Century Boulevard … we love it
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Blondie, 11/2/24
The Blondie creative team is usually very locked in to whatever big calendar full of real and fake holidays that’s clearly hanging up in the writer’s room, so today’s misstep is actually kind of surprising to me. Sure, it was possible, weeks ago when this strip was written, that game six of the World Series might’ve been played on November 1, but it was also possible that one of the teams would wrap it up in five games or less, as one of them in fact did (go Dodgers!). Anyway, I get why you’d risk it though, the glaring error is absolutely worth it to deliver this tight, flawless joke about a mailman streaming the baseball game from the night before, so his trainee has to talk to one of the mail route customers, like the regular guy usually does, about something that we don’t need to bother explaining, you know, the usual customer-mailman conversations we all know and love and have every day.
Marvin, 11/2/24
Of the weird holdover jokes from an entirely different era of gender relations that routinely pop up in newspaper comics, I have to say that “haha, it’s women’s job to cook but this particular woman is really bad at it!” are my absolute least favorite. The particular woman in question could be the speaking character’s mother, wife, or (as in this case) daughter, each possibility carrying with it its own specific unpleasant vibe. That said, I do think today’s Marvin is kind of funny because usually you think of “runing your appetite” as something you do with snacking, but Roy is just straight-up eating a whole actual meal here. Like he knows Jenny’s cooking is terrible, he wants no part of it, and he’s just made his own dinner early, because he’s fully self-sufficient.
Beetle Bailey, 11/2/24
Some days I think I’ve left the snickering sexual innuendo I was prone to in this blog’s early days behind, but then I encounter a strip like “Lt. Fuzz decides to horn in on on General Halftrack’s threesome,” sigh heavily, and realize I will simply not be able to help myself. Anyway, here’s today’s Beetle Bailey, in which Lt. Fuzz decides to horn in on General Halftrack’s threesome.
25 replies to “Century Boulevard … we love it”
Mary Worth Mashups
Family Circus: Oh, Dolly, never change. Your effortless sacrilegiousness is so delightful.
RMMD-Uhmm how old are you again?
MW-“Such a shame that there aren’t more bridesmaids at this wedding for me to hit on,” Wilbur thinks to himself.
FC-If your wish is to be excommunicated from the church and ducked into a pool full of holy water then yes.
Family Circlejerk – Just remember, Dolly, sometimes the answer is no. (No snark there, just a jab at people who expect their prayers are answered only if it’s a yes.)
The whole “She’s a terrible cook” joke, really in my opinion, only works if it’s from a meddling mother-in-law, like Marie Barone from “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
If it comes from the cook’s own Mother, it just comes off as petty and abusive. I mean, yeah, it’s petty and abusive coming from anyone, but really mother-in-laws, that’s their territory…
Blondie – I’m still going with my initial interpretation of panel 1: Mr. Beasley is attempting to discreetly warn Dagwood that Jack is in fact a convicted serial killer on work release. “Run! Run! if you know what’s good for you…”
Blondie – When I read the first panel, I figured Beasley was urgently telling his trainee to run away from Dagwood before it’s too late and he gets drawn into one of Dagwood’s endless inane conversations. I still think they should’ve gone with that.
@Roscoe: That also works!
Is Dagwood’s question: “Why do you look exactly like my neighbor who’s also my colleague, my carpool partner and apparently my only friend? Like, you don’t share a name or anything, so are you related? Did one of your parents remarry or have an affair? Are you in witness protection? Are you actually the same person, ashamed of having to deliver mail to make ends meet? I mean, this comic has been running so long that I don’t expect any new revelations at this point, but maybe the lore was all explained in a strip back in 1936.”
Marvin – “I mean, just look at this iced coffee she made. It’s so thick the ice cubes won’t even sink.” “That’s not coffee, that’s tea.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Abundio, your dog used to jump all over me”
“Why is he being so aloof all of a sudden?”
“Because he just got back from the groomer”
“And now… he’s out of your league!”
Marvin Alternative Caption:
“If you keep eating, the food will become shit and you’ll defecate your adult diaper.”
“That’s the idea”
“Oh… right, I briefly forgot what comic we’re in.”
Look at the look on Lt. Fuzz’s face in panel 1. Sure, he heard the phrase “tee time” and knows what General Halftrack is really talking about, but even so, for one fleeting moment, he thinks there’s some don’t-ask-don’t-tell action going on he can get in on.
@Roscoe: See, my initial interpretation of Panel 1 was that he was warning Jack about the dangers of starting a conversation with, or just getting too close to, Dagwood. But that wouldn’t make an entertaining comment.
Marvin’s grandma has a secret life as Gearhead Gertie
My first thought of today’s Blondie, was that maybe he was playing “Super Mario Run” or something like that. But that would actually be modern and relevant, can’t have that.
I’m just going to ask this about Marvin.
The implication is that Roy cooked the meal himself.
It seems to be a plate of peas and mashed potatoes and meat (?)
This doesn’t feel realistic to me, it seems to me that Roy (or really anyone) for a snack, would have just made a sandwich or microwaved something, not go through the trouble to cook a full-blown meal just for himself.
Unless:
-It was leftovers from the previous nights’ meal
-It’s one of those “Hungry-man” microwaveable meals.
I hate it so much when I try to tear apart the logic of a terrible comic, and end up figuring out ways to justify the scenario…
Blondie: Making a tired “Don’t interrupt me when I’m watching the big game” gag is setting the hurdle as low as you can without burying it underground, and the Blondie team still managed to trip over it in ten different ways.
Marvin: Why Grandma is upset at Roy for eating between meals? Seeing as he has to use a fork and spoon simultaneously to eat mashed potatoes and peas and he’s missing his plate six inches to the left, he clearly needs the practice.
BLONDIE: Shouldn’t Beasley’s first lesson to an intern be to stand to one side, for when the congenitally tardy-for-work Dagwood explodes out the door?
MW: Better looking…
Better job…
Better in the sack…
Having overthought the matter, a despairing Wilbur collapses face-first into Mary’s culinary creation.
BB: They could have gone to the trouble of drawing the other two guys (Major Scabbard? Captain Greenbrass?) in the last panel. Looks like Halftrack is going to have to settle for some hot General-on-Lieutenant action. At least he might get a hole in one!
MW: I actually polled my friends today as to whether the officiant was Walz or McCain. The vote was split.
Beetle Bailey: There are few things as disorienting as Lt. Fuzz in mufti. I’m pretty certain white shirts with differently-colored collars went out with Gordon Gecko.
It’s been at least 30 years since a new character was introduced in Blondie (the nameless carpool partners) and now we’re seeing TWO within a few months? I foresee Jack and Maya finding true love in each other’s arms, in the classic romantic Mailman/Baker scenario.
MW: Estelle clearly prefers men with necks.
Marvin: has Grandma always been in the strip? Can’t say I’ve seen her before.
H&L: Pouring the sugar into his beer, Thurston shows why he’s at the forefront of degenerate but legal addictive tendencies.
MW: Okay, Moy traced a photo of Dan Walz for today’s strip. He almost looks like that ‘He-Man’ meme.
BB – Even with the verbal (tee time) and visual (golf bag) cues, I wasn’t certain that this strip was dealing with golf. Fortunately, the three flags in close proximity to one another tipped me off. Four would have been too many; two wouldn’t have been enough. Kudos, Walkers.
All the other ways Blondie isn’t making sense are just cover for the way “twenty more seconds” makes no sense. It’s not twenty seconds till the inning break because the seventh-inning stretch is an inning break. It’s not twenty seconds till the end of the game because there are two innings left after the seventh-inning stretch. It’s twenty seconds till the end of the song I guess? Beasley is streaming the entire World Series game on his mail route so he can sing along with “Take Me Out To The Ball Game”? I hope Dagwood’s question is “What is wrong with you?”