She had won the victory over herself. She loved Mary Worth
Post Content
Mary Worth, 10/14/24
“You’re right, Mary! I made a decision meant to avoid pain of the type I had suffered before, but now, under your careful guidance, I’ve learned that was a mistake. I’m ready to marry yet another emotionally unavailable workaholic! I’m ready to be a widow twice over! Thank you, Mary, for breaking my spirit!”
Intelligent Life, 10/14/24
Sure, this comic strip conflates the zoot suit, popularized by African- and Mexican-Americans in the 1940s, with a suit cut in a totally different style that was worn by the Joker as portrayed by Cesar Romero, a man of Spanish and Cuban descent, which isn’t great. On the other hand, it got me to do a little Googling and discover that for a mere $950 you could be the owner of a genuine “Jokers Wild Purple” zoot suit, so who’s to say if it’s good or bad?
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 10/14/24
I kind of love Silas’s emotion affect in the second panel here: he’s both pleased and a little puzzled. Have Snuffy and his fellow primitive denizens of Hootin’ Holler finally developed the ability to understand and even sympathize with the emotions of others? Silas had never thought he’d see the day, but his store is the lone outpost of globally-scaled free-market capitalism in this otherwise backwards region, and he’s ready to profit off this local development with the sale of some of the sympathy cards he ordered a while back, just in case.
179 replies to “She had won the victory over herself. She loved Mary Worth”
Having thought it over, Stell realized that literally anyone who isn’t Wilbur is worth marrying.
BG&SS. Zoom in. The worms have sad and confused expressions on their little faces. Sentient faces. The animal apocalypse that led to Slylock Fox began, much like our own world’s evolution, in the lower life forms and, geographically, in Hootin’ Holler. Just what is in that Meth they’re making in those hills?
H&L: Love Lois’ not so subtle “yank on this!” message to everyone upset about the renaming of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples day.
Great blog post title, no notes
MW:
“Pierre, this journeyman catcher — first name Phil — toiled in the big leagues for 16 years, primarily for Kansas City and Minnesota, and later served as bullpen coach for a variety of teams. What is his last name?”
“Woof!”
“Mary — the dog’s a genius!”
MW:
Mary flashes a cleverly-concealed Queen of Diamonds at Estelle to get her to agree with everything that Mary says.
MW: You might think that Pierre is just making a typical soft barking sound there, but I think it’s more of a ‘Wooooof, that’s really pathetic, Mom. Did you really trade a couple of muffins for your last ounce of self-respect?”
IL: Wait, “I’m not a real cat”? Is he one of those people who identify as animals that the people on twitter were always warning me about?
BGSS: So, it seems that Snuffy was so upset about his friend Owen giving up his life of sloth that he killed him, in a kind of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest act of sympathy? Am I reading that right?
I suppose it’s a kind of structural weakness in the conceit of Mary Worth: Mary has to be the one to figure out everyone’s relationships for them, and the writer has to eventually run into the boundaries of their own understanding of human relationships (must resist roasting Karen Moy), which limits how complicated problems can occur, which limits how smart the supporting characters can be to remain unable to figure things out for themselves, so over the years they all necessarily will come off as quite dim.
I mean, I only yesterday wrote a slam dunk of a thrill ride of a superhero fight between two certified geniuses who forced me to try and push my creative skill to keep up with them as they managed to present each other with impossible problems and then solved them anyway over and over, escalating to a terrible tragedy even as I surprised myself by succeeding to imagine how the good guys would get out of this one again and again, and I could do that because I know some tricks to writing characters who are smarter than you are and I think the only thing really standing in the way of a writer who wants to do that is their own ego. But then I’m younger than Karen Moy and less wise.
RMMD: Mud’s rep is so on the line. If he so much as burps, mayhem ensues.
H&L: Maize for dinner. Nice touch.
Why did Moy and Brigman feel like Stella needed some unspeakably tragic backstory to justify her perfectly reasonable demand that a fiancé should pay attention to her? Are we going to find out that she broke up with Wilbur because in high school, she dated a selfish shlub who also died?
Actually, if anything about Stella’s romantic history needs explaining, it’s how many chances she gave Wilbur. Maybe the workaholic heart attack angle was originally supposed to justify that. “Selflessness KILLS, Ian! Say what you will about Wilbur, but I know he’ll never ever ever die from working too hard!”
BG&SS:
“…and a votive candle!”
“Why in tarnation would you want one o’ them?”
“Cuz I’m sayin’ a prayer for Owen, meanie!”
MW – Ah, Sid, I see you took my advice and had Madi give Pierre some eyeroll coaching. That’s great because he really need that skill for today’s dtrip, and doing it safely is so important for a frenchie!
DtM: WTF!? It’s a great line, “My parents won’t do it so it’s up to us to make some kids,” but really out of place in a strip about a six-year old.
Dustin: Hey gang. Narcolepsy is not one of those disabilities you can make fun of. Stick to fat jokes.
Mary Worth. Fun fact. Mary’s Charterstone Condo address is Room 101.
RMMD:
“Now, I know that lots of you folks would like to engage in supportive participatory activity with your footgear during my delivery of my forthcomin’ signature hit, but you jes’ don’t have enough crusty accumulation on your shoes right now. To those of you, I would only remind you of the old adage: ‘Loam wasn’t built in a day!’ Now for those of you on the distaff side who are fortunate enough to have that accumulation, my advice to you is: ‘Kick off them loamy Louboutins!‘ “
Mary Worth: So we’ve got a woman who’s willing to be Ed’s dog, a bitch, and Pierre. Pierre’s just happy everyone has embraced their pack status. Try being a beta, it’s great! You get more belly rubs that way!
Silas might as well sell him a Chinese menu and tell him it’s a card. Most people in Hottin Holler are illiterate
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: Sure, Silas seems pleased with this new development, but look more closely. He’s just tripping balls on that bottle of spicy mustard on the counter. Who knew you could get such a great high from Dijon?
MW: We’re now on Week Three of Estelle talking to Mary about this retconned disagreement, and you can more than double that for the time spent on Estelle talking to herself about it. By comparison, Estelle talked to Ed himself about this issue for literally just one day’s worth of panels. We’re all used to that by now, but here’s a fun question you can’t answer – how long has it been since Estelle broke up with Ed?
DT: Looks like Sam’s interpretation of “Cover me!” is to try to force the blonde woman he’s been sniffing back onto her knees. Luckily, Dick got lost running after the gunman and ended up in some kind of empty pitch-black brick swimming pool, so Sam’s tactical blunder has mercifully gone unnoticed.
JP: Hope you enjoyed that week of characters being forced at gunpoint to advance the story slightly. Now back to your regularly scheduled pointless padding. This week’s
themeentirety: Neddy just can’t… can’t believe it.SlyF: Isn’t it feasible that Count Weirdly could perhaps capture various data that he is able to translate into audio format, essentially if not quite technically “recording sound” from outer space? Is that really that unbelievable given Weirdly’s known scientific accomplishments? Call me gullible, but when someone has invented time travel machines and created undead monstrosities, I have a hard time outright dismissing their claims that they can build a device so you can listen to asteroids bonking together.
CS: I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as an abruptly-abandoned clumsy soapbox preachfest delivered by stupid hypocritical assholes about ridiculous straw villains. Trees, on the other hand? Vastly overrated.
yyRxMD: So, the threat of an idle stage on a Saturday night is all that was needed to turn his cold, cold heart.
Curtis: I’m curious how much Billingsley yells at this cloud. Or, in this case, faceful of hair.
GA: Cats hate whatever comes out of a robot, but loves antiquated references that would go over the head of 20th Century Dennis Miller. Got it.
JP: Is the story over now?
CS: Is the story over now?
I have seen plenty of comics commenting on inflation but this is the first one to recognise full employment, even for white working-class men in inland states! Today’s “Barney Google” is going straight to my election model forecast!
FC: Dolly comes dangerously close to poking Grandma with the corner of the bingo card but Billy warns her off; “Hey, watch the milk duds!”
@jroggs:
SlyF: Isn’t it feasible that Count Weirdly could perhaps capture various data that he is able to translate into audio format, essentially if not quite technically “recording sound” from outer space?
Already done with black holes
MW: Yes, Mary, I miss the rush of my Obsessive Compulsion Disorder in making wedding plans. Now I see the light! The light at the end of the tunnel/hallway I’ll go down to Ed’s animal operating room and say our vows as he euthanizes someone’s (hopefully a guest) dear pet!
Snuffy Smith: Copy/pasting the same image of Snuffy into both panels had some unintended consequences. Not only is Snuffy fishing in Silas’ store but I genuinely couldn’t parse what Snuffy’s can of worms was in this new context. A smashed trophy? A repulsive flesh-colored hat? An idol of some monstrous three-headed hillbilly god?
All of these answers tell a better story than “Snuffy teleports around Hootin’ Holler for no damn reason; his legs move but everything else about him remains the same!”
@Pardon my asking: “If you had to guess how many people do you think popped in here and posted for a few days or a week but got no interaction for whatever reason and all the while seeing a social party up and down the feed? How many people said to themselves I guess its a clique thing and left?”
I would call this a problem of having poorly-founded expectations of the commenters here. That said, this kind of sentiment does weigh on a lot of people looking to enter a community for first time, whether it’s a gym or a club or even an online discussion section, especially when you’re generally socially awkward. Heck, I remember feeling a little nervous myself when I started commenting here about six and a half years ago. So for you and anyone else lurking and wondering if it’s okay for them to join in here, allow me to offer:
Some Jerk’s Completely Unofficial Guide to Posting Here
(Note: Josh’s rules and guidelines supersede anything I have to say.)
Is there a clique here? Do I have to be part of some in-group to be accepted?
No. Some people here have developed familiarity and maybe even friendships with each other, but this place is a total free-for-all and welcome to everyone.
So I can just start posting? Just like that?
Yes.
But I’m nervous…
I hear you. The thing you have to realize, though, is that most communities like this love positive-minded newcomers who want to partake in what’s going on. As long as you’re here to talk about comics and not be a complete douchetrain, we want you here and we want you posting.
I feel like there’s stuff I don’t understand.
If it’s something you can figure out on your own (as in Googling it), attempt to do so. But don’t be afraid to ask questions, someone will usually answer them. And as with all online communities, lurking is your friend.
People aren’t replying to my comments and I don’t like it.
They generally won’t. There are countless reasons why this could be, but… well, do you feel compelled to reply to everyone else’s comments? Most people here post to generate content for other people to enjoy, and when they comment on other people’s posts, it’s typically to add to the joke or comment. We mostly just read each other’s stuff without having to say “Good one!” or “So true!” or whatever; there are some nice people who do that, but it’s not obligatory or expected, and frankly an excess of that would clog up the comments section with posts that are well-intended but don’t really add much to the discussion.
But I really want interaction!
Seriously, it’s better if you don’t look at it like th-
I want it I want it I WANT IT!
Okay, okay! No promises, but here are some things you can do to improve your chances of people reading your comments and replying favorably to you.
– Post early in the day. Josh (the curmudgeonly redhead at the top of the page) generally uploads his daily blog post around 7:30 AM EST. Most commenters post in the next six hours, and the majority of us probably only check this site once or twice a day, with the last twelve hours of the day being almost entirely dead and few (if any) people going back to read or reply to previous days’ comments. The earlier you post, the more likely it is to be read by more people.
– Make high quality posts. Obey at least most of the rules of grammar, make funny remarks, criticize with detail, say something with substance, do your best. If you just say, “Wow, Mary Worth is ridiculous,” you’re not going to get much disagreement, but there’s not really much anyone can add to that. If you’re unsure how to get started and you (understandably) want to try to match the general vibes here, don’t be afraid to lurk and read to get the feel for this place.
– Stay on topic. Talk about comics, newspaper comics in particular, and the same newspaper comics everyone else is talking about especially. The further you get away from the shared content we talk about, the less likely people will read or respond to your posts, mostly because few-to-no people will have any knowledge or interest in the subject you’re talking about (or the desire to talk about it here).
– Comment on other people’s comments. Pretty basic, right? If you want people to talk to you, talk to them first. Remember to be positive and say something that adds to the discussion. If you strongly disagree with someone, though, it’s probably best to just to try to let it go and not say anything.
– Don’t be needy. The more you clamor for attention, the less likely people will want to give it to you. People are here to spread and enjoy amusement, not be a support group or cheerleading squad. No one here owes you anything. Post because you want to say something, not because you want to be validated.
– Stick with it. Don’t get dismayed from perceived lack of engagement. The longer you stick around and keep commenting, the more people will get used to you and appreciate you, whether they’re openly saying it or not.
My post is in moderation or didn’t appear at all. Did I do something wrong?
There are some no-no words imposed by the hosting service and Josh. There’s no comprehensive list of what you can’t say, but you definitely can’t refer to violent interrogation techniques, Lee H. Oswald’s middle name, the word for checking for and fixing typos, or the names of boner pill companies. The last of these is especially tricky, as one of the company’s names appears in the middle of otherwise normal words like “spec14list” and “soc14lism.” If your comment appears but is in moderation, just wait and an admin will sort it out; if it disappears completely, you have to rewrite it from scratch and be careful which words you use. (Pro tip: Always Select All and Copy every comment before hitting the Post button.)
What’s the deal with these Comments of the Week? How do I get on these lists?
That’s up to the people who pick them, which is largely informal. It’s not a big deal, you’re not a bad poster if you don’t see your name showing up there, but it’s a fun part of the community for sure. For Josh’s semi-official COTWs, the guidelines are relatively straight-forward: it must be a comment about a comic Josh posted about that day and within the first 100 comments that day, and you greatly improve your chances by being relatively brief (no more than a few sentences), funny, and clear in your use of language. The other COTWs posted by commenters here are more open, but comedy is still the general focus. (Just, uh, ix-nay on the own-clays with Baja.)
TL;DR – Don’t worry about replies and approval, just post and have fun.
Intelligent Life: Are you doing one of those fun Inktober prompt games? Well, Intelligent Life is here to tell you to how to turn that into cold hard cash. Just send it to a newspaper comic syndicate, and you could make as much as $7 a drawing.
Marvin: Bitsy’s rule of science #44: The further away something is, the smaller it appears. That means if an adult man is about three feet behind a dog, he should be shorter than the dog. A tiny little T-posing gnome man.
Dustin: I tried to imagine what kind of job Dustin would have where anyone would trust him to use a computer and concluded that there isn’t one, so it really is a dream.
CS: The list of finalists for the Pulitzer must have leaked and Batiuk saw he wasn’t on it, so he abruptly dropped his idiotic drama and returned to his sweet spot, Ed being stupid.
Blondie: Uhhhh . . ..
MW: With one word, Pierre has summed up this entire storyline, all of the dialogue, and all of the trite emotional realizations. Woof, indeed, Pierre, woof, indeed.
@jroggs: This introspective really helped me.
Thank you so much!
@jroggs: One thing I would add to your excellent FAQ: the COTWs need to be standalone jokes. There are often great comments that build on something an earlier poster said, but those don’t make good COTWs. It must be possible to read the comment, view the strip, and immediately get the joke.
That “Joker’s Wild Purple” isn’t the Joker’s suit. It looks more like Jim Carey’s suit in “The Mask.”
BG&SS: “An’ while I’m at it, d’ye happen to carry actual fishin’ poles?”
Mary Worth: Of course you’re wrong Stell. The woman is always wrong.
Is Snuffy going to pay for the card with worms?
@jroggs: @The Rambling Otter: In the past, I would think “Oh, anyone hardly ever replies to me. I must be very unpopular here”
Although I crawled out of that train of thought-hole a while back, and your explanation shot those thoughts from a cannon into the sun. I feel much better about myself.
@Hibbleton: Me too. Gil Thorp was right out there with it – good for the Hammer. And how ’bout Arlo & Janis? A subtle, or not that subtle, dig at Columbus Day?
Quite bold to assume that Silas would “profit” off the sale of any cards; Snuffy more likely will just try to steal one, or at best pay for it with three bait worms and a vague promise of half a fish once he catches one.
Mary and Stell froze. The dog had just said ‘woof.’ Not barked, but clearly enunciated the word ‘woof.’ Both women started to slowly back away as, half a mile away, Wilbur cursed himself. Half a million dollars on that dog bot, and I blew it by saying ‘woof,’ he thought in despair.
@jroggs: Thanks for that. Very good stuff.
RMMD: tomorrow Mud Mountain straps on the guitar and gets ready to play. Has any story in the history of ever proceeded more slowly?
IL: Look, if a dude wants to draw furry Batman porn that’s his own business, but a cat? If you’re not going to go with the obvious hyena fursona, the least you could do is choose an animal who doesn’t already have a Batman villain built around them. (Might I suggest some form of monkey, or a kookaburra if you want to go non-mammalian?)
MW: Stell knows that if Mary doesn’t pressure her into accepting Ed, she’ll start pressuring her into accepting Wilbur, and NOBODY wants that.
@TheDiva: I’m just impressed that he drew that standing up, holding the tablet with one hand, and the pen with another.
Family Circlejerk: Is HTT Grandma going to clutch her pearls and hit the fainting couch since Bingo has infiltrated the Keane Klan?
Or is she the type who lets out a “WHOOO!” at the bingo hall when “O-69” is called?
MW – Pierre thinks you’re hot, Stell. Don’t limit your options.
Snuffy – “YOU got a job? YOU, I say again, incredulously? Doin’ what?”
“I’m the new fishin’ warden. I’m s’posed ta make sure nobody’s fishin’ without a license.”
“Then how come I never see ya down at th’ fishin’ hole?”
“I didn’t say I was good at it.”
Intelligent Life – Who’s to say if this comic is good or bad? I am. It’s bad.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Don Abundio has been banned from this beach”
“He harrasses anyone in a bikini”
“Yes. The beach patrol will stop that little rat”
“Hello! Mind if I join you?”
IL: I wish Eddy and Double D would just go back to scamming kids out of their quarters.
@T Campbell: Had to Google it. Agreed.
C’shaft: Ed’s just thinking about how big of a bonfire he can make with those leaves.
Dustin: So, Dustin is just Dagwood before he married Blondie? Makes sense.
GT: I appreciate the effort, and I do consider the physical skill required for most performing arts to be highly underrated, but it’s not a good look when your comic is going “Oh crap, I need one more indigenous athlete to round out this tableau!…Um, ballet! Ballet is a sport, right…?”
JP: Honestly, I think Declan dodged a bullet here. You just know Neddy’s going to send her entire fortune to the first Nigerian prince who e-mails her, and then where would he be?
MT: Stop trying to make “crickets are land shrimp” happen! It’s not going to happen!
@42 Professor Well Actually: How could you forget Mozz’s “Prophesy of the Future…Or Not?” that dragged on for how many years?
DT: Oooooooo! Harry Lime is escaping via sewer! Cue the zither music!
Extra bonus movie buff treat: In panel 3, Howie throws us a little Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
WuMo: Oddly enough, this is also how Judge Parker is written.
Waitaminute. There’s a social party here, and up and down the feed, no less? Where’s my invitation, dammit???
IL:
Zoot Suit Riot (meow!)
Wolf down a can of Friskies
Zoot Suit Riot (meow!)
Run a comb through my coat of fleas.
@jroggs:
Good advice. Now, that said, do some of us pander to Scratchy in order to get a Friday shout-out? I mean… maybe?
Luann: We interrupt Tiffany’s ongoing humiliation at the hands of literally everyone she comes in contact with to remind you that the titular character of this strip is a lazy good-for-nothing.
JP: Hey Ronnie, didja ever see the move ‘Cabin Fever’? At this point, bailing out of the car right there on the 405 is safer than staying with Neddy.
CS: Ahh yes, the signs of fall… the leaves turning brown, that smell of dampness mingling with the last of the smoke from the fire that destroyed the staircase to your illicit garage bookstore…
MW – WOOF = Do you know some women give for a neglectful professional man for a husband….
IL – Joker’s out – Penguin’s in now….
BG&S – Why work – FEMA just gave me $750….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Mary Worth – Pierre’s ‘woof” is not in agreement, but in warning. Estelle is being a doormat and enabling toxic behavior. Enabling Ed’s workaholism, yes, but mostly Mary’s meddling and unqualified advice!
Intelligent Life – This comic is the poor man’s Penny Arcade, made up of “jokes” so bad they were returned, unopened, from the writing staff of The Big Bang Theory.
“Catober prompts” looks like a bad spinoff of Inktober, which itself is a spinoff of the National Novel Writing Month, both of which are mired in controversies. All three of which, if we’re honest, are for people who are not very creative or motivated enough on their own, which fits the vibe of this whole strip, and its artist, whose career is mostly working as a staffer for Garfield and Blondie.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith – Silas is curious about this, because whoever dies in town interests him a lot! As collateral against the tabs the poor denizens of Hootin’ Holler run up, he’s required them to sign over the right to take a life insurance policy out on them. He suspects a payday is due! He’ll be disappointed, but at least he can lean on Owen to start paying back some of what he owes.
Snuffy, don’t be too sad, it’s not like people with jobs cannot be lazy bums! For example, the artist of your strip decided to cut and paste your image in the second panel, despite being no reason for why you should be in the shop in this position, still with an open can of wriggling worms
Estelle going back to Ed instead of Wilbur is better… in the sense that Wilbur is the 0 degrees Kelvin of bad boyfriends and nothing can be worse. Still unsure whether there is any difference that can be appreciated without scientific instruments
Today’s “Intelligence life” was clearly intended to comment on the outstanding success of The Joker 2 with Lady Gaga, breaking one billion in its third triumphal week. Sometimes the lead time in comics production creates situations funnier than the jokes themselves
@TheDiva: Oswald Cobblepot has the non-mammalian Batman porn well in hand already, thank you.
@Ettorre:
“Today’s “Intelligence life” was clearly intended to comment on the outstanding success of The Joker 2 with Lady Gaga, breaking one billion in its third triumphal week. Sometimes the lead time in comics production creates situations funnier than the jokes themselves”
The thing with this strip is that pretty much any reader and commentor of this site is putting more thought into it than the creator.
@Philip: Overthinking?!?! On the Comics Curmudgeon’s blog?!?! Is it even possible?!?!
@Where’s Rocky?:
While canonically it was Count Weirdly who created the sentience on his illegal lab on an island, I will note he and Granny Creeps both bear a family resemblance (green skin, prominent jaws and chins).
MW – The problem is not that Estelle is going to go back to Ed; it’s vice versa.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: His hands will be so full in animal viscera that he won’t even notice she left or came back
@The Quiet Man: CS: Ahh yes, the signs of fall… the leaves turning brown, that smell of dampness mingling with the last of the smoke from the fire that destroyed the staircase to your illicit garage bookstore…
____________________________________________________________________
The awkward flirting between two loathsome old people.
Luann: That sure is a small table for that big puzzle.
There was a 2019 animated straight to DVD movie “Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” where the Batman villains are turned via mutagen into mutant animals. Harley Quinn becomes a terrifying Hyena, the Joker becomes a giant Cobra, Mr Freeze is a Polar Bear. It’s pretty insane.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: MW – The problem is not that Estelle is going to go back to Ed; it’s vice versa.
__________________________________________________________
Ed’s gonna say “Later, Tater. I don’t need this drama.”
In the third panel a light bulb appears over Silas’ head as he realises he can sell any bit of card to the illiterate Snuffy. “Love hearts are a traditional sympathy symbol”, he’ll explain while peeling off the reduced price stickers from his leftover stock from Valentine’s Day.
IL: Every time I look at this comic I get “What if Penny Arcade was a Seth MacFarlane cartoon, but somehow even worse than that sounds?” This is no exception.
Surprisingly “Cherry Poppin’ Daddies” are still an active band even though their only real hit was “Zoot Suit Riot” in 1997.
You know what would make OK with JP? They walk into the diner. Zippy and Griffy are at the counter. Rip Haywire and Breezy are chowing down on stacks in an adjacent booth. Mark Trail walks in and declares that while Crickets may be Land Shrimp, they’ll never replace a maple syrup covered stack of flapjacks!
BETWEEN FRIENDS:. I was hoping for a review of the Mauve/ Whatzhizname fortnite. Guess that waits until next week so we can see someone is a real, real housewife.
FG:. See! So much happens, so fast!
JP:. Ned finally investigated! No more hearsay for her! She’ll get to the bottom of this Fluffy Pancake Caper.
@jroggs: Also for COTW, don’t bother posting on Saturday. And if you want a “Best No. 69” award from @Scratchy Scrotum LXIX, you’re out of luck because the bastard takes #69 for himself!!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: MW – The problem is not that Estelle is going to go back to Ed; it’s vice versa.
__________________________________________________
Ed will say “How can I miss you if you won’t go away?”
Mary Worth: Mary grins toothily and inhales deeply, gleefully taking in the energy as she manipulates yet another woman into falling in line with puritanical nuclear family heteronormativity. Her energy vampirism is sated once more.
Intelligent Life: I’m genuinely amazed that any newspaper comic is up enough on the times to know both what online monthly drawing prompts are and that a movie about the Joker is in the headlines. If this were any other comic, this would be a strip about this newfangled invention known as MySpace and the brand new hit movie The Matrix.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Intelligent Life artist originally drew a Jack Nicholson Joker, maybe wondered if it should be Heath Leger’s, but the editor didn’t want to confuse the newspaper demographic so had him change it to Cesar Romero. Neither of them even considered the Joaquin Phoenix version because as we can tell from how human interaction is depicted on the comics page, they don’t live in a society.
FC – Jeffy turns to Billy. “And you say that I’M stupid.”
Seriously, does anyone play BINGO at home? That’s a church hall or fire department carnival thing.
Crankshaft – That’s it? Batiuk moved on to Crankshaft’s endearing quirk of burning leaves and everything else nearby, without spending any time praising Loathsome Lillian for whatever she did. Heck, Mary Worth would spend weeks on a victory lap basking in the praise of everyone she knows.
9CL – Different characters, same old shit.
Don’t have much to say about the comics today, but thought I would wish a happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian Mudges, and a happy Embarrassed Throat Clearing Day to the Americans.
@jroggs: This is an extremely kind reply and I thank you for posting it. I will say that the person you’re replying to has been posting things like this a lot, all under a shifting series of passive-aggressive names and different IP addresses, so I’ve never actually been able to figure out if they’ve ever actually posted comics jokes and if so under what name; despite their constant complaint that nobody ever interacts with them in the comments, sometimes people do respond to those complaints and this poster has never to my knowledge indicated in any way that they’ve read those responses. I feel bad but also increasingly exasperated!
Intelligent Life: Cat Calloway was right there!
And unlike so many cultural references aimed at the meat of the funny papers age distribution curve, it’s neither overdone nor of a person who doesn’t deserve a shout-out.
@jroggs:
Oh big deal. You can see that at any Trump rally.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Yet the same Reddick guy gives us three episodes a week of Legend of Bill, which is not only written competently but features better art in recognizably the same style.
@Anonymous: There are a lot of active, regularly employed bands who never had a hit at all. They should be grateful they had one…it might still get them a better table at restaurants.
@Peanut Gallery:
Wow, yours is so much better I’ve nothing to say on the original. Your interpretations are so clever and delightful. Mad props.
Great “1984”/Orwell references today.
@Hibbleton:
See, and I’d been thinking narcolepsy was more socially appropriate fodder for jokes than weight. I have so much to learn yo.
@Josh: Yeah, I’ve seen some of those kinds of replies, but I’ve also seen some folks who do genuinely have these anxieties and I can relate. That individual’s comment was more of a jumping off point for something I wanted to talk about generally. That done, I will not be responding to those kinds of “gimme attention!” posts again, at least not anytime soon.
MARY WORTH: I think Estelle is just nodding her head at what every explanation makes her sound less bitchy.
Estelle: “Um…yeah, Ed totally would have had a stressed-induced heart-attack if I didn’t badger him into fussing over zebra-striped napkin rings instead of nursing sick animals back to health. So…in a way…I’m saving his life by forcing him to focus on lace versus taffeta rather than those stupid injured pets or whatever. Uh, yeah, let’s go with that.”
@jroggs: That is some excellent stuff. Thank you.
And you are so right about interaction. Getting responses depends on many things, and responses (or the absence of them) are not referendums on whether comments are good, though of course posting really funny comments helps. Sometimes you need to enjoy your own hilarious witty thought after it appears and gets no responses, and you need to just keep in mind what Thomas Gray wrote. “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.” Like that. But then, when you least expect it, someone, or a few someones, may lean down and smell and respond to your blushing flower. Oookay, maybe a different quotation next time.
I wish I had Snuffy’s level of insouciance. I would feel self-conscious walking into a store with a can of live worms and asking for a sympathy card. Fuck it; now I kinda have to try it out.
@Poteet: This is correct.
I don’t post very often, but when I do it is usually to validate somebody else’s comment. I occasionally make the Scrote Float, and have once or twice made the COTW. I occasionally get into relevant conversations . But most times, I post something so (hilarious, stupid, off-topic, and/or ridiculous) that no response is going to be forthcoming — and that’s OK too!
@Violet: Thank you!
@Violet: “Specifically, you got any cards for bereaved worms? There was, um, a ‘tragic accident’ with a fishhook.”
BG&SS: First I just felt sorry for the worms. And then I felt deep pity for the human inhabitants of Hootin’ Holler, because what kinds of ghastly implements are they using to rip open their cans of food, since apparently even can openers are not available? Couldn’t some of them somehow pool their resources for a horse-drawn-wagon journey to the garage sales of the flatlands?
JP: Maybe Ronnie is being handsomely and secretly paid by Abbey to be Neddy’s friend. Otherwise, her suffering makes no sense to me.
@T Campbell: Yessir.
@richardf8: re MW: Thanks for your kind words re Pierre – but confession time here. That’s not a live shot of Pierre today – it’s an archived panel of his pose from last Wednesday when he did the original problematic eyeroll. You notice how seamlessly they worked it in – Estelle’s fingers on his ear are in *exactly* the same position and his posture and eye angles are identical. His medical team thought it was “too soon” for him to attempt the optic money shot again, even with Madi’s coaching. All we had to do was dub in that “WOOF” that says so much.
Libby finally gets a well-deserved day off today. She’s doing those traditional Cat relaxation things – napping, spa visit, shopping, you know how it goes..
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: You posted a few days ago that you lived in Ames some time back, and while there, suffered from severe spice deprivation. I am happy to report that as you surmised, things have changed, and Ames has actual spicy food now! I have friends who live in Ames and they tell me so. Not that Colorado and Texas (and Minnesota) have any reason at all to fear spicy competition from Iowa. But I am assured it is now possible to order spicy food in Ames and not immediately break out laughing. Though one Ames friend did tell me that one recent meal that was rated five-stars-of-hot-spiciness on the menu would have rated maybe one and a half stars in southern California, tops.
@Lord Flatulence: Ed’s gonna say “Later, Tater. I don’t need this drama.”
***
That would be the most realistic thing ever in this strip. Which, sadly, means it won’t happen.
Yeah, that was a cocksucker move by me, for sure.
AC: I used to be with High Street Bank. Then I discovered it was actually just a subsidiary of an American company called Main Street Bank.
Curtis: “Surely nobody would draw a popular webcomic character if they weren’t the creator of that character! Why, that would be copyright violation!”
DT: Dick grimaces as he desperately fights the gravity well of the black hole, which is absorbing all the light from the streetlamp and distorting the architecture as it pulls the wall towards it. Clearly the work of that notorious criminal Evan T. Horizon.
FC: HTT Grandma thinking “So, Thel’s got the kids hooked on gambling now?”
GT: Well, why not? It’s something worth raising awareness of, and it’s not like there’s even a story to interrupt.
Heath: “Apparently, some surreal whimsy is too forced even for him. No, I don’t know where the line is that the fire-breathing chihuahua is fine, but this isn’t.”
IL: Ah, Intelligent Life, the strip about nerd culture that has never, even once, thought about researching anything beforehand!
JP: Denial or genuine lack of object permenance? It’s impossible to say!
Phantom: “Is it possible that the thing my wife said was almost certainly the case, in a tone that suggested I was an idiot for not seeing it myself*, might actually be right? What a strange coincidence that would be!”
*Okay, it’s possible that part is me projecting…
@jroggs: Also, if someone reacts so highly to a comment that they predict it would be awarded COTW, it is never chosen. I don’t blame Josh; it’s sort of like mentioning a no-hitter during the game.
@Poteet: She’s kind of being paid by The Terrible Miniseries Channel, producers of Wait, Is It Bowers or Bowen?: The April Something Story, to at least spend some time with Neddy, although that’s no reason to actually go through all this.
MW: Stop trying to justify Estelle as a Bridezilla, Moy. It’s not like he died during the Khitomer Massacre.
GT: The Ukulele Lady went to high school with Maria Tallchief’s daughter. Apparently Maria Tallchief was an indigenous bitch on wheels.
Lalo Y Lola Spanish to English,
@jroggs: Great advice. I tried regular posting the first year or so here (2008-ish), but I found I couldn’t reach the same level of snark and trying to come up with something decent took a chunk of time that I couldn’t spare. Nowadays, I mostly lurk and enjoy the wordplay and wit from the main post and commenters. One point: Blog posts aren’t interactive like Facebook or Twitter. There are no contact links, follower lists, or built-in notifications. If you post and get a response, the only way you’d find out about it is to keep checking back and searching or scrolling through the comments. The lack of ludic feedback tends to discourage interaction. So, it may help to think of CC as more of a place to vent. About comic strips, of course.
Mary Worth: “Woof,” says Pierre.
“That’s a bit warped,” I reply.
Paul Gilligan, cartoonist of Pooch Cafe, has a new book coming out tomorrow.
LUANN: Ok, now that’s we’re done humiliating the former cheerleader (as we should because they’re all assholes who won’t date future cartoonist, no matter how much they beg and promise that they have the car for this weekend), we can focus the down-to-earth noble heroine of the series who…leaves her mother hanging with regards to the chores and won’t even help her with her hobby for “bonding” purposes.
RMMD: PLAY SWINGSET ON THE MOON!
@MKay: RMMD: Mud’s rep is so on the line. If he so much as burps, mayhem ensues
________________________________
He could always open for The Great Wakkini. (90s cartoon reference) Yes, I AM a graduate of The Please Please Please Get A Life Institute, why do you ask?
Dolly, age 78, slumped over a roulette table, cigarette dangling from parched lips, pounds her fist on her prosthetic leg and shouts, “Fucking clock!” as the dealer gathers up the last remaining chips.
Somewhere out there is a Native American shedding a tear over today’s print version of Hi & Lois as it drifts across a highway to join the other trash trapped by vegetation and deer fences.
@Sequitur: Paul Gilligan, cartoonist of Pooch Cafe, has a new book coming out tomorrow.
__________________________
Did he finally get off the island?
@Sequitur: I can barely imagine the hellishness of existence for a small boy in the 1970s named “Gilligan.”
Judge Parker tomorrow. Neddy eats pancakes with an X-ACTO
®knife.@Finder of Lost Gloves: Dolly, age 78, slumped over a roulette table, cigarette dangling from parched lips, pounds her fist on her prosthetic leg and shouts, “Fucking clock!” as the dealer gathers up the last remaining chips
___________
THATS what she gets for listening to Betitall and Leterride. (I’d actually like to see Billy,age 5 draw that.Will Disney allow him to?).
@Ukulele Ike: @Sequitur: I can barely imagine the hellishness of existence for a small boy in the 1970s named “Gilligan.
_________________
He teamed up with a fat kid and presented vaudeville routines.
JUDGE PARKER: Ronnie: “You haven’t said a word the entire…”
God damnit, why are you ruining the moment, Ronnie?
@Sequitur: Judge Parker tomorrow. Neddy eats pancakes with an X-ACTO® knife
______________________
FINALLY! The oft-promised Mark Trailmix/Judge Parker Brothers crossover we’ve been waiting for. Mark will give a lecture on how we can all help protect the Waffle Wiffer™ from going to jail for Grand Waffle and Pancake theft! Thanks for the heads up,Sequitaur!
@2+2=7: Jeremy of ZITS is sometimes annoying, but I never wonder why his creators don’t show him aging or why his parents don’t kick him out. Whereas I now wonder that about Luann every time she appears. Every. Time.
@Side Aye: the other trash trapped by vegetation and deer fences.
_____________
I first read that as “trapped by vegetarians and deer feces”. Time for a second cup of coffee. Now that I think of it, I wouldn’t mind seeing Billy, age 5, draw that as well. Where’s that Yuban®?
@Finder of Lost Gloves: Wow. It will take awhile to get THAT vision out of my head, especially since when I see it, she’s still got the ponytail.
@Horace Broon: Bwahaha!
@127 Poteet:
Jeremy is still in High School so his parents wouldn’t kick him out.
@I’m not Cthulhu, but I play him on television: “Woof,” says Pierre.
____________
Whose that little crying box?/the one you want to pelt with bagels and lox/who can it be? It’s Little Annoying Estell-ee. She and Pierre make quite a pair/she still wears Willburp’s underwear/ Annoying little she/it’s Little Annoying Estell-ee.- theme from “The Sadventures Of Little Annoying Estell-ee”, spin-off from ” The Apple Mary Meddling Hour” heard on NBC Blue.
Dominos has gotten into the Halloween spirit early.
@GarrisonSkunk: Great title for a novel!
@Baja Gaijin: I’ve bought “black chickens” in the Brooklyn and Manhattan Chinatowns. You’re supposed to make broth out of them, which has powerful medicinal and mystical qualities.
Leave it to the Japanese to fry ‘em up into fast food nuggets.
@135 Ukulele Ike: Yeah, no. Burnt bamboo gives them their oh so delicious coloration. Did you not notice the black sauce on the pizza?
@jroggs:
#27. Jroggs, your response was perfect. My MO is that someone who is rude or silly might not know what’s going on, so first try to explain rules and procedures– exactly as you did. If person continues to be mean or pointless, they deserve harsher treatment.
So many times I’ve tried to jump into an existing discussion and just made a fool of myself. I’m so grateful for those who tolerated me and taught me to learn the ropes. And that includes many, many Mudges! Thank you, from the bottom of my thumb.
@Ukulele Ike: Black Chickens in “Stardew Valley” lay void eggs which are loved by the local mystical beings. They can also be made into void mayonnaise, which is just silly. Void Mayonnaise within canon is inedible, but the game dev has never met Wilbur Weston…
@138 The Rambling Otter: Are these “void eggs?”
BETTY:. starting Sept. 30, today Betty finally tests her new mattress.
How many other comics could hold us for a solid two weeks with this level of breathless anticipation? (For the record, I felt the same morning after my new mattress-in-a-box arrived!)
FC-“Then we’re going to sing the song.”
RMMD-Uh, Mud, shouldn’t you be accompanying Truck on guitar instead of opening for him.
Crankshaft-“The colors remind me of the colors of flames.”
@141 Liam:
Back on October 6th they discussed that Mud opening was part of the plan.
@Baja Gaijin: Nah, but looks mighty tasty though :3
@Anonymous: Even then, I think more people are probably familiar with Weird Al Yankovic’s parody “Grapefruit Diet”
But then again, I don’t know much about music so I can’t really say.
@Hibbleton:
H&L: Love Lois’ not so subtle “yank on this!” message to everyone upset about the renaming of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples day.
Now that those upset pro-Columbus Day people have found out that Columbus was a Jew, they’re really upset and conflicted. Who knew discovering America was just part of the giant conspiracy to rule the world?
@Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!: It’s good you’re not making Pierre & Libby overwork, because Estelle has a real problem with that.
All I have to say is that today’s Wallace the Brave is hilarious.
@99 Poteet:
They tried that once then found out Flat Landers wouldn’t take chickens as a medium of exchange.
@Sequitur:
Paul Gilligan, cartoonist of Pooch Cafe, has a new book coming out tomorrow.
Thanks! Pooch Cafe is one of my favorite strips.
@Flipper: because the bastard takes #69 for himself!!
I don’t believe that is anatomically possible, at least for 99.9% of the population.
@Maude R. Fawker: That reminds me of an old joke – What did Dick Cheney say to the hermaphrodite frog?
@White Rabbit: Christopher Columbus — the first {{{globalist}}}.
The 20th anniversary sequel to the original animated series Clone High included a new character who called himself “Topher Bus.” Abe Lincoln couldn’t figure out what was up with THAT, so Topher explained “My Clone Dad was a racist genocidal maniac, OKAY???”
(The sequel was really good. They got rid of the embarrassing Gandhi clone and introduced more diversity. Teenage clones of Frieda Kahlo, Harriet Tubman, Confucius, Marilyn Monroe….)
@151 Dennis Jimenez:
Dustin: I still firmly believe that Dustin has some kind of undiagnosed sleeping disorder that keeps him from holding down a job, and reason he hasn’t looked into it is because his family refuses to get him treatment and think it’s all an excuse by him to be lazy.
Strips like this keep supporting my theory.
@jroggs: Thanks for the useful info! I eagerly await my acceptance into the Cool Club!
@jroggs:
Nicely done. Somebody (possibly a troll) points out a genuine flaw at the site, that there’s a clique which is difficult to break into, and you start by denying that there’s a clique, and go on to explain in several ways how and why there is. “The longer you stick around and keep commenting, the more people will get used to you” seems like a fairly good working definition of a clique, but you offered others too.
Beyond that, you put the blame on the outsider. “Socially awkward.” “Poorly-founded expectations.” “Nervous.” “Complete douchetrain.” “Clamor for attention.” “I want it I want it I WANT IT!” Yep, those are surely the reasons why an unfamiliar screen name gets no feedback./s
And this tour de force gets amens and hosannas from the regulars. Perfect.
BTW someone above touched on the main thing this blog interface lacks: a simple Like Button. That would go a long way toward giving commenters, new and old, a sense that they aren’t simply pissing into the wind. Presumably it’s an uncorrectable and self-limiting aspect of the site by now.
@Lord Flatulence: You’ve been in it since (checks calendar) April 13, 2024.
Can you put in a word for me?
@That One Guy: OOOOOOOOOO. The mystery deepens. This is so much better than the current Dick Tracy. Next Carlotta is going to croak like a frog during her big aria, and you’ll send the chandelier crashing down into the audience.
@154 JamesBont:
Just wait until you read tomorrow’s strip.
mw and once again mary sets everything right as next stellla calls ed and the wedding is back on with mary planning every thing and stella learning to just go to mary when there is a problem as is the way. rmmd and mudd kicks off his first number with muddy boots and also proving he and buck work well as a due
@Sequitur: “Go fuck yourself.” It was – it was topical at the time cuz of this:
https://www.politico.com/story/2010/04/cheney-proud-of-telling-off-leahy-036265
@Ukulele Ike: Can you put in a word for me?
______________________________________
I’ll happily play my “uke” in your honor!
@That One Guy: Yeah, you got what you wanted, someone finally replied in good faith to your blatant trolling. Job well done, you worthless piece of shit.
@163 Rube: Don’t edit yourself, Rube. Tell us how you really feel.
@Maude R. Fawker: except for that guy from Nantucket
@GarrisonSkunk: And the wind cries…Pierre
@That One Guy: I’ll tell you the same thing @Rube: did, except even harsher: grow up, dude. Anyone with the emotional maturity of the average middle schooler can tell you’re not arguing in good faith, you don’t have a clue how to join a group, or possibly both.
Edit to add: You’re probably right about needing the like button. It could be added, but it would probably require a new comment system, which would be significant hurdle.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: I could in theory pay someone to implement a “like” button but here’s the thing: I don’t want to. Who cares???? People should post things they think are funny! I grab the COTWs that I think are funny. It’s just one man’s opinion though! I do not care to gamify the comments further.
@165 Anonymous: I heard he has a bucket.
@168 Josh: YES! No “like” button.
@Josh: Hell, I’d do it for free. I see your point, and yes, it’s easy to go down the path to Reddit-style Hell. I just think it’d be nice to have a way to tell people “Good one!” without adding a comment.
However, your blog, your rules, and happy to live them.
@Rube: Yeah, you got what you wanted, someone finally replied in good faith to your blatant trolling. Job well done, you worthless piece of shit.
Yeah, except I’m a different guy than you think. Not the one jroggs was replying to, who probably is indeed a troll. I’m a regular here. I posted in good faith, as always. Disagree with me all you want, in good faith in return.
This group really doesn’t know what to do when they don’t have a clear read on someone.
@That One Guy: My apologies. Like Rube, I mistook you for the same person jroggs was responding to. Your line of argument…isn’t great, but I’ll take your word that it was in good faith.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I’m Part of His Clique:
No problem. I just wanted you to not misunderstand.
@Josh:
Happy there’s no like button. It’s been discussed here before and glad you never fell into that trap.
It’s okay Stella. As Mary will tell you, as you stand over Ed’s coffin six months from now, the past only exists in the way you remember it.
@That One Guy: Since the poster who set all this off, as noted, posts under a bewildering variety of names, I don’t think replying as “That One Guy” was the best strategy if you didn’t want people to think you were that person! Just a note, given in good faith. I don’t impose rules here about names but it’s difficult to “get a read on someone” if they don’t make a consistent identity clear.
@161 Anonymous:
Wow! An asshole attack! Don’t need this crap. I think it’s time for Sequitur to leave this shitty building. Bye all.
Fortunately, tomorrow is another day.
And therein went the premise Josh doesn’t read passed #100. As jroggs implied, take all “truths” found here with a grain of salt.