Sunday is for teens and/or birds
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Shoe, 8/24/25
You of course all know that one of my favorite things to grapple with in every Shoe strip that’s even vaguely bird-related is “Did the Shoe creative team remember that all their characters are birds when they wrote this joke?” Many of the regular bird characters have bird-related names — P. Martin Shoemaker, Cosmo Fishhawk, Loon, Roz Specklehen, Muffy Hollandaise … uh, well, not her, but you get the point — so for this one, I’m concluding that all these celebrities are not the ones we know and love but are their aviamorphic counterparts in the Shoeniverse. “Steven Seagull” was the tipoff. Anyway, no idea what The Birds was about in this reality, but I’m assuming it portrayed birds in a much more positive light than Hitchcock did in his frankly offensive anti-bird polemic.
Luann, 8/24/25
Years ago, the whole point of Tiffany within the larger narrative of Luann was that she was a hot, vapid, scheming cheerleader who bullied and belittled our heroine, Luann, and who got made fun of in turn behind her back. After a while they decided that maybe it was kind of grim to have one of the strip’s main characters be that kind of caricature, so they gave her depth and positive qualities and such, and then I sort of checked out of reading Luann for like a decade, but now I’m back and … I guess we have a new one of those? And she’s Tiffany’s college roommate? Interesting that this is a comic strip ecological niche that simply must be filled. More on this story, such as whether I bother to learn this person’s name, as it develops.
Hi and Lois, 8/24/25
Honestly I think the thing that actually works here is that instead of just texting each other, they’ve snuck off from their respective homes to the secluded woods where they can presumably fool around; the handwritten letter is I’m sure nice but probably isn’t the most important factor. Anyway, Chip, maybe don’t talk about your mom too much right now.
62 replies to “Sunday is for teens and/or birds”
Luann:
Are they at Arizona State?
Hi and Lois-“You seem to have exaggerated this drawing a bit.”
Shoe:
“Not to mention Steve Martin, Robin Wright, Martin Sheen and Martin Short. Oh — and additional soundtrack assistance from Sheryl Crow. They were also going to have Walter Pidgeon and Robin Williams in the cast, but sadly, they have passed this sphere.”
The name of that character is Stef, and stress am utter caricature even by the standards of this strip. However, she is enthusiastically sexually active, so at least in that regard she’s the only character in this strip who’s normal.
H and L:
“Mom, why does everyone in this strip have a roundish face, regardless of whether they’re related to us?”
Luann: Unlike Tiffany in high school, Stephanie is really horny and actually gets laid a lot… but to be clear; that’s not a source of humor, it’s a signifier that she’s bad.
H&L: “Yeah, my mom said we should take our séxting to the next level.”
Shoe: I can only assume that The Birds is just chapter one their version of Genesis, or at least their romanticized version of it. I really like the idea of Bird Church, with monotone readings of verses describing Suzanne Pleshette getting pecked to death.
Luann: Hey red-headed roommate: I am a middle-aged man and even I know that’s not what that phrase means.
H&L: Yeesh. Pro-tip Chip: nothing ruins a romantic moment, at any age, than the phrase “It was my mom’s idea”.
Saying “It was my Mom’s idea” kind of dulls the romance there.
Shoe: You see, Alfred Hitchcock made “The Birds” before the animal uprising, before birds grew sentient and… some celebrities may have turned into birds themselves (if not playing the humans in the remake?)
Ironically… this remake will be a reenactment of how the birds ended up actually killing most of the humans as they take over the planet.
(SO MUCH PECKING!)
H&L: Chip, everyone knows your mom is a MILF.
MW: Olive’s face in the last panel suggests that she’s going to use her
Shinningtummy brain“special gifts” to set all of their heads on fire for not immediately worshipping her and merely saying that she’s “all right.”@pugfuggly: Oops, hehe we said the same joke at the same time xD
@Hibbleton:
And by “Steffi gets laid a lot”, we mean “her roommates had to set up a privacy tent for her to fuck in (the “fuck hut”, if you will), and told her to schedule how long each day she would be using it, and she basically scheduled using it 24/7″. And then there was the storyline where her roommates were all “Hey, you are NOT actually using it 24/7, would you mind letting us use it as a privacy tent for our own stuff (studying, nude yoga)?” and Steffi threw a temper tantrum, and they gave up after Steffi’s boyfriend said something like “She NEEDS the constant sex to deal with the stress of her day-to-day life!”
(Also, à propos of nothing : Tiffany being the only “legacy” character left in the Dorm/Moony U. setting makes it a really weird space that’s kinda disconnected from the rest of the strip now, doesn’t it? I mean, when’s the last time the strip reminded you that Gunther goes there? That BERNICE is
supposedlystill studying there?)***********
Moose and Molly : …That’s supposed to be a mole? I thought it was some gross mutant that is actually meant to be Chester’s spawn!
MW: Naomi is still one of the few characters in this story with any sort of sanity. She’s the only one who knows that Olive is a narcissistic weirdo constantly seeking out attention. But thanks to everyone else having a sharp drop in intelligence, they think Olive is some sort of hero. Moy must really depend on the audience consuming mind altering substances before reading this comic.
OK Chip, but last time you decided to move a relationship offline to IRL it didn’t work out so well. At least I think that’s a different girl.
Mary Worth quotevestigation: “All things can be forgiven if we can progress” is indeed Cat Stevens, or more properly Yusuf Islam, because it’s about him getting deported from the US as a security threat.
@Hibbleton: I maintain that there’s no actual sex. All of this ‘tee hee, we just had SO much sex, honest!’ with Steff’s over-the-top, insult-to-Dolly-Parton accent and Kip’s pushover Ken-doll blandness tells me that it’s all just a put-on. That ‘privacy tent’ BS? All they’d have to do is just step inside and pull a ‘When Harry Met Sally’.
I won’t believe anything until the Evansii have the guts to actually depict them in the afterglow, under the sheets, talking honestly about having just done it, just like they allegedly did with Bets and Gunther (because no, I did NOT shell out for that grift and I’m surprised someone hasn’t put it online somewhere for free as an ‘F you’ to the Evansii for being so blatantly grasping).
Shoe: “Hitchcock‘s The Birds is paired in a double-feature with Peckinpah’s One-Eyed Jackdaws.”
Shoe: The Birds is best known for its lead actress Tippi Hedren, but I guess in this reactionary, anti-woke era you can’t have radical feminist provocations like “women in movies”. Looking forward to seeing Stephen Segal as a femme fatale screaming in a phone booth.
Luann: The phrase “Don’t yuck her yum” indicates two disturbing things. One: Luann is familiar enough with the online kink community to recognise that phrase. Two: The Luann creative team is familiar enough with the online kink community to recognise that phrase.
Lurking underneath Cosmo’s cynical sullenness is an unchecked lust for bloody avian revenge against the human race. He’s already drafted a script that ends with birds hunting us for sport and eating us with stuffing and gravy.
SlyF – I just love me a “Slylock Fox” where the solution is “Because Max is an idiot.”
@Anonymous: Unfortunately none of the characters in Luann are interesting enough to have declared a college major, so their higher education was quietly forgotten.
MW: I might be reading this wrong but did Olive just float into the room a few inches above the floor?
@17 The Quiet Man: Did you forget about the “jizz towel”? I wish I could.
Luann Remember being in university, and how every year you kept sharing a place with someone you hated? What? You say you don’t remember that, because you’re not a moron?
Hmmm…,
H&L: I always hated it when sales coaches recommended sending handwritten notes to clients, because my handwriting is frankly atrocious. Nothing kills the “I’m competent and professional” vibe like chicken scratch you can barely read.
Luann: Pep rallies? Spirit club? Dammit Clan Evans, how many times do we have to remind you that these characters are in college and not “high school but with dorms”? Stef should be pledging half a dozen sororities, not going on about cheer practice.
Shoe: Today I learned that Shoe operates on the same principles as the Flintstones universe, with theme-named variations of our own celebrities. I hope this extends to having a host of lesser animals performing menial tasks for them–I would love to discover Cosmo’s computer is powered by a little chipmunk on a treadmill sighing, “It’s a living…”
SHOE:
If it has “Steven Seagull” in it…probably not (this also nullify the claim that it has an “all-star lineup.”)
Lio: Too soon, Lio, WAY too soon!
MW: “‘All right?’ You’d better up your praise game, Vicki; don’t forget that you owe me your life and I could call it the debt at any moment.”
Phantom: Diana, you married a man who wears a purple bodysuit and lives in a cave in the woods where he maintains his family’s colonialist shadow dynasty, and this is where you decide his whole deal is too crazy?
RMMD: Discussion topic: between Jonah and Mary Worth’s Naomi, which character is being more unfairly vilified for calling out the behavior of the protagonists?
MW: Where are Vicki’s parents?
@Charterstoned: She truly is Little Orphan Knockoff!
DT: If LaKoyle has already venture capital backing, why does she need that piddling loan shark money? Tens or even hundred thousands are small compared to the millions poured in by the venture capitalist. One third percentage isn’t a bad deal. What this option to buy means is not clear? Usually the lab/inventors still keeps a stake, and Smith Industries would be licensing the rights – and it would be lucrative for everyone. Her whole team would be kept on and can get new deals for future work – since it is doubtful anyone else has much working knowledge of the magical green goo.
Even a cursory watching of Dragon’s Den would clue the writer’s in on this. I like the new DT direction but they need to try to tighten up the plot points. The earlier find-a-body and fake a death to cover up embezzlement was likewise good but needed to be more carefully fleshed out.
FG: The gang’s all back – and we finally get to hear/see the war plans.
MW: Yeah, Olive is now cool! But why did they have to drag Aquaman into this! Since the writer is in “the comic industry”, she should know that for a long time Aquaman was mocked for being one of the least useful members of the Justice League and his name was used in a pejorative way. Leave Arthur Curry out of this!
RMMD: Yes, that would be an expected response. This sort of thing (people taking commercial genetic testing and discovering new siblings) evidently is a real thing. These hits are termed NPE or “non paternity even” or “not parent expected” and can lead to some tense family moments. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/the-family-fallout-of-dna-surprises
@TheDiva: Re: H&L: I think Chip’s handwriting is similarly atrocious, which is why the girl thinks this is a “romantic handwritten letter, instead of vulgar pornographic ramblings.
Girlfriend: “Oh Chip, this is so romantic!”
Chip: “Especially the part where I mention how much I want to (bleep) my (bleep) all over your (bleep), right?”
@TheDiva:
Luann: […]these characters are in college and not “high school but with dorms”?[…]
Better than Luann’s free community college, or “elementary school daycare but the ‘kids’ are in their twenties”.
…Speaking of, is Luann going to quit her Weenie World job now that classes are starting again, and thus both her “studies” (sarcasm quotes necessary because it’s “no major + daycare show&tell”) and her tutor job would pick back up, or has her motive for taking it completely shifted to “LOOK PHIL I HAVE A REAL JOB LIKE A REAL ADULT”?
@TheDiva: Re: H&L: I think Chip’s handwriting is similarly atrocious, which is why the girl thinks this is a “romantic handwritten letter, instead of vulgar pornographic ramblings.
Girlfriend: “Oh Chip, this is so romantic!”
Chip: “Especially the part where I mention how much I want to (bleep) my (bleep) all over your (bleep), right?”
HnL: “It’s in cursive!” “My mom wrote it.”
Shoe: I hope the movie has weirdly edited shots where it looks like Steven Seagull is tai-chiing something to death.
Luann: Dez, tell that to School Management when Stef flunks out of Mooney U.
@Charterstoned:
MW: Where are Vicki’s parents?
Probably boinking.
CS: Can’t Crankshaft tell you? He was with an entire football team for a large part of a game very recently.
9CL: Amos looks so coquettish in panel 4.
Alternate Universe Luann: A depressed Steph with sore feet and swollen ankles enters the room six-months pregnant. In a show of sisterhood, the others put aside their past conflicts to assist her as she struggles to complete her degree while struggling with the prospect of being a single mother.
@Hibbleton: Mary Worth cringes at the idea that a married couple have sexual relations when they should be practicing celibacy like good sexually repressed Protestants.
FC: Is that street canonically only a one-way street? Also, Jeffy (how could it be any other child?) will gain the nickname “Barfy” after this incident.
MW: “Aquaman has nothing on you, girl!” I call bullshit, unless Olive’s powers also include talking to aquatic animals. Right now, all she can do is make proto-Stefs angry.
Dustin: Oh, Hayden. You really need to stop hanging out with Dustin. He is nowhere near a role model.
LUANN: Gee, I dunno, Tiff. Has anyone told the creators that? Just saying, I don’t recall any of you dumb chippies ever going to classes or anything.
H&L – It just occurred to me that Chip’s eyes are always covered by his hair, much like his uncle Beetle’s hats/helmets. So it looks like one of the comics world’s greatest mysteries has finally been solved in that last panel.
@2+2=7: I kinda recall Bets complaining about how homework got in the way of her “influencer” lifestyle, until she gave that up for *urk* Gunther.
@Bob Tice: Making the same joke I see. Good one.
Shoe: They seriously couldn’t find a fourth celebrity with a bird name? They had to tweak Steven Seagal’s name? Steven Martin was right there, man!
Luann: Did you just describe a character from Luann as having “depth”? That might just be your funniest and most absurd joke yet, Josh.
Also Luann: The lady in the green shirt looks a lot like a cartoon version of my wife. I pointed this out to her. She is NOT a fan of it.
Hi And Lois: I feel like Lois is going to regret indulging in this “kids these days and their DAMN phones” nonsense when Chip knocks up Jenny instead of just texting her, beginning a very special episode about teen pregnancy.
Shoe: Of course, “Muffy Hollandaise” is named for a sauce made with eggs, which in the context of bird-people brings up some thorny issues. Were her ancestors French immigrant cannibals? Or did she choose it herself as some sort of rebellious punk-rock name, like Sid Vicious or Shirley Manson?
Hi and Lois: I guess this is supposed to be a romantic setting — but the ominous canopy of pure-black trees in the daylight suggests we’re getting to the part of the movie where a pair of hormonal teens will be axe-murdered by inbred monster-folk as soon as they start getting frisky.
Mark Trail: Geez, Mark, do you really think people living in hurricane-prone areas need ultra-basic advice like “have a radio” and “stock up on peanut butter”? In any case, you’re not exactly the best person to lecture us on this topic, since your personal storm plan seems to be standing outside in red cotton hoodie.
Non Sequitur: If only Olive were there to help.
This was all I could think about for Olive’s face in the last panel when her new cronies didn’t worship her to her liking.
I was trying to figure out a joke about Steven Seagal’s (sorry, “Seagull’s”) lack of acting chops compared to the rest of the genuine talent within that all-star lineup until I realized that I would pay to see him in the Tippi Hendren role if it was a Gun Van Sant directed shot-by-shot remake à la Psycho (1998).
***
Lois is the rare cool mom who will help her teenage son get out there and fuck.
@taig: Hey,yeah! I remember because this was when Bets returned back to school in LATE OCTOBER, well past the cutoff date for any registration period. See that was a girl who took the college experience seriously, not like some bimbo who wants to party (who does that at college?)
Belated happy birthday wishes to Guillermo el Chiclero.
FC – The rental car company is going to add a cleaning fee due to Jeffy’s barf.
Just how fast are they going down Lombard Street? Cars go pretty slow because of all the turns.
JP – This is strictly make-it-up- from-one-panel-to-the-next territory.
Rex Morgan – Now it’s obvious – Anger Management Issues Brother will get sick and need a kidney transplant, and Cody will be the only match. Either that, or Cody will rescue him from an undertow.
Breaking Cat News – Get that bottle of water and spray them in the face.
Frazz – Shoe only talked about it, but Frazz and Caulfield are living it. I hope they end up like Suzanne Pleshette.
FC-So it’s not a straight street?
Hi and Lois
Whispers in the room—mother, son.
Something unclean in the shadows.
But no, look again:
Lois watches the girl,
eyes tilted sideways, hungry.
Not Oedipus, not the old Greek curse.
Different script, softer lighting:
The Graduate.
She leans in—
and gets the splash of cold water from Jenny.
“Mrs. Flagston, you’re trying to seduce me
…aren’t you?”
Will Steven Speilbird be directing “The Bird’s List”?
@TheDiva: 28- absolutely hands down Jonah.
@Hibbleton: “MW: I might be reading this wrong but did Olive just float into the room a few inches above the floor?”
Olive’s special abilities now include levitation. By the time she hits 18, she’ll have all the powers of the DC Legion of Super Heroes. (I’m looking forward to her doing Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad)
JP: ”But, Neddy — it’s the only place in Norway that sells coffee! The locals prefer strong hot lichen tea with a pat of reindeer butter in it.”
9CL: If Brooke had an
editorsomeone who gave a damn about anything he published, they’d have pointed out that NO ONE except extreme movie nerds and everyone at the Comics Curmudgeon knows who Ben Turpin was. “Use Spiro Agnew, Brooke,” they would say. “Spiro Agnew is always good for a laugh.”6ix Chix: “Ready to fuck?”
Hi and Lois-Well, Chip, and I know this is going to sound crass but have you consider actually showing her your dick instead of pictures of it.
@38 Hibbleton: In this universe, Stef is boinking everything wearing trousers because she found out she has no ovaries after her early gynecology visits. No chance of pregnancy. STD’s? Uh…
REX MORGAN M.D.: Lorna: “It’s nice. He seems like a good guy—much more pleasant than my other brother who thinks wishes should be respected and boundaries should be un-violated, the asshole!”
REX MORGAN M.D. (2): Hey, apropos of nothing, remember a couple of storylines back when Kelly’s mother, Summer, had to deal with an obsessed stalker who wouldn’t get her clear and direct hints that she had no interest in pursuing a relationship with him and he would perpetually refuse to take no for an answer or give her the space she requested?
Why am I bringing this up now? Oh….just some memory that suddenly popped into my head for some reason. I’m sure it has absolutely no relevance to themes and subtext of this plot at all, so pay it no mind.
Luann: There is a towel that should be a biohazard to be deposed due to all the Stef/Kip Fuck Tent action.
Oh, in the normal world, when a college woman needs to release sexual tension without a human partner, there is an ‘app’ for that.
@Needless Exposition, MW: No, that’s Mary.