Troubling biology
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/28/25
Imagine: You’ve just finished putting together the script for a perfectly serviceable Barney Google and Snuffy Smith strip, which hinges on wordplay around the phrase “Mr. Right.” But then you remember: in Hootin’ Holler patois, they never say “mister”; they say “mistopher.” Does this make the joke clunkier and weirder, and leave the reader wondering if “mistopher” itself is part of the punchline? Well, yes. But it doesn’t matter. You are the keeper of the sacred trust that is Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. You must scrupulously adhere to the lore, or else what’s the point? Would you jettison decades of tradition for a single day’s laugh? You wouldn’t dare.
Pluggers, 8/28/25
The joke here is whatever, but I’m very unsettled by the look on this plugger’s face as he approaches the bathroom. He looks like he knows he has a journey of awful discovery in store for him in there, and it is not reading-media-related. It’s something much darker and more visceral; he knows something awful is about to begin, but he can’t guess when or how it will end.
Heathcliff, 8/28/25
The robot’s smooth, featureless crotch is a reminder that cybernetic organisms are ghastly parodies of humanity, lacking the natural urges and drives that, troublesome as they may be, make us people. Grandma Nutmeg’s right to demand it be hidden from sight!
56 replies to “Troubling biology”
Heathcliff:
“Grandma’s next target is the Pillsbury Doughboy!”
Mary Worth Mashup: Be careful what you ask for, kiddo.
Nah, no worries, Andy Bear just noticed his kangaroo wife has swapped out the Zest for Coast, and he is confused. And yet, PUMPED.
Blondie: Thought it was gonna be a joke about how the ‘new flea’ collar doesn’t kill ‘old fleas’ but I guess Dagwood having fleas is funnier.
BG&SS:
“Not a lotta people know this, Cousin Loweezy, but Perfesser Henry Higgins came to mah house first on accounta he had the gumption ta try ta teach me how ta speak English proper-like. But I frustrated that edjeecated feller so much that he ended up givin’ up an’ settlin’ on Eliza Doolittle!”
Snuffy Smith-Sadly she’s going to settle for Wilbur Weston.
Blondie-Great. Now they have bedbugs.
MW-“Yes I meddled that man into being an artist.”
The robot was confused at the idea of covering his non-existent genitalia, and resolved logically that he should open the skull of every sentient being he encountered, to see where ideas come from.
Dustin-Comic strip women and their weird recipes. Where do they find this stuff?
@Hibbleton:
Blondie is remarkably sanguine about the presence of horrifying, difficult to dispose of parasites inside the house, no? Like, ew? Wonder what her business kitchen is like ew?
Plugger man is both pissed his wife forgot to buy toilet paper and happy he has a newspaper.
MW: Yes, Olive, you need to travel. You live in one of the most cultured cities in the world, where you can do whatever you want, and are amazed by the contents of a basic art museum. But no, you’re Little Miss Vague Special Powers and need the world to teach you. Can we please have Dawn and Wilbur back? They seem downright wholesome compared to this insufferable snowflake.
Also, Mary’s obviously just reading facts off the display. “John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was known for his portraits but later switched to landscapes.”
BGSS: Why does Loweezy’s “cuzzin” resemble her husband in a wig and dress? Just further confirms that the Smith family tree is more of a GMO with every generation.
MW: Olive, you’ll be lucky if your parents don’t boot you out of the apartment they can’t afford as soon as you turn eighteen.
@Baja Gaijin:
….Has there been a Isekai where the character becomes a renaissance-style artist? Like, that would be an idea, a loser with minimal doodling (and manga tracing) skills being teleported into a Renaissance-style fantasy world where they have to learn actual figure drawing and technical drawing to avoid getting pilloried (or worse) for their ‘art’…
Nah, no modern comic/manga/webtoon artist would make a story with the message being “learn ACTUAL drawing technique, your art will be better for it”.
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Heathcliff : …that just makes the robot look even MORE naked, IMHO
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Pluggers : Andy Bear is somehow walking in on Andy Bear coming out of the shower, naked.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Dawn and Wilbur are at least able to not center every conversation about themselves and can at least wipe themselves without having to ask Mary for permission.
BG&SS: Cuzzin could always date Dee Snider, lead singer of Twistedfer Sistofer.
RMMD: This plot would have a smoother flow if Cody had established himself as having even a little first aid knowledge. What’s he going to do, bash Jonah in the sternum with a banjo?
BG&SS: In P3, it’s dawning on Loweezy that she’s living with Mistopher Omigod What Did I Do?
HEATHCLIFF: If a household robot is included in Medicare, where do I sign up?
MW: “I want to learn from the world…how remarkable, gifted, amazing and special I am. Mary, how do you say ‘Olive is remarkably gifted, amazing and special’ in French?”
MW – “Maybe when I’m older, I’ll travel outside of New York to study! I want to be painted like these French girls.”
HC: And yet, the model itself is still brazenly shoving their robo-crotch in our faces.
BG&SS: Hootin’ Holler may be free of anything that could reasonably be characterized as “law enforcement”, but it is still a repressive environment in many ways. For example, if you come to Loweezy’s house for tea, then you had better stick out your pinky on the hand holding the teacup AND on the hand holding the saucer.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: The theory that the. . . artists?. . . are obliged by tradition to use “Mistofer” for “Mister” falls apart when you see that Loweezy is not responding with the expected tongue-wag, instead opting for the more human “What the fuck are you talking about?” side glance.
BGSS: “Mistofer” is short for “Mister Lucifer”. Hootin’ Holler is a den of devil worshippers, and Loweezy’s cuzzin wants to take her thelemic sex magick to the next level.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Perhaps Olive is illiterate and can’t read the display? As I recall, there is a (tongue-in-cheek) theory that Sherlock Holmes was illiterate, because every time a letter came he would look briefly at it then ask Watson to read it.
“Mistofer” makes it sound like Loweezy’s non-Elviney friend is going to a performance of “Cats.”
Mary Worth:
“I want to learn from the world. I want to go to Paris, Kentucky; London, Ontario; Rome, New York; and Berlin, Ohio!”
RMMD:
An angry Jonah rails at Cody.
Actually, I thought he was off the rails.
Heathcliff: Joke’s on Grandma Nutmeg: that’s no fig leaf, and it’s radioactive.
True story: When I woke up this morning the word “Mistofer” was bouncing around my head, and I couldn’t remember where it was from–Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, maybe?–and then I came to this website and had a horrible self-discovery.
We talk a lot about Heathcliff talent in designing helmets or in gathering large crowds for his antics, but we must also recognise that he is an amazing photorealistic painter! Truly, a Renaissance cat!
Pluggers – It would be funnier if they substituted “Sears catalog” for “newspaper.”
Dustin Another meal from the Mad Libs of unappetizing healthy ingredients. Are we supposed the think she’s working her way through the 1001 Recipes So Vile Nobody Can Eat Enough to Get Fat cookbook? Or is she doing didnthaveeggs bad recipe substitutions of her own design?
Sorry I don’t comment much, but if you find yourself in upstate NY this fall the Fenimore museum is having an exhibition of Calvin and Hobbs art! It will run 13-September to 31-December
https://fenimoreartmuseum.org/future-exhibitions/calvin-and-hobbes
From the website:
“Exploring Calvin and Hobbes revisits the beloved comic strip created by Bill Watterson from 1985 to 1995. This exhibit explores his mastery of the comic strip art form through engaging characters, thoughtful writing, and creative layouts.”
I mean, you can throw in the trash a newspaper full of faecal bacteria, but you can’t do the same with a smartphone — though you should! I have to hand this victory to Pluggers
MW: Mary should drop Olive off in the Bronx. She’ll get schooled.
MW: High on the list of things I shouldn’t be surprised by is that whatever possible storyline Moy/Brigman choose, it will absolutely be the most boring one. And yet here I am. Surprised again.
That really makes me the doofus, not them, I’m willing to acknowledge.
Also Heathcliff: Grandma Nutmeg knows a thing or two: that before robots, men spoke of golems and homunculii, almost-humans conceived and born deep in the uncanny valley. She knows that the origins of the word robot itself are from Old Church Slavonic — the one and true Christian liturgical language — and its term for servitude, and that every servant from the angels downward has the potential for rebellion. She knows that the cybernetic man, like all men, has a penchant for sticking his d*ck where it does not belong and should feel the hot sting of shame no less than any man.
BGSS: Aleister Crowley later strolls into Hootin’ Holler…
Pluggers: It makes more sense for him to bring the newspaper to the bathroom rather than to his phone. I guess people who are deemed non-Pluggers have dementia.
HC: It’s an Uncanny Valley{TM} Fig Leaf.
Pluggers are unmoored from time, as evidenced by the size of that newspaper.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Besides, everybody knows Pluggers bring Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader with them, or more likely, already have it stashed near the toilet already.
FC: Only if you enjoy the taste of ginger.
MW: I’m glad he moved on to landscape. I hate it when influencers always use portrait mode!
Dustin: I’m going to guess DustDad “accidentally” bumped the stove when he was in there rummaging around for junk food. There’s no way either of these lazy assholes would have otherwise gotten off the couch to sabotage dinner.
You’re a Plugger if you’re convinced that people are interested in your bathroom habits.
@Baja Gaijin: I thought it would end as Olive X!
True story. Back in the early 2000s, my parents were looking at a new house, and I went with them to check it out. It was nice, spacious, all on one level, just what they needed. However, the wallpaper throughout the home was pale pink, the homeowner favored round, unshaded bulbs for light, and almost every exposed surface was either black or gold-colored.
The pièce de résistance was a medium-sized pink hot tub in the middle of the main bedroom’s bathroom. Knowing they’d have to renovate the place, they still bought it and discovered that the owner was the renowned NASCAR driver and bootlegger, Junior Johnson! He’d bought the house for his mistress. She’d decorated it to her liking; he was selling the place now that they were getting married!
And in 2025, somehow, the late Junior Johnson’s widow decorated this Plugger’s bathroom, too.
@Charterstoned: lololol
DT: Again, LaKoyle zap zap the venture capitalist won’t end the 1/3rd hold the VC / entity has on the company. Why does Faust worry about that? Does he want exclusive control? Then just arrange a pay day for the VC to cash out. If this is really liquid green platinum crude oil gold, then there is more than enough for everyone.
GT: Good thing, that shoulder tenderness (clavicle?) is in his non-throwing arm.
RMMD: Please let it be gas pain and Jonah will let out a great belch just as Cody comes up to try to do CPR!
JP: For a guy who has seen a lot and done a lot, Randy is borderline hysterical. It is time for him to switch to decaf coffee!
MW: Olive’s parents will be all for MW taking Olive on the GRAND TOUR. Seeing London, Paris, and Rome. Seeing more naked statues. This gives the folks months of blissful bonking with no Olive peeping into their sweaty carnal thoughts.
@astroboy: Olive est remarquablement douée, extraordinaire et spéciale.
MW: I have a strange urge to tell Creepy Mary to fuck herself. I apologize.
GT: “I’m taking you to the doctor, and that’s it!” “Coach, we’re on the ‘Rex Morgan’ strip.”
Bad move, Grandma. The robot standing there just made me question how its legs work as they’re not jointed like its arms. Adding the fig leaf? Well, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be in my room with this comic.
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I appreciate Barney Google and Snuffy Smith making me spend precious morning brain power figuring out what “mistofer” means before not laughing at the joke I’m pretty sure I can find a version of on a plaque on Etsy.
@Victor Von: This was the Pluggers/Gearhead Gertie crossover I didn’t expect to want, but did.
Questionablecontent:
So, let’s see if I’ve got this right.
1. Yay went poking about Cubetown’s network and was detected by the jellyfish.
2. The jellyfish did nothing to harm Yay but sent a message with Goo Girl asking if Yay wanted to be friends.
3. This caused Yay to run away and disappear, while taking time to leave a printed goodbye card for Roko.
4. Roko, who had never shown any affection for Yay before this, began pining for them to the extent of becoming a basket case, while to all evidence not using her police training to look for Yay.
5. Yay was very concerned for their privacy, despite
(a) all but one of their identical bodies living in the same flat with two greyhounds, something one would imagine would draw attention
(b) having, unprompted, disclosed their nature to, let’s see, Bubbles, Faye, Emily, Marten, Claire, Roko, Aurelia, Corpse Witch, and possibly Clinton and Dora, and at second hand to Station.
6. Yay did not bother to attempt to communicate with Marten or Claire, who were right there in Cubetown with the jellyfish, to see if they had any information on what it might do.
7. Yay then secured communication with the jellyfish in a big fat 47 seconds, after which they went into a weeks/months long “panic attack”.
8. Yay then made some kind of mutually beneficial partnership with the jellyfish.
9. Yay then put on probably the worst disguise ever and came to Roko’s flat, pretending to be someone else.
10. After convincing Roko that they were, actually, someone else, they then gratuitously admitted that they were Yay, and throwing in a reference to Aurelia, who had claimed to not know where Yay was, but had said she’d clear out the “air raid shelter” in her basement.
11. After this admission, they then claimed that they weren’t *they* any longer, but one.
12. After which they again began referring to themselves as “we”, thereby
13. Re-establishing the status quo ante, with the only change being Yay’s new horrible blonde hairstyle?
What was the point of this rigmarole? So Roko finally admits she loves Yay, and then they can be both memory holed just like Marigold and Dale and Tai and Dora?
Luann: I owe treetown an apology. Obviously, the Evanses have to get through the “girls play video games shallowly” phase before they can get to in-app purchases.
CS: OK, Zoomer.
9CL: No, detention won’t do, but retiring this comic strip will.
Barney Google & Snuffy Smith – “Christopher” means “bearer of Christ”, but in Hootin’ Holler we know the clergy are fraudulent grifters.
“Mistopher” means “bearer of Mist”, the Hootin’ Holler singular term for on of the Old Gods that still lives in the Holler, and whose presence are felt in the cold mists. These Old Gods are mysterious, their motivations opaque, but they do seek a human bride ever century or so. Loweezy’s cousin is hoping to find a better one of them to wed, but may have to settle for one of the Dark Ones, or end up a witchy spinster like Granny Creeps.
Plugger – Generations ago, before they became Manimals, Pluggers were wild animals, free from the conventions of the human world they now inhabit. While normally docile and domesticated, sometimes the call of nature is met with the call of the wild. An eternal question now passes through this Plugger’s mind, in modified form: Why doesn’t a bear shit in the woods?
Heathcliff – What is it to be human? Grandma Nutmeg believes it’s shame, an essential element to Abrahamic religions.
@Baja Gaijin: Excellent job with the painter’s hat.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
Pluggers – It would be funnier if they substituted “Sears catalog” for “newspaper.”
My mind went there, too.
HC: I agree with others — the fig leaf makes the whole thing curiously disturbing. It’s rather like Monday’s XKCD, https://xkcd.com/3133/