Marital discord (implied in Andy’s case)
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Gil Thorp, 8/19/25
When Gil says he’s “trying not to take it personally” that his ex wife is now “play[ing] for the other side,” you probably think he’s referring to the fact that his wife left him for her female golf coach, but that’s old news: in fact, she’s going to be coaching for the other side, by which I mean she’s taken the job of athletic director at hated Milford rival Valley Tech. Anyway, more important question: what’s happening on top of Kaz’s head? Is that a man bun, or some kind of fascinator attached to his hairband? The strip colorist seems to be refusing to grapple with this and is trying very hard to make whatever it is blend into the background.
Andy Capp, 8/19/25
This is definitely a curious sequence of events, as in the first panel Andy is walking along a very broad canalside path, so spacious that the canal isn’t even visible in the frame, and yet in the very next panel, one word’s worth of lyrics later, he has tumbled into the drink. My theory: despite the fact that we see Andy in that first panel, we are actually meant to understand that we’re seeing things from Andy’s drunken perspective, in which he has infinite space to meander back and forth as he likes. Sadly, in panel two, hard physical reality intervenes.
Hi and Lois, 8/19/25
Wow, I guess Trixie died? Or is no longer a baby? Or Hi and Lois have realized that Sunbeam really is her best friend, and is perfectly capable of looking after her, so they no longer need to take such a hands-on parenting approach? Any of those developments honestly would merit further exploration, though I guess it’s also interesting that Irma thinks she’s finally going to catch Thirsty jerking off on camera but actually she’s just going to see him crying quietly to himself.
44 replies to “Marital discord (implied in Andy’s case)”
Andy Capp: Do Constables still dress like that?
Further question: Do Constables even still exist?
I googled Constables out of curiousity, and the first site that popped up, was constables for the very city that I live in.
Huh.
Family Circus: I gotta stop reading this. After today’s strip, I felt myself lose 10 IQ points.
HI and Lois: Exactly what does Irma expect to see Thirsty do while she’s not in the man cave? He’s going to drink a lot of beer and scratch his personal “man cave.” A lot.
Gil Thorp:
“Kaz, your hair is weird-looking even by this strip’s standards. And that’s saying something!”
GT: Mimi’s “learning” from her golf coach, and now Gil’s new hire “wants to learn from him”. The system* works!
* Sleeping with small-town sport trainers.
Hi and Lois:
“Okay, a little off topic, Irma, but why is your hubby’s first name an adjective, anyway?”
H&L: Most baby monitors look pretty much like baby monitors. Irma asks hesitantly what is the thing that looks like an electronic sexual device which Lois has led her to, hoping, for all that is holy, that it is a baby monitor.
I’m very concerned that Gil’s fist seems to be growing from his armpit in the last panel.
FG: so Flash saw Hamilton. Does he know Jefferson did not look like a hero in that play?
JP: so Leah is subletting house and history to two new grads. Has Leah told the owner? Do the young women know about fuses and water heaters?
MANDRAKE: Protocol says on an isolated isle, people bury one body before recruiting another. Flies are starting to swarm around Blanche. (In real world, how likely is it the body of a murdered ship captain will show up on shore?)
LUANN: Les’s toenails will be geoddy, and his technician will be cute.
CS: like father, like son-in-law. Isn’t the phrase “Fair food” an oxymoron “?
H&L: I started to imagine the plethora of noises that Thirsty could send through that monitor in the course of an evening, but I almost threw up my coffee, so I stopped.
GT: So, Gil, anyone else you want to wring flattery from with your humble bragging?
RMMD: Will Rex be called on to reset Cody’s nose when Jonah breaks it? And I have to say, I wouldn’t blame him.
MW: Hang on, hang on! This is just a re-write of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer!”
H&L: Trixie is like Stewie from “Family Guy:” so perfectly self-aware that she can care for herself. Only without the evil.
We hope.
GT: That is some sky. Sailors must messing their pants over that.
H&L: I’m not sure what the joke is supposed to be here. Does she want to monitor Thirsty’s belching and flatulence in his ‘Man Cave’, or is it to hear when he stops breathing (so she can start planning the party)?
Gil Thorp: Oooh, how deliciously ribald this dialogue is! Wink wink!
MW: Vicki speaks! Only to praise and apologize to Saint Olive of the Tummybrain like everybody else. Next thing we know, Lifeguard is going to come over and thank Olive for allowing him the honor of having to haul her dumb ass out of the drink along with Little Orphan Knockoff.
Vicki’s so dense she hasn’t noticed that the…pulse monitor?…is just the lifeguard’s take-out coffee cup.
MW: After Vicki’s blasé response to almost drowning, the lifeguard uses a pulse/ox monitor to check if she’s human.
Dustin : “… and my wife… and my doctor… and my father… and my coworkers….”
It will not dawn on Ed Kudlick that the only person who does not constantly criticise and ridicule him is his son (who is also the only person who ever wants to play golf with him), and what the implication of that is.
************
Gil Thorp : the term “bunny-ears lawyer” is sometimes used to describe characters in fiction who excell in their profession while also being unorthodox and loopy in their methods, which is why I’m guessing coach Kaz is inexplicably wearing a black headband with pink bunny ears on them.
FC: Mommy! Look at all these needles and syringes I found on the sidewalk! They’re just like the ones at the doctor’s office! Can I keep them?
FC:
Mommy, are we going to go across the bay and visit Oakland?
No, honey. It’s too full of, you know, “those” people.
Good morning, world! Let’s see what Mary Worth has for us today…
*Mary’s old woman crotch prominently on display*
F**k you, world.
DT: So is that Emmett Brown? He has is arm wrapped or is it a fake? I hope DT realizes that some people are left handed and others can and do wield weapons with their non-dominant hand. Will Vincent Gogh has his ear wrapped?
MW: Off screen, Mary is chatting up the lifeguard.
RMMD: Sure, ideally Cody, he is just surly and unfriendly. Worst case scenario he is a paranoid hermit and thinks you are part of some conspiracy theory to hijack his family and name.
JP: At this point, it seems like piling on to note more goofs. Leaving the house unsecured with these women, letting Aksel loose …
@Guillermo el Chiclero: You mean “former Oakland Raider fans? – yeah, I hate them too mama. Go “
It would be easier to not read innuendo into the Gil Thorp dialogue if Kaz would stop actively turning to the audience to smirk, wink and pump his fist. Which is, honestly, kinda weird in context, like, “LESBIANS, OH YEAHHHH also I’m sorry your wife left you.”
Mary Worth is intently studying the lifeguard. “So, if one was to say ‘hey little girl, stick your finger in this’ sometimes they’ll actually do it? Thanks for the tip!”
@Chance:
Oh, yes, because of Milford’s and Valley Tech’s longstanding ribaldry!
Gil Thorp – “Good resume. But she said she wanted to learn from me, and I wouldn’t like to have any employee with low enough self esteem to actually respect me. Have you seen our record?”
Andy Capp – Those cranes far in the background as the closest Andy has been to an actual work site in years.
Hi and Lois – “After how our involved parenting messed up Dot and Ditto, we gave up nurturing Trixie, and how she turns out okay on her own.”
Irma was all for the man cave so she wouldn’t have to watch Thirsty drink himself to death, but maybe it’s a good idea to keep an eye out so he doesn’t die choking on his own vomit. This is a dark one, Hi and Lois creative team. Sure, this is the no jokes era, but this is taking it too far.
MW: Evidently, the trauma has confused Little Orphan Knockoff because she thinks that Olive saved her instead of risking both their lives solely to get attention. The lifeguard once again wishes he was a fisherman so he can throw his unwanted catches back in the water.
Andy Capp: Homer shares what we all think.
Hi and Lois-Irma wants to hear Thirsty’s gurgling choking last gasps of breath before he dies.
Gil Thorp-And Gil owes all his success to Mary Worth.
MW-If it wasn’t for Olive and her gifts.
FC-Can they sneak away before Jeffy notices they are gone?
I thought it was a high-tech version of the “Pull My Finger” game.
MW: And everyone learns a valuable lesson BARF
Andy Capp is as unmoored in time as Bertie Wooster. A 1964 #3 UK hit for The Searchers makes sense in his anachronistic milieu, but today Andy would be drunkenly drill rapping.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
If LIFEGUARD makes a fart noise when Vicki pulls her finger out, all my ire towards this story will be forgiven!
GT With no lump in the panel 1 silhouette, I conclude the weird lines on top of Kaz’ head in panels 2 and 3 are hairs flying up, having come loose from the headband while jogging. The artist thought they were finally doing a good job with such details, even changing the expressions from panel 2 to 3 … and then forgot they’d drawn two versions of Gil’s left arm and needed to erase one.
MT At this point I’m pretty sure kids baby board books have a better grasp of property rights and zoning regulations than Mark Trail
Andy Capp: The “Drunkard’s Walk” illustrated.
A man, a plan, a drunk, a fall, Manchester Ship Canal!
GT – Play for the other side – that’s a euphemism…right?
AC – I feel the earth move under my feet. Yeah – it’s called being shit faced….
H&L – If the snoring and farting stops, he’s probably dead….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
New Mark Trail doesn’t require facial hair to do some punchin’.
H&L: If you change “baby monitor” to “sex toy” this strip is hilarious. Especially “I can put this in Thirsty’s man cave!”
GT: Is Kaz hitting on Gil?
MW: Olive didn’t save Vicki. The lifeguard saved both of them and Creepy Mary didn’t have to scream at him.
“We don’t use the baby monitor anymore because we just leave the baby on the floor, in direct sunlight, all day, alone.”
@Professor Well Actually: Actually, it was Mary’s idea to go to the beach in the first place so she’s the hero and should get all the credit. Watch her do every mental gymnastic move to make sure she gets all the undeserved accolades that Olive doesn’t want.
GT: Kaz would run more efficiently if he moved his arms.
HnL: “All the other baby monitors we used mysteriously burned to a crisp.”
AC: Eh, I’m not feeling the “tune/room” slant rhyme, but at least it’s closer than “canal.”
GT: Gil Thorp being The Best Coach Ever might be the comic page’s most annoying Informed Ability, with the possible exception of Luann deGroot being an amazing actress/singer/teacher/writer/nurse/whatever she’s into that week. His teams go 50-50 on a good year, his leadership skills are non-existent, and despite having several students who could benefit from having a teacher advocate for them (trans/GNC, hijabi Muslim, indigenous) he never gets involved. About all he does is listen to other people tell him how great he is at his job.
Gil Thorp: I actually did think this was initially about Mimi leaving Gil for a hot golf instructor and that this was the most stunningly misogynistic thing I had ever read. It’s kinda crazy how the tone of the dialogue completely changes based on that.