Metapost: Y’all know what time it is (it is time for the COTW, for the record)
Post Content
Are you emotionally and psychologically prepared for this week’s comment of the week? I sure hope so, because here it is:
“Wizard of Id has succintly portrayed the difference between Early and Late Medieval modes of warfare: while his Dark Age companions are boldly dying for their feudal lord, the canny Sir Rodney treats war as a profession. He is akin to the condottiere who would dominate later Italian warfare. That sly look and crooked smile is that of a man who sees human corpses as nothing more than money in his purse, arguably far more barbaric than his predecessors. But trebuchets suck for hitting single guys so we’re probably about to see Sir Smarty Pants’ insides in spite of his historically progressive role.” –m.w.
And brace yourself — here are the runners up.
“Some bold theological claims on Pardon My Planet: It stipulates that pick-up lines, jaded sarcasm, and calling women ‘baby cakes’ all predate original sin and can be done in a state of perfect innocence.” –Nevin, on Patreon
“Interesting to see that the Garden of Eden may be free of physical pain, but that ‘cringe’ still exists, even (especially?) among the animals. Maybe our heaven on earth was their hell. Makes you think.” –pugfuggly
“I was going to laugh at these village hicks sitting down with big grins to watch two hours of sickening hallucinogenic body horror, but then I realised this is the intermission! They know what they’re watching and they love it. Psychosexual insect drug orgies? To the Vikings, that’s basically regular orgies.” –Schroduck
“I have never seen character designs more built for an animated series that no one will ever fund.” –Tristan Olson, on BlueSky
“The real joke is that the movie isn’t even over, they’re talking right in the middle of it.” –The Rambling Otter
“Grimm has mistaken Ty-D-bol for Blue Curacao liqueur. Right now his head is spinning but no worries, he’ll be dead soon.” –Hibbleton
“Ignoring your direct report because she’s leaving at the end of her contract, so why bother trying to make her feel like part of the team: JERK BEHAVIOR. Ignoring your coworker because you’re leaving at the end of your contract, so why bother trying to make her feel like part of the conversation she is currently attempting to have with you, and also stone cold referring to her as ‘this woman’ in your head: TOTALLY COOL!” –Lomo
“Do you really need a whole book to tell the story of Noah? Doesn’t Genesis get through it in, like, three chapters? Maybe the rest of the book is advertising for Northern Kentucky’s Ark Encounter.” –Pozzo
“If a guy walked up to me bound up on his cot like that, I’d forget the wailing of the siren: ‘came’ would not land as ‘moved from that place to here.’” –Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
“I like how seriously Killer is treating this. ‘D-do you NOT hear that loud emergency alert, dumpy fat guy and weirdo bed-man? Why are you just standing around? GET OUTTA MY WAY!’” –Astroboy
“The previous version of this gag was only two panels. I hope they keep producing new versions of this strip with more and more panels, until it’s just a series of tiny slivers with one word in each.” –Peanut Gallery
“Mr. Lodge has a point. Clowning has a traditional set of exercises starting with selecting a clown archetype (whiteface, auguste or tramp) and building through gesture, expression, movement and running gags to develop a coherent character, separate and distinct from the person playing the character. Archie’s just Archie with bigger hair, different-colored freckles and the same lack of humor.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“Mr. Lodge clearly used AI to write the book and put a picture of the money he saved by stiffing a human on the back as a power move. The proleteriat is on notice now!” –Jerp + Jump
“There is something about the way the barbarian’s weapon is drawn — the perspective, I guess — that makes it look too three-dimensional to be a flat sword. Wait, I have it: it’s a popsicle. The barbarian is trying to eat a popsicle in peace and this idiot keeps sticking a pointed stick in his face.” –Nekrotzar
“The waitress already knew Andy Bear is kidding. He isn’t wanted anywhere.” –matt w
“As he scurried away with the loot, the Millipede laughed. Leaving two of his 1300 right gloves behind … no way the Vulpine Vindicator was going to figure this one out!” –Voshkod
“I, myself, had a pair of eyeglasses that hid my pupils, and disguised normal eye functions. Took ’em driving! Many have died needlessly.” –A Grave Mind
“That TikTok still only got 5 likes. It’s tough out there.” –BillieVee
“In panel two, Killer is holding a bottle of Instant Hat.” –Ukulele Ike
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42 replies to “Metapost: Y’all know what time it is (it is time for the COTW, for the record)”
“In panel two, Killer is holding a bottle of Instant Hat.” –Ukulele Ike
That one made me GOL (guffaw out loud) this morning!
@Astroboy: A solid, if quiet, snerk from me, along with A Grave Mind’s crack. (I’m in a memory care unit.)
Well, played, m. w., et al.
Baja Gaijin
July 19th, 2025 at 4:26 am Reply
Family Circus: OK, let me understand this little tableaux. Thel just arrived home from hours of shopping. She left the baby alone at home with just a bowl of glop for entertainment. This is approaching Hi and Lois-level Trixie abandonment.
Liam
July 19th, 2025 at 6:03 am Reply
FC-“I have got to teach you how to swallow.”
MW-Ah yes. The risk of someone crashing the plane so they don’t have to hear you talk anymore, Mary.
Charterstoned
July 19th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
MW: Mary smiles to herself, admitting that the REAL reason she has avoided flying up until now is because taking her shoes off in the security line also revealed her advanced case of toenail fungus.
Needless Exposition
July 19th, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
MW: Mary seems to have it in her head that being crammed into a Boeing 737 like a sardine makes her the next Amelia Earhart.
Mary has only been back in the spotlight of her own comic for a few weeks but she’s definitely trying to make up for lost time. You thought Wilbur was a self absorbed narcissist for preparing to sacrifice his daughter so he could get laid? Now we have Mary age creeping on a teenage girl while still acting like she’s some sort of pioneer because she went on a plane.
BigTed
July 19th, 2025 at 7:43 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Airline travel — a privilege and also a risk!” is the TSA’s new slogan. Heck, Mary brought printed signs to the airport with her just to make sure. (If she’s led out in handcuffs, it will only prove her point.)
Tabby Lavalamp
July 19th, 2025 at 7:50 am Reply
It’s shocking to see Mary Worth get political, but she knows she’s taking her life in her hands getting on an airplane with the one exhausted air traffic controller left at the airport using Grok to help with the workload.
pugfuggly
July 19th, 2025 at 4:47 am Reply
MW: I joked last week that this week we would probably be treated to Mary doing mundane activities at the airport, but I have to admit, “Mary stands in the middle of the terminal silently contemplating the privilege of air travel” was not something I had guessed.
Dustin: Yeah, that is indeed crispy bacon (?). “Also I want my eggs over easy. How over easy? Let me put it to you this way: I’d like the white set but the yolk to be runny, such that it flows out when I cut through the center!”
Maltmash3r
July 19th, 2025 at 5:54 am Reply
Dustin – Ed insures against extra crispy bacon by having the server spit into it.
Doghouse Reilly (Minneapolis)
July 19th, 2025 at 7:50 am Reply
Dustbin Daddy: And I’d like my eggs over easy. How over easy? Easier than your MOM!
Anonymous
July 19th, 2025 at 6:01 am Reply
Dustin: Oh, c’mon Ed. You know full well that not even a single crumb of that bacon is going to fall in the ground. Your gaping maw would hoover it up midair faster than you could say, “Lord, I wish my son were here so I could insult him somehow.”
TheDiva
July 19th, 2025 at 7:08 am Reply
Dustin: I feel for the waitress. Look at her. That is the face of a woman who has had to wait on the Dustparents every Saturday morning, week in and week out, listening to their bacon-related demands and threatening to sic ICE on the kitchen staff when they don’t get it exactly right, leaving a measley buck behind when they bother to tip at all. She keeps herself in profile to keep them from guessing all the bodily fluids she has seasoned their breakfast combos with.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Ukulele Ike
July 19th, 2025 at 7:45 am Reply
GT: Thorp’s bimbo busies herself squeezing buzzing potatoes. Say THAT three times fast.
Crank: Oh god, Batuik’s just fucking with us now. By Tuesday there will no art at all, just three panels stuffed with Henry James-style prose.
Weaselboy
July 19th, 2025 at 6:05 am Reply
CS – “A barely perceptible look crossed his face like a nictating membrane of a bird’s eye.” I remember reading that sentence in 2001 in the alt.fan.humor newsgroup under the heading “Teachers share examples of terrible student writing.” I’m glad Batiuk was able to repurpose it.
Hibbleton
July 19th, 2025 at 6:13 am Reply
@Weaselboy:
A barely perceptible look crossed his face like a nictitating membrane of a bird’s eye
Bouton uses basically that line when describing Mickey Mantel shutting the bus window on clamoring fans.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 19th, 2025 at 1:20 pm Reply
C-Shaft: The distance between a man who smoked pot and took the occasional hit of acid and another whose favored high was sweet, sweet superiority.
MKay
July 20th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
RMMD: Was Varla oblivious to the whole DNA thing, or did she go with the ever-popular, “I’ll be dead, not my problem” thing?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Liam
July 20th, 2025 at 4:36 am Reply
MW-“Gah! Lady, if you’re going to do that do it in the bathroom!”
Professor Well Actually
July 20th, 2025 at 5:51 am Reply
MW: does KM not realize how creepy this is?
Astroboy
July 20th, 2025 at 11:10 am Reply
MW: Is Mary’s orgasmic infatuation with a teenage girl an “endearing quirk,” Moy?
I speak Jive
July 20th, 2025 at 8:44 am Reply
Mary Worth – Floating head alert!
Charterstoned
July 20th, 2025 at 12:24 pm Reply
MW: The passenger in the seat next to Mary peruses his Narcan instruction booklet. He’s got that dose in his carry on bag, yes. But if he just lets her OD as she certainly seems to be doing, he could get the window seat, after all. He smiles.
Peanut Gallery
July 20th, 2025 at 10:23 am Reply
MW – “I remember when we first met, my dear girl…” is one of the most menacingly super-villainish things Mary Worth has ever said.
matt w
July 20th, 2025 at 6:00 am Reply
Today’s Mary Worth is the most messed up thing I have ever seen in the comics. I refer, of course, to the quotation taken from the 1985 TV miniseries of Anne of Green Gables but attributed to Lucy Maud Montgomery rather than the screenwriters, Kevin Sullivan and Joe Wiesenfeld. Shame! Shame! Shame!
Needless Exposition
July 20th, 2025 at 4:54 am Reply
MW: I have never hoped for Mary’s dreams to violently splatter like a bug on a windshield the way I do right now.
Dustin: When we’re supposed to see Dustin’s asshole dad as the relatable character, you know everyone else is going to have the social skills of monkeys who communicate by flinging poop.
pugfuggly
July 20th, 2025 at 4:49 am Reply
Dustin: My personal theory here is that the writer originally did this whole scene with Dustins’ parents, then looked over it and said ‘Hey, wait a minute: I didn’t say a single shitty thing about someone under 40 here!’ He considered adding a throwaway panel depicting Dustin with his finger up his nose, but then thought it would probably be safer just to redo the art.
BigTed
July 20th, 2025 at 4:56 am Reply
Dustin: It’ll be funny when he tries to mail this letter in the book-return case outside his library, which, like a mailbox, is something he’s never actually used before.
taig
July 20th, 2025 at 6:55 am Reply
Dustin: Dustin forgot Fitch really likes tonguing envelopes.
Hibbleton
July 20th, 2025 at 4:47 am Reply
Dustin: The whole strip could have been reduced to the last panel and a better one at that.
FC: Jeffy sees a newscast about Mardi Gras. “I knew it!!”
Popper Cherry
July 20th, 2025 at 6:23 am Reply
FC – Why did they cover her upper half? We all want to see if they could jut when she was Jeffy’s age? My money says she could have.
Horace Broon
July 20th, 2025 at 7:43 am Reply
Crank: “Especially one who hears it all the time, like me!”
FC: I guess the joke here is Jeffy imagining his parents’ adult heads on little-kid bodies, but the thing is, that is much less weird than how little kids’ heads are normally drawn in this strip.
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 20th, 2025 at 12:41 pm Reply
FC: Adult heads stuck on gnomish little bodies that are supposed to represent children, did Terry Beatty draw today’s strip?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
UncleJeff
July 20th, 2025 at 7:17 am Reply
A&J: Arlo popped a boner.
TheDiva
July 20th, 2025 at 8:03 am Reply
Luann: A boredom of Luann characters
ValdVin
July 20th, 2025 at 8:57 am Reply
H&L: “My mom made me a costume, but I am a real dog. And Snoopy is a much better shortstop than I am. Seriously, how do you expect me to throw out a runner from deep in the hole with my mouth? If we’re going along with the gag at least put me at first base.”
GarrisonSkunk
July 20th, 2025 at 9:30 am Reply
Low and Hi-Less: Underdog is the perfect mascot! He was the first cartoon character to openly use performance enhancing drugs! Did Mom make his pill ring as well?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Professor Well Actually
July 21st, 2025 at 4:27 am Reply
MW: there has to be a shocking reveal behind those doors. I’m picturing a blood stained Olive holding a butcher knife.
Stacker
July 21st, 2025 at 12:01 pm Reply
Is …Mary about to scam a family? Pull a Belle as it were? Mary, you don’t know. It could be a rent stabilized apartment. You would get nothing serving the family savory mushroom muffins.
Bob Tice
July 21st, 2025 at 5:15 am Reply
MW:
“Wow. Ed’s ‘co-op unit‘ is even bigger than Jeff’s!”
Hibbleton
July 21st, 2025 at 5:01 am Reply
MG&G: Grimm has mistaken Ty-D-bol for Blue Curacao liqueur. Right now his head is spinning but no worries, he’ll be dead soon.
MKay
July 21st, 2025 at 5:08 am Reply
MG&G: Apparently, to a dog, it’s not the disgusting act that appalls, it’s what you say AFTER the disgusting act.
Ettorre
July 21st, 2025 at 4:44 am Reply
Sorry Grimm, MeToo taught us that intoxication is no excuse for sexual harassment! Fortunately, we are in the post-MeToo era, so you are getting an important position in government or business!
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 21st, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
The Family Circus: Who needs friends when you’re high as balls on catnip? (Catnip works on dogs too, right?)
pugfuggly
July 21st, 2025 at 5:22 am Reply
FC: I think there’s a good chance that Billy might be talking about the tree. Just seems like someone more on his level, intellect-wise.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 21st, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
Where’s the thick black dotted line showing us where Billy lost his socks?
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Needless Exposition
July 22nd, 2025 at 4:31 am Reply
MW: Video chats are still enough for Mary to drain the youth out of her victims. Evy especially looks like she could be Mary’s Maalox chugging peer.
Roscoe
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:13 am Reply
Mary and Evy look unnervingly like they’re about to reenact the “same matter cannot occupy the same space” scene from “Timecop.”
Tom
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:49 am Reply
MW: That first panel is uncanny valley territory. No two human beings have ever embraced like that. And that second panel isn’t that much better, as Ed looks weirdly like a giraffe and that handshake has also never been seen in the real world.
Maybe Moy isn’t the only one who hasn’t interacted with a human being in some time.
LTJpezcore1
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
MW: These greetings are the first time I’ve laughed out loud at this comic in MONTHS. Well done strip today for the funny pages, truly
Philip
July 22nd, 2025 at 7:17 am Reply
Mary Worth – Even with newspaper comic strip time shifting Mary into different generations, there is no chance she was a Millennial who learned the early digital camera side face-to-face pose used by teenage girls for their MySpace pages.
Ukulele Ike
July 22nd, 2025 at 8:39 am Reply
About that MW handshake: Ed is a Freemason, or an Elk, or a Modern Woodman of America, and is greeting Mary with the secret fraternal hand signals.
Kristin Cabot
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:57 am Reply
MW missing third panel:
Wanna canoodle at the Coldplay concert? And by the way, Ed, I just fucked your wife.
Ettorre
July 22nd, 2025 at 4:58 am Reply
Excuse me, mice did not need to fear cats before all animals were herbivore! How come Sunday’s “Pardon my planet” is more aligned with fundamentalist Christianity than “Family Circus”!?!?!
Pozzo
July 22nd, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
FC: Do you really need a whole book to tell the story of Noah? Doesn’t Genesis get through it in, like, three chapters? Maybe the rest of the book is advertising for Northern Kentucky’s Ark Encounter.
Dave
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:21 am Reply
FC: No wonder Jeffy’s concerned with the plight of small animals – he appears to be shrinking. That book is almost as big as he is.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:45 am Reply
Oh, Jeffy, no. The cats were too full from feasting on the bloated corpses of the brats who weren’t allowed on the ark because they kept asking bringing up things like that.
Anonymous
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:05 am Reply
Family Circus: Jeffy is imagining the story with a cartoon cat and mouse chase. He wonders if the mice hit the cats with frying pans or dropped grand pianos on them.
Buck Ripsnort
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:06 am Reply
FC: if the Keane’s were REALLY followers of any Abrahamic religion instead of a pseudo-Christian cult, they’d read the actual Bibles, where Noah just brings two of every KOSHER animal and two of every sacrificial animal. If you weren’t officially edible or used for religious purposes, tread water, sucker.
Voshkod
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:20 am Reply
You just know Daddy Keane’s focusing on Genesis 9:20-27 and explaining that the Curse of Ham is why Billy can’t play with the kids next door.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:28 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: I started to wonder how Beetle’s blanket and sheet stayed on his bed while he was walking around upright. And then I wondered if they strapped him into his bed at night, for everyone’s safety. And then I wondered if it was Miss Buxley’s idea. And then I wondered if it was a good idea to comment on the comics this early in the morning.
matt w
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:33 am Reply
Beetle showing up to the emergency alert still in bed is a pretty good visual gag, completely ruined by Sarge’s pointing it out in dialogue. The Beetle Bailey team needs to have some respect for the intellects of their audience… who are still reading Beetle Bailey in the year 2025… hm.
Voshkod
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:03 am Reply
Well, it’s finally happened. The balloon has gone up, the Soviet 8th Guards Combined Arms Army has crossed into West German territory at the Fulda Gap, and the U.S. V Corps has been caught by surprise. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment has been mauled and is retreating in good order toward Frankfurt am Main. The only thing that can stop the Soviet juggernaut from reaching the Rhine in seven days are the men of Camp Swampy, a small outpost in the Vogelsberg. So, I guess Parisians better get used to vodka.
Ettorre
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:18 am Reply
“I came as fast as I could”
“I know, Miss Buxley told me”
ValdVin
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:24 am Reply
GT: If I didn’t know they were golfing I’d have thought it was a hand grenade.
The Quiet Man
July 23rd, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
MW: Yesterday I was thinking we needed to hear first how Mary’s flight was and I see I was correct in my prediction.
We ain’t seeing the newer, older “improved”(?) Olive until the Sunday spread.
LTJpezcore1
July 23rd, 2025 at 5:33 am Reply
MW: “Where IS Olive?”
“Robbing a bank; how else could we afford this place??”
Lord Flatulence
July 23rd, 2025 at 5:37 am Reply
MW: She’s in prison. Visitation isn’t until 8 am tomorrow.
Ken
July 23rd, 2025 at 5:49 am Reply
MW: Yesterday I was crestfallen when several comments noted that Mary and Olive have been doing video chats, so most of our speculations about Olive — gone punk, drug addict, sex change — were impossible. But then I remembered that video software does avatars, so Olive could have been replacing herself with the sweet child Mary is clearly expecting. Hooray! Anything is possible again!
Treetown
July 23rd, 2025 at 5:51 am Reply
MW: After this build up what Olive have become in a short period of time since the last face time? Face tattoo? Mohawk hair do with nose piercing? Complete Blue Man group committment? Pin Head look? Or most creepy of all, she is a mini Mary Worth!
Hibbleton
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:13 am Reply
MW: Evy calls Olive into the room.
“Oh, Olive. Come in here. Here she comes. Oh, what a good girl.”
In trots a happy Dachshund.
Shocked and speechless, Mary enters a fugue state.
“She’s always been such a good little dog. I hope she remembers you.” Says Ed.
Banana Jr. 6000
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:15 am Reply
@Ken: I just want Olive to be a normal 14-year-old girl. No 14-year-old wants to hang out with a 60-year-old, unless they want someone to buy alcohol and/or cigarettes for them. That’d be plenty to puncture Mary’s “kindred spirits” fantasy.
If Karen Moy needs a realistic example of how a petulant, selfish, hormone-addled 14-year-old acts, I refer her to Wilbur Weston.
Charterstoned
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:30 am Reply
MW: “I even took a refreshing NAP!”
So did we, Mary. So did wezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
Voshkod
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:31 am Reply
“Olive’s out, Mary, but we did want to introduce you to the new triplets, Capers, Cocktail Onion, and Lemon Twist!”
TheDiva
July 23rd, 2025 at 7:17 am Reply
MW: “Up in her room–she shouted something about ‘let me know when the old bat leaves’ before slamming and locking her door. Must be some private joke between the two of you.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Liam
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:20 am Reply
FC-Later on. “Well that movie was pretty awful.”
ValdVin
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:53 am Reply
FC: After all the Bent Key swill they’ve been getting at home this PG movie is gonna blow their minds.
Archie: If you look closer, you’ll see the book’s blurb is by Scrooge McDuck.
Little Guy
July 23rd, 2025 at 7:29 am Reply
Archie: If you look at the silhouettes long enough, you see a merged map of Delaware and Serbia.
ectojazzmage
July 23rd, 2025 at 7:31 am Reply
Archie: Unfortunately, Mr. Lodge’s witticism may be the thing that finally pushes Archie over the edge like a certain other clown. What do you get when you cross a freckled loser comic book star with a future father-in-law who rightfully hates him? I’ll tell you what you get. You get what you fucking deserve!
Jerp + Jump
July 23rd, 2025 at 8:00 am Reply
Archie’s sad clown face is pretty awesome.
But Mr. Lodge clearly used AI to write the book and put a picture of the money he saved by stiffing a human on the back as a power move. The proleteriat is on notice now!
TheDiva
July 23rd, 2025 at 7:17 am Reply
Luann: What fans? You ordered a bunch of books from a vanity publisher and bought costly vendor space to promote a comic absolutely nobody knows about. Your ROI is going to look like the odds for winning the lottery.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
MKay
July 24th, 2025 at 5:02 am Reply
RMMD: Cory is a bit put off by the fact that Truck has all but called his mother a whore. More than once.
Michael Jackson’s Popcorn Bucket
July 24th, 2025 at 1:41 pm Reply
This is absolutely the greatest Rex Morgan story line in the history of the franchise! I can only hope it gets even crazier.
Liam
July 24th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
RMMD-“I’ll even settle for being a creepy uncle.”
Slylock Fox-In a world where animals walk upright and wear clothes there are still certain basic animal characteristics they must adhere to.
Bob Tice
July 24th, 2025 at 4:29 am Reply
Slylock Fox:
I’ve got it! — they’re telling us that the crime was committed by someone using gloves!
How’d I do?
Pozzo
July 24th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
I want a better look at Plugger Bearman. If he has two right hands, I’m reporting him to Slylock Fox.
matt w
July 24th, 2025 at 4:58 am Reply
The waitress already knew Andy Bear is kidding. He isn’t wanted anywhere.
Ettorre
July 24th, 2025 at 5:11 am Reply
“And that’s why I am wanted in six states”
“I’m honestly surprised. You are being persecuted for helping women access abortion out of states?!”
“Hey, we Pluggers have shades and depth!”
Tabby Lavalamp
July 24th, 2025 at 5:55 am Reply
That look on the waitresses face tells me we’ve really missed out on the only interesting thing ever said in a Pluggers comic.
ectojazzmage
July 24th, 2025 at 7:35 am Reply
Pluggers: My family has a long-running in-joke about my stepmom – probably the sweetest, least aggressive person on the planet – being a violent hardened criminal because she got in trouble as a teenager for being dragged along with her friends to egg someone’s house on Halloween. I say this as an example of an actually funny and affectionate joke about criminality, as contrast to this Plugger, who seems to think adding “just kidding” to his long, gruesome descriptions of crime and violence is the pinnacle of comedy rather than a good way to get 911 called while you’re trying to enjoy your coffee.
BillieVee
July 24th, 2025 at 6:28 am Reply
Pluggers: You’re speaking to a diner waitress in the Midwest. You’ll have to be wanted in eight states if you want to impress her.
BigTed
July 24th, 2025 at 7:31 am Reply
Pluggers: So this guy is just now coming to the end of his extremely long, meandering story, while the busy waitress has to stand there in front of him, holding that pot of hot coffee, waiting patiently for him to shut up so she can pour some into his cup? For crimes against the server community, he should be wanted in seven states.
pugfuggly
July 24th, 2025 at 5:20 am Reply
Pluggers: “…they were provinces! Ha ha, yes I’m the Saskatoon Strangler…”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
BeckoningChasm
July 24th, 2025 at 4:35 am Reply
Blondie: “Burgers in the backyard” sounds like some kind of euphemism. A rather horrible euphemism. No wonder Blondie looks shocked.
Banana Jr. 6000
July 24th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
Frazz: You know those 80s comedies, where the jerk jocks humiliate any normal person who tries to use the gym, for no good reason? That’s basically what this is. Mrs. Olson just wanted to become more active, but she made the mistake of telling Frazz. Now she’s entered into a humiliating public footrace, and assigned to an abusive coach. This is not funny, and it’s not a productive way to treat people who are trying to better themselves.
Needless Exposition
July 24th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
MW: Well, teenage Olive just looks like a slightly taller normal Olive. That’s about as disappointing as being one cherry short in a pie.
The Quiet Man
July 24th, 2025 at 4:53 am Reply
MW: Good grief, what a perfect mix of disappointment and cringe. Olive appears to have not aged or changed at all since we last saw her back in the Pre-Moy era, and good grief, I know you two apparently have the bond of surviving a traumatic experience but no one should be this excited to see friggin’ *Mary Worth*!
Charterstoned
July 24th, 2025 at 4:57 am Reply
MW: Hard to tell if Olive has started to develop breasts or if that’s just a wrinkle in her shirt. But I guess she MUST be getting buxom, because Brigman has intentionally blacked out her boobs so we can’t see. Hmmmm. I wonder what ELSE they’re hiding from us…?
Charterstoned
July 24th, 2025 at 4:57 am Reply
MW: Hard to tell if Olive has started to develop breasts or if that’s just a wrinkle in her shirt. But I guess she MUST be getting buxom, because Brigman has intentionally blacked out her boobs so we can’t see. Hmmmm. I wonder what ELSE they’re hiding from us…?
Regina Smegma
July 24th, 2025 at 5:14 am Reply
@Charterstoned: Hmmmm. I wonder what ELSE they’re hiding from us…?
—
Olive has a blond bush
Charterstoned
July 24th, 2025 at 5:24 am Reply
@Regina Smegma: With a penis.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
TheDiva
July 24th, 2025 at 6:37 am Reply
Luann: This strip would work better if the costumes didn’t look like Spongebob Squarepants’ British cousin and a repurposing of the infamous “worm dick” costume.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 24th, 2025 at 1:43 pm Reply
Luann: While I’m sure Comic Con has its share of weirdos, pervs who like to ogle teenage girls in foam rubber pen and notepad costumes are probably in short supply.
I speak Jive
July 24th, 2025 at 7:32 am Reply
FC – Can’t talk now – wait until I dispose of this body.
Lauralot
July 25th, 2025 at 5:28 am Reply
MW: Don’t stop at “kindred spirits,” Mary. Next, tell Olive all about the candy in your van.
cheech wizard
July 25th, 2025 at 5:49 am Reply
MW – “No one understands me like you, Mary!”
“That’s very nice of you to say that, dear. So tell me -how are things at school?”
“Terrible. None of the other kids like me. They say I talk and act like some kind of old woman!”
Astroboy
July 25th, 2025 at 5:56 am Reply
MW: “Kindred spirits” also drink “giggle juice” and pop some “happy pills” before taking “funny pictures” with their clothes off. And they don’t tell their parents, because they’re not “kindred spirits” and wouldn’t understand.
Someone please call the authorities before this goes any further.
CanuckDownSouth
July 25th, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
MW – ditto to all the creeped-out comments. All that’s left is for Mary to stroke Olive’s hair and say she’s so mature for her age…
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Baja Gaijin
July 20th, 2025 at 7:37 am Reply
Arlo and Janis: Janis is horny, Arlo. It’s as if you know nothing about your wife.
69. TheDiva
July 22nd, 2025 at 7:22 am Reply
FC: I’m sure that there’s some bizarre fundie rationalization for how the animals co-existed peacefully on the ark, along with answers to other questions like “how did, say, bison and kangaroos manage to get all the way to eastern Turkey” and “how did the prey animals live long enough after the flood to propagate sustainable populations” but I’ve had a late start this morning and I am NOT going down that rabbit hole.
MW: All of this is just killing time until Mary sees Olive and is shocked–SHOCKED!–to discover her sweet little friend is now (gasp) a teenager, full of rebellion and identity exploration and embarrassment of old people who use phrases like “tummy brain.” Will she have piercings and a pink mohawk? Short shorts, a halter top and “too much” (read: any) makeup? Will “Olive” now be “Oliver” and take Mary to task when she insists on deadnaming him? Eventually we will be wearied, even insulted by whatever comes to pass, but for this brief, sweet moment the possibilities are endless.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. TheDiva
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:53 am Reply
Archie: Sorry, Mr. Lodge, but Mel Brooks’ All About Me! beat you to the memoir title punch. (Good book, btw; check it out if you haven’t)
169. Baja Gaijin
July 24th, 2025 at 7:31 pm Reply
I guess everyone has heat prostration; so few late thread commenters.
69. LTJpezcore1
July 25th, 2025 at 6:35 am Reply
MW: “You understand me like no one else, Mary” is not something a 14 year old should be saying to a 60 or 70 something. That’s…weird. It’s not ok. This is like the beginning of an after-school special called “Janie Got Touched” or some horrifyingly maudlin shit….
Even setting aside how skeeved out I am by this, no child actually TALKS like the above either…unless Olive is the reincarnated spirit of Sylvia Plath…
Actually that might make sense…
Thanks, Scratchy.
Wow thanks for the mentions scratchy, and thanks for the laughs this week everyone!
Lots of funny stuff this week! Kudos to m.w, but leave us not overlook Tristan Olson, jerp + jump and Ukulele Ike,
“But trebuchets suck for hitting single guys so we’re probably about to see Sir Smarty Pants’ insides in spite of his historically progressive role.” Particularly if Vikings used roman numerals for their trigonometric calculations!
Congrats to m.w., everyone on the float and my fellow scratchies! Broon Croons to Tristan Olson, Voshkod, TheDiva, and LTJpezcore1!
Thanks, Scratchy!
Thanks Josh :3 I appreciate it :)
Congratulations to m.w. and the float folk. Also to this week’s batch of scratchies, with thanks to Scratchy Scrotum LXIX himself. Tips of the beret to pugfuggly, Tristan Olson, A Grave Mind, Tabby Lavalamp, and TheDiva.
You got me beat, Ctulhu, I had to laugh pretty hard at yours. :)
Thanks, Josh, thanks all, salute to m.w., our champeen of the week, and kudos to everyone that makes this a funnier place to be.
What a treat! Thank you Josh and Scratchy, plus Astroboy and Cthulhu for the compliments at posts #1 and #2. The quietest snerks are the best snerks.
Bottles of the finest Instant Hat are now available at seven dollars, two for fifteen. Mail your cash to me care of this radio station.
Thanks for the two-fer, Scratchy!
Thanks to our host, claps for all the named, and I appreciate the numerous scrotes from Scratchy.
Thanks, Scratchy, for the Scrotes!
Thanks Josh and Scratchy for the highlights and the mentions. Funny stuff!
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 1
Charterstoned
July 19th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary smiles to herself, admitting that the REAL reason she has avoided flying up until now is because taking her shoes off in the security line also revealed her advanced case of toenail fungus.
Scratchy Scrotum LXIX
July 19th, 2025 at 4:41 am Reply
Mary Worth: This is a new level of twatwaffledom for Mary doing a victory lap for getting on an airplane. She’s even more self-absorbed than Frazz, Ed Kudlick, and Wilbur Weston combined.
MKay
July 19th, 2025 at 4:42 am Reply
Mary Worth: Flying was a privilege if you made history doing it with the Wright Brothers (and maybe Mary did) Now, if you can buy a ticket, you can fly.
Charterstoned
July 19th, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
Mary Worth: The adventure set to begin at last, Mary prepares to board her flight. Mary Worth, Famed Aviatrix, dons her close-fitting leather helmet, adjusts her goggles, and throws the end of her light purple tasseled scarf over her shoulder. “Contact!” she calls out, tightening her seatbelt. Nearby, a wary flight attendant signals a nearby air marshall to spring into action. “We’ve got another one in seat G12,” she says as, from the rear of the plane, the air marshall resolutely removes a similarly attired beagle.
Maltmash3r
July 19th, 2025 at 5:54 am Reply
Mary Worth: I guess Moy decided to have Mary wax poetic instead of the usual “what do you mean ‘ it’s over 50 pounds ‘?”
Philip
July 19th, 2025 at 10:07 am Reply
Mary Worth: While air travel has its benefits, the short duration its costs. If Mary had taken a cross-country train over a few days, she could have had a whole train car of victims to meddle with.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 19th, 2025 at 1:14 pm Reply
Mary Worth: Every once in a while Mary needs to take a step back from her Charterstone empire, if only for the sake of plausible deniability.
Twinkles the Elf
July 20th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
The only thing dumber than Dick Tracy’s Crimestoppers is Heathcliff’s Kitty Korner. “Some rando writes: My cat has an uninteresting habit!” Really? Do tell.
Bob Tice
July 20th, 2025 at 4:34 am Reply
Mary Worth: “OMG! Nightmare at 20,000 feet! There’s a gremlin outside my window! Oh, no…wait a minute…that’s just Wilbur on the wing….”
Liam
July 20th, 2025 at 4:36 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Gah! Lady, if you’re going to do that do it in the bathroom!”
pugfuggly
July 20th, 2025 at 4:49 am Reply
Pardon My Planet: Interesting to see that the Garden of Eden may be free of physical pain, but that ‘cringe’ still exists, even (especially?) among the animals. Maybe our heaven on earth was their hell. Makes you think…
BigTed
July 20th, 2025 at 4:56 am Reply
Pardon My Planet: “I wouldn’t date you if you were the first man on earth!”
Peanut Gallery
July 20th, 2025 at 10:23 am Reply
Mary Worth: “I remember when we first met, my dear girl…” is one of the most menacingly super-villainish things Mary Worth has ever said.
Ukulele Ike
July 20th, 2025 at 10:29 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: How nice! Miss Buxley came over to “entertain” the enlisted men, and brought prostitutes along.
Needless Exposition
July 21st, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
Mary Worth: Not even recessions, inflation, and a lackluster housing market can stop Mary Worth’s classism. The Taylors are probably struggling in debt but Mary refuses to stay in a place where she has to pay out of her own pocket.
Hibbleton
July 21st, 2025 at 5:20 am Reply
Mary Worth: While in Manhattan, Mary decides to visit one her old haunts: the apartment of Rosemary’s baby.
“Ah, Good times.“
Hibbleton
July 21st, 2025 at 6:19 am Reply
I’m picturing Jeffy standing in the kitchen with a half-eaten sock sticking out of his mouth.
Poteet
July 21st, 2025 at 7:22 am Reply
Family Circus: Many years ago, as in “possibly before those Internets,” I wrote a short message to Bil Keane politely complaining about a panel that showed a very-evil-looking large big-fanged snake about to bite Billy as he was napping under a tree or some such, and the panel included a white-robed guardian angel who was somehow saving Billy from the snake. I said that snakes aren’t evil and don’t pursue children like that. I got a nice note back saying that Bil agreed that real snakes are beneficial. Anyway, if that evil-looking snake were still around and if it bit Billy and made him dead, I would be more open-minded at this point. Just saying.
Anonymous
July 21st, 2025 at 1:53 pm Reply
Family Circus: I’m impressed that Josh can differentiate between the Family Circus dogs (is impressed the right word? Probably not. Mildly surprised?). If it were me, I’d probably have called that one Barfy or, if I was really on my game, Not-Barfy.
Needless Exposition
July 22nd, 2025 at 4:31 am Reply
Mary Worth: Video chats are still enough for Mary to drain the youth out of her victims. Evy especially looks like she could be Mary’s Maalox chugging peer.
Pozzo
July 22nd, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
Family Circus: Do you really need a whole book to tell the story of Noah? Doesn’t Genesis get through it in, like, three chapters? Maybe the rest of the book is advertising for Northern Kentucky’s Ark Encounter.
MKay
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: I’d sooner greet the enemy armed with a cheese grater than rely on the denizens of Camp Swampy.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
Mary Worth: The odd angles of Mary and Evy’s heads and their identical expressions are reminiscent of Rublev’s famed icon of the Trinity depicting the mysterious figures who appeared to Abraham and Sarah at Mamre. Or at least it would, if there were only two figures, only one of them simultaneously God and guest, the other a secondary character shortly to be absorbed into the divine being, leaving behind only bone and gristle.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:28 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: I started to wonder how Beetle’s blanket and sheet stayed on his bed while he was walking around upright. And then I wondered if they strapped him into his bed at night, for everyone’s safety. And then I wondered if it was Miss Buxley’s idea. And then I wondered if it was a good idea to comment on the comics this early in the morning.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 2
Tabby Lavalamp
July 22nd, 2025 at 5:45 am Reply
Family Circus: Oh, Jeffy, no. The cats were too full from feasting on the bloated corpses of the brats who weren’t allowed on the ark because they kept asking bringing up things like that.
Voshkod
July 22nd, 2025 at 6:03 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Well, it’s finally happened. The balloon has gone up, the Soviet 8th Guards Combined Arms Army has crossed into West German territory at the Fulda Gap, and the U.S. V Corps has been caught by surprise. The 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment has been mauled and is retreating in good order toward Frankfurt am Main. The only thing that can stop the Soviet juggernaut from reaching the Rhine in seven days are the men of Camp Swampy, a small outpost in the Vogelsberg. So, I guess Parisians better get used to vodka.
2+2=7
July 22nd, 2025 at 8:27 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Beetle: “I came as fast as I could. And that’s why Miss Buxley left all unsatisfied. Unfortunately it’s also why I’m stuck to the sheets right now.”
Hibbleton
July 23rd, 2025 at 4:54 am Reply
Archie: In case you’re wondering what kind of party a millionaire throws that requires a clown in attendance is answered by the look on Archie’s face in the last panel when he realizes he’s about to be passed around.
But What Do I Know?
July 23rd, 2025 at 5:21 am Reply
Wizard of Id: What Sir Rodney doesn’t know is that there’s a shadowy figure with a *second* trebuchet on the knoll…
Voshkod
July 23rd, 2025 at 6:31 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Olive’s out, Mary, but we did want to introduce you to the new triplets, Capers, Cocktail Onion, and Lemon Twist!”
Voshkod
July 24th, 2025 at 5:45 am Reply
Slylock Fox:As he scurried away with the loot, the Millipede laughed. Leaving two of his 1300 right gloves behind…no way the Vulpine Vindicator was going to figure this one out!
BillieVee
July 24th, 2025 at 6:28 am Reply
Pluggers: You’re speaking to a diner waitress in the Midwest. You’ll have to be wanted in eight states if you want to impress her.
Nekrotzar
July 24th, 2025 at 8:41 am Reply
Rex Morgan: If I had learned that my chance of inheriting those sideburns had just dropped precipitously, I would be a lot more cheerful.
Bob Tice
July 25th, 2025 at 4:32 am Reply
Pardon My Planet: “Of course, thanks to Zeno’s paradox, he will have never been completely scared to death, because each ensuing halving will have nevertheless left some fractional non-scared remainder. So he’s just faking things in there!”
Voshkod
July 25th, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Sarge always tears up at the culmination of part one of “Full Metal Jacket”.
MKay
July 25th, 2025 at 4:41 am Reply
Pardon My Planet: I’m impressed that someone so old that Olive Oyl is their hair stylist is up on the latest social media trends.
Hibbleton
July 25th, 2025 at 5:31 am Reply
Wizard of Id: How, exactly, does the wizard get his test subjects to follow him down to his basement?
“The cask of Amontillado is right over there.”
nescio
July 25th, 2025 at 5:37 am Reply
For a “Beetle Bailey” strip involving a “jerker” movie and Sarge’s bodily fluids, this could have been much, much worse.
CanuckDownSouth
July 25th, 2025 at 6:19 am Reply
Family Circus: Dolly backs out of the room, not wanting to be there when mom’s morning coffee kicks in and she has the energy to notice the grim discovery…
Liam
July 25th, 2025 at 6:50 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Sarge always cries at the food fight scene in ‘Animal House’. “All that food going to waste.”
Astroboy
July 25th, 2025 at 7:29 am Reply
Mary Worth: Pimento’s tummy-brain is rather limited. It alerts her to drug-addicted torso doctors but not maeddlephiles.
Ukulele Ike
July 25th, 2025 at 7:51 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: In panel two, Killer is holding a bottle of Instant Hat.
Shadow COTW
——————
Little Guy
July 23rd, 2025 at 7:29 am Reply
Archie: If you look at the silhouettes long enough, you see a merged map of Delaware and Serbia.
Thank you, Baja!
Thank you, Baja.
Thanks to Baja for sifting thru a good bunch of SCOTWCs and narrowing it down to one.
Thanks Josh, and thanks Scratchy and Baja, and Voshkudos to m.w., Pozzo, and A Grave Mind.
Thanks for the mention, Scratchy! Somewhere, Wally Cox is smiling!
Thanks, Scratchy and Baja!
Thanks, Baja! The rare trifecta.
Thanks, Baja.
Thankee, Baja! Much appreciated!
Confetti and cheering for COTW winner m.w.! More confetti and cheering for all the other creative merriment recognized today, and also for the judges! The poteeterisks* go to m.w., Peanut Gallery, Little Guy, and matt w. Assorted fruit pies and tarts for all!