She can also swim, I guess, but that seems pretty normal
Post Content
Mary Worth, 9/14/25
So, adding to the list of Olive’s Known Powers: she can predict the movements of air conditioning units, she can “see” people “in front” of her, she can remember her past lives, assuming she’s surrounded by artifacts from the appropriate era, and she can … talk to animals! This is the best one, honestly. I definitely want her to talk to Libby and Pierre so we can finally get the full and detailed list of their grievances with Wilbur.
Pluggers, 9/14/25
Pluggers are in pain all the time. Pain! Pain! They hope that they may receive some reward in the end to compensate for their suffering — wisdom, perhaps, or divine favor — but know in their heart of hearts that such hope is probably in vain.
Panel from Judge Parker, 9/14/25
Today’s Judge Parker pretty much covers the same story beats as yesterday’s, but the larger Sunday format allows for this truly incredible Cinemascope panel of Neddy about to chomp down on a hamburger. I’m sure this sort of thing “does it” for some of you, erotically speaking, and I wanted to make sure you all got a good look at it.
88 replies to “She can also swim, I guess, but that seems pretty normal”
Slylock Fox-How can the birds were shoes? They don’t have the feet for narrow shoes.
RMMD-“Weddings can’t be too much fun if I’m not there to be the center of attention.”
MW-Let’s move past the “Meeting the Dogs” chapter and let’s get to the “Meeting Wilbur” chapter.
FC-“Why does everything run away from me?”
MW:
“Max here says that he wants to continue with the singing I started when we were on the plane out here.”
“What exactly does Max want to sing?”
” ‘Many a tear has to fall/But it’s Saul in the game’ !”
Pluggers: Five will get you ten he first heard of the sacroiliac on “The Flintstones.”
JP:
“In the words of the immortal Soupy Sales, ‘Over the teeth and through the gums/Look out, stomach, here it comes!’ “
Pluggers blur the line between back pain and hip dysplasia.
MW:
“Max, the high-five you’re delivering right now seems to be giving Saul ‘paws‘ for concern!”
MW – My tummy brain could go for a Milk Bone (TM)….
Pluggers – The expression, no pain – no gain, means Pluggers are a constant pain…IN THE ASS! Thanx – Max Sciatica, Great Neck, NY….
JP – What do you call a two-bit hooker with chlamydia? A quarter pounder…w/ cheese….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
Mary Worth: “Max wishes you would tell him he’s a good boy more often! You tell Greta she’s a good girl all the time…” It’s nice that these dogs are finally able to communicate their emotional needs, but who knew they were so committed to the gender binary?
Judge Parker: It’s even funnier that by the last panel, we see that she’s never even taken a bite out of the burger. Guess that opening drawing really was just to appeal to our prurient interest in pre-mastication.
Hi and Lois: Hi’s dad lesson of the day: “Winners never quit and quitters never win, so find something easier and split the difference.”
MW: How much is Moy going to insist that Olive is just so much more special and unique than everyone else? At this point, she might as well be in college with Dawn and the prom queen before taking Toby’s place as Mary’s best friend and Ian’s new child bride.
I like the dog High-Five. “Psycho Kids……Go For It!” I’m pretty sure dogs are told they’re a good boy ALL THE TIME. Or at least asked if, in fact, they’re a good boy. Please don’t let Olive buy any Grape Flavor Aid.
Pluggers only listen to true old-school hip-hop, The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Or maybe “Rapture” by Blondie.
JP: I guess asking for a bite now is out of the question, thinks Abbey.
MW: “Max wonders why Eve makes you take off your clothes and put on his collar and leash sometimes.”
“Greta wonders why you crap with the door open, every chance you get.”
“Because I’m FREE, twat.”
Preliminary Mary Worth quotevestigation reveals that Moy already used this quote on August 29, 2021. More developments as they develop.
MW: next she’ll communicate with Wilbur’s fish. And that sounds dirty to me.
Is it just me or was there no reason for Saul and Eve to get married except for the belief that men and women can’t be “just friends” and to free up a condo? Do they even do anything other than sit around with their dogs and talk about how great they are or do they have anything meaningful in common? When you consider that Saul was a misanthropic old gnome who hated his family and Eve was a giant wuss that was constantly bullied by her late husband, marriage should have been the last thing on their minds.
RMMD: Not one mention or depiction of Rex in any panel. Has he been retconned out of the strip?
Ter, will anyone notice? –J. Vorhees, Editor, King Features Syndicates
If Olive meets Wilbur, and senses him having a “pure” and “kind” aura. I’m done with Mary Worth forever.
(
Who am I kidding, I’ll probably still continue to hate read it anyway)MW: There’s a lot of subtext in Eve’s “Oh… okay,” most of it along the lines of “is she dangerous?”
@The Rambling Otter: The girl thinks that she and Mary are “kindred spirits” so we already know she has the worst judgment in the entire comic.
So, Olive is psychic, can see fairies and angels, can talk to dogs.
This is becoming less of her being Saint Olive, and more of her having the X-Men mutant gene. Which of course Mary would never approve of.
I guess her parents got it on so often, it broke the fabric of reality when she was actually conceived.
@matt w:
Excellent work, has SWAT been informed?
Rex Morgan, Poteet Edition
Shouldn’t Pluggers be aware of Arthur Schopenhauer’s quote, “No rose without a thorn but many a thorn without a rose”? No, of course not, don’t be silly!
MW: Panel 4 seems to imply that Olive can only commune with animals while they’re biting her. Seems inconvenient – she’s fortune Mary doesn’t have a pet rattlesnake.
Pluggers engage in the logical fallacy of denying the antecedent
MW: But can she talk to them? Are they communicating telepathically?
My authority on animal communications is Dr. Doolittle, of course.
“I’d confer with our furry friends and animals
Think of the amazing repartee!
If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals
And they could talk to me”
MW Either Olive’s “tummy brain” doesn’t include dog breed knowledge, or Brigman couldn’t be bothered to draw a second dog head and just upsized the dachshund, because that’s no Labrador – the ears are all wrong!
Pluggers are so familiar with pain that they can identify the anatomical source sans X ray or CT scan. They should monetise this ability!
Olive should go to the zoo and talk to the olive baboons there. Preferably while eating an olive.
Eve doesn’t call Max “good boy” enough? Didn’t Max literally take a bullet for Eve? If I had a dog that jumped in front of a gunshot for me that dog’s NAME would become “Good Boy the Hero Dog”. How ungrateful.
It’s been awhile.
Frazz – could it be worse? Yes, it could be Intelligent Life! The exact border between Hate Read and Don’t Read. Fuck Frazz, though.
Is Olive just going to collect psychic powers like they’re Pokémon cards until it’s revealed that she actually has a tumor in her tummy brain that’s been controlling her like Krang in his fake body or will she pull a Poochie and die on her way back to her home planet?
It’s Sunday Morning and time for JUNGLE JIM!
@Dan: I think she’s talking to Saul who periodically needs to be reminded that Greta is not the only thing that exists in the universe.
They should just retitle “Pluggers” as “Pain, No Gain”.
MW: Olive: “Max wishes for more locked together time, so I think He wants to be inside more?”
Declaring this Sunday Mary Worth quote busted. “I never met an animal I didn’t like” is common (from the obvious Will Rogers paraphrase), early reference that I can find being a novelization of the Jungle Book movie from 1967 and Jacqueline Susann in 1971. “Personally, I’ve never met an animal I didn’t like. I can’t say the same for all the folk I’ve met” seems to be from The Secrets of Life by Stuart Wilde, 1991. Doris Day was an animal rights activist but I can’t find any trace of her saying this.
Also… Today starts a new episode of Sunday vintage THE PHANTOM.
Yep. Still there.
MW: Appropriately for this strip, Olive is a regular Dr. Do Little to Nothing.
Pluggers: Pluggers either don’t know or don’t use fancy words like sacroiliac. So, I don’t know who this impostor is.
JP: I see Judge Parker is vying for the vore aficionado market typically served by Blondie.
Rarely as we do get insights on the earlier lives of Earl Houndstooth and his ilk from before they were Pluggers, Earl’s missing finger indicates he once was a shop teacher. More to the point, apparently he always was a Plugger.
MW: Mary is confident Olive also has a way with pussies.
FC: At least the birds were smart enough not to eat the bread.
Dustin: Leave that shit to Crankshaft. Thank you.
Josh on today’s Pluggers.
Today Josh waxes poetic. Pain… vain. I doesn’t quite parse right but good enough for a country song! You go, Josh!
YEEHAW!
@35 Sequitur: He’s back! I missed you.
@40 Sequitur: In the days before spandex, The Phantom wore granny pannies.
Judge Parker’s Missing Final Panel.
MW:
“What’s so funny?”
“Max here was ruminating that I lived in Puritan New England in a past life, but that instead of knowing noted preachers Increase and his son Cotton Mather, I actually knew Increase’s brother Decrease and his nephew Rayon better!”
Luann: You know which comic strip is least equipped to handle the discussion about how AI isn’t art?
CS: Crankshaft really should think about getting his colon checked.
9CL: Well, this doesn’t feature any of the human characters.
MW: No teenager has ever said or done anything like this in the history of the world. This is the kind of twee nonsense you get from “heartwarming” viral Facebook posts shared by Boomers and Gen-Xers about cute little elementary age moppets.
@46 Baja Gaijin:
I’ve been sick all week. Checked out a few things but I didn’t feel like commenting.
But I’m much better now!
@Baja Gaijin: NSBW (not safe because Wilbur) warning, please!
@Tom: Just another piece of evidence that suggests Moy has never interacted with anyone under the age of fifty.
@Sequitur: It LOOKS like C. Aubrey Smith, but it SOUNDS like Andy Devine….
Fred Basset Spanish to English.
@52 taig: THAT’S NOT WILBUR!
Don’t push Pluggers ’cause they’re close to the edge
MW: When Olive starts communicating with Dead Stellan, we’ll finally get the inside scoop on that enigma of representation, Sid, Agent to the Animal Stars!
@Baja Gaijin: It’s Wilbur in a wig, and you know it!
@Charterstoned: “I see dead fishies.”
JUDGE PARKER: Yeah, Josh, I don’t think you want to know what Neddy was originally “chowing down on”, before the editors demanded it be replaced by that comically-sized burger.
@47 Baja Gaijin:
Man, Neddy’s fingers sure got gnarly.
It’s a good thing this isn’t Six Chix. No telling what she’d do to that hamburger.
MW – “Especially Will Rogers. Christ, what an asshole!” — Doris Day (*disputed)
@59 taig: It’s Neddy in her own hair! Wilbur’s balding.
MW These morons worship their fucking dogs. They talk and think about literally nothing else. I refuse to believe that one of their fucking dogs doesn’t hear “good boy” enough.
@BigTed: I think the censors changed the pre-mastication scene from a brat to a hamburger.
On that note, in Crankshaft, I think Ed was trying to give the therapist his brat.
MW: on Kinky Tuesdays, Saul and Eve exchange their neckwear.
Pluggers:
Thesis: all Pluggers are zoomorphic Wilford Brimleys. Discuss.
MW:
“He’s trying to say to Eve, ‘Oh, Lourd, please don’t let me be misunderstood’ — which is something that the Animals often try to express!”
Pluggers – No one is surprised that pluggers don’t understand the distinction between a necessary condition and a sufficient one.
@Jay Brutus: That too.
Don Abundio, translated:
“This fish’s name is Inigo Montoya!”
“I killed its father!”
“Prepare to die!”
Slylock – Today’s mystery is an easy one. Next to the footprints, there was a third impression where the ostrich stuck its head in the ground. (Of course Slylock traffics in offensive ostrich stereotypes!)
MW: As if we didn’t have enough reason to hate Olive, she’s setting herself up as a pet psychic, truly one of the stupidest grifts in existence (what do you mean, my cat told you he loves his red feather toy? He doesn’t even know what red is; it’s not on his visible spectrum!).
Then again, maybe Olive’s just delusional and still hasn’t outgrown the phase where she believes she’s Fern in Charlotte’s Web and can hear what animals are saying if she just listens hard enough.
RMMD: Are Tijuana Bibles still a thing? If so, they’ve just been given a slow pitch over center plate.
Could AI produce an image like the throwaway panel of “Judge Parker”? Human artists are safe!
@Baja Gaijin: Not when he’s wearing a wig!
Olive is preparing to play the Quisling when the Animalapocalypse finally comes! Sorry, the only smartasses allowed to live are the vulpine ones!
@Peanut Gallery: No wonder he keeps that hand hidden. It’s got six fingers.
“And Greta is saying… no Greta, no! Don’t use that word! And stop quoting stats about Labradors’ IQ, I know you got them on X!”
“Undefined power set that includes omens of doom and speaking to animals” okay she’s not psychic, I know a viking myth when I see one. Keep her away from mistletoe, Mary!
Eve: “It’s cool that she can communicate with animals”
Saul: “Perhaps, but we shouldn’t believe all they say!”
Olive: “Mr Wynter, Greta is trying to tell something about you and peanut butter!”
@Charterstoned: re MW: Hey, great idea! Maybe we could get Stellan a reprise as Spirit Stellan thought-bubbling with Olive! That would be a real crowd-pleaser, as well as maybe give his moribund career a boost. I think he’d be up to it with a few medications – he’s been pretty down in the dumps lately after the Willa break-up.
And of course Olive is not *actually* communicating with the Animals – it’s just part of the script. They’re not *really* telling her anything about… anybody heh heh heh I’m pretty sure about that! She’s just a mediocre juvenile two-legger actor with no special powers or gifts… that would be ridiculous, wouldn’t it?
BCN: I’m impressed the mice have kept the tapestry this long without anybody chewing on it.
C’shaft; “No, that’s your grandfather’s and his therapist’s flesh cooking.”
DT: No, sorry, I mean I’m glad you’re on the whole women-standing-up-for-themselves kick but there’s no way this woman rejecting her creeper boss’ advances so forcefully wouldn’t end with him firing her and replacing her with someone who wouldn’t fight back.
Dustin: Okay, who switched this strip’s dialogue with Crankshaft?
Luann: If you’re going to have someone attempt to defend AI art, it probably shouldn’t be your pretentious hipster character who is exactly the sort of person who is more likely to create a series of works criticizing the impersonal, dehumanizing aspects of technology rather than embrace them as a medium.
MT: Jules, honey, if you’re going to go metric you have to include conversions; nobody cares enough about this strip to calculate them themselves.
RMMD: Sarah, you should know by now your parents are incapable of having fun anywhere
Oh, shit. I knew Saul dressed his dog like him, but did Eve always wear the same bandana as hers or has spending time in Saul’s condo exposed her to the same small carbon monoxide leak?
***
I’d be in pain down there too if I farted sharp five pointed stars.
***
Good for you, Neddy. Bite just the top bun on that burger. Don’t let anyone tell you how to live your life.
Bizarro: Nicely rendered Nancy! And got the three rocks! Because three rocks are funny.
DT: Nicely confusing the matters – now the MCU suspects the secretary actually killed her boss (opportunity, motive, no remorse, weak alibi – out of the office, no idea who mystery person was – if that person is actually real). Yep, it will take about 2 weeks to unravel this and by then LaKoyle labs has signed a Faustian bargain with Diet Smith Industries, closed down and vanished to go work on the zap zap gun project on the new secret moon base.
RMMD: Nice time skip.
@Tabby Lavalamp: Yeah, that’s the whole gimmick with Saul and Eve is that they’re soulmates purely because they both have coordinated neckwear with their pets. Because relationships are just shallow things.
Olive has no power to talk with animals, but she has the power to spout vague bullshit people will latch to because of narcissism. She could get rich in astrology and consultancy!
Pluggers have to touch their own ass because their spouses no longer find them sexy enough to touch their asses. That’s the real pain
@Baja Gaijin:
Forgive me as this may be my “Plugger” moment, but what does poteet mean? I stared at your imgur like it was a Bizarro Sunday strip looking for the alien, K2, O2, eyeball, fishtail, lit TNT, shoe, and it all seemed the same. Admittedly I usually don’t score well on the Slylock Fox find the 6 differences gags.