Metapost: The comments, they’re a-callin’
Post Content
Enjoy the siren song of this week’s comment … of the week!
“I’ve heard of shaggy dog stories, but this guy actually grew a beard in the course of listening to this one.” –Dennis Jimenez
The runners up are also quite amusing!
“A veterinary exam room having a big open window is so stupid I can’t even come up with a joke about how the human vet is wearing leg irons or something.” –Rex Thrillho, on BlueSky
“That the animals sometimes revert, Island of Dr. Moreau style, to their old instincts is tragically illustrated by Lady Lynx kicking the severed head off Max Mouse into the room. Before she got so upset, she was going to leave it in the doctor’s shoe. A little feline gift.” –Logar the Librarian
“I’m loving Glen’s reaction to Sophie’s story. ‘I’m sorry. Maybe it’s the 15 tiny beers I’ve had, but did you just use the words hack and drone with no regard to their meaning?’” –Joe Blevins
“Is it really an outrage to steal a body from a morgue? I’d think it would be worse if it were, say, the library or a supermarket.” –taig
“I’m not in the mood to deal with Mr. Parker right now. Or his brother. I’m Sorry, but they don’t have a Monopoly on my time. I’m not going to Scrabble around and take Risks for them just for the sake of some Trivial Pursuit. They should get a Clue!” –Peanut Gallery
“‘No offense, but I don’t think any advice can make me feel better right no–‘ the next moments are a blur. Dawn feels a disorienting rush and a sharp pain and suddenly she’s face-down on the ground, with a blunt weight on the back of her neck. Something has cracked, and blood is pooling underneath her. She doesn’t know what happened to the sun, everything is dark, like night. A voice appears to come from everywhere, asking what about now, Dawn? Do you think you could use some advice now? Suddenly everything rights itself. The light returns, the pain recedes, she’s standing upright, and only a faint taste of blood and a sense of vertigo suggest she didn’t imagine it. ‘Well then,’ says Mary happily, her blank eyes fixed on nothing in the middle-distance. ‘A home-cooked meal may do the trick!’” –Dan
“As the Saxons stormed the fort at Badon Hill, Arthur looked desperately for a weapon to turn the tide of battle. His eyes fell upon the table. The next table will lie flat, and our best knights will sit around it, he thought, but for now, improvise, adapt, overcome. The jarls and thanes would later speak in hushed tones about the moment the flaming wheel broke through the abatis, followed by crazed Britons, charging to victory. Of the anonymous workman who had built the table, nothing is remembered.” –Voshkod
“So is a meat bath when you sit in a bathtub of meat juices and drippings, or is it sitting in a bathtub of meat itself? Is the meat raw or cooked? Red meat? Pork? Poultry? A combination? Do Catholics substitute meat baths for fish baths on Friday? I need answers, yet I fear to have them.” –Lauralot
“Why is everyone wearing black in Dick Tracy? Did somebody die? I mean, I’m sure several suspects have, recently and gruesomely, but those usually don’t get mourned.” –nescio
“Silver, dead-eyed, stands pondering. How many teen girls has this been for whom he has served as a transitional object of affection, as they move from dolls to fathers to adult love and then their own foals and fillies? Silver cares not, he was gelded long ago. Now he is docile at best, saturnine at worst, on the cold and wet days when he has no blanket to keep him warm. As long as the oats come and the stable is mucked, he is content. Joy is the occasional apple or carrot, ecstasy the opportunity to run through grass. Tonight, the blonde girl will dream of Silver. He will forget she ever existed, until the morning. He is content, as content as any horse can be, or so he thinks.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“The outfit says ‘genderfluid Realtor,’ the posture says ‘three-year-old throwing a tantrum,’ and the language says ‘parody of a nineteenth century robber baron.’ Someone needs to work on their branding.” –TheDiva
“I know that it’s all just for the alliteration, but ‘anachronistic’ seems like a particularly bizarre insult, especially for Dick Tracy. You’re calling cell phones with radio watches and driving 1940s electric cars!” –pugfuggly
“Toddlers bang on pots because they’re exploring their senses along with cause and effect. Dennis at five is well past that stage and is banging away noisily solely to cause Wilson a blinding migraine. And I find it hilarious. I’m a bad person.” –Hibbleton
“I can understand Americans doing a soccer comic during the Men’s World Cup (or the Women’s, if it were a female player on a screen). At a push, maybe the Copa America. But I’m meant to believe Leroy, the picture of suburban downwardly-mobile WASPism, is watching soccer in an odd numbered year, on a Thursday in February? What is he, some sort of European? What’s he going to get into next? Buttered crumpets? Shitty dance music? Recreational nudity?” –Schroduck
“I feel like this Aunt Claire person could learn a thing or two about nephew berating. There’s a lot of rich material in the Hall and Oates area, perhaps upon the lines of them both being Oates or something. It would be a cinch to work in the alliteration. Oafish, odious, onerous — shit, if you’re going to say anachronistic anyway, obsolescent is right there. Are you even trying, lady? Now I’m just getting mad.” –Violet
“‘When God closes a door, Jesus opens Windows. That’s how the phrase goes right?’ –Dan Piraro (probably)” –The Rambling Otter
“In 1944, when D-Day code words began turning up in the Daily Telegraph crossword, British intelligence was alarmed, figuring a spy was transmitting the invasion plans to Germany. The puzzles’ creator was arrested and interrogated. It turned out that he was headmaster of a school, located near a military base in northern England, who had his students supply words for the grid. The kids had heard soldiers using the code words but didn’t know their significance. I hope Jughead hasn’t written a bombshell investigative story, and that its fragments in the puzzle section won’t land him and Reggie in Guantanamo. No, wait, I hope that’s exactly what happens.” –A. Mulyak
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36 replies to “Metapost: The comments, they’re a-callin’”
Congrats to Rambling for Josh’s same day COTW also ran.
@Garrison Skunk: Awwww thanks Skunk :3
Way to go, DJ, and the Floaters and Scroters:
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Josh: I’m not sure what exactly Dennis is blathering on about — like is he saying that he did a bunch of sins over the past week because he hadn’t heard the good news about how he shouldn’t or something, maybe? — but I don’t actually think that’s important, because he’s only talking to distract the minister so he can get close enough to deliver a solid punch to the nuts. And the minister knows it! That’s good defensive use of the Holy Bible there, rev, I know they don’t teach that at seminary, you learned it from hard experience.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
February 15th, 2025 at 9:07 am Reply
Dennis the Menace: That’s capital-R Rev. Abouttobedickpunched to you, Mister.
Everything is Better with Monkeys
February 15th, 2025 at 5:17 am Reply
DtM- okay, the Mitchells apparently jump from church to church, as each new congregation discovers the evil that has come amongst them and drives it away (and Dennis has to go too, they are his parents). They seem to be quite open to clerical style: full vestments, cheap suits that would look bad on a community college philosophy professor, likely a rolled sleeve and unbuttoned collar megachurch look will be coming next.
Schroduck
February 15th, 2025 at 5:40 am Reply
DTM: That looks like a suspiciously urban setting for their church. My working assumption was that the Mitchells attend a stadium-sized megachurch run by a smooth faced multimillionaire who replaced the collection plate with a $GODCOIN wallet. I just don’t believe they’d attend a small city ministry run by an apple-cheeked beardy in a shabby tweed suit – what next? Charity for the poor?
brendancalling
February 15th, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
DtM: I was going to say the most menacing thing here is the increasing inability of the artists actually draw. But then I read up on the real Dennis, his dad, and how the poor kid was treated. Hank Ketcham was a rotten piece of shit who essentially abandoned his youngest (and learning-disabled) kid in a boarding school in the US, while living the high life with his new family in Geneva Switzerland. When Dennis’s mom died, Hank didn’t even TELL him until she was buried.
One of Ketcham’s other kids, Scott, writes the strip now and it seems he cares as little about the fictional Dennis as his dad did about the real one. Now THAT is menacing.
Hannibal’s Lectern
February 15th, 2025 at 6:54 am Reply
DtM: In other words, if the Good Right Reverend had preached his sermon on the Sixth Commandment a week earlier, the Mitchell parents wouldn’t have had to spend the week hiding the bodies after Dennis went on that mid-week killing spree.
TheDiva
February 15th, 2025 at 7:11 am Reply
DtM: Criticizing reliance on the Common Lectionary for designating readings throughout the year, which in turn guides the content of the officiant’s sermons? Not exactly menacing–you’d think Dennis would at least aspire to the level of a proper heresy.
Hibbleton
February 15th, 2025 at 5:23 am Reply
DtM: “I hear ya, kid. I didn’t know about that whole ‘Neighbor’s wife’ thing until last night.”
MW: So if I’m interpreting this correctly, Mary is saying: “Too often, young people let petty bullshit get in the way of good fucking.”
Stacker
February 15th, 2025 at 5:14 am Reply
MW: Mary must have presidential security, making sure that yuts from the megalopolis in the background in no way disturb or even come into view while on their private pier off their 10 acre frontage on the water while they make reassuring noises to each other.
Cleveland Mocks
February 15th, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
MW: So the blue hair yesterday wasn’t just some one-off atmospheric illusion. She definitely went and dyed that sucker powder blue. And now she’s spouting blather about being young. If she shows up Monday sporting leather and a nose ring, buck up, Jeff, you just might get some yet.
Maude R. Fawker
February 15th, 2025 at 8:33 am Reply
MW: With a couple of additional days to reflect on the Dawn-Dirk story arc, it’s become clear to me that Dawn brought this whole disaster upon herself. No good at rock-climbing or bowling? Easily finessed. “Honey, let’s skip the dinner-and-bowling thing tonight, and just chillax at your place.” Dirk may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but he’ll get her drift, that she’s ready now for up-the-butt.
Little Blue Bicycle
February 15th, 2025 at 7:23 am Reply
MW: “Yes, the future is in good hands! Except for Dawn Weston. She’s a mess. Her hands can’t bowl worth a lick. Stupid %#€£!”
Charterstoned
February 15th, 2025 at 7:52 am Reply
MW: Wait—are all the young people Allstate INSURANCE brokers…??!
Bob Tice
February 15th, 2025 at 4:24 am Reply
RMMD:
Oh, look. The Mystery Science Theater 3000 creatures are behind Summer and Augie. And they’ve brought a couple of their friends!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
The Rambling Otter
February 16th, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
Judge Parker: Blah blah blah blah (skipped it)
Horace Broon
February 16th, 2025 at 9:20 am Reply
JP: If Glen isn’t listening, why should we have to?
BigTed
February 16th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
Slylock Fox: I suppose if your name is “K. Litter,” you pretty much have to become a vet. (Her first name is Katherine, but the fact that people call her “Kitty” goes without saying.) Of course, the fact that she apparently let the pigeon fly away while checking its heartbeat with a stethoscope is her own fault. It looks as if she spends most of her time selling expensive “anti-arthritic” dog food and single pills of veterinary tranquilizers, so she probably wasn’t paying all that much attention anyway.
I speak Jive
February 16th, 2025 at 8:09 am Reply
Mary Worth – Mary didn’t say “It takes two to tango.” She said that a relationship is a two way street. Dawn remembered to give Mary credit, but she misquoted her. That’s pretty tepid praise. Mary requires more lavish praise than that while she does her victory lap.
Ukulele Ike
February 16th, 2025 at 8:35 am Reply
MW: Absolutely every witty statement made between 1919 and 1935 must be attributed to either Will Rogers or Dorothy Parker. It’s the law.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Bob Tice
February 17th, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
DT:
A corpse is a corpse, of course, of course
And no one can squawk to a corpse, of course
That is, of course, unless the corpse
Is a framed-up “Mr. Dead” !
Ettorre
February 17th, 2025 at 4:35 am Reply
Dr Hart wants action, she wants Dick!
Ukranazi Stepan
February 17th, 2025 at 5:18 am Reply
What, Dr Hart and not Dr Necropsia? It was right there!
taig
February 17th, 2025 at 5:09 am Reply
DT: Is it really an outrage to steal a body from a morgue? I’d think it would be worse if it were, say, the library or a supermarket.
Everybody Posts, Nobody Reads
February 17th, 2025 at 10:21 am Reply
DT: A latter-day Willie Sutton, when asked why he robs the morgue, replied, “because that’s where the corpses are.”
Hibbleton
February 17th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
FC: Thel pulls out an opened condom. “What the F….?”
Liam
February 17th, 2025 at 4:36 am Reply
MW-“No thanks, Mary. I was thinking of eating out.” “I was thinking of doing the same thing, Dawn.”
2+2=7
February 17th, 2025 at 5:30 am Reply
MARY WORTH: “Would you like to come over and downplay your horrific abuse, dear? I have muffins!”
Inspector Gotcha
February 17th, 2025 at 5:44 am Reply
MW: “Dirk and I broke up. It was emotional and not very pretty.”
[Mary thought balloon] “MMMMMMM! Oh YES! Oh God YES! YES YES YES!!!”
astroboy
February 17th, 2025 at 9:34 am Reply
MW – That wasn’t exactly a “break up,” Dawn. More of a psychotic breakdown followed by a walk-out. Nobody discussed any breaking up. Dirkhead yelled at you in public like a total lunatic, timidly gave Jared a slight nudge, you threw a bowling ball on his foot, and he power-flounced out of there. Your concept of a break up is as twisted as your concept of a relationship. It appears that someone dropped a bowling ball on your head when you were a child.
Nevertheless, please commence showering undeserved praise on The Meddler for her completely unhelpful 5 seconds of half-assed, disinterested babbling about two-way streets so we can be done with this shitshow and move on to…well, the next shitshow. This is Mary Worth, after all.
richardf8
February 17th, 2025 at 9:45 am Reply
MW – What’s the over/under on Dawn demanding beef when Mary serves her a vegan dinner?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
taig
February 18th, 2025 at 4:58 am Reply
CS: Cranky is ashamed about his morning wood.
InvasionOfTheZIM
February 18th, 2025 at 4:53 am Reply
MW: Seeing which words are bolded for emphasis in a given Mary Worth is always funny, this one being a prime example. Sounds like Dawn’s about to get an apathetic ear tuned to her story while chowing down on a Hungry-Man dinner.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
February 18th, 2025 at 5:26 am Reply
Mary Worth: One of the first things you learn in any kind of counseling, spiritual or secular, is to give little advice, and then only with the permission of the counselee. Of course, they also teach you to avoid meddling, speaking in a monotone with a thousand-yard stare and blue-balling your romantic partner, but the main thing is to listen. No muffins or salmon squares!
TheDiva
February 18th, 2025 at 6:02 am Reply
MW: Little does Dawn realize that Mary is taking her words as a challenge. She’ll figure it out around seven fifteen tonight, after Mary has tied her to a chair and sat across from her with a fifty-page printout from her BrainyQuote search for “relationships.”
Vulcan with a Mullet
February 18th, 2025 at 9:00 am Reply
I actually felt a little sympathy for Mary, imagining exactly how this conversation is gonna go down.
Dawn: *breaks into tears after her 5th muffin*
“MY BOYFRIEND IS A JERK AND SOMETIMES HE PUSHES ME AND PEOPLE BUT HE’S A HOT HUNK AND I CAN’T DECIDE WHAT TO DO BECAUSE HE’S HOT BUT LIKE EMBARRASSED ME IN PUBLIC AND MY EX WAS THERE AND HIS S.O. AND IT WAS HUMILIATIIIIIINNNNNG” *honk*
Mary: *eyes glazed over from the Santo Roberto dispensary special gummies*
“It is what it IS, Dawn! Live in the MOMENT.”
Lauralot
February 18th, 2025 at 6:21 am Reply
MW: “No offense, but I don’t think any advice can make me feel better right now!”
Dawn’s body was never found.
Dick BongSequiturFebruary 18th, 2025 at 7:40 am Reply
The Family Circus Spanish to English.
“I just picked my nose. There’s the booger. If it moves, SWAT IT!”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
taig
February 19th, 2025 at 5:05 am Reply
Luann: Not sure why Luann felt compelled to giving Mrs. Horner a poem about finding a glove up her hoo-hah, but whatever.
ValdVin
February 19th, 2025 at 7:12 am Reply
Luann recites her poem, but it really only goes over with the aged audience when she continues with “Finding Lube”.
Lauralot
February 19th, 2025 at 5:01 am Reply
MW: Truly, Moy is a master of fiction. Lesser writers would be concerned with things like “how will the psychological scars of abuse impact Dawn’s relationships moving forward?” or “will Dirk come back for revenge when Dawn is no longer in public?” But Moy knows what the readers truly care about: “Has this experience turned Dawn off of bowling?”
astroboy
February 19th, 2025 at 5:36 am Reply
MW – The root of Dawn’s problem is that her only criterion for dating Dirk was that he’s good looking, and the only reason she put up with his outrageously abusive behavior was that he’s good looking. So, of course, both Mary and Dawn will completely miss the point. Yes, the evil bowling alley is at fault, Dawn. You go with that.
Cleveland Mocks
February 19th, 2025 at 6:03 am Reply
MW: Not exactly bowling’s loss, Dawn.
MKay
February 19th, 2025 at 6:08 am Reply
MW: Wow, does even Mary have the stuff to convince Dawn that yes, she CAN don those rented shoes again? The world is holding its breath.
I speak Jive
February 19th, 2025 at 8:44 am Reply
Mary Worth – Mary panics because she can’t immediately remember a platitude about bowling.
Strike while the bowling ball is hot?
Sometimes life deals you gutter balls?
pugfuggly
February 20th, 2025 at 4:50 am Reply
DT I know that it’s all just for the alliteration, but ‘anachronistic’ seems like a particularly bizarre insult, especially for Dick Tracy. You’re calling cell phones with radio watches and driving 1940s electric cars!
Pozzo
February 20th, 2025 at 4:42 am Reply
I love Blue-Footed Boobies! They’re my favorite bird, next to the Great Tits.
MKay
February 20th, 2025 at 7:17 am Reply
DT: I’m a big fan of alliteration, so I’m willing to hang around until, “Zombified zebraheads!”
Tabby Lavalamp
February 20th, 2025 at 5:55 am Reply
#@%$ this, D*ck Tracy. Just use some #@%$&^¢ grawlix.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Banana Jr. 6000
February 20th, 2025 at 5:11 am Reply
MW: “Don’t blame yourself”??!! No, Dawn, please do blame yourself, because this was entirely your fault. You were so mesmerized by this man’s alleged hunkiness that you set yourself up for all kinds of abuse. You’re lucky he only wanted to call you childish names, and not do something much worse to you.
Anonymous
February 20th, 2025 at 6:51 am Reply
Family Circus: PJ really needs a new diaper!
Dennis Jimenez
February 21st, 2025 at 4:55 am Reply
JP – Nothin’ from nothin’ is nothin’ – except here where there’s exciting footage of the Pope shitting in the woods….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Ned Ryerson
February 16th, 2025 at 9:18 am Reply
JP: I stopped trying to follow this strip years ago. What ever happened to that French boyfriend Neddy had who was going to make fashionable shoes in a barn. What about the sinkhole that swallowed the shipping container sweatshop that was going to employ the elderly?
69. Tabby Lavalamp
February 17th, 2025 at 9:26 am Reply
Calm down, lady. It’s not like the original owner needs that body anymore.
69. Dr. Larry Erhardt
February 18th, 2025 at 8:47 am Reply
Arlo and Janis: Arlo is dating himself completely out of Gen X if Molly Ringwald’s birthday does nothing for him.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69, The Rambling Otter
February 20th, 2025 at 7:14 am Reply
DtM: Calvin bursts into the room banging his own pots and pans and proceeds to kick Dennis in the ass.
Awww thanks for the mentions Scratchy!
Thanks Josh and Scratchy, and Voshkudos to Dennis Jimenez, taig, The Rambling Otter, and A. Mulyak.
Congrats, Dennis!
Thanks for the mentions, Josh and Scratchy!
@Voshkod: Thank you, as well!
Congrats to Dennis Jimenez and the floaters!
Thanks, Scratchy!
Mary’s Worse:”So, Dawn, coffee, tea, or me?” “Mrs. Worth, are you trying to seduce me?”
Thanks for indulging my urge to lecture people on historical trivia, Josh!
@Voshkod: And, uh, Mulyakudos to you too!
@A. Mulyak: Surely any reader of my blog would know that lectures on historical trivia are very much my jam!
Thanks, Scratchy.
Thanks to our host, and to Scratchy for the scooter. Congrats to all those mentioned.
@ValdVin: …the scrote. Sigh, autocorrect.
Thanks, Scratchy!
Congratulations, Dennis.
Thank you, Scratchy.
Congratulations to Dennis Jimenez and the other folks on the float, as well as the scratchies. Tips of the beret to taig, Dan, and Violet.
Congrats to Dennis Jimenez for the COTW!
And big thanks to
YogiBarerScratchy for the mention!Hoorah for the siren song and the quite amusing! They are all officially impressively hilarious!
And the rest of us can provide the quiet chuckling for our own comments, if we are so inclined:-).
Felicitations to Dennis and all the runners-up! Well done!
@ValdVin: #23
Haha! Actually, it would be fun if we all got scooters as comment prizes!
On behalf of myself and perhaps others, thank you Scratchy!
Thanks for the shout-outs, Scratchy, and I LOVED your compilation of all those excellent DtM church comments! Take a bow!
What a week. Dennis (the Menace not Jimenez) gave Mary Worth a run for her money in the snark department. Didn’t see that coming.
P.S. I’m going to start tracking Scratchy’s own COTWs. Stay tuned.
Thanks, Scratchy!
Thanks for mentions, Josh and Scracthy, and congrats to all the floaters and Dennis Jimenez. ¡Hola, amigo!
Special tentacle flaps to: Peanut Gallery, Dan, nescio, TheDiva, and Hibbleton.
And now to begin work on my Silver novella…