TGI … F? Are we still allowed to say that?
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Intelligent Life, 4/24/26
You could use Intelligent Life to do a whole in-depth analysis of how the position of the nerd has changed in American culture over the past couple decades: the strip’s nerdy main characters still have the chip on their shoulders of social outcasts who push against the grain with their insular hobbies and interests, but they now spend their days discussing the massive box office takes of hegemonic superhero franchises. The strip cast also includes “Barry,” on the left here, a beefy jock who mainly serves to illustrate the humiliation of the normie in today’s nerd-ruled world as he can’t get a date and is constantly failing at work. At least he “gets it” when it comes to Fridays. Fridays, am I right? The last refuge of the regular guy who likes wings and beer? Even the ascendant hardcore geek has to acknowledge that that’s pretty cool? I genuinely don’t know what this strip is supposed to be about, honestly.
Alice, 4/24/26
One of the fun (“fun”) little subplots in Alice is that Alice has a bunch of weird aliens living under her floorboards, and one of them is romantically obsessed with her. Anyway, did you know that these guys are here because they’re supposed to be stopping all the wars? And they’re not doing a good job, because Alice is so darn alluring? Damn you, Alice, you temptress! So much blood is on your sexy, sexy hands!
Dennis the Menace, 4/24/26
I’m sorry, man, but there’s no way you can turn being a responsible pet owner into an act of menacing. I don’t care how egregious a poop pun you make about it.
47 replies to “TGI … F? Are we still allowed to say that?”
SORRY THIS WAS LATE IT’S UP NOW
Dennis the Menace-You guys might want to check your bed.
Hi and Lois-“Uncle Beetle’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors.”
MW-“And I gave Trixie over $200,000.”
RMMD-Mae Mae is going to be on top tonight.
Alice-“I can’t help it. Have you seen Alice? She’s hot!”
Well, it’s menacing because it was not Ruff that had a “bow-wow movement” and it was not accidental
Wow, late Friday post means I’m posting near the top of the thread today! Anyway…
Alice: Wait, so Alice is being pursued by an alien who was sent to put an end to human conflict, and his/her/their passion for her is putting the mission at risk? This strip became a steamy sci-fi dark romance so gradually I never even noticed.
IL: It’s been pointed out multiple times that Intelligent Life doesn’t seem to know all that much about nerd culture, but let’s be fair: based on today’s strip, it doesn’t seem to know much about normie culture either.
“What’s to be done?” Well, clearly whatever the Hell anybody is doing in any given Alice, right (please explain to me what the Hell anybody is doing in any given Alice)?
It’s nice to see a young man with sculpted muscles indulge in simple hedonism instead of going crazy with protein powder, steroids and Manosphere’s vital supplements!
Beer and wings can ONLY be consumed on Fridays! No other days worming in on this! I’m looking at you, Saturday! Fuck you, Saturday! Oh, THERE’S my medication!
DtM – Although that was reasonably clever, leave the poop jokes to Marvin, my man.
Mary Worth Mashups: Which missing final panel do you enjoy best?
You have to admit, that word “another” is pretty menacing.
Gasoline Alley: Vitamins and supplements are arranged alphabetically. Pain relievers aren’t. Is this Gertie’s first time shopping at the pharmacy where she’s on first-name basis with the employees, or is she sundowning?
DtM: I suspect something Marvinesque about Dennis’s own bow-wow movements, and I’m not betting on his ability to pull down those overalls in a hurry.
Blondie: No sodoku for Blondie today, just clean, crisp, refreshing void! (And the promise of ice cream.)
DT: “Actual police work? Huh, might as well give it a try!”
DtM: This mash-up of Family Circle-style malapropism with Marvin-esque poo humor is—shall I say it?—execrable.
Phantom: This conversation is starting to make me uncomfortable. Call me close-minded, but I’m not sure people with humiliation fetishes should be allowed to join paramilitary organizations.
Pluggers: I think you’re gonna need more than a band-aid or two for that missing middle(?) finger!
JP And you still won’t get to interrogate him Ann, because knots aren’t supposed to be little decorations taped on top of a loop of rope and in a moment he’ll break free!
MW I take it that these aren’t the Doves O’ Love – maybe the Pigeons of Parental Affection?
I think the “menace” here is that his parents are dead and are ghosts (by their own hands? by his?) and Dennis is living in that house alone.
Alice : the aliens, of course, find Alice attractive because she matches THEIR beauty standards… but it is unclear whether or not she matches OURS… is Alice supposed to be normal-looking within the context of her own strip or not? The art style doesn’t help determining this!
*************
Crankshaft : GODDAMMIT YOU’RE NOT A STARSTRUCK KID FINALLY MEETING YOUR IDOL ANYMORE, THAT WAS OVER 50 YEARS AGO
Also : GODDAMMIT WE KNOW YOU WERE A LIFELONG FAN WHO MADE COMICS AS A KID, MOVE ON TO ANOTHER PART OF YOUR CAREER
Also : funny how Batton Thomas has endless examples of how he was inspired by the greats, but no one can give an example of him inspiring someone else.************
Intelligence Life : you are supposed to derisively point and laugh at the stupid meathead jock and his stupid, wrong definition of “fun” and “freedom”. Eating spicy chicken wings and drinking beers while hollering at sportsball on the bar&grill’s TV with like-minded folks isn’t “fun” or “freedom”; sitting in pure horror as the contents of your wallet melts away, making you incapable of enjoying the movie you are watching in an empty theater
(because of your body odor), but you HAVE to watch the movie, because it’s mandatory to continue calling yourself a geek, THAT’S FUN and FREEDOM.IL: Panel 1: Nerd farts. Panel 2: Jock takes a big ol’ whiff. Panel 3: Nerd smirks knowingly at the audience. Subtext: Nerd had hot wings and beer last night.
Dustin: Come on, lady, give him a tumble. This could be your best chance to pop out babies with long sharp noses.
DT: I’m pretty sure each case involves loose women and liquor. Possibly racehorses. But I’m willing to be surprised. Maybe B.B. Eyes is an avid birdwatcher.
Phantom: The patrolwoman spends the rest of the night trying out “Mrs. Han Colonel Worubu” signatures.
RMMD: Mud spends the rest of the night trying out “Mr. Fergus Starr, I own a mansion and a yacht” signatures.
IL: Given hulky guy’s big “snifff” in panel two, it’s cocaine, right? “Hot wings and beer” must be the elaborate euphemism the cool jocks use to keep their drugs away from the nerds.
C’shaft: “…And that was the height of my creativity and originality.”
DT: Remember, kids, the police can and will use any aspect of your life against you, no matter how seemingly harmless!
Dustin: I like to think every woman in Parker’s and Kelly’s lives has greeted them with that flat, unimpressed stare.
FG: Is this where we get Ming’s Tragic Backstory? Are we about to find out that the scourge of the universe is basically an intergalactic Heathcliff (the Bronte one, not the cat one)?
Luann: Anyone who’s trying to keep Brad and Toni from reproducing is doing the Lord’s work, in my opinion.
MW: So, the lesson here is that Widower Hart was led astray because his daughter dared to have feelings and needs apart from his own, and now that she’s learned her lesson and is ready to devote what little spare time and energy she has to taking care of him he’s safe from predatory scammers. And Mary deserves all the credit for making one vague phone call.
Gasoline Alley – This week has been a few days of misunderstanding about low dose aspirin, and now Gertie is trying to find it on the pharmacy shelf. Tomorrow will probably be a discussion of how it’s alphabetized under aspirin, not baby. The only way I know that Tom Batiuk didn’t write this exercise in minutia hell is that the characters aren’t smug about it.
JP – Wait a minute. Ann’s entire experience in crime was theft and grifting, and now we’re supposed to believe that she was also a mob enforcer? Someone needs a crash course in writing crime bullshit.
Non Sequitur – The term is never was.
Pluggers – It used to be two condoms, but that ship has sailed.
Crankshaft – This looks like a hostage situation, with Skip in his chair, forced to listen to Batton’s endless, rambling, pointless monologue. “Once I could copy Dick Tracy, I knew that it was only a matter of time until I RULED THE WORLD! Mwahaha!”
He even cut off Skip’s arm and sent it to his family.
Alice – Not so fast there, Alien Overlord! Has it ever occurred to you that your minions are concentrating on Alice (the character) because Alice (the comic strip) is the cause of most human wars today? I know I get worked up into a violent rage whenever I see it.
@Baja Gaijin: Mashups – I can’t decide which one I like best, because they’re all spot on.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Hello, Luis. Sorry to call you at work, but there’s this foxy chick here who would love to talk to you. Is that okay?”
“Of course!”
“You’re not too busy?”
“No.”
“I just need to put you on hold for one sec”
[Sign: LUIS / THE HUMAN CANNONBALL!]
IL: Really enjoying that look of alarm on Skip’s face in panel 2. “Friday? Freedom? Is he suggesting something sexual? Am I ready for this?” Then, in panel 3, when it becomes clear that Barry is referring to food and drink: “That’s it. Just smile broadly and agree. Play it cool.”
Alice: Guys, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Alice holds very little sway in our world. Functionally none, in fact. If your mission is going to succeed, you may have venture to the wider world outside her home.
DTM: I can just imagine some grandma reading Dennis the Menace because she still remembers the Jay North TV show from the 1950s. At first, she’s pleased to see this scene. The mother is knitting. The father is reading a newspaper. It all looks so cozy. Then she sees the punchline, and it’s about … that. And this kindly old lady wonders why everything has to be so vulgar nowadays. I mean, whatever happened to decency?
FG: It’s going to quite a trick keeping that ominous dead pan on Ming for the remainder of this flashback, but it would be cartoonist suicide to depict him smiling, or laughing, or making fart noises with his arm.
DtM: Dennis has been pooping at random around the house for years, and blaming the dog. This sudden “maturity” is alarming.
MW: If Sharon and Pops are going to continue to smother each other with euphemisms, they should head over to the Bum Boat, where mind-numbing drivel is ALWAYS on the menu.
@Baja Gaijin: I was hoping this would end along the same lines as Some Like It Hot, with Mr. Ascot proposing to Trixie, Trixie revealing (s)he’s a man and Mr. Ascot not caring because “nobody’s perfect”.
Neither Dennis, nor Henry, nor the dog, wanted to confront the fact that Alice Mitchell was sitting calmly on the couch, knitting a digestive system.
@Baja Gaijin: I was hoping this would end along the same lines as Some Like It Hot, with Mr. Ascot proposing to Trixie, Trixie revealing (s)he’s a man and Mr. Ascot not caring because “nobody’s perfect”.
Intelligent Life:
Despite nominally being a comic about nerds, Intelligent Life‘s knowledge of nerd stuff seems to begin and end with the most mainstream stuff imaginable, in a way that seems specifically designed to irritate any true nerd that reads it. Still, despite knowing this, I have to admit that when I read “It was a long road”, I immediately expected this strip to be about the kinda-terrible-but-also-strangely-lovable theme song to Star Trek: Enterprise, which I have to admit would be a genuinely nerdy thing to make a joke about. Fortunately it failed to live up to even its own low standards for nerd content by instead making a joke that essentially boils down to “Friday is good because the weekend is coming”, and my preconceptions remained blissfully undisturbed.
Oops … somehow my comment posted twice.
DtM – I’d say current US politics is movement….
Zits Hah, its funny because the dad could have bought an electric mower, but by sticking to a traditional gas machine, it’s more work for a lazy teen. Gotcha, kid!
JP: So Ann has created this paranoid fantasy in which Bogdan is the bad guy, and now plans to torture him until he
says there are five lightsconfesses to everything she says. Well, that went dark fast. Neddy’s reaction really should be “Ann, have we taken our medications today?”Mind you, this being Judge Parker, there’s a good chance she’s right, but it’s still insane.
Dennis the Menace:
I’m willing to give Dennis some menacing points for this one, since his use of the word “another” seems designed to shame his parents for being such lousy pet owners that Ruff was forced to shit in the living room earlier.
@Baja Gaijin: The third one, I think. BTW what was the original context of that panel? Mary waking up in bed next to Wilbur?
DtM – That’s not how you hold the
needleschopsticks whenknittingeating lo mein out of your lap!RMMD- Mud’s gonna score! Huh huh huh huh ….
FG: So young Ming was the Mongovian equivalent of a hillbilly. He and his twelve siblings probably grew up in a single wide. As an adult it was the army or the coal mines.
@CanuckDownSouth: No he won’t, because he’s clearly dead. Or at least brain dead (just like the writer of this strip! HI-YO!)
DtM — Turns out, Ruff was the real menace all along. . .
Alice — The alien duo has been in the basement since the 70’s trying to figure out why Alice doesn’t live there anymore.
Alice:
I believe this is the first time we’ve seen what appears to be the leader of the aliens who live under Alice’s floorboards. Turns out he’s blue instead of green like his underlings, and I am saddened that race-based hierarchies appear to be a constant among the universe’s “civilized” life forms.
@Anonymous:
Crankshaft-Batton has inspired lots of people to not do what he does.
@28 DAS: I didn’t have sufficient artwork for that scenario.
@37 Ken: That panel originally was Dawn asleep. I placed Mary’s “scared face” from The Great Balloon Crash! onto Dawn’s pillow. It really works, doesn’t it?
@TheDiva: Great, now I’m picturing Ming the Merciless running down the street hand-in-hand with the Garbage Ape.
Gil Thorp-Meanwhile on the golf course tragedy ensued when one team beat the other to death with their golf clubs.