful advancing a struggling plotline.” Karen Moy, ARE YOU LISTENING????
Bob Tice
July 1st, 2024 at 4:54 am Reply
MW:
“I’ve changed my mind! Turn around! I want him back in my freezer!”
Needless Exposition
July 1st, 2024 at 4:59 am Reply
I’m a little unnerved that Wilbur might be darkly implying a murder suicide plot but his general incompetence means that the worst thing he can do is leave a bag of poop at Dr. Ed’s doorstep. Not even a flaming bag or picked up from a stray dog either…
Ettorre
July 1st, 2024 at 5:13 am Reply
“I’ll see Stellan again… someday”
“How did you know we are going next to the Bum Boat?”
nescio
July 1st, 2024 at 5:27 am Reply
MW: “Yes, Mary. I’ll see Stellan again…someday.”
Said with the conviction of someone who frequently falls out of boats.
cheech wizard
July 1st, 2024 at 5:50 am Reply
MW – Yes, you’ll see Stellan again – because you didn’t weight his box with stones or pieces of metal so it would sink, like it’s supposed to in a sea burial. Now his rotting corpse is going to wash up at your feet in a few days. I warned you about this yesterday!
Then again, maybe a seagull will snatch Stellan out of his floating coffin and wing past the boat on his way to lunch. Wilbur could see him again sooner than expected.
Little Blue Bicycle
July 1st, 2024 at 8:49 am Reply
MW: That night, Stellan appeared to Wilbur in a dream, screaming “I’m a fresh water fish you @&@”$@@ idiot!”
Decima Dewey
July 1st, 2024 at 8:59 am Reply
MW: Stellan’s ghost: He’ll see me again? I *died* to get away from him!
Alternatively, Wilbur and Stellan will meet again after Stellan is reincarnated as a salt-water fish, and Wilbur is reincarnated as seaweed.
Voshkod
July 1st, 2024 at 8:25 am Reply
[Smash cut to black screen. James Bond theme starts. White text appears.]
Stellan will return in Goldfish are Forever
Needless Exposition
July 1st, 2024 at 8:31 am Reply
@Voshkod: I already saw “Mayopussy,” “The Exes Who Loathed Me,” and “The Man with the Golden Fish.”
Cleveland Mocks
July 1st, 2024 at 8:38 am Reply
H&L: Uh-oh, the family goldfish must have died.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Horace Broon
July 1st, 2024 at 9:38 am Reply
Crank: So … is this Mopey Pete’s first summer as Mindy’s partner in the revised timeline? Or did she just decide not to invite him to the comics page’s second-favourite annual fire hazard until he was too invested in the relationship to back out?
pugfuggly
July 2nd, 2024 at 4:43 am Reply
GT: The print media pool has shrunk so much in Milford that the newspaper doesn’t even bother putting their name on the banner. Which newspaper? The news paper. You know the one.
Schroduck
July 2nd, 2024 at 4:49 am Reply
@pugfuggly: Maybe that is the name of the newspaper. “Honey, did you remember to pick up the Daily Clover Wins First Championship?”
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:13 am Reply
Gil Thorp:
1. Speaking of “bestubblèd”…
2. “You want to know what I think? I think there’s a hot chick in Lulu Lemons making you chicken gizzards and mashed eggs for breakfast. Pull your head out of your grawlix and stop talking about your marriage, fool!”
Uncle Lumpy
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:24 am Reply
Gil Thorp: Is this the most amicable divorce in history? First Mimi jokes around with Gil’s replacement squeeze, and now Gil hopes their marriage “didn’t prevent her from pursuing her dreams sooner.” Where are the lacerating revelations? Pressuring the kids to take sides? Nondisclosure of marital assets? I feel cheated.
Kevin on Earth
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:45 am Reply
GT: “Do you want to know what I think?”
Gil: “No, not really”
Chance
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:52 am Reply
Gil Thorp knows the secret to being attractive to the ladies: that irresistible one-two punch of constantly bringing up your ex and guiltily sighing you probably weren’t good enough for her. Hot!
Ukulele Ike
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:23 am Reply
GT: Get you a barmaid wife
She will fix up your life
Not like a golf pro wife
Don’t bring your Miller High Life
Long carefully shaded legs
Scramblin’ up your breakfast eggs
Get you a barmaid Muddy Boots wife
Voshkod
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:35 am Reply
Clover Wins First Championship, Sedge Takes Second, Moss a Distant Third, Grass a SurprisinglLast in National Groundcover Competition
Oh yeah
Peanut Gallery
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:52 am Reply
GT – Gil’s ex is just going by one name now. And her girlfriend goes by “Crimson.” It’s cute.
Bob Tice
July 2nd, 2024 at 5:43 am Reply
MT:
From the time Jules started drawing (and writing) this strip, I haven’t been able to get over the fact that most of the time, Mark is drawn to look like Gregory Peck on acid.
Flipper
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:31 am Reply
MT: @Bob Tice: “…Mark is drawn to look like Gregory Peck on acid.”
Yes, I agree, With his rectangular face, strong jaw, beard stubble, jet black hair with blue highlights, and single curl falling over his forehead, Mark Trail does resemble… oh, Gregory Peck? Sorry, I thought you said Gil Thorp.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Lord Flatulence
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:25 am Reply
Six Chix: Sandwich fucking.
Midtown
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:58 am Reply
Six Chix: “My hero!”
Professor Fate
July 2nd, 2024 at 6:58 am Reply
MW: Closure. Right. You have learned nothing except that you can’t order a pizza with extra mayo.
Schroduck
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:14 am Reply
Peanuts: My GoComics sub includes the “Peanuts Begins” strips, which arrive in a barely readable digital slop of JPEG compression because no-one at the syndicate wants to shell out the extra $50 for a bigger hard drive. I just wanted to say that in today’s strip, the “L” and “I” of “How’s that for a slick job?” were blurred together into a “U”. That’s upsetting enough, but it’s much, much worse when the next panel is “I bet I’d make a pretty good housewife!”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hibbleton
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:44 am Reply
FC: My sympathies lie with the Dad in the background who clearly doesn’t want to be there and who’s about to get an earful from his wife as he hands his kid a stick of cotton-candy by the spun sugar end.
nescio
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:05 am Reply
FC: “Then why did we bring Dolly?”
lynn
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:10 am Reply
FC: “Sorry, Jeffy, you know we can only afford so many tickets. It’s your turn to wait in the car.”
Myrtle
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:12 am Reply
FC: “…and you’re going to have a GOOD TIME whether you like it or not!”
Liam
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:35 am Reply
FC-Did you take them to a parking lot carnival?
Voshkod
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:29 am Reply
“This is supposed to be a FUN place,” Ma Keane intones to a child surrounded by devices that hurl him around at high speed and raise him to terrifying heights. A clown’s face, slowly morphed by societal norms from the guise of a happy prankster to the mask of a serial killer, looms over the scene. Cry your honest tears, child.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:44 am Reply
If you stop scrolling before you get to the text under Family Circus, you just get a very pleasant image of Jeffy crying and you can imagine all the things Thel might be calmly saying to him. “You’re adopted.” “We’re going to drop you off at lost and found.” “Your dad and brothers are dead.” “Santa isn’t real.” “Paw Patrol isn’t real.” “You’re not real.”
Braniff
July 3rd, 2024 at 8:26 am Reply
FC: The censors had to cut out Mommy’s REAL words: “I paid $150 f***** so that you and your melonheads have some f****** fun. We’re going home right now and you’re going to bed without supper! Or do you want that clown to take you home to his crawl space?”
pugfuggly
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:47 am Reply
FC: I honestly can’t tell which of these two is saying the dialogue? Maybe they’re both yelling it at each other, like an improv exercise gone terribly wrong.
Plugger: On first read I didn’t scan viagra at all, and thought this was a Matrix reference? Like ‘Pluggers know that the reality created for them by their favorite cable news hosts isn’t real, but it’s just so dang comfortable..!’
Pozzo
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:31 am Reply
My wife takes Levothyroxine, but hers is yellow. Maybe they come in a whole rainbow, according to your social status (blue being at the bottom).
Dyna Moe
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:48 am Reply
In the five years I’ve taken Adderall, every refill seems to be a different color. Three different shades of orange, cyan, dark blue…
The pill itself has ADHD.
MKay
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:15 am Reply
PLUGGERS: My theory is that Plugger’s wife is sneaking the blue pill in. When you’re a Plugger, going out and looking for a sidepiece is exhausting.
Philip
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:39 am Reply
Pluggers – Levothyroxine, being a generic, comes in a variety of colors based on manufacturer. A Plugger’s pill caddy is the closest thing you’ll ever find to a Pride flag in their homes and neighborhoods.
BeckoningChasm
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:27 am Reply
Mary Worth: What the heck is Mary holding? Is there a glass that looks like that, or is she holding the neck of an enormous bottle of liquor?
Maltmash3r
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:46 am Reply
Is “rough patch” Jeff’s code for his unrequited horniness and his subsequent trips to Vietnam?
Needless Exposition
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:35 am Reply
Also I’m loving the flashbacks to the best character revealing Jeff’s allergy to
pussycats and Mary being an insufferable bitch because how dare Jeff go off to take care of sick children instead of being her ATM.Charterstoned
July 3rd, 2024 at 5:24 am Reply
MW: Mary’s death-grip on her miniature wine-sampling glass tightens as Dr. Jeff takes credit, “If I can help him deal with grief in his own unique way, it’s the LEAST I can do!”
jroggs
July 3rd, 2024 at 4:56 am Reply
MW: And so the tale closes as Wilbur is jettisoned overboard and everyone else goes to the Bum Boat. It’s sad to think that we’ll never see Stellan again. Well, unless Mary or Jeff order the “Fresh Catch Special.”
2+2=7
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:22 am Reply
MARY WORTH: Just so you guys know, “IT’S JUST A FUCKING FISH!” also makes a good review for The Bum Boat, so no need to let up on that.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Tom T.
July 3rd, 2024 at 7:26 am Reply
CS: “This joke was funny once, years ago, so I’m going to repeat it this whole week!”
Famous AnusSequiturJuly 3rd, 2024 at 12:19 pm Reply
Beetle Bailey Spanish to English.
“Is the General in?”
“Yes, but don’t wake him up.”
“Why is he asleep?”
“He always falls asleep after sex.”
Bob Tice
July 4th, 2024 at 4:29 am Reply
RMMD:
“Mr. Huff? Glenwood Police Department here. We want to let you know that we’ve recovered the missing sleeves from your undershirt, as well as the missing ‘g’ from the word ‘calling’ whose elision by you, together with the undershirt you’re wearing, identify you unmistakably as a cartoon member of the Exposition Lower Classes!”
Philip
July 4th, 2024 at 5:51 am Reply
Rex Morgan, MD – Given the 1950s aesthetics of the adults here, the fact that bully dad is wearing a tank top during normal business hours suggests he’s an unemployed drunk, or that he works late hours in a blue collar job, which is al the same to the Morgan class of professionals.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 4th, 2024 at 6:01 am Reply
No jokes for Rex Morgan, M.D. but one of the newer things that really pisses me off is authority figures describing the teen victims of assault as “being in a fight.” It happened recently with a high school student who lost their life after being attacked, and that description really minimizes the crime that actually happened.
Weaselboy
July 4th, 2024 at 6:10 am Reply
RMMD – “Oh, yeah. The kid likes playing Mortal Kombat. He probably heard some say ‘finish him.’ I guess we’ll know soon enough if he scores a fatality.”
I speak Jive
July 4th, 2024 at 7:43 am Reply
Rex Morgan – It’s really disappointing that Beatty forgot to draw the room’s wall with cracked plaster and patches. Now I’m not sure that this guy is really a low class lowlife.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Liam
July 4th, 2024 at 4:30 am Reply
MW-And it was accomplished single handedly by Mary Worth.
TheDiva
July 4th, 2024 at 7:04 am Reply
MW: And Mary was there! You don’t think that dilettante Jefferson came up with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” without the aid of tired axioms and theoretically edible muffins, did you?
BigTed
July 4th, 2024 at 4:42 am Reply
Mary Worth: Now that we know Dr. Jeff is yacht-rich, I guess it makes sense that he could buy out an entire pier so he and his lady friend could watch July 4th fireworks alone. (“Well, can I at least bring some of my friends along?” Mary asked. “Your friends?” Jeff replied. “I’d rather stick a lit firecracker down my pants!” And then Mary made a sexual pun so filthy that we could never repeat it here, and it turned out to be a pretty fun night after all.)
Morgan Wick
July 4th, 2024 at 5:04 am Reply
In defense of Mary Worth, July 2 is the date the Continental Congress actually declared independence from a “legal and administrative” perspective, so the Declaration of Independence is really the only thing we’re honoring today.
Inspector Gotcha
July 4th, 2024 at 6:29 am Reply
MW: Mary swells with pride as she gazes at the inspirational spectacle in the sky and softly murmurs, “Suck it, Limeys.”
Charterstoned
July 4th, 2024 at 6:08 am Reply
MW: Standing on the dock watching fireworks to celebrate 248 years of Democracy, Mary and Jeff’s faces exhibit all the emotion, drama, danger, exhilaration, fear, anticipation, hopefulness, vision, and resolve that surely attended the signing of the Declaration of Independence! Oh, wait—wrong occasion! They are remembering their satisfaction at watching a dehumidifier drip into a pan.
SabeHombre
July 4th, 2024 at 6:51 am Reply
MW: Watch it, Jeff. After 234 “dates”, a hand on Mary’s shoulder is going a little too far, my friend.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 4th, 2024 at 6:01 am Reply
Come to think of it, I’m perplexed Wilbur hasn’t lost a hand from mishandling fireworks yet.
***
Today I’m celebrating July 4th in the second best way possible, by being Canadian. The best way possible is being Canadian but somehow also getting the day off work. Especially after having this past Monday off for Canada Day.
jroggs
July 4th, 2024 at 4:36 am Reply
MW: Uh… where are those fireworks coming from? Are the foreground dolphins launching them from their blowholes?
JP: This story has already been so thrilling that one could scarcely imagine how it could possibly be more exciting, but Francesco Marciuliano nonetheless found the answer: a summer safety PSA delivered by two guys drinking juice in a kitchen. Not that Glen’s concern for the safety of their guests makes him any less of a total jerk; as we can see from Lucas’s completely proportionate and well-reasoned response, it only reinforces how much of an unforgivable asshole Glen is. Obviously Reena and Sophie will in no way be meaningfully imperiled by the dangers of this beach, but hopefully that scumbag Glen will receive the deserved comeuppance for his malevolent courtesy and sinister compassion as he is dragged out to sea and his limbs are chewed off by great white sharks after nefariously asking the ladies if there’s anything they want him to pick up at the store while he’s out in town.
The Quiet Man
July 4th, 2024 at 5:33 am Reply
JP: Is this another case of Ces trying to rip from headlines that haven’t been written yet? WTH is this kid’s problem? Go rub one out, you’ll feel better.
But What Do I Know?
July 4th, 2024 at 5:55 am Reply
JP — Hardly the topless Judge Parker comic strip we were projecting when we first tossed out the idea, but you do you, Francesco Marciuliano. .
Tom T.
July 4th, 2024 at 7:42 am Reply
JP: We saw early on that this guy was a jerk, but “they must die because they wouldn’t put out” is closer to being a supervillain.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
TheDiva
July 4th, 2024 at 7:04 am Reply
GG: Not looking forward to Gearhead Gertie: The Final Solution, I can tell you…
Rube
July 4th, 2024 at 7:55 am Reply
I generally dislike stereotyping people based on their social class or taste in entertainment, but if NASCAR fans genuinely find Gearhead Gertie to be entertaining, I have to think they deserve some of the abuse they get.
Hibbleton
July 5th, 2024 at 4:39 am Reply
RMMD: “I have no idea where he is…but then again, I’m sleeping it off on a sofa in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express downtown. They probably want me to put my pants on.”
Cleveland Mocks
July 5th, 2024 at 6:03 am Reply
RMMD: “Sorry, principal, but you’re gonna have to come here. My license has been suspended. But first, I gotta figure out where the hell I am.”
Guillermo el chiclero
July 5th, 2024 at 5:46 am Reply
RMMD: Is Henry Barajas guest writing this week? Tomorrow the bully boy and his dad’s surname will be Hernandez-Martinez.
Arabella
July 5th, 2024 at 5:05 am Reply
RMMD: Do you suppose — maybe Bully Boy is really TWINS? Identical cousins? Randy and Andrew! It’s enough to blow your mind!
MKay
July 5th, 2024 at 4:41 am Reply
RMMD: ” You want me to come to the SCHOOL? Wearing CLOTHES? Can I bring my BOTTLE?”
DUSTIN: The kid brings to mind that bespectacled peep who gave Foghorn Leghorn so much grief.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 5th, 2024 at 5:14 am Reply
Dustin: “No, no, no. I made my lunch money the way every young lawyer does: by helping rich men avoid accountability.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
I speak Jive
July 5th, 2024 at 7:39 am Reply
Mary Worth – “But enough about Wilbur. Let’s talk about me. I did a terrific job on arranging the goldfish funeral, and thanks to my efforts Wilbur immediately snapped out of his severe depression. I don’t know how the people around here could function without me. You’d think they would thank me profusely once in a while, since I do such a wonderful job of meddling in other people’s lives. What do you think?”
Daisy
July 5th, 2024 at 7:19 am Reply
MW: You know that icky feeling you get when the guy in the car ahead of you at the red light opens his car door and spits out a huge mass of phlegm and then the light turns green and you realize you just drove your brand new tires right over that gelatinous vile glob of spit and it’s all over your tire now and you can’t do a thing about it and you just want to scream…that’s the feeling I get with this strip.
taig
July 5th, 2024 at 5:02 am Reply
MW: Yeah, Wilbur was really demonstrating a “willingness to keep trying until he gets it right” by spending several weeks in his own filth.
CS: And here I thought it was the collective groaning of all the readers when Batiuk does one of these “Crankshaft be grilling” stories.
FC: “Don’t worry kids. It’s our all-powerful and all-just God smiting one of our enemies. (That’ll teach Karen to complain about me leaving Barfy’s poop on her yard)”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Tonio
July 5th, 2024 at 6:11 am Reply
Shave that massive shag of red hair and beard, and Hagar is Homer Simpson, who once nearly bankrupted The Frying Dutchman.
I speak Jive
July 5th, 2024 at 7:39 am Reply
JP – Sophie thought that last kidnapping was traumatic, but now she’s going to be kidnapped by a shark.
Tom T.
July 5th, 2024 at 7:52 am Reply
JP: “SOPHIE! You lost your top!”
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. I speak Jive
June 29th, 2024 at 8:19 am Reply
FC -I guess this is HTTGrandma’s apartment, as the furniture looks older than what we’ve seen at the Keane compound. Either Jet figured it was too much bother to fit a flat screen TV in that space, or Grandma still has an analog TV. That does look like an adapter box from the cable company on top of the TV. Also, the keys are just keys with no fob, which fits in with the 1960s toys on the floor.
Mary Worth – This crap has been dragging on for so long that there’s nothing new to say. To repeat: MAKE. IT. STOP. End this. Wilbur is not four years old. It’s a fucking goldfish.
The most unforgivable part of this is that this horseshit is presented as a remedy for severe depression.
69. erdmann
July 1st, 2024 at 7:33 am Reply
RMMD: Wait… Parker… lives with their aunt… bullied and wears glasses… Great Googly Moogly! This is the secret origin of non-binary Spider-Person from Earth-1197!
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. 2+2=7
July 3rd, 2024 at 6:46 am Reply
GIL THORP: Beth “Enough of that! We’ve got guests coming over, and we don’t need you bringing down the orgy.”
169. Charterstoned
July 3rd, 2024 at 12:15 pm Reply
MW: Dr. Jeff muses about developing some “quirks” of his own, wondering what might get him into Mary’s granny pants at long last.
69. Daisy
July 4th, 2024 at 8:02 am Reply
Peanuts: Love today’s installment – I envision Karen Moy’s word processor doing the same thing.
Thanks Josh, Baja and Scratchy!
Thank you, Josh, Baja and Scratchy!
Congrats to Missal on COTW! Thanks for the mentions, Baja and Scratchy!
Extra thanks to Scratchy who despite being scratchy remains crunchy in milk.
A trifecta! Thanks so much Josh, Baja, Scroty.
Congrats to all the fireworkin’-funny COTWs, and thanks a bunch to Josh (and Baja and Scratchy)!
Cheers and a big fireworks finale for Missal for COTW! And tons of sparklers and Roman Candles to all the runners-up!
And thank you, Baja and Scratchy for the mentions!
Congratulations on the Comment of the Week, Missal!
Congrats on the SCotW, AfkaB!
Thanks for the mentions, Josh and Baja and Scratchy!
Thanks, Baja & Scratchy! I appreciate the love for “Gil Thorp Barrelhouse Barmaid Blues.” Only took a few minutes to write the lyrics but I made up a tune for it and it was an earworm for two solid days. Here’s an encore.
She’s sittin’ on your lap
She’s takin’ all your crap
Get you a barmaid barrelhouse wife
She got a facial mole
Takes it in every hole
Get you a barmaid barrelhouse wife
Oh yeah
Get you a barmaid Muddy Boots wife
Thanks, Josh, Baja, and Scratchy.
I just made it at the last minute, hanging on to the back of the float, with my toes dragging along the pavement. Just like yesterday, til the Kiwanis gassed her up to 30 mph to shake me off. Congrats to Missal, and to.all us jokers, whether riding or lining the streets catching handfuls of Jolly Ranchers.
Congrats to Missal, everyone on the float, and my fellow shadowfloaters and scratchies! Broon Croons to Ukulele Ike, Navagator, Bob Tice, and Needless Exposition!
Thanks to our host and Baja. And I’ve never been prouder to be awarded a Scrotum.
Thanks Josh, Baja, and Scratchy for the highlights and the mentions. Funny stuff!
Congratulations to Missal and our other friends on the float, and also to my fellow shadow-ies and scratchies. Tips of the beret to Veronica, taig, Bob Tice, and els.
Thanks for the mentions! YOUR AD HERE mugs for everyone!
Fireworks displays for all the funniness, and congratulations!
Thanks for the mentions, Baja and Scratchy!
Thank you, Scratchy!
Thanks guys!
Congrats to Missal, and all the floaters, with special dark chortles for Schroduck, Veronica and Kevin on Earth. Thanks for the mentions, Josh Baja & Scratchy!
Congratulations, winners, and thanks for the mention, Baja!