Doc Pritchart has never heard of Pagliacci and wouldn’t recommend this costume
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 10/29/24
No. Sorry. Call me a coastal flatlander elitist if you must, but I do not buy today’s Barney Google and Snuffy Smith on any level. First of all, Hootin’ Holler’s access to mass media is limited to the radio and Parson Tuttle’s TV set; there would simply not be any local demand for the superhero franchise characters who make up the bulk of store-bought Halloween costumes, and Silas, the only local storekeeper, would certainly not bother to stock them. And you’re trying to tell me that Jughaid would actually enjoy the idea of a costume that by its very nature transforms mocking laughter into chuckles of approval? Utter nonsense. I’m sorry, but nobody in this blighted community is operating on that level of semiotic sophistication.
Gasoline Alley, 10/29/24
The history of humankind’s quest to create thinking machines has repeatedly produced surprises, where we discover that the capabilities that we bundle together as “intelligence” are separable, and some of the ones that we previously thought of as “advanced” are easier to implement via computers than ones we thought of as “basic.” In the 20th century, for instance, we wrote programs that could perform complex mathematics and achieve grandmaster level in chess, but the ability to operate robotic legs or process simple visual input proved impossible on the hardware at the time. Today, we have so-called “AIs” whose ability to produce fully fluent speech in human languages has outpaced its ability to tell us anything useful or real, with chatbots like ChatGPT cheerfully providing bullshit answers and made-up references that nevertheless sound exactly like a person wrote them. What I’m trying to say is that, since Google’s Gemini AI told people to eat glue and ChatGPT got lawyers fined by a judge, I find it fully believable that Arty would tell these little children that they don’t have to wear a seatbelt, right before he throws a switch and accelerates so fast that he smears them all over the inside of the saucer, but I don’t think he’d use the weird, clunky phrase “You’ve been watching too many TV and sci-fi movies!” in the process.
Family Circus, 10/29/24
Honestly can’t believe Big Daddy Keane is so happy to be on the receiving end of this kind of adoration from Jeffy, who is objectively his worst child by every measure. If he could see the look of withering disgust Billy is dishing out right now, he’d be brought back down to earth right quick.
146 replies to “Doc Pritchart has never heard of Pagliacci and wouldn’t recommend this costume”
MW:
“Now, are you going to partner with Sheila, Ed?”
“Nope. She’s had a paradigm shift in life goals. She bought a place on the water contiguous to where Santana’s Pete Escovedo’s drummer daughter lives, and she spends her days beachcombing!”
“Really? — and what does she observe when she’s doing that?”
“Sheila See sees Sheila E’s seashells by the See shore!”
RMMD-“I am too a decent surgeon. Here I’ll prove it by carving up a pumpkin,” Rex poutily says.
FC-Able to leave families in a single bound.
FC: Big Bil is smiling at first-born proxy of himself: Billy as Superman. He barely acknowledges third-born Jeffy if he notices him at all.
“I’m a real superhero. I’m Daddy after he comes home from the s’loon!”
FC:
“I’m going as the plate-licking hobo that Estelle dated over at Mary Worth!”
FC: Billy responds in typical Billy fashion; “Since when is Dad a flaming homosexual?”
You could throw a Phantom strip into GA’s place and your comment would still (mostly) work.
MW: Am I insane, or didn’t Ed hire another vet the last time we did this plot?
GA:
I’m guessing that there isn’t a Marie Slodowska Curie among the three of them.
BG&SS:
“They ain’t laughin’ at ya on accounta yer costume, Jughaid! — they’re laughin’ at ya on accounta yer backwoods colloquialisms ‘n’ elisions!”
Big Daddy Keane smiles at neither of his imbecile children, no. He’s simply strangling a kitten behind that wall, as he does.
GA: Sorry, Blue Shirt Girl, but no amount of safety harnesses can protect you from the banana peel rugby scrum happening on your head.
FC: Jeffy may want to rethink pretending to be a dad when he learns that Billy is going as Man of Steel Superman.
HtH: It’s always a little awkward when you innocently invite a friend over to check out your fishgirl porn collection and he suddenly puts your meat in his mouth.
JP: Ah, so this is where Neddy needed to go since her relationship with Declan collapsed: an immediate unannounced visit to Sophie’s dorm room across the country.
Challenge: Come up a possible reason for why Neddy is here.
Challenge (hard mode): Come up with a plausible reason for why Neddy is here.
Challenge (impossible mode): Guess whether that is Reena or Ronnie on the couch.
RMMD: Really, Little Boomhauer? You want to talk about who’s too old for kid stuff? You sure you want to go down that road, you middle-aged gnome?
MW:
“You know, you’re a lot easier to take after a glass of wine, Stell!”
THWACK
Baldo vs Heart of the City : In one strip, the pretty heady (IMHO) message of “Age ratings are actually arbitrary measures of how often certains ‘no-no’s show up in a movie, not how disturbing/outrageous the content actually is”.
In the other, characters are acting like a musical romantic comedy is the edgiest movie ever made for some reason.
***********
Snuffy Smith : If Baja taught me anything, it’s that Aunt Loweezy’s plan worked better than she thought : Jughaid will actually have the SCARIEST costume of his peers, and if they insult him, it’ll be out of bitter envy.
************
Family Circus : actually, Billy is angry at Jeffy because he wanted to wear Dad’s clothes (and glasses) on top of his costume to go as Clark Kent.
************
Safe Havens : “Oh, so you’re gonna fight Iron Man, then?” “What? Isn’t he MARVEL, so he wouldn’t-” “There’s actually a villain named Scarecrow who uses fear gas in MARVEL, as well as DC COMICS. Like, both companies have one, but most people don’t know because the DC one is used much more often than the MARVEL one.”
CS: Physical newspapers might have to rotate vertical strips 90 degrees for formatting reasons, but can anyone explain to me why websites with individually-displayed comics have to run this strip sideways? Is this something on which Tom Batiuk himself insists? It’s bad enough that this week is being dedicated to “Pizza Box Dipshit
adjacent toversus Someone Else’s Recognizable IP,” but Batiuk always has to go the extra mile to be needlessly obnoxious.Luann: This is supposed to be “Stef is paranoid and out-of-line and stupid,” and the Trufans are mostly happy to unquestioningly lap that narrative up, but… Stef’s right. She’s 100% correct not to trust these two. Tiffany has been pining for Kip for years, and Kip has been all too happy to play the will-they-or-won’t-they game with her while cutting his girlfriend down constantly. There isn’t even a reason to root for Tiffany to get with Kip instead of Stef. Tiffany doesn’t have some special appreciation for Kip’s qualities and traits, because he’s never had any (intentional) characterization beyond “hunky quarterback.” Stef is supposed to be the shallow skank, but Tiffany is just as unpleasant and her desire for Kip has never been anything more substantial than horniness for beefcake, and his attraction to her is equally superficial. All of these people suck. Speaking of severely unlikable people, where did Bets go? Is she off-panel passive aggressively crossing her arms and tapping her foot, or did she just poof out of existence because her role in this plot is over?
FC:
J: “I’m Matt Foley, motivational speaker.”
B: “Great costume!”
J: “Costume? No, it’s step one from the Help Your Daddy Become a Success! book Mommy gave me.”
B: “Passive-agressive behavior is heredietary, right?”
DtM: “I lost a dime bag. Lucky, I left the brick home.”
MW: “My new partner will be my attractive ex, Dr See!”
“S-O-O-O-B!!”
9CL: Another touching tale from The Land of Witless Wussies.
FC: Jeffy is already sucking up to inherit the Family Circus franchise.
FC — Once again the colorist has it wrong. Jeffy’s nose ought to be a deep shade of brown. . .
Looks like Baja Gaijin has decided to sleep in today…
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: To be fair, “Chuckles of Approval” is both the best and worst clown name ever.
@Anonymous:
Safe HavensON THE FASTRACK…I got them confused. Sorry, folks!
@jroggs:
Challenge: Come up a possible reason for why Neddy is here.
Answer: To steal Sophie’s rebound boyfriend and make him her rebound fiance.
Challenge (hard mode): Come up with a plausible reason for why Neddy is here.
Answer: Because Ces is a hack writer who thinks this is a good set-up for DRAMA!!!
Challenge (impossible mode): Guess whether that is Reena or Ronnie on the couch.
Answer: Trick question. Just imagine the threesome that ought to happen but won’t.
@jroggs: “All of these people suck” If it wasn’t for Ox (who I’m sure the Evansii will eventually ruin in some way) you basically summed up this whole comic.
@Lauralot: Close, Dr. Mr. Ed. simply made Eshtelle his unpaid assistant.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: A clown suit is substantially better than the inflatable Coal Miner Dying of Black Lung Disease Jughaid originally wanted.
BGSS I like how thst ‘costume’ seems to come in a pancake mix box, as if the clown outfit was just a bunch of brightly-colored powders you throw on your child. Look at me, I’m Pasty the Clown!
GA Really liking the ‘and other stuff’ girl. Obviously someone hasn’t been watching too much TV and sci-fi movies.
FC I can imagine Jeffy eventually turning to a life of crime of some sort, but I don’t think he really has the ‘rizz’ as the the kids say, to pull off pimping.
The Family Circus kids are missing the obvious costume choice: they should go as melons.
@pugfuggly: There was a parody, can’t remember what show or comic it was, where Billy robbed a bank. The cops caught him, because they just followed the dotted-line back to his hideout.
MW – That’s not how partnerships work. My father was a partner. Partners share office space and overhead expenses. That’s it. They each retain their own customer base and have their own assistants who work only for them. Adding a partner would have zero effect on Ed’s workload. Karen Moy must have led a remarkably privileged and sheltered life, as she repeatedly demonstrates that she has no idea how work…um…works.
MW:
“Sheila See will be my new partner! — but not until she returns from a sightseeing trip to the Vatican that she’s planned for some time. See, Sheila See wants to wholly see the Holy See!”
There’s no way Pa Keene didn’t tell Jeffy to say that to fuck with Billy. Maybe next time you’ll clean up your black rectangles instead of dropping them everywhere you go, Billy.
MW – What Dr. Ed is apparently referring to is a merger. He’s merging his practice with another practice (presumably Dr. See’s) which will then be incorporated as a new practice.
@Lauralot: I think he melted down and ran away.
FC: “I’m Diddy!”
MW: Tough one today. It’s everything we all thought even if it’s not really describing how offices and partnerships work…I find it a little…sad that Ed and Stelle immediately ran home to drink wine alone in Stelle’s sad apartment? You couldn’t even go out for a drink and a quick bite?
Or is this what leads to the nookie?
Pibgorn: 81 days and counting….
FC – No, Jeffy is not the worst child. That would be Dolly. She’s stupid like Jeffy and comes up with a lot of malaprops, but the worst thing is that she’s a tattletale and a suck up. She’s like a combination of Leave It To Beaver’s Judy and Eddie Haskell.
Rex Morgan – I don’t know which is the most excruciating – endless stories about roots country musicians, teenagers doing a badly written, half assed vaudeville act, or poorly drawn children exchanging boring banter.
9CL – Ye gods. Now we’re doing time skips with Lolly and Alistair as children. Of course, Alistair already worships Lolly. Why bring in a new generation to rejuvenate this strip if it’s the same garbage as before? Brooke knows only one story (using the term loosely), and he never fails to run it into the ground.
FC: Bil is looking at Jeffy with pride and admiration. Sure sounds like a superpower beyond the ability of normal human beings.
Blondie: “Hi, I’m Maya. I’m a robot.”
GA – In the unending struggle of Tea World, this brave little robot raises a shout of defiance against the Cup oppressors. Saucer power!
FC – Billy learned an important life lesson that Halloween: You get more candy by being a suck-up than by being a superhero.
@Lauralot: re MW: Yes, there was definitely a scene at that time when Ed introduced Estelle to his new veterinarian assistant, a young attractive woman. This was intended to solve his overwork problem after his nephew Stephen had burned out and left. I remember thinking that her introduction could lead to some jealousy and romantic drama, but I don’t recall her being seen or mentioned again after that one appearance. Maybe she was just interning for a few months/years.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Polonio, did you know I bought an elevator company?”
“You don’t say, Don Abundio! I bet that’s a good business!”
“It has its ups and downs… I think we’re ready to go on Laugh-In!”
BG&SS – I’d like to see Jughaid dress as Archie’s pal Jughead. Just switch out the coonskin cap for a crown and he’s good to go.
@I speak Jive: Rex Morgan: It’s a toss-up.
Bizarro: Can anyone make out that sheet music, or is it just gibberish?
Six Chix – Worst Marlon Brando impression ever.
Six Chix – “You’re on, babe. This time, I want you to marry the pumpkin and wear the sandwich!”
BGSS: When is the last time you saw any child dress up as a non-ironic, non-monster clown? (Yes, I know all clowns are monstrous, but I’m speaking of the ones that maintain a pretense that they’re not.) Between the Joker, Killer Klowns from Outer Space (that’s a thing again now, I guess?) and Spirit Halloween running with a haunted carnival theme this year, I thought we’d all accepted that clowns are horrific and we should just take that to its logical conclusion.
FC: Daddy Keane isn’t smiling from the hero worship. He’s convinced Jeffy, the least favorite and dumbest of his offspring (and that’s a tight competition), that wearing some of his old clothes destined for the Goodwill bag counts as a costume, saving him a lot of time, money, and effort.
GA: There is lots of evidence that the current AI boom is unsustainable, but being mocked in Gasoline Alley has got to be the nail in the coffin.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith – Hootin’ Holler is so poor that a whole morality and mythology about self-reliance has sprung up that is as much about preserving pride and egos as it is merely a means of survival. But many such communities with that mytho-morality like the Amish and Mennonites also have a strong work and craft ethic, which the degenerated denizens of Hootin’ Holler do not. Still, handmade is valued over store bought, lest one look like they are putting on airs.
While we (not we, as in readers of this blog, but the perceived audience) like to laugh at the bumpkin burlesque of the Google clan, the fact is Pluggers also share a similar mythology of simplicity, only in a more consumer capitalist notion where “simple, honest” notions mean buying ready-made consumables at Wal-Mart that are the end result of complex chains of production and distribution that don’t ask much of Pluggers, except compliance with the established order.
Gasoline Alley – A quick death by rapid acceleration is far preferable than slowly asphyxiating because that “intelligent” robot forgot to account for Earthlings requiring stable oxygen levels.
Family Circus – As a child Daddy Keane dreamed of making comic books like the ones he and his buddies read in their tree houses: Superman, Batman, The Justice League, etc. For a bespectacled bullied kid, it was pure escapism, and rather than spend hours at the end of bench in Little League, he used that time to learn how to draw.
When he left art school his work was rejected from the major comics publishers, so he took up graphic design jobs to make ends meet. When he started to have annoying melon-headed kids he began writing some dark joke comics about the struggle of being a parent, inspired by (okay, stealing from) the early Dennis the Menace. His comics got shared around and copies ended up at a syndicate, who made him an offer to create a daily strip. It’s wasn’t Batman, but it was something, and a few years showing he could produce could open up some doors.
But as time went on his syndicate told him the “cute” malapropisms (whose double entendres were often lost on the rubes in the Middle America reading the newspapers) were a hit and asked him for more such content. As his strip became tamed and domesticated, the comic books were being loosed from the oppressiveness of the Comics Code Authority and growing edgier. In the age of the counter-culture, Daddy Keane was a square and bullied by the pot-smoking rebel artists who used to be the audience for his early work.
But Daddy could still dream. Sure, he sold out, but he still sees himself as a Clark Kent, and if the world wouldn’t recognize it, well the world he made in his little circles would! Except Billy, who bore the name and legacy of his lame father/creator. Billy is just glad he didn’t have to draw this dreck on his occasional week covering for Daddy.
Pluggers – A colorist’s midlife crisis is thinking, “No way is it worth coloring the Walkman separately for the sake of the 5 to 10 seconds anyone is ever going to look at this stupid cartoon.”
“This isn’t rocket science, it’s brain surgery!” the robot said as it laid out scalpels, saws, and scoops. “It’s old mi-go technology from Yuggoth. Much easier than sending your meat shells into space!”
@I speak Jive: “9CL – Ye gods. Now we’re doing time skips with Lolly and Alistair as children. Of course, Alistair already worships Lolly. Why bring in a new generation to rejuvenate this strip if it’s the same garbage as before? Brooke knows only one story (using the term loosely), and he never fails to run it into the ground.”
Same old “pre teen children obsess with finding a future spouse” plotting. And today’s strip features young Alistair swimming, but we’ve already had a “present day” strip where he doesn’t know how to swim and is asking someone to teach him.
C’shaft: How. Dare. You. You are not fit to polish Charles Schutz’s gravestone, let alone appropriate one of his most cherished classics.
DT: “Shot three bystanders in the process, but I saved the city $2.35!”
Dustin: Just let him go, Dustmom. The sooner his heart gives out, the sooner you can go looking for cubs in Cabo during Spring Break.
GT: Marty Moon must be in detox again…
JP: “Hiiiii, sis, I’m all done with my absurd relationship drama and thought I’d help out with yours!”
Luann: “We’re just talking about how you’re a terrible person and Kip is unhappy with you behind your back! Geez, you are so paranoid!”
MW: Isn’t Ed about at the point when he could retire and pass his practice on to someone else? He can still volunteer at the Humane Society if he misses the euthanasia.
Phantom: Okay, we get it! Geez, if I wanted to do a deep dive into Elon Musk’s egotistical fantasies I’d still be on Xwitter.
Pluggers have updated their cultural reference, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
RMMD: “Just humor him, guys, he’s paying” explains so much about why Rex’s family continues to endure him.
@TheDiva: JP: “Hiiiii, sis, I’m all done with my absurd relationship drama and thought I’d help out with yours!”
More like ‘I’m here to get MY absurd relationship drama tangled up with YOUR absurd relationship drama!’ Seriously, ten-to-one DeClan followed Neddy and will execute some sort of half-assed plan for reconciliation/revenge. If this weren’t taking place in New York, I’d be expecting CIApril and AnnDorisWhatserface to show up too. Hell, they still could!
I’m a huge Superman fan and even I blanched at the syrupy Precious Momentsness of today’s FC. If only the Keanes had Billy dressed as Deadpool or Punisher.
GA: A new twist on the old cartoon crescent Moon, this time seen from near-Earth space.
Snuffy Smith: I imagine most Hootin’ Holler kids’ Halloween costumes looking like the ones in photos from the early 20th Century, which almost all look like they were found in a cabin in the deep woods where the cops found human bones and clothing scraps in the stove.
Real life Billy is Glen Keane, a legendary animator who directed immortal masterpieces at Disney and received tons of awards. He made a career independent from his father and, according to any measurement, he surpassed him. The real life Jeffy is Jeff Keane, who simply inherited “Family Circus”, which he runs mostly by recycling clip arts. That’s why he subconsciously drew his brother as a superior being soaring in the sky and himself as a small child wearing the clothes of his father, which are too big for him. I hope the “Family Circus” money are enough to pay for a psychologist!
@Lord Flatulence: It’s mostly gibberish, though it gestures vaguely toward 2/4 -time march music.
Jughaid might get laughs as a clown if he tried to sing Pagliacci.
FC: …aaaand…fast forward twenty years and we see Jeffy Keane as an adult…
CS: What a perfect metaphor for Tom Batiuk’s creative skills. His retelling of It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown was so boring that even Linus himself is rolling his eyes and begging for it to end.
GA: I want this flying saucer to land on the Dune planet during the Butlerian jihad, just to confuse the hell out of everybody.
MW: Cut to the wedding, where Estelle meets her sister wife for the first time. “What? I said I was planning to add a partner…”
@Anonymous: re: movies.
That reminds me of an episode of “M*A*S*H” where Hawkeye and BJ were excited about a movie night showing of “The Moon is Blue” because it had been “banned in Boston”.
They were disappointed and bored.
Charles wound up mansplaining that ANYTHING could be banned in Boston if certain prudes had their way.
Snuffy Smith: The fact that the writer think kids would care about whether or not you’re wearing a homemade costume on Halloween just confirms to me that the writers of most newspaper comic writers have never in their lives interacted with anybody under the age of seventy, if that, and are operating mostly on guesswork.
Gasoline Alley: Much like with the infamous child-kidnapping bear arc, this whole plotline of a robot telling these little girls to get in his vehicle and come away with him on a fanciful adventure is really rubbing me the wrong way. It feels like any second we’re gonna find out this sci-fi journey is just the childrens’ perception of a creepy guy in a robot costume luring them into his van with the offer of candy. What is it with Gasoline Alley and accidentally making innocuous things like cartoon animals or b-movie robots come off as astonishingly weird and uncomfortable?
Family Circus: Politics on the Keane Kompound can get cutthroat, a lesson Billy is learning all too well as he realizes that Jeffy has taken advantage of the Halloween festivities to ingratiate himself with Big Daddy Keane, ensuring he will receive special privileges and avoid punishment for transgressions against the Keane Kode.
@jroggs: Bets had a slight headache, took a Advil and went to bed early.
Blondie: the artist is really dedicated to the carefree laughter in the final panel, but it still looks to me like Maya is climaxing. Don’t do this behind the wheel, girls.
“I’m a REAL superhero. I’m Daddy. Mommy says that in bed he’s like the incredible shrinking man!”
“See, I’m even wearing a hat, just like all grown-ups do…don’t they?’
FC- So…Daddy is a bum? Maybe Jeffy needs to borrow that flask from the famous panel where Bil and Billy come home from the football game as well.
Pearls Before Swine: There’s some metatextual comedy to making “As a smart person who knows American civics, we should have some sort of test people should have to pass before they can vote. Perhaps a literacy test…” comics for over a decade
GA: It’s interesting that Hootin Holler’s kids prefer homemade costumes even when Silas apparently fills the void of Spirit Halloween, which sets up their pop-ups almost everywhere but draws the line at Hootin Holler. Do the kids prefer raisins to candy as well because they see fruit as more exotic than processed sugars? Honestly, Hootin Hollerites seem more well-adjusted than most flatlanders at Halloween.
GA: Hot take 1: Since when is a plate of fettucine an acceptable hair style?
GA: Hot take 2: This would much funnier if XKCD tackled it, even if I had to bust out my old college physics textbook.
@Conynaut: Pastis has been getting crankier over the years; this seems to be a typical arc for cartoonists that Schulz at least mostly dodged.
@Conynaut: Well, y’know, it’s those people who aren’t educated like I am…
@Philip: Re Family Circus – That sounds uncomfortably like Tom Batiuk’s life, with a couple of minor differences. The major differences are that Batiuk didn’t turn his own children into a comic strip, and Bil Keane was never self important to the point that he thought he was writing Pulitzer Prize material.
@Calvin’s Cardboard Box: Not only do the children obsess about finding their future mate, without exception the boys worship the girl they have chosen and talk about her matchless beauty.
@UncleJeff: I didn’t look it up to confirm it, but I’m sure that that movie was controversial because the dialogue included the word “panties.”
It was a courtroom scene.
Jeffy is clearly going as early era Daddy Keane from the first few years of the comic when he was more of a disheveled alcoholic.
FC – At first I thought that Jeffy was going as Don Draper from Mad Men, but the clothes are too old.
S4th – Something tells me that Sally’s sister and Ralph should have done a little research before they moved to this town.
@I speak Jive: You’re thinking of Anatomy of a Murder, which was rated X (Condemned) by the Catholic Legion of Decency. The Moon is Blue was banned because of the use of the word virgin of & by a young woman.
@The Rambling Otter: I’m sure he went to prison proclaiming that it was actually Not Me and Ida Know who perpetrated the crime
@Die Rosenkavalieren: Oh, you’re right. Thanks for the correction. The censors got their panties in a twist even though the movie didn’t use the word panties.
On a comics related note, didn’t one of the 9CL interchangeable females spend a few days shouting “Panties!” for no reason?
Pluggers: At least they got the age correct musical genre for an older boomer. Most legacy strips would have a main character of that age grooving to the songs of Pat Boone, Johnny Ray, or Eddie Fisher.
GA – The robot looks like he’s been waiting a long time to squeeze this question in. How long as he been sitting there listening to the girls spout malapropisms? Days? Weeks? Being a machine, he doesn’t need to eat or sleep, and being eldritch horrors, neither do they.
Family Circus: “What am I, chopped liver?” says Mommy as she sees Jeffy’s “Superhero Daddy” costume — and also when she’s distributing real, homemade chopped-liver bites to to unappreciative neighborhood kids who were hoping for a full-size Reese’s.
“I’m funny how? I mean, funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?” says Jughaid menacingly. Loweezy retreats, surprised to hear Joe Pesci’s words coming from his mouth, not knowing that Snuffy has regularly been showing his son crime dramas in order to cement his future as the area’s top local meth dealer and chicken thief. Then Jughaid puts on his actual Hallerween costume, a protective yellow jumpsuit and breathing apparatus. “I yam the one who knocks!” he cries, as his mystified mother looks on with equal parts pride and concern.
Pluggers: You’re a plugger if you think you’re rocking out to “hair metal,” not knowing that your favorite song is based on a British guy’s tea order combined with half-remembered lyrics from the Archies.
@Guillermo el chiclero: Yeah, until recently they were still claiming Pluggers were obsessed with Lawrence Welk.
@Die Rosenkavalieren: Anatomy of a Murder had a better musical score than The Moon is Blue, also.
@Peanut Gallery: re Pluggers: Not necessarily a colorist’s mistake. You don’t remember that limited edition transparent Walkman? It went with everything without color clash. Probably a lot of people have forgotten it…
FC – I honestly think this is a recaptioned strip from decades ago when it was still OK to dress like a hobo at Halloween.
BB:. No, Sarge is NOT snacking again. He’s on the same snack he began as soon as he left breakfast.
MW:. Elope? They can’t do that to us. While I wasn’t going to attend a furry wedding, I certainly wanted to see the pictures and videos. And what is Sid supposed to do with all his commemorative merch– it’s not like Brandy and Tommy would use it at their wedding. But he’s smart, Sid will find some way to unload it.
@Old School Allie Cat: #87: When I was a kid a hobo outfit was real easy to cobble together and popular. Today it’s making fun of the homeless.
@Old School Allie Cat: Related to the idea of an acceptable costumes, “Baby Blues” this week has Hammie wanting to go to school dressed as a pirate, which Mom forbids. Most school districts today would allow costumes on the 31st, but no toy weapons, even Hammie’s cardboard sword.
@Myrtle: Perfect for playing the cassette version of Faust’s first album.
@Ukulele Ike: Can’t beat Duke Ellington!
@Guillermo el chiclero:
When I was a kid a hobo outfit was real easy to cobble together and popular. Today it’s making fun of the homeless.
Same friend, same. I used to rock a sweet gypsy costume. Never again.
@Guy Nerdlinger:
Most school districts today would allow costumes on the 31st, but no toy weapons, even Hammie’s cardboard sword.
I have a friend whose second grade son was suspended for three days because while he was waiting for the bus after school, he was reading, and using the bookmarker his grandmother gave him – an old letter opener that had belonged to his grandfather. But like many old letter openers, they made it look like a sword. Game over.
@I speak Jive: I couldn’t help hear her yelling it in Jimmy Stewart’s voice.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
Yeah, when my buds and I got a little bit older, we thought costumes were lame and we just dressed up as bums. It was easy to do and fun. We rubbed burnt cork all over our faces to simulate beards and general dirt.
When trick-or-treating started to peter out about 9 o’clock, we’d hit up the neighborhood bars. The old men sitting on their stools got a kick out of us and many of them gave us whatever change they had laying on the bar.
RIP Teri Garr.
@astroboy: Well…that’s what they’re going to call it when they are found on the lumpy mattress of a Days Inn room.
@Lauralot: In the words of Admiral Nimitz… “strike all after ‘insane'”.
:)
@Little Guy: At this rate, the baby will be fully grown by the next update.
@Cleveland Mocks: #95: One Halloween I had not planned to go trick or treating figuring I was getting a little too old. Later that night we discovered we were running out of candy but not out of trick or treaters. My mom told me to go make the rounds of the neighborhood and gather more candy to give out. I probably set a record for cobbling together a hobo costume. When I was of that tender age was when American men were giving up wearing hats. We had an endless supply of discarded, beat up fedoras to use, and no, we didn’t make those Jughead/Goober Pyle crown hats out of them.
@LTJpezcore1:
MW: Tough one today. It’s everything we all thought even if it’s not really describing how offices and partnerships work…I find it a little…sad that Ed and Stelle immediately ran home to drink wine alone in Stelle’s sad apartment? You couldn’t even go out for a drink and a quick bite?
Or is this what leads to the nookie?
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Estelle: Yup.
RIP Teri Garr. My God, but she was funny! Thanks for the laughs. I’m setting up “Young Frankenstein” for my Halloween movie.
@Old School Allie Cat: Yet people in the states regardless of their mental states, have full access to and are allowed to carry guns…
MW: Why is Ed holding an old-fashioned cutthroat razor? Is something dramatic about to happen in this strip?
DT, FG, Phantom: I think of these as the “action” strips, but I’m starting to wonder why. Dick Tracy has just done a whole week of “buildings exist” followed by the blistering police action of stopping fare dodgers; Flash Gordon (which is normally the one least likely to vamp for a week) seems to be settling into retelling a scene from the one Flash Gordon story everyone already knows; and Phantom is … doing whatever that is.
FC, meta: I have to disageee. Jeffy is certainly the worst Keane Kid by many measures, but there are so many ways in which the Keane Kids are awful, and I feel Billy and Dolly outdo him on some of them. (Billy’s the most agressive, and is also responsible for the terrible “Daddy’s taking a break” strips [in-universe; I realise Jeffy’s actually responsible for them and all else in real life]; Dolly is such a narc that she makes up her own rules just so she can narc about them, and recently seems to be making a bid to outdo Jeffy on the “failing to understand simple concepts” front.) PJ, much like Maggie Simpson, is the “best” by dint of not being able to talk.
HtH: I feel like the colourist, recognising the setting-equivalent version of “art on the refrigerator door”, gave the pantry metal doors because refrigerator door art is held on by magnets. Which, slightly to my surprise, isn’t entirely implausible! Naturally occuring magnetite is common in Scandinavia, and there’s a theory that the “sunstone” the Vikings used for navagation might have been an early magnetic compass (although the more common theory is that it’s polarising feldspar, which was used to measure the position of the sun in an overcast sky). But I still suspect the artist intended the door to be made of wood and the mermaid pics to be fixed by pushpins.
JP: Good guess, Neddy, but no, Sophie didn’t “stop by”; she lives here. It’s you. You’re the person who stopped by.
Anyway, I complain a lot that Judge Parker characters do not react to things the way real people do, so I would like to aknowlege that a deadpan “Great.” is exactly how most real people would react to an unexpected Neddy Driver-Spencer.
MW: There’s a plotline I see a lot that I absolutely hate — I’m sure TV Tropes has a name for it, but it’s the one where the main character is on a quest for treasure, or fame, or whatever, and over the course of the quest they realise that this thing they’re pursuing doesn’t matter, and abandon it to concentrate on what’s really important. And then, their reward for this mature realisation is that they get what they wanted in the first place anyway, which is kind of a mixed message. And that’s basically what we’ve got here, with “Ed not being a workaholic” as the quest object.
S4th: So … either nobody goes to Jackie’s new shop, nobody makes conversation with her while shopping, or these people deliberately don’t tell newbies about the Hallowe’en rules until the night itself. Either way, I am not getting “friendly small town, with slight eccentricities” vibes from this at all, and Jackie and Ralph might want to check they’re not building a giant wicker figure in the town square.
@Guillermo el chiclero: A few years ago, I walked my dog to a coffee shop, while my Sister went inside to get our coffee.
While I was waiting I sat down outside with my dog. Soon after an old man tried to hand me twenty dollars, saying “This is for the dog”
I had no idea at the time why he was handing money.
I refused because I didn’t need it, but he kept pushing it on me. I still didn’t take it and he walked away.
@jroggs: LUANN: This reminds me of all the high school love triangles, where Tiffany was constantly demonized for throwing herself at hot boys simply because they were hot, while Luann always liked the exact same guys for the exact same reasons as Tiffany did, yet we were expected to root for her.
@Anonyminimouse: It’s the workaholic at work. Even over their glass of wine, Ed is just making time to neuter one of his patients.
@Horace Broon: I did like when “Mad Rat Dead” did a similar variation, where a lab rat died during an experiment and was resurrected into a somewhat zombie-like state by The Rat God. Who would grant one wish, suggesting something like a mountain of cheese or something.
The rat wanted to kill the scientist who murdered him.
That was his sole objective but then later on he reads the scientists’ journal and (depending on what the user submitted during a questionnaire at the beginning) it turns out that the rat had a bad heart and the scientist was attempting to give the rat a heart transplant to save him.
The rat loses his shit and has an existential crisis upon reading this.
@Horace Broon: re: FG: My first impression was also that Schkrade was going to re-tell the “Crazed Zarkov kidnaps Flash and Dale and rockets them to far-off Mongo,” but this looks like a different story. Poor Dale’s already been hostagized and tied up, and Merciless Ming is terrorizing her with his deadly Dehumanizer Ray Machine. (Interesting that the Mongovians consider themselves “humans.”). Flash is going to shoot the rebels’ ships out of the sky to rescue Dale, which explains why the Royal Stewards (Big Hawk Guy, Lion Guy, Ice Queen, Hot Witch Queen) have all been somewhat….cool….to the Earthers.
S4th: I immediately recognized Jackie’s new store to be a knockoff of The Vermont Country Store, a tourist-oriented establishment designed to sell (mainly through catalogue and website) cute countrified tchotchkes, nightgowns, pancake mixes, local maple syrup, jams and jellies to leaf-peepers who seek to Vermont their lives up a bit. I would be surprised if a townsperson ever stepped over the threshold.
FC: Jeffy’s costume pays tribute to the real heroes,
1940s hoboesdads with vaguely defined jobs.SSmith: Low’eezy evades the problem by giving Jughaid an inadvertently creepy costume. What’s Appalachian for “We all float down here”?
Dustin: Helen, just let him go. The sooner Ed croaks, the sooner you can spend his life insurance money on trip to tropical resorts as a cougar on the prowl for young, handsome men that can give you experiences you haven’t experienced in decades. Because with Ed, you need a pair of magnifying glasses and a jacklift.
Luann: “I am pissed off that you are openly flirting with my boyfriend! Somehow I am the person in the wrong in this scenario!”
I won’t say the Evansii have an NTR fetish, but…
C-Shaft: Gotta feel for Linus Van Pelt. His bullying big sister got a cameo in one of Slylock’s Six Differences puzzles. He gets this. From now on he’ll be telling people that no, he doesn’t know what the Pizza Monster is like in real life and doesn’t care to find out.
GT: Keri appears to have a Nike swoosh on her ass. Odd place to tell people to “just do it.” Although she has been pr—you know what? I’m just gonna get myself in trouble here.
HtH: To no one’s surprise, Lucky Eddie’s art centers on nekkid girls with big titties and fish tails, plus a maritime landscape that looks like it comes from a seventies postcard. No surprise, either, that Hagar’s reaction is “Fuck it, let’s eat.”
JP: Either the RA or a security guard just let someone into Sophie’s room on the claim of being her sister. Whichever, they’re obviously fired. Hope they at least got a nice bribe out of it.
MW: Never trust anything a man says when he’s eating wine with a spoon.
Phantom: How boring would you imagine that a robot’s hallucinations would be? That boring, huh? Okay, now quadruple it.
RMMD: Being very proud of his recent surgical rotations, Rex will give his pumpkin new cheekbones and collagen injections.
@The Rambling Otter: I didn’t think about “spoilers!” because I assumed that many of the users here may be boomers or such who never touched or just really don’t care about videogames period.
Then that begs the question, if I believe that that’s the reaction, then why even bring them up at all?
@The Rambling Otter: If I had to guess, you’re in Portland.
Pluggers: You’re a Plugger if you don’t know the difference between hair metal and bubble gum. Sheesh.
GT: What? Sally and Brit don’t get their very own “Jefferson’s very own”? Frickin’ homer.
And what’s the deal with “POW!”? Okay, apparently even starter’s guns have been banned from schools, hence no “BANG!” and I can’t fault them for that. But I’m not sure a starter’s punch in the face is all that better an option.
@Horace Broon: Re S4th: I do wonder if the suddenly-always-there hostility of this small town towards outsiders means that Ces is looking to undo Jackie and Ralph’s move to the country and return them to wherever Sally and Ted are supposed to live. Does he harbor the quaint belief that he’d have to explain it?
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Here’s the upcoming arc of titles for the strip:
Sally Forth
Sally Forth, Featuring Ted Forth
Ted and Sally Forth
Ted Forth and Ralph
Ralph and Jackie (featuring Ted and Sally Forth)
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Just wait until Jackie and Ralph find about about the lottery.
I see Baja’s Evil Scary Clowns ‘R’ Us™ pop up Halloween store outside Hootin’ Holler is a success! Congrats on adopting the Cant beat ’em,join ’em attitude,my friend.
@jroggs:
#12. JP:. Of course Ned had to immediately visit Soph as soon as she lost her fiance. How else is she going to steal Soph’s older, inappropriate boyfriend?
Mary’s Worst: “Ed,dear, I Can’t MARRY YOU SOON ENOUGH, the rabbit died!” “Impossible! I don’t treat rabbits,Stale!”
@Voshkod: @The Rambling Otter: If I had to guess, you’re in Portland.
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Rambling Otter is Fred Allen? I never would have guessed! (Inside joke for the Old Time Radio fans in the audience.)
@Ukulele Ike: I feel the need to link to the story, just in case. It is an interesting diversion, if you haven’t read it before.
@Voshkod: Sally Forth
Sally Forth, Featuring Ted Forth
Ted and Sally Forth
Ted Forth and Ralph
Ralph and Jackie (featuring Ted and Sally Forth)
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Marvin & Friends Who Haven’t Smelled Him Yet
@Voshkod: Sally Forth
Sally Forth, Featuring Ted Forth
Ted and Sally Forth
Ted Forth and Ralph
Ralph and Jackie (featuring Ted and Sally Forth)
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“Who’s On Forth?”……the crossover with ” 9Weirdchick Lame” (no one under the age of 47 will be admitted during the orgy/piano scene).
@Voshkod: Sally Forth
Sally Forth, Featuring Ted Forth
Ted and Sally Forth
Ted Forth and Ralph
Ralph and Jackie (featuring Ted and Sally Forth)
________________________________
& Carol & Ted & Alice & Everyone Else In The World & Alfred E. Neuman
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: Thanks. I went on a minor Shirley Jackson short-story binge a couple of weeks ago, reading “The Renegade,” “A Fine Old Firm,” and “Flower Garden,” among others that I’d skipped in my younger days.
If anyone here isn’t familiar with the tale at Al’s link, you’ve missed out on an important wedge of late 20th century American spiritus mundi, so go read it right now.
Is Big Daddy Keane the doppelganger of Rick Steves? Could explain why he’s always away on bidness trips.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Mythtickle is running a cartoon (a rerun) of the pumpkin god losing his cool because he wanted to place the best pumpkin in the most sincere patch, but he can’t because “that kid with the blanket won’t leave.”
Linus is getting around this year.
No Scratchy today. Understandable, though. Not only did the Yankees lose last night, the Giants lost and the Knicks lost.
He’ll probably come to sometime tomorrow afternoon.
In the meantime, rest it off in peace, Friend.
@Cleveland Mocks: Scratchy is a Minnesota boy. I doubt he loves ALL the NY teams, just has a thang for the Yankees. I blame an obscure brain disease.*
@Dr. Pill: I added Mythtickle to my daily reading list a year or so ago. I’d say it provides me with joy perhaps….25% of the time? Some of the characters — Thor and Anansi, say — irritate the hell out of me. But Venus and the African goddess with the staff and the cat-thing who runs the pub are stone cuties. And I am mystified by the little tin-can knight dude with the semaphore head flags; can you explain what the hell he is?
*for a real New Yorker, rooting for the Yanks is like going to Vegas and rooting for the house at a blackjack table. NYC’s iconic teams are the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the 1962 Mets, which eventually became the 1969 and 1986 Mets.
MANDRAKE:. That was a dumb move, mystery guy. Mandrake can’t get to you because of your filtered glasses. Dr. Foto is susceptible to his power.
Dirk Twacy Hollistic Defective: The Tracyville Players present “My Fare Evader” “Ok, Punk, what’s your excuse?” ” The pain you rain will get me to explain.” “By George, I think he’s got it! And what will you do while in pain?” “Explain! Explain!” “And what will force you to explain?” “The pain! The pain!”
“Hey, Officer Tracy, TRACE YOU!”
@Ukulele Ike: NYC’s iconic teams are the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the 1962 Mets, which eventually became the 1969 and 1986 Mets.
____________
Scratchy’s all over the ’69 Mets.
@Ukulele Ike: I doubt he loves ALL the NY teams,
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How does he feel about The Jersey Jets and Giants?
@The Rambling Otter: The rat loses his shit and has an existential crisis upon reading this.
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John Simon really hated”Slylock Fox: The Movie” and really raked Reeky over the coals, but gave Formally Wounded Elk great notices for his Oscar™ nominated song,”Six Degrees Of Differences Between Us.” Congrats, F.W., don’t forget your friends around the Lost Forrest water pond when you become a big star in Hollyweird!
@Ukulele Ike: Was having Shirley Jackson thoughts myself.
Six Chex And A Cat Named Oscar Meyer In Search Of A Sandwich: WILL EXPLOIT BALONEY 4 SEX
@Cleveland Mocks: No Scratchy today.
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He’s making a personal appearance at Wart Scratchyland™
@Cleveland Mocks:
#141. Whatcha guys so miserable about! Let’s hear some appreciation of the New York Liberty and their first national championship in 27 years!
@H-Bob: Here’s a Rick Steves quote that might tie him to Big Daddy Keane.
“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood, and age only matters if you’re a cheese.”
@GarrisonSkunk: Or the “New York” Red Bulls, another team that won’t admit they don’t play in New York? AKA the New Jersey Energy Drinks.
@GarrisonSkunk: re Slylock Fox Movie: Garry, pal, don’t worry about me going Holly
weirdwood — I got outta that place pronto as soon as my scenes were done. Especially since it looked like the movie would never be finished. John Simon must have gotten hold of some of those “ghost scenes” that someone spirited out of the studio. Maybe they’ll show up on YouTube sometime. Or maybe I’ll do a rendition some Friday night at the LoFo Bar and Grille…. if you’re buying (snort,snort,snort)@Ukulele Ike: Shirley Jackson scared me too much when I was younger, First it was WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE and then THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, on top of a few creepy short stories. And now there is 24/7 news. *whimpers* I’m not sure I can take any fiction much stronger these days than THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.
@Dr. Pill: There was a robot chicken sketch, where The Great Pumpkin actually did show up, and was revealed to be an eldritch abomination and was devouring the entire cast, until Charlie Brown fed it to the Kite-Eating Tree.
The comic you mentioned sounds much better though :3