The disturbing reason for the season
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Crock, 12/21/25
I kind of like the worldbuilding in today’s Crock, which implies that Magi simply spontaneously generate in desert climes, and can be instinctively attracted to your location by any large star-shaped object. I feel less affection for the final panel, though. Look at those faces: our heroes from the legion are definitely going to kill the Magi, right? Kill them, and possibly eat them?
Dennis the Menace, 12/21/25
This young woman’s “What are you doing here?” is a wholly appropriate expression of surprise. If Dennis’s parents allow him to just roam the neighborhood unsupervised, why do they bother to hire babysitters at all?
Mary Worth, 12/21/25
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And I will definitely set a woman’s parrot against her husband. I cannot emphasize enough that I did not come to bring peace to the households of woman-man-parrot triads. Please do not use the occasion of my birth to give others false hope that parrots and husbands can live in harmony with one another, because they very much cannot.”
45 replies to “The disturbing reason for the season”
Crankshaft Mashups: Ever want to see a cardinal act like a parrot? Inspired by commenter treetown yesterday…which of the three linked panels do you like best?
Mary Worth Mashup: How about a different final panel?
“If I were you I’d find another girlfriend. She’s way too bossy”
Skeletor meme: “Joke’s on you I’m into that shit!”
“If I were you” instead of “If I was you”, because he’s a menace, but not to proper grammar!
Crock-They should have followed the grail shaped light to Castle Anthrax instead.
FC-While Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips.
MW-“It helps to talk about what’s on your mind.” It gives Mary blackmail material.
RMMD-“Well that’s enough reminiscing. Our readers nowadays can’t handle the multi-sentence panels that they used to do.”
Slylock Fox-“Round up the usual suspects,” Slylock declares.
MW-Toby has a fantasy of walking in on Ian and Sunny in bed together having a post-coital cigarette.
DtM: The Mitchells have installed a park style bench in front of their house so Dennis can harangue people without having to roam the neighborhood.
DTM: I’m glad this strip came out just as the Christmas vacation arrived, because I’m going need to spend the entire next week working out what the hell this joke has to do with the phrase “voice activated”.
Crock: The Biblical narrative says that the Magi arrived at Herod’s palace and blabbed about the baby Jesus, king of kings, leading the jealous Herod to kill all the children in his kingdom. I’m not saying Crock is going to do the same thing, but if any funny page character would recreate the Massacre of the Innocents, it’d be Vermin P. Crock, right?
Dennis the Menace: Check out this young woman’s unhappy body language: arms crossed in front of her, legs crossed away from the young man. I think Dennis actually convinced her boyfriend to break up with her just in time to deny her the pleasure of breaking up with him — which is pretty darn menacing, if you ask me!
Mary Worth:
— “It’s just terrible, Mary — Ian and Sunny have been fighting!”
— “Well, it’s not really an equal fight, is it? One of them is a dumb creature who talks a lot, but doesn’t really say anything.”
— “Yes, I guess that’s true.”
— “…And the other one is a bird!”
Hi and Lois: So what will baby Trixie encounter today as she crawls around the house unsupervised? A box of breakable glass Christmas ornaments, a fireplace (lucky there’s no fire going, at least not this time!), a hot stove, and loud music blasting from an amplifier. Luckily, her mom will finally pay some attention to her just in time to comfort her existential sadness, which stems from an understanding of time’s passing that’s far beyond her years. Anyhow, if this infant gets through the four days till Christmas uninjured, it’ll be a win for everyone!
@Baja Gaijin:
Cranky’s axx being flamed, of course.
MW: TIL Robert Frost threw parties honoring Bob Hope, Hope Lange, Hope Emerson, Hope Andrade, and the like.
Sunny (last panel thought balloon):
“Christmas spirit? I’ll show the pompous axx Christmas spirit! Three Christmas spirits in fact! Squawk! Chirp! Ha ha ha!”
@Ettorre:
Subjunctive mood is very menacing!
MW: Sunny eavesdropping, to see if there’s a plot afoot. When he hears Mary blathering her usual generic drivel, he knows that his triumph will be swift and effortless.
CROCK: They’re not hungry, they’re just dying for myrrh oil massages.
DtM: Dennis, the master of embarrassing revelations, has just phoned this one in.
Crock Ha, it’s funny because Crock is pretending to be the Messiah for his own nefarious purposes, which I guess makes him the Antichrist? Personally I think Satan could have done better, but who am I to judge his wicked ways..
DtM: Jeez, once again this week it seems like Dennis is biting Calvin’s bits. If he starts assuming a spaceman persona next week, the jig is really up.
MW: Aside from the complete non-solution (“Don’t give up!”), I love that Mary’s biggest insight into Toby’s conflict is to ‘consider’ her husband. I’m not sure if she means that Toby should really think about his perspective, or just consider who he is, what he means to her, and if she honestly might not be better off with a non-human companion who just screeches back her own words to her.
DtM:
“Besides, Mister, you don’t have rosacea like everyone else in this strip does, so you don’t belong here, anyway!”
Mary Worth:
“It helps to talk about what’s on your mind…although in your case, that would be what is known in mathematics as ‘the null set‘ !”
Chix (sic): Just in time for Xmas, Patrinos has a corpse rotting in bed as a punch line.
Mary Worth:
“My older brother Jack is probably better loved by the masses, even though he’s fond of ‘nipping at your nose’ at this time of year!”
— Robert Frost
MW: So far not a hint of “you own a birdcage, right?” from Mary, though in all honesty I’m not expecting it.
MW Toby’s I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas! is well matched to Mary’s top-notch advising skills, which don’t involve asking anything about steps taken or options to try – forget whether or not there is such a thing as pet behaviour training for birds, has Toby even once considered closing the dang birdcage door??!
CS: I have a dead cardinal we can use as a tree topper.
Mary Worth:
“Now, don’t be holding Sunny in too close a proximity to your inner abdominal wall, Toby. You might end up with parrotinitis!”
@Baja Gaijin: I like your MW mashup, though now that I’ve noticed Sunny is listening to the phone conversation, I’m horribly convinced that this is going to end on Thursday with Sunny chirping “it’s in the Christmas spirit to have hope” and melting Ian’s grinchy heart.
Daddy Daze: “Today, I will hold the reader’s scant interest by drawing a different chair in each panel. Ta da!”
@1 Baja Gaijin:
Ah, a true mashup! Because today’s Crankshaft looks like this.
I was wondering how you would work the cardinal into that.
Sunday has come and so has JUNGLE JIM!
Today’s episode shows yet another way smoking can kill you.
Crock:
“Behold! It’s the Friendly Ghost, a copper alloy in a box that someone is carrying, and Romeo’s manservant in Romeo and Juliet!”
“No. Don’t say it, Watchman!”
“Yep. Casper, Melchior and Balthasar!”
“What a Crock that is!”
New Tricks has a comic just for Baja!
DtM: In the first panel of the second row, I thought at first that the tree (?) behind the boyfriend was an indication that Dennis was whapping him repeatedly on the back of his head to get his attention. That would have earned him the “Menace” designation; now he’s more “Dennis the Nuisance.”
@CanuckDownSouth: “has Toby even once considered closing the dang birdcage door??!”
Oh, sure. But how is she going to get Ian squeezed n there?
@Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women: Hey, it’s supposedly a top-of-the-line extra-large one… (-:
DtM: Girl, you’re no Rosalyn.
Whoops apologies to pugfuggly@14 for the oversnark! I searched for Rosalyn’s name but that didn’t turn it up.
FC: Much like Nast, Dickens, and Moore invented modern Christmas, as more and more AI bots scour the internet for data, Dolly’s Xmas tale will become an established part of the holiday canon.
MW: “Live together in peace” until death; Toby knowing the parrot will outlive Ian, this is her dream.
@Sequitur: Ten days ago I suggested that “Hey, it works for politicians” could replace “Christ, what an asshole” as an all-purpose New Yorker cartoon caption. It certainly makes more sense than that one.
Crock and company are posed like the magi come bearing gold, silver, and bronze.
MW: “I always entertain great dopes.” – Sunny the parrot.
Comics Worth Reading
– PLUGGERS: Re-upping after 50– the service continues
– CURTIS: Sometimes it IS the thought that counts.
– JP: remember when so many disliked Char and her stoicism? Turns out she was just miserable.
6Cx: Brilliant portrayal of original observation
TINAS GROOVE: Really, this must happen all the time.
And Others:
LUANN: Yikes! But then, why is Toni dressing in front of an uncovered first-floor window?
FG: real question: should Flash have killed Wolfang in the arena when he had the chance?
JUMP START: Life lesson: its not a lack of memory, it’s a lack of focus
PHANTOM: And how is Kurt Bauer going to explain the two dead bodies and the gold in the plane? Question is, is confinement in Psych Ward better than jail time?
PV: Aleta sure is sure about herself.
DtM: Dennis sprouts out of the ground, delivers his toxic message to George and the would-be Mrs Bailey, and then disappears into the ether. “Bedford Falls, I think not. Heh, heh.”
DtM – I’m trying to parse Dennis’ expression in the penultimate panel. He’s either thinking “my work here is done” or “maybe I crossed a line here. I just gave someone unsolicited relationship advice. Who do I think I am, Mary Worth?”
Crock’s ancient!
Dennis: He’s completely unsupervised. He’s by himself wandering around and won’t be around when his parents get home. They trusted her.
@Bob Tice: #18 MW- Let’s not forget his other brother, David, and his revealing interview with Richard Nixon.
Mary Worth: I’ll be real for a moment. A couple of years ago, I found an abandoned domestic rabbit. I thought I was finding a home for him when I picked him up, thought he’d never be able to coexist with my dim-witted-but-lovable pitbull. Welp, he’s been an important part of our family ever since, and the dog got over his reservations quickly and now accepts the 4 1/2 lb. bunny as an authority figure.
It’s all about roles. Once Ian recognizes that Sunny is the husband, Toby is the pet, and he’s the weirdo who drops by in between academic conferences, they’ll all get along swimmingly!
Hägar the Horrible: As soon as Santa and Honi are out of sight, Hägar is totally eating that injured reindeer. Not even cooking it, just nom nom nom BURP!
MW: Well, hope IS the thing with feathers.
HTH: Some of those deliveries might be … delayed.