Metapost: Slightly early comment of the week
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Sorry folks, things to do, places to be, comment of the week to post:
“Well, I must admit, I have never seen ‘yikes’ used in a cartoon that conveys so exactly and accurately the reader’s impression of the panel in which it occurs. I mean, yikes.” –Chance
And your runners up? Well, you can never be too early on those:
“So the other officers get annoyed when Sarge … comes in early and gets his work done? I don’t know what kind of Army they’re running here, but it can’t be the one we need.” –BigTed
“Leroy’s right to feel jealous. Nothing turns a hunk on like a gnome dressed like the ghost of a Victorian orphan.” –Schroduck
“Mary Worth clumsily exposition-dropping the Santa Royale hot-air balloon festival has big ‘…and Mr. Chekhov has a brand new gun in his desk drawer!’ energy.” –raincannon
“‘But we haven’t told you when we were going!’ Ed and Evy smile and nod, smile and nod. ‘That’s right,’ they intone together. –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“I know that eventually you just have to accept the weird bolding in Mary Worth, but even within that, come on. If you’re gonna drop something like, ‘I have some prior commitments,’ you absolutely have to smash cut to Olive’s mom doing something humorous. The panel is even drawn so everyone’s looking at her expectantly! I have to assume what comes next is dead silence, Olive coughing once, and everyone moves on.” –Dan
“Andrew D. Capp, known to his friends as Andy, was killed in a knife attack in a pub in Liverpool last evening. Accordingly to witnesses, Mr. Capp interfered in a snooker game. Rest in peace, Mr. Capp (1921(1932(1941(1954(1962(1972(1981)))))))-2025).” –Voshkod
“Sorry, Loretta had the flu last week. Well, she died! I came here to you because I wanted to report this to someone who would care.” –Ettorre
“Anyway Reggie has confirmed that Veronica is the being containing all perfections from Descartes’s ontological argument, so that’s that settled.” –matt w
“I assume that Mother Goose’s pose is intended to partially hide her mammalian breasts from the reader. I don’t approve. Mike Peters made this anatomically freakish bed, and he should be forced to lie in it.” –Mr. A
“The cow is sad because the horse snarfed down all the drugs. The birds have to lead the horse because he’s too high to figure out where to go on his own. The kid’s smug because he loves that the horse denied his mortal enemy, the cow, any drugs. And yes, the birds are leading the mammals to their deaths. The birds’ll be pecking on their carcasses for dinner tonight until the larger scavengers find out. Simples.” –Baja Gaijin
“‘To quote a meta-research paper, Loch Ness is the one body of water on Earth we can be most sure doesn’t have a monster in it. It’s been so thoroughly searched and mapped, for generations you just had to say you were thinking of looking for the Loch Ness monster and you’d get funding. It’s a pretty funny situation. Anyway, time to get some jokes from this century, Roz.’ ‘Well. I guess then we know where your uncle doesn’t dump the bodies. He’s the … Not-Ness Mobster? Something Elliot Ness something? Look, we’ll workshop it later.’ ‘Again, he’s murdered a lot of people.’’ –Amelie Wikström
“What the fuck is a ‘12 minute animated graphic,’ anyway? In a psych course, no less? Doesn’t this sound like a super 1998 kind of thing? Does the baby dance to B.F. Skinner quotations this time? AM I back in 1998? Can … can I be?” –A Grave Mind
“I’m actually grateful that Dustin’s dad brought up that awful subject because the camera rotates 180° between panels 1 and 2, yet Megan’s posture is completely unchanged. Her body has inverted itself to present the same outward appearance to all directions, even having (apparently) moved from behind the chair to in front of it. She’s either a metamorph or a walking optical illusion, and the effect is so unsettling that anything that forces my mind to consider something even more repellent is a blessing.” –Vice President John Adams
“I actually don’t think this is a sex joke at all. I think that Dustin’s dad is saying that he probably hasn’t spent 10,000 hours with his kids over their entire lives, and they’ve never been taken by the state, so, you know, can’t argue with results?” –pugfuggly
“Ten thousand hours? Dustin’s dad chuckled. Indeed, he had needed far less time to attain mystery of the forbidden alchemies contained in that weathered tome he had found in the law school library all those years ago. The formulas and incantations were so precisely laid out that even a novice like Dustin’s dad could create a reasonably convincing homunculus after a few tries. Likening himself to God who created man from dust, he named his handiwork ‘Dustin,’ though, like God, he soon saw the frailty, the spinelessness, the lack of ambition of his creation. But Dustin’s dad had corrected the flaws in his formula. As Meg turned from her father, she saw it: the Dadling, a diminutive facsimile of its creator and the final evolution of his craft. Meg screamed, for she saw in its eyes the signs that to this creature she was sister, yet alien, inferior.” –Abram Beazer
“Thanks for your advice, Truck, but I’ve already leased a billboard that Jonah can see from his hospital bed.” –MKay
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16 replies to “Metapost: Slightly early comment of the week”
Thanks Josh, and premature thanks to Scratchy and Baja, and Voshkudos to Chance, raincannon, matt w, Mr. A, Amelie Wikström (Voshkudo with oak leaf clusters), and Abram Beazer (Voshkudo with oak leaf clusters).
OMG! I’m on The Float! Thanks Josh!
*passes the crown to Chance* Congrats, and yikes indeed!
A Grave Mind’s comment made it, I can rest easy now.
@TheDiva: Rightfully earned ^^
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Your Mom
September 5th, 2025 at 4:37 pm Reply
Receiving an award named after a scrotum that’s allegedly scratchy is all well and good, I suppose – and please don’t think I’m unappreciative But this site needs an official award named after my pus-filled vaginal boils. Thank you for your consideration.
Liam
September 7th, 2025 at 4:34 am Reply
FC-Make their falling into traffic look like an accident.
BigTed
September 7th, 2025 at 4:50 am Reply
Mary Worth: I can’t wait to see Olive at the Santa Royale Hot Air Balloon Festival. When she says “Wait, don’t get on that one,” you sure as heck better listen!
Bob Tice
September 7th, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
MW:
“If it’s just that her balloon ride will get tangled up in live power lines, or that she’ll plummet to her demise, I’ll allow it!”
Needless Exposition
September 7th, 2025 at 5:28 am Reply
MW: Mary, you don’t have to lie to them; Ed and Evy are fully willing to shove their delusional weirdo out the door if it means they can two weeks away from both of you. The only balloon that Olive is going to see is Wilbur in a Speedo by the Charterstone pool.
pugfuggly
September 7th, 2025 at 6:47 am Reply
MW To be clear, Olive: the ‘Hot Air Balloon Festival’ is just what the Charterstone residents call the night when Wilbur has a few too many at Kareoke. You’re gonna love it…
astroboy
September 7th, 2025 at 7:09 am Reply
MW: Just what in TF is Mary’s look all about in P5? Is “Hot air balloon festival” slang for some dirty sex thing? (off to check the Urban Dictionary.)
Charterstoned
September 7th, 2025 at 6:31 am Reply
MW: Ed asserts his paternal authority, “…I’ll ALLOW it!” He wants everyone at the table to know that HE wears the pants in the family, even though they are women’s underwear.
Peanut Gallery
September 7th, 2025 at 6:40 am Reply
MW – Repeat after Danny Kaye: The biddy in the city is so boring we’ve been snoring; the loony going balloony is the trip that is hip!
Dennis Jimenez
September 7th, 2025 at 6:27 am Reply
MW – A colonoscopy is a journey into yourself.
Sir Laurence Olivier
MKay
September 7th, 2025 at 4:57 am Reply
MW: Nice bogus show of reluctance from the people who plan to pack it all up and vanish without a trace.
RMMD: Holy mother of Boxcar Willie, that Cody is one dim bulb!
The Quiet Man
September 7th, 2025 at 6:41 am Reply
RMMD: ‘I would’ve tried to talk you out of it!’ Lorna already tried to, remember? Then again, you know those wimmenfolk, trying to do things that ought to be left to big, strong men!
RMMD: Please let Lorna’s next advice to Cody be to jump off the hospital roof, please please please!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hibbleton
September 7th, 2025 at 5:00 am Reply
Blondie: Cora is waiting for Jules to turn around and get a look at her new 44Ds.
The Rambling Otter
September 7th, 2025 at 5:05 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Okay comic, never have Sarge go “Ahhhh….” while viewing a computer screen ever again.
Marvin: No shitting today, YET we still get a “Plop” sound effect.
That’s Marvin, sticking to its creed.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Ukulele Ike
September 7th, 2025 at 6:34 am Reply
Dustin: Ed’s pal: “This is my ‘town car.’”
Ed: “What town — Pompeii?”
— Thanx and a tip o’ the hat to Harpo Marx and Alexander Woollcott, c. 1928 (Ed is even shaped like Woollcott!)
Victor Von
September 7th, 2025 at 8:04 am Reply
The Lockhorns: “Now that’s what I call spank bank!” didn’t make much sense either, but that’s not why the syndicate rejected it when the artist submitted the first draft of this strip.
The Quiet Man
September 8th, 2025 at 4:54 am Reply
RMMD: C’mon Lorna…. just wait a few hours, then text Spudson at his gig that Jonah sadly died, he was immediately cremated so there won’t be any memorial and it’s ‘just too painful’ to get together right now. Then move to a new town. You can do this!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Gil Bates
September 8th, 2025 at 5:23 am Reply
MW: “My prior commitment is learning how to assemble representations of human faces using clip art! Take a look at poor Olive; she resembles the facial equivalent of a ransom note!”
Hibbleton
September 8th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
MW: “Either of you but not both of you. My walls aren’t thick enough to have you two sharing a room.”
MKay
September 8th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
MW: Evy chokes out an acceptable, if stilted, alternative to, “I’d rather be thrown into a bear pit covered with honey!”
Tabby Lavalamp
September 8th, 2025 at 5:33 am Reply
Good for Olive’s mom. Being as vague as possible around a busybody like Mary is the way to go. Make her eventual monologuing to Dr. Jeff about this whole experience even more boring for him.
Victor Von
September 8th, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
Mary Worth: Evy the Mombot and her dialogue aren’t really living up to the high standards set by AI slop.
Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
September 8th, 2025 at 4:54 am Reply
Mary Worth: Evy has a prior commitment with Ed: those balls aren’t going to pot themselves!
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
September 8th, 2025 at 5:25 am Reply
Andy Capp: “Pot those balls”! And here we thought 9 Chickweed Lane was the dirtiest strip running.
Ukranazi Stepan
September 8th, 2025 at 5:18 am Reply
Potted balls sound really painful. I hope the ale he drank helps with that.
Hibbleton
September 8th, 2025 at 6:01 am Reply
A. Capp: Note to American tourists. ‘The balls are in the pot’ is not the pickup line you think it is.
Austria
September 8th, 2025 at 6:25 am Reply
Pot and balls? In the same speech bubble? Come on, this is the lowest of low-hanging fruit.
Voshkod
September 8th, 2025 at 6:13 am Reply
Andrew D. Capp, known to his friends as Andy, was killed in a knife attack in a pub in Liverpool last evening. Accordingly to witnesses, Mr. Capp interfered in a snooker game. Rest in peace, Mr. Capp (1921(1932(1941(1954(1962(1972(1981)))))))-2025).
Dennis Jimenez
September 8th, 2025 at 4:41 am Reply
AC – Nobody teabags like drunken Andy Capp….
Will
September 8th, 2025 at 5:57 am Reply
Peanuts Begins: 10/10 no notes. Just a solid joke.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hibbleton
September 8th, 2025 at 6:20 am Reply
FC: I don’t know why seeing Jeffy this frustratingly angry warms my heart. Perhaps it’s a defense mechanism to keep me from thinking about Dolly wearing fishnet stockings.
Liam
September 9th, 2025 at 6:09 am Reply
MW-They should have saved this scene for a few days later.
Professor Well Actually
September 9th, 2025 at 4:51 am Reply
MW: I kind of like the thought of Creepy Mary speaking with a broad Bronx accent.
Rita Lake
September 9th, 2025 at 5:43 am Reply
MW: The original lyrics say that New York is a “helluva” town, not a “wonderful” town. Did Olive bowdlerize it for Mary’s benefit, to avoid offending her delicate ears?
Tabby Lavalamp
September 9th, 2025 at 5:43 am Reply
You got me, Karen Moy. I also break out pop culture references that pre-date me so I can’t say anything here except 23 skidoo.
CanuckDownSouth
September 9th, 2025 at 4:52 am Reply
MW “Did you enjoy your time in New York City? Time that, to be clear, was spent with me – and extra-special sensitive ‘tummy-brained’ kindred spirit. I can tell if an air conditioner will fall from the sky but I have no idea if anything we did amused you!”
astroboy
September 9th, 2025 at 8:58 am Reply
MW: This whole, ridiculous “mini-vacation” thing comes off as Mary gaslighting Olive’s parents into letting her take their young daughter across the country to stay with her by downplaying the two-weeks part. “See, it’s only a mini-vacation! If I say it enough times, you’ll believe it!” It just makes Mary sound like even more of a creepy groomer.
Maude R. Fawker
September 9th, 2025 at 7:56 am Reply
MW: If it’s a mini-vacation then I hope they’re wearing mini-skirts, and we are treated to the occasional glimpse of cooter young and old.
Needless Exposition
September 9th, 2025 at 5:39 am Reply
MW: Belting out random show tunes must be one of Olive’s “endearing quirks” along with talking constantly about herself and whining about how she’s so misunderstood because she’s so special.
The Quiet Man
September 9th, 2025 at 5:39 am Reply
@Hibbleton: If she is, then this just makes yet another thing Moy has clearly never encountered in real life and is an insult to everyone who actually IS on the spectrum and does their best to live a good life while still not infringing on the ability of people around them to live theirs. Not to mention, it makes the vibe we’ve been calling this story out for since it began 10 times more creepy than it already was.
Luann: Speaking of which, I guess the Evansii has been reading MW’s current storyline and decided to say ‘Hold my beer…’
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
MKay
September 9th, 2025 at 4:51 am Reply
RMMD: This is going to be a TERRIBLE gig; no music, just Cody telling his sad, sad tale, pausing occasionally for the audience to chant, “It wasn’t your fault!”
Pozzo
September 10th, 2025 at 4:50 am Reply
SFx: Okay, in the first panel, the horse is on tranquilizers and in the second, he’s just had a fifth of Scotch. That’s one difference, right?
Guts Dozier
September 10th, 2025 at 5:09 am Reply
Normally, when you’re going to run a horse-doping scam at the track, you wait until just before the race begins to inject them in the rump with tranquilizer. And you don’t put a conspicuous bandage over the injection site. That’s why the cow is so sad; she knows this plan is doomed to fail.
#
September 10th, 2025 at 5:16 am Reply
Slylock…. human, dog, duck, goose, and chicken have been body snatched. The butt wound on the horse is where they stung it and injected their spores. The other animals that still have their minds intact cower behind the fence in horror.
Bob Tice
September 10th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
Slylock Fox:
Well, I’ve got one for sure! The lower cloud in the left panel is clearly a cumulus cloud, whereas the cloud in the right panel is more elongated, so I’m guessing it’s a cumulonimbus.
Baja Gaijin
September 10th, 2025 at 4:33 am Reply
Luann: Great. Another Sheldon Cooper except without the whimsy.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
TheDiva
September 10th, 2025 at 6:00 am Reply
Dustin: The next year, Helen saved a great deal on fertilizer, her vegetables were doing better than ever, and the police relegated Ed’s disappearance to the cold case files.
Rube
September 10th, 2025 at 6:06 am Reply
Dustin “Dad, I am quite aware that you’re an asshole. I didn’t express any interest in what form your assholery took this time.”
astroboy
September 10th, 2025 at 5:05 am Reply
MW: Who’s new at Charterstone since Olive last appeared? Saul and Eve? That’s all I can think of. I hardly think they’re going to lavish praise on Dear Olive. For that matter, who will? Wilbur and Dawn are far too self-absorbed, Toby will be resentful of Olive’s youth, and she’s too young to drink box wine with anyway. Zak/Iris/Tommy/Brandi haven’t been seen in ages.
I predict Olive pulling some Final Destination ripoff where she warns a bunch of people not to go up in a hot air balloon and then a big hole is discovered in it, something like that. Followed by dinner at the Bum Boat where Mary praises Olive and, for no reason, herself while Jeff drinks himself into a stupor while pondering his life choices.
Little Blue Bicycle
September 10th, 2025 at 5:39 am Reply
MW: “I sense that there Mr. Weston is still there. I can hear his thoughts.”
“Oh Olive, you need to get out of there right now!”
“I can…ewwww!”
Hibbleton
September 10th, 2025 at 4:54 am Reply
MW: I’ve already been in psychic contact with the new residents, Mary and I got a thing or two to tell you about Keith Hillend. Oh, and Toby goes commando.
Shoe: Monster —> Mobster. Now do Lobster.
Schroduck
September 10th, 2025 at 5:42 am Reply
Shoe: When I’m at a new restaurant, I always like to spice up the conversation by casually dropping hints to the wait staff that I’m connected to organised crime. Perhaps they’ll worry that knowing this information has put their lives at risk, perhaps they’ll just think I have Swiss bank accounts full of gold. Either way, you can bet no one’s going to tell ME “We’re a bit short staffed, the garlic bread will be another 10 minutes”.
BigTed
September 10th, 2025 at 6:59 am Reply
Shoe: “My uncle runs an organized crime ring in Scotland.” “So he’s the Loch Ness Mobster?” “No, they call him Peaty Blinders.” “Okay, that’s a better joke than mine was. But what does your uncle really do?” “I don’t have any family. It’s sad, actually. Also, does this restaurant serve any food or beverages?”
Voshkod
September 10th, 2025 at 10:10 am Reply
“My uncle runs an organized crime ring in Scotland.”
“OK. Not sure why you’re telling me this.”
“Well, all those bets you made on Dundee United are due. Tell me, which wing would you least prefer to lose?”
Dennis Jimenez
September 10th, 2025 at 5:47 am Reply
Shoe – I’m taking the Firth of Forth on that….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Ukulele Ike
September 10th, 2025 at 6:11 am Reply
GT: “The score is 78-0. Shut off the fucking AI.”
ValdVin
September 10th, 2025 at 7:44 am Reply
Zits: This has the potential to be an interesting plot.
Ukulele Ike
September 10th, 2025 at 9:09 am Reply
@ValdVin: re: Zits: Yes, like the “little raccoon” storyline in Calvin & Hobbes. In two weeks, they’ll be burying Grandma in a cigar box in the back yard. Afterward, Jeremy will mail in two box tops for a propellor beanie.
Horace Broon
September 10th, 2025 at 11:09 am Reply
FC: PJ, who’s an actual baby, cries because he’s genuinely upset about something. Dolly, who’s an actual sociopath, can only interprete this as an attempt to manipulate an adult. An adult who has in fact decided to leave them both to it. This is the most chilling Family Circus I’ve read in weeks, on multiple levels!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Charterstoned
September 11th, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
MW: Oh, gad. Now Olive will remember when SHE was a dog who had to dress like her owner.
Liam
September 11th, 2025 at 4:42 am Reply
MW-“Oh, Mary. Seriously? How old is this one?”
Liam
September 11th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
Dustin-Meg, have you reached 10,000 hours on your back yet?
BigTed
September 11th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
Dustin: To get 10,000 hours of practice, Megan would have to drive 24 hours a day for more than a year. Or one hour a year for 10,000 years, if we really need to discuss her father’s birthdays-only sex life with his wife.
A Grave Mind
September 11th, 2025 at 4:50 am Reply
Yeah, today’s Dustin forced me to ponder how Ed practiced for sex, and I’m going to blame it for ALL the day drinking I’m about to do, now.
MKay
September 11th, 2025 at 4:53 am Reply
DUSTIN: I think he means he’s bad at contraception.
Tabby Lavalamp
September 11th, 2025 at 5:55 am Reply
I have no doubt Ed (and it annoys the hell out of me that I didn’t have to look that up) has a good 10,000 hours of practice, polishing his junk like a Japanese aluminum foil ball. However, the bad news for him is that are billions of people walking around today who are the end result of some disappointing sex. He knows that though but that’s not going to stop him from giving his daughter nightmares.
Jeffy could come back at his mom with a passionate speech about modern fishing and the dangers of mercury poisoning but… *looks at his face* no, this is the right level of argument for this eventual stoner.
Hibbleton
September 11th, 2025 at 4:55 am Reply
FC: While other artists cash in on the zombie apocalypse craze of the eighties, Bil realizes no one will believe Jeffy desires brains.
The Rambling Otter
September 11th, 2025 at 4:57 am Reply
FC: Points for Thel’s earrings matching her shirt, that’s kind of a nice touch.
Then I realize, her shirt is a…. sports Jersey? Is that something that people casually wear to dinner?
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
September 11th, 2025 at 5:03 am Reply
The Family Circus: Talk about needing brain food, Mama Keane is apparently a Jets fan?
Lawyerbob
September 11th, 2025 at 5:56 am Reply
FC: Ma Keane is clearing the table and everyone else has left, but Jeffy is still not going to eat that fish. He’s flat-out reveling in this contest of wills. “Yeah, bring it old lady! Do your worst! My brain can take it.” Yeah, Jeffy, stick it to the mom!
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Stacker
September 7th, 2025 at 8:18 am Reply
MW: Fun Fact: The song “Up in a Balloon Boys” was written and Mary was born, both in the same year, 1869.
69. Tonio
September 9th, 2025 at 7:04 am Reply
Bloom County once observed that female cartoon animals tend to be vanishingly rare, with exceptions like Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck being merely extensions of the male leading characters. My theory is that male cartoonists subconsciously stay away from drawing such characters as it feels to them like sexualizing animals. (Or they go to the opposite extreme like Omaha the Cat Dancer.) After seeing today’s Mother Goose and Grimm, I can understand such an aversion.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. taig
September 10th, 2025 at 7:30 am Reply
FC: “An’ I don’t have my phone, so I can’t make another PJ’s Tantric TikTok.”
MW: Olive is already working out ways to grift *all* the money from them.
Dustin: Yeah, Helen! You are doing something that only you will canonically benefit from (none of these assholes will even look at a fresh vegetable). Maybe you should think about spending your money and time on something that will benefit Ed… so he can still belittle you.