She’s flying AWAY from New York, she should be singing “California” by Phantom Planet
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Mary Worth, 9/9/25
Mary Worth’s use of bold font is … let’s say, unconventional, but I do think that Olive’s word balloon in the second panel being entirely boldfaced strongly suggests that she’s started belting out “New York, New York” at the top of her lungs, right? Fun fact: the song she’s singing here, which is performed in the 1944 musical On The Town by Gene Kelly, Jules Munshin, and Frank Sinatra, is called “New York, New York,” while the “start spreading the news” song is technically called “Theme from New York, New York,” and was originally sung by Liza Minelli in Martin Scorsese’s 1977 musical before Sinatra did a cover version that became iconic. Kinda weird, right? Where was I going with this? Oh, right: if I were on a plane and a child started loudly singing “New York, New York” (either of the two, frankly), I would attempt to open the emergency exit mid-flight so I could jump out and plummet to my blessed death.
Mother Goose and Grimm, 9/9/25
So, uh, Mother Goose is just kind of … standing around in the middle of the Y and, uh, swinging her interlocked fists around while wearing a bikini? And she’s judging the people doing yoga, who are, to be fair, three people standing so close as to be touching one another doing downward dog (?) without any kind of mats or anything? Not sure if anyone involved in the production of this comic has seen someone do yoga, or ever been to a gym, or watched videos of anyone exercising. I guess that “Twister” zinger was too hard to resist, though!
Archie, 9/9/25
Damn, I never had Dilton pegged as an Archie hater. Is he just doing it to appease Reggie? It’s sad when you see a man of science succumb to peer pressure like this.
134 replies to “She’s flying AWAY from New York, she should be singing “California” by Phantom Planet”
Mary Worth Mashups: A few missing panels; any of them seem apt?
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.
MW:
“Let me ask you a precognitive math question, Mary: if a 787 splits in half, does that make each half of the aircraft a 393.5?”
Is that the neck of Reggie’s flesh-colored t-shirt, or is he wearing a puka necklace?
MW: “Very nice of your parents to let me stay with you all…” People who vacation in a place long enough might pick up a smidge of an accent but a Southern accent…in New York City?
MW: Isn’t that William Shatner in the window seat behind Olive?
MW Gotta love Mary’s subtle assertion of herself as a true New Yorker. “I’m not just some tourist! It is a city that is familiar to me. Of course back in my day the city got familiar with you pretty quick. Yeah, after a gang of rats chases you into Sex World during a garbage strike, you get to know her pretty intimately…”
MGG I like this new kind fo yoga where you stand (crouch?) as close as possible to the person next to you. I guess this is ‘hot yoga’ when you don’t want to turn up the thermostat.
Archie “Also, they don’t seem to spend a lot of time with their eyes open, which probably helps his situation a lot.. “
MW: It could be worse. Mary and Olive could have been flying out of Chicago, with Olive belting out “The Windy City” from Calamity Jane, with an encore of “Whip-Crack-Away” from the same musical (which song she always heard on Tuesday nights emanating from Ed and Evy’s bedroom after they’d thought Olive was fast asleep).
MW: I kind of like the thought of Creepy Mary speaking with a broad Bronx accent.
MG&G: So, this the Humanoid/Avian class? Still doesn’t explain the staircase.
MW: On average, 99.9999% of transcontinental flight passengers do NOT want to sing show tunes. But, this being the Worthverse, everyone will happily join in and disembark in California the better for it.
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!”
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!”
Checking out Reggie’s necklace and zeroing in on when this strip was first published, and man, go easy on them, Reggie. Maybe Veronica just wants a little comfort; you’re all coping with the events of 9/11 in your own way.
MG&G: Hey, conjoined triplets especially need to work on their fitness and flexibility. They don’t need your wry bon mots, MG.
MW:
I would attempt to open the emergency exit mid-flight so I could jump out and plummet to my blessed death.
A data bit turns from 0 to 1 in a government server located deep within the Pentagon fed with info from Palantir Technologies and Josh finds himself on the no-fly list.
Bizarro : Which french swear words? European or North American? Because I wanna know if you’re going to ruin
Tales of the Crypt : Bordello of Blood
(more like Bordel de merde, am I right?)or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to these people.*************
Dustin : DustinDad whines about how his wife’s gross health food cuts his appetite and he’s forced to eat less, after we’ve been shown repeatedly that he always finds a way to toss said food in the garbage so he can eat a double portion of the junk food he likes.
DustinDad is a whiny liar who fishes for sympathy, is what I’m saying.
**************
Hi & Lois : Suicidal ideation!? Man, Hi & Lois is laying the “Anti-joy sentiment” thick today!
**************
Luann : I’m hoping that Bernice’s comment about how this HAS to be a dream/nightmare turns out to be correct by saturday, otherwise, instead of viewing Alan as a precocious genius, I personally am getting the impression that it turns out Bernice’s Moony U. classes are just as much of a sham as Luann’s community college classes.
**************
Mary Worth : I only know of this song because Bart Simpson briefly parodies it in that episode where he gets drunk from drinking a Squish-ee at the Kwik-E-Mart… an episode that first aired 31 YEARS AGO!? And it’s the episode that ends with Bart and Homer ending up on a Krusty Burger set up aboard an abandoned oilrig while Ernest Borgnine and the rest of the scout troup end up eaten by a werewolf? (Man, it’s wild how much the first act of a Simpsons episode tends to be disconnected from the ending, huh?)
*************
Mother Goose and Grimm : Nah, still not as horrifying as Jeremy from Zits’ mom doing Zumba. For starters, Mother Goose is not grotesque jiggling in an unnatural manner.
*************
Slylock Fox : EXTRA DIFFERENCE : In the image on the left, the girl is telling on the boy. In the image on the right, the girl is telling on the dog.
DT: At least Mr. Leda had a chance to rip all of Tess LaKoyle’s clothes off before she death-rayed him to death with her death ray.
FC: My dreamboat Viscount Korro of Frigia is featured in panel two! I can’t decide whether he’s based on Rupert of Hentzau, or the Tony Curtis character from The Great Race (1965). Either way, he will be the very last one to get a pie in the face.
6Chx: Joke! There’s a — kind of a JOKE today! Hang on, is that an orangeade dispenser behind Bianca? Is she drinking a stein of….orangeade?
I am very disappointed in Archie going back on its well established characterization for a cheap joke. Dilton is exactly the kind of guy who would insist that “perfect” is an absolute term that can’t be modified by “more”!
MW: I hope we get the full 5 hour flight, as Olive just goes deeper and deeper into “Noo Yawhk, Greatest City in da Wuhld!” mania. By the time they’re over the Rockies and Olive’s explaining bodegas and how no other city has invented the idea of a small grocery store, even Mary will realise she’s bitten off more than she can chew.
MG&G: There’s a trend on social media at the moment for artists to do unfunny sex-adjacent comics with no real punchline about scantily clad women at the gym or the beach, with an explicit 4th panel that you need to pay for. If Mother Goose & Grimm has discovered the concept of “NSFW on Patreon”, humanity is doomed.
Anyway Reggie has confirmed that Veronica is the being containing all perfections from Descartes’s ontological argument, so that’s that settled.
Pluggers: Pluggers are medically decrepit meatsacks kept alive by Big Pharma # 3595.
JP: Hey, Alan. You want some coffee to go with that cup of sugar?
MW: Isn’t the correct lyric ” Harlem’s up and the Battery’s down”?
@Dan:.I didn’t even notice the necklace. Shifty Shellshock: The Early Years.
Cultural sensitivity much, Mother Goose and Grimm? I get that it’s the Young Men’s Christian Association, but that’s no reason to judge people making salaat, even if their sujud doesn’t have seven bones on the ground.
@Schroduck: @Dan: Aw, it’s just the top of a disturbingly flesh-colored tshirt.
Edit: Whoops, looks like Pozzo beat me to that joke.
Don’t worry, Olive just breaks out into that song anywhere she goes. It’s because one of her past selves was in that movie, and not at all because she’s insufferable and insane.
Thank you, Mother Goose and Grimm. I wasn’t using that breakfast, anyway.
Also Mother Goose and Grimm: The worst thing here isn’t the putative joke or the people doing downward dog, or that there’s a dog in the Y (gosh, that’s a lot of worst things), but Mother Goose’s Iggy Pop-style ropy abdominal skin (feathers?).
Mary Worth:
New York City is a bold place to be
when you’re out of mind, Mary-style
running mild, Mary-style…
Perhaps Veronica admires Archie’s ability to hold an object (Seriously, a book? Stack of papers? Sheet of marble?) and scratch his privates simultaneously, while making it look so damned EFFORTLESS.
@Schroduck: re: MW: And by the time they hit the California border, Olive will be saying “Is there NOWHERE to get a decent pastrami sandwich in this town?” and “Christ, they call this a bagel???”
MW: Man, if only there were a more recent song, perhaps performed by an artist who is extremely popular especially with Olive’s demographic, that celebrates New York City. Oh well.
(…Then again, Tay-Tay’s “Welcome to New York” dropped in 2014, which apparently was the same year as the most recent On the Town revival on Broadway? Maybe Olive is just a music theatre nerd.)
MW: Singing inappropriately loud in a public place combined with all her other impulsive acts, is Olive supposed to be on the spectrum? Makes her a more sympathetic character.
MG&G: 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.
FG The melee seems to be taking out competitors at an alarming clip, with bodies flying everywhere. Unless it’s a known thing that the last few standing go into a drawn-out stalk-your-opponents mode*, this could be over in minutes so those negotiations with Frigia had better be fast
*OK, it could be that Flash, Bok, and Arane figure on knocking out everyone else and then doing this drawn-out bit with just themselves, effectively putting on a show for the arena. But if this isn’t The Way It’s Done, I’d expect trouble from the bloodthirsty crowd…
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.
JP: The answers to your questions, Judgey Wudgey, are ‘No’ and ‘No’. Conversation over? Please??
@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…’
MW – The battery is way down – 2%….
MG&G – This reminds me of me of our government. The American people prepare themselves for the Congress of the cow….
Archie – And your baby dick is so adorable, Reggie. Just like your mommy always says….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
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.
***
Dilton is an incel who’s seething that Archie isn’t dating his “looksmatch”.
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?
DT: Tracy spends the next three weeks going down Leda’s client list and asking them if any of them have a lime green jacket. When everyone answers in the negative he’ll assume the case has reached a dead end, until Dr. Lakyole kills again. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Dustin: Maybe Dustdad wouldn’t be so cranky if he ate a vegetable every once in a while. His gut microbiome must be a Max Max-style wasteland.
GT: I assume Valley Tech and Milford are in the same district; why is there such a wild disparity in funding?
JP: “I mean sure, I spent all day at the courthouse and all evening ignoring them, but my occasional physical presence must have counted for something…”
Luann: Clan Evans is seeking to outdo Mary Worth in the “creepy relationships with kids” category…
@Hibbleton @The Quiet Man: The whole Belle story should have been an example of how Moy finds anyone who has some sort of mental health issues to be constantly unstable and even a danger to others as well as a source of mockery. Except that most people with said issues are actually victims rather than antagonists.
@Charterstoned: MW: Isn’t that William Shatner in the window seat behind Olive?
“There’s something in the cabin! And it’s singing!”
Archie-Archie is hung.
MW-“Even though it’s a familiar town for me.” And how often do you jaunt on over to New York, Mary?
Mother Goose and Grimm-This is one of those times when it’s not fun to be at the YMCA.
MW: It’s been a long time since I’ve seen On the Town ( a co-worker had won a small role in the chorus) but as I recall, the lyric is “it’s a HELL of a town.”
I like to imagine Olive belting out THAT version.
Mother Goose and Grimm: The more I look at those two panels, the more confused I get. Where are they? A big room with stairs? Why is synchronized toe-touching “yoga?” Is MG a dom? So many questions!
@Liam: More proof that Mary is an Old One in the guise of a meddling old biddy.
@TheDiva:
Well, Valley Tech actually won the boat race last summer that decided which school got the gleaming new indoor stadium, and, as the loser, Gil had to lead a grand regatta in their honor, and….dammit, I was trying to be asinine, and that’s STILL better than anything that’s happened in Gil Thorp. At least since the tattoo parlor illegal/legal DVD store.
If you think today’s Mother Goose and Grimm is terrifying, just imagine what it was like before the censors crudely added a bikini to the titular goose. On second thought, don’t imagine that; most of you are good people, and I don’t want to be responsible for your therapy bills.
MW-“That’s shame that Windows on the World was closed. I wanted to take you there, Olive.”
It’s a
terriblegood thing that this flight doesn’t provide pillows or someone is going to try smothering Olive before she recites the complete works of Gilbert and Sullivan.MW-They should have saved this scene for a few days later.
Best Garfield ever?
Just wanted to put in the good word for The Legend of Bill, which, in the course of a meandering, never-ending story, had its bumbling barbarian main character teleport himself (just go with it) into a series of comic strips:
Intelligent Life
Snuffy Smith
Beetle Bailey
Curtis
I wish Reddick would just get to it with this story, already, but nice work.
As for MW, I’m New York born-and-bred, but my initial, gut reaction to today’s strip was “Oh, shut the F up, kid!” What teen in 2025 would even know that song, much less belt it out in a crowded airplane? The pilot should arrange for a flight disturbance arrest when they land.
@TheDiva: Olive being a theater kid would fit her rather melodramatic persona.
Interesting how Olive’s paranormal powers apparently frighten the cloud faces away.
Archie: Reginald’s suffers from Dagwood Neck Ring Disorder. Hopefully they’ll find a cure before it mutates into Bumstead Big Sandwich Syndrome.
VDLM2 Message From: N752KF / UA106
Message: DIVERT TO ORD, PLS MEET AT GATE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT, MEDICAL, PSYCH. FEMALE PASSENGER IN 26A WILL NOT STOP SINGING SHOW TUNES. F/A IS CONCERNED SHE’LL START WITH LLOYD WEBBER SOON AND REMAINING PASSENGERS WILL GET VIOLENT.
MW — Kids, I’m old enough to remember when a week-long getaway was called a “vacation” and not a “mini-vacation.” True story!
As nonsensical and annoying as Olive’s rendition of New York songs is, I would much prefer that to her breaking into Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” or the Beach Boys “I Wish They All Could Be California Girls” or anything by the Eagles.
@Baja Gaijin: The last one is perfect and sadly so true today in many shared public places.
@But What Do I Know?: Those songs are too recent for the Moybot who still has yet to realize that segregation laws are no longer in effect.
MW:
“This dame is in love with New York all the time/
The dirt and the filth, air pollution and crime!”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Ana, I bought out a whole flower shop and sent everything to you”
“Aren’t you impressed?”
“Sure, Don Abundio, but it seems kind of mean”
“Some old lady’s funeral wreath is in here!”
Maybe Archie minds his own business? Maybe he likes being with Veronica for herself as opposed to leveraging her in some weird angry oneupmanship game with his peers? Maybe he likes to celebrate his friends’ successes and that makes him fun to be around? Some possibilities off the top of my head Reggie.
MW: So many thoughts come to mind (1) Now we now that the designation of weirdo is well deserved, and (2) Olive doesn’t care about the other passengers because “hey, I’m singing here.”
DT: Her shirt sleeve got ripped? What was Tess wearing? A tear away jersey?
FG: Some one needs to tell the contestants to slow down – the show has to last a least one day. At this pace, they’ll be done in a few hours top.
JP: The evidence is overwhelming judge. Just plead to being incompetent and throw yourself on the mercy of the readership.
RMMD: Bandmates: Again, with the heart attacks?!
GT: That is one fine indoor practice facility worthy of a NFL team. A high school stadium is possible, but rare. BUT this begs the natural question. If the area has enough wealthy supporters to fund a stadium like this, why is Milford selling frybread and others stuff for fund raising? If VT has that sort of funding advantage, how do they ever lose to Milford!
Mary Worth – I get that being a cartoonist means you can set your own schedule and you can work ahead and bank plenty of strips, but for most of the people reading this being able to casually take “a week or two” off to fly across the country is not a “mini-vacation”, it’s just the best vacation they could hope for (except for the part about staying with Mary).
Mother Goose and Grimm – My guess was Mother Goose’s Day was the 1970s, they played strip Twister, and it was a hedonistic time. The same gym that lets her wear a bikini to work out probably has looser rules than your local Gold’s or Planet Fitness, but today’s gym goers are less sexually promiscuous than Mother’s Goose’s generation
Archie – What Veronica likes about Archie is that he doesn’t put her on a pedestal and expect perfection at all times.
@But What Do I Know?: I hate the fuckin’ Eagles, man!
@TheDiva:
Milford used to be the school on the “good side” of the railroad tracks, river, etc. That is why Gil belongs to a local country club. BUT VT is near where the nouveau riche tech money is located – therefore they have ipads, indoor stadia, and don’t need to see frybread to fund raise; someone just cuts a check.
MW:
Start spreading the news
I’m leaving today
Don’t want to be a part of it, New York, New York
These tagalong views are longing to prey
Right through the “Mary” part of it, New York, New York
I wanna vape up in a city that doesn’t sweep
And find I’m Queen of the Hill, top of the cheap
These brittle town views are belting away
I’ll fake a brand new part of it, New York, New York
If I can fake it there, I’ll fake it anywhere
It’s tough to spew “New York, New York”
[bridge]
New York, New York
I want to vape up in a city that never sweeps
And find I’m a dumber one,
Top of the hissed,
Queen of the Hill, a umber one
These brittle town views are belting away
I’m gonna fake a brand new part of it, New York, New York
And if I can fake it there, I can fake it anywhere
It’s tough to spew “New York, New York”
New York!
@Voshkod: I mean, even furries who would otherwise be into that sort of thing, wouldn’t.
Because Mother Goose is what…? 90?
She’s OLD and GRODY
@But What Do I Know?: Except for “Hotel California.” I hear the first few notes of “Hotel California” and Olive gets free flying lessons.
I was sadly mistaken about the Archieverse. If I had to guess at which male character was most likely to be mired in toxic inceldom, I would have guessed Dilton and not Reggie.
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.
Olive’s choice of song reveals that she’s a musical theater nerd. Similar to the Project Elrond scene in The Martian where the NASA director wants his code name to be Glorfindel, a character that wasn’t in the Peter Jackson movies.
I mistook Mother Goose’s yoga get-up for some kind of bondage apparel.
MW: It’s a helluva town, Olive. You’re singing the version for six-year-olds. I deserve Olive Bowdlerizing “On The Town” because I mentioned “Chess” the other day.
But if you want Leonard Bernstein,
? Why, oh why, oh
Don’t you crash in Ohio? ?
Luann: Annnd I forgot who Alan is. He won’t be an appropriate age for Bernice until his mid 20s.
Lockhorns: Hey, that’s a nice Gil Thorp-looking tennis court.
Beetle Bailey welcomes Charlie Brown into the ranks. Finally, Zero has someone to look down on.
Blondie: Cookie and Zach don’t do any hugging and kissing. Otherwise what kind of shibaru domme would she be?
MW: Just trying to imagine the “Travel & Leisure” listicle, “19 Can’t-Miss Activities in Santa Royale.”
Mother Goose: The artist seems to be under the impression that people wear kinky lingerie while doing yoga.
Archie: I was gonna make a joke suggesting that the actual reason Veronica is with Archie is because the sex is fantastic, but than I remembered this is a newspaper comic, a medium so conservative and devoid of sex that humans in its universes probably reproduce through parthenogenesis. So I guess the actual reason is that he makes her laugh.
MW: Stop trying to make “mini-vacation” happen, Moy. It’s not going to happen.
@Tonio: I mean even Jessica Rabbit was a human (the most overly sexualized human in all of animation, mind) but then again, that was part of the joke.
@Baja Gaijin: Could you mashup one with Mary being arrested for interstate transport of a minor without the required notarized paperwork?
@Professor Well Actually: Mary is the kind of person who spends five days in New York and comes back with a Bronx accent. Thank goodness she doesn’t visit other countries.
I feel like I’ve seen that MG&G scene in a Fosse number. Gwen Verdon swinging her fists back and forth while the chorus does whatever that is across the stage behind her.
@77 Ken: I wish I had artwork for that.
@Rita Lake: Yes, it is. You beat me to it–good job.
@TheDiva: Maybe Olive is just a music theatre nerd.
So you’re saying the mean girls were right all along?
MW-Sadly Olive’s GIFTS fail to warn her that the plane will be hijacked.
MW: And while I’m complaining about it, in what world does one to two weeks in another state constitute a mini-vacation?
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.
@treetown: FG Hours? With *roughly* pairing off, you scarcely need to whack 5 opponents to reach the end (50 > 25 > 12 > 6 > 3 > 2?1?) and they seem to be skewering each other in seconds. If the top, say, 10, aren’t so much better/evenly skilled than these “one slice and you’re out” matches, they’ll be done in minutes.
Alright, serious question: who drew the humans in today’s MG&G? The lineart is in a completely different style.
@Maude R. Fawker:
(Chris Hanson enters)
Olive is fourteen years old. So, why don’t you take a seat right there?
@Lauralot: I’m with you on this – even one week isn’t some mini getaway! Mini breaks would be something like a long weekend, or two days taken out of the week.
@Rita Lake: Wikipedia says it’s “helluva” in the play; “wonderful” in the movie.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Can you picture Mary Worth visiting Rome? I bet she talks English real loud at the locals, using a Chico Marx accent so they can understand her better when she orders her tootsie-frootisie gelato.
@91 Ukulele Ike: And griping loudly because they don’t serve unlimited salad and breadsticks with their dinners.
@Amelie Wikström: It’s clearly the fact that he’s dating her best friend! Chicks always find that hot, right? Get with the program, Reggie!
@Anonymous: Thank god for the Motion Picture Code keeping words like “hell” out of the delicate shell-like ears of the American populace, all those Chicagoans and Brooklynites and truck drivers and lumberjacks up in the north woods.
You know how hard Selznick had to fight the Hollywood censors to keep “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn” in Gone With the Wind?
@2+2=7: Cut out the middleman, girls!
Gee, I wonder if you Googled “Veronica Betty lesbian sex” you’d get a couple of hits?
MW: I am thinking of the episode of The Simpsons where Rosie O’Donnell sings “Clang Clang Clang goes the trolley” while the spaceship heads into the sun.
I need to immediately think up a fake reason for why I’m into to the Furry community, because there ain’t no way I’m telling anyone I had an awakening after reading today’s Mother Goose and Grimm.
Today’s MG&G reads extremely as if the creative team *just* found out about yoga in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty-five.
LUANN: Congrats to everyone who called out Alan’s identity. Like Elvez of yore, kid is going to need someone to teach him social skills. Is Bee really the best pick? Sure, it’ll bring her closer to Piro, but at what cost!
@Needless Exposition: @34 When Wilbur, The King of Endearing Quirks, meets Olive, he will plot for her to stay as his own true daughter, and for Dawn to be shipped to New York. What a merry misrule that will be!
Springfield, Springfield,
It’s a helluva town!
The schoolyard’s up
And the shopping mall’s down
The stray dogs go
To the animal pound!
Bart: Springfield, Springfield…
Milhouse: Springfield, Springfield…
Sailor:New York, New York…
Bart:New York is that away, man!
Sailor:Thanks, kid!
Bart & Milhouse:It’s a hell of a town!
@99 Activist: Oh gad. Alan’s gonna be all cow eyes for Bernice. She, with her extensive psychological training and world known empathy, will totally screw up his emotional health so badly even Olive “Tummy Brain” Taylor can’t fix him.
Mother Goose and Grimm: So Ma Goose’s “day” was 5000-3000 BC, when yoga-like practices were first cultivated by the Indus-Sarasvati civilization of northern India. Of course, that makes sense — it was probably around that time when people started telling their children fairly tales, albeit far more bloody and disgusting ones than the Disney-altered stories we know today (“grim,” indeed).
Mary Worth: I think “L.A. Is My Lady,” which a 70-year-old Sinatra (along with Quincy Jones!”) tried to get accepted as Los Angeles’ theme song, would be more Mary’s style. Although I’d like to think a worldly dame like her would prefer Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” which is pepper and far more biting (with lyrics like “look at that bum over there, he’s down on his knees!”). There are a couple of lesser-known songs mentioning Santa Barbara (aka Santa Royale), but none so catchy as, say, Kay Kyser’s “When Veronica Plays the Harmonica Down on the Beach in Santa Monica.”
LUANN: So, um…Bernice is actually doing some kind of work study program for her psych major where she volunteers at an elementary school for the “slow” kids (Luann just aged out of it) that is being branded as “gifted” to not damage self-esteem and to avoid lawsuits, right? That premise may sound ridiculous but it would certainly make more sense than this being a real university-level class.)
LUANN (2): I’m also disappointed that we wasted all this time on Luann summer job (fortunately she quit so it wouldn’t get in the way of all the classes she wasn’t attending and homework she wasn’t doing) when we could have spent that time on seeing Piro’s family winning the lottery (which I assume is how the brother is able to afford a better college that Piro, who had to quit to take care of the family. I bet that made him feel special, sacrificing his dreams so his brother can have opportunities to flirt awkwardly with Bernice.)
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.
@105 astroboy: I don’t think Mary could sound like even more of a creepy groomer unless she told Olive’s parents she’s gonna fcuk their daughter. Ed and Evy could care less, of course.
MW: TWO SECONDS LATER…half the passengers including the pilot give Olive a Bronx cheer.
MG&G: Shouldn’t she be at the OBCA, The Old Bird Christian Association?
William Shatner sees Mary and goes nuts, “There’s a gremlin on this plane!” Apologies if someone else made that easy joke already.
Ukranazi Stepan: At least once a week you piss and moan about Questionable Content, but you have to admit today is pretty damn great.
Note to self: Work the sentence “oh wow, there is a lot of porn of that” into every possible conversation today
@Ukulele Ike: Let us know how that works out when someone asks you about your family.
Tonight on a very special episode of What A Frazzhole!: “Paul McCartney wrote, ‘ She was just seventeen/you know what I mean’…but I don’t know,what did he mean, Frazzhole?” “Something about creepy old people hanging around with young people,I guess, it was the 60’s, times were different.”
@Anonymous: Ah, well. I’ve only ever seen the Simpsons parody. Is Olive too young for the Simpsons?
@111 Ukulele Ike: “Oh wow, there is a lot of porn of that,” is what the Geek Squad geek said while fixing Wilbur Weston’s computer.
@BigTed: Indeed, the oldest surviving fables in the west have been traced back to the formation of the Proto-Indo-European root language, 6 or 7000 years ago or more. There’s a theory we developed complex language primarily in order to tell stories. After we got tired of playing Twister, obviously.
Luann: Universities are well known for their “exceptionally gifted” programs, and this strip is not being written as if Greg Evans swapped out “junior high” for “college.” I suggest watching Real Genius for some advice.
The Familliar Mucus: “Mommy! I found P.J.’s right arm! It was in this junk drawer!Where’s the Krazy Glue™?”
Archie: Based on Reggie’s candy necklace, I can only assume that this strip originally dates from the early 90s, when he was really into the rave scene.
@Baja Gaijin: @111 Ukulele Ike: “Oh wow, there is a lot of porn of that,” is what the Geek Squad geek said while fixing Wilbur Weston’s computer.
______________________________________
OF that, or IN that?
@120 GarrisonSkunk: OF that. I’ll let your imagination imagine what “that” is because my mind is on the verge of hysterical blindness just talking about “that.”
MARY WORTH: Everyone is so focused on Olive doing Rachel Berry cosplay, that we’re missing the Real Hero of the story, Mary Worth, humblebrag once again about how she finds New York “acceptable” enough even though it’s “old hat” to someone as worldly and sophisticated and cosmopolitan as her (who, we recall, hasn’t been to New York since the last Olive story, in the pre-June-Brigman-facelift era, 10 years ago. Obviously to such a “regular visitor”, NYC can become a bit “been there, done that”, no?”)
@Rita Lake: MW: It could be argued that if Olive had seen “On The Town”, it probably would have been the 1949 Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra film, where they do indeed sing “It’s a wonderful town”.
Then again, her parents may have taken her to see a revival of the musical. In which case, It could be argued that if Karen Moy had seen “On The Town”, it probably would have been the 1949 Gene Kelly & Frank Sinatra film, where they do indeed sing “It’s a wonderful town”!
In any event, I find it criminal that Olive didn’t sing “The people ride in a hole in the ground”, a line both highly evocative and vaguely smarmy at the same time!
PHANTOM What, no Wham?
@123 Dennis J Gormley: on Phantom: No, Andrew Ridgeley left between last strip and this.
@astroboy: I don’t think Mary really has to go to such lengths to “convince” the parents to let their “spiritually-inclined” brat go away with her. I’m honestly surprised the mom wasn’t already packing her bag before Olive and Mary got the question out while “Dad” called around, informing his pals that he found an excellent location for that month’s swinger party. Our Gal wasn’t really twisting their arms there.
@Baja Gaijin: Who would have more food porn on his computer? Willburp Weston or Dagwood Bumstead?
I imagine Olive saw the claymation short of Ed Kotch singing the song.
@jnoble: Olive is fourteen years old. So, why don’t you take a seat right there?
Hey. I’m not the one drawing a smutty cartoon.
That was supposed to be me, of course.
Today I learned that the first few lines of the “Hello Brooklyn” section of “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” is adapted from an old showtune, and I also learned that like 100 commenters on Comics Curmudgeon are more familiar with 1930s musicals than with Paul’s Boutique. Sad.
But Olive gets it, and from now on I’m going to read the random bold words in Mary Worth in the style of the Beastie Boys ,eg “A lot of BEER, a lot of GIRLS and a LOT OF CURSIN’ / TWENTY two AUTOmatic ON my PERSON”
REX MORGAN M.D: (checks out the guy on the far left in panel #1): Hey, it looks like we found Truck’s real son after all (too bad it looks like he inherited all of his “grizzled” genes, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.)
REX MORGAN M.D. (2): “Dude, what did you do?” Did you travel back in time to form a shitty band while refusing to update your hairstyle in the slightest like Parker, Corey annoying “non-binary” friend’s future self?
@Liam: Her tummy-brain is telling her to take the kosher meal….
RMMD- So Rex hasn’t appeared in his own strip in like going on 4 months now. Is that a mini vacation?
@126 GarrisonSkunk: That’s a question for the philosophers, not a baka gaijin like me.
@132 Dennis Jimenez: Olive’s tummy-brain is Jewish?
@133 Anonymous: Rex not appearing in his eponymous strip is a maxi vacation…for us, the readers.