Metapost: May day COTW
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Commenters of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! And please, delight in the hilarity of this week’s comment of the week!
“Ex-wives, am I right? First they’re not interested in your old junk because they’ve broken all attachments to you and are trying to move on from the emotional disruption of the divorce, but then they are interested in the regular payments you still make to them as compensation for the financial disruption caused by the divorce. This is a funny juxtaposition of two inconsistent positions … ? Because they’re women? Am I … am I right?” –Stuart F
The proletariat should also enjoy this week’s hilarious runners up!
“Ah, yes, Glenwood’s ‘Old Town.’ A couple blocks of boarded-up shops interspersed with a few dank watering holes where down-and-out traveling salesmen can run their scammy side gigs without being bothered by the near-catatonic denizens. Do they sell postcards?” –But What Do I Know?
“I’d like to think that Hollywood Update Live is actually Access Hollywood, the real-life entertainment-news show that was just canceled after 30 years. Maybe someone there thinks this could be the one big story that somehow keeps them on the air. ‘Hey, remember that actress who disappeared? Well, some guy knows where she is and what she’s doing! No, she wasn’t kidnapped. No, it’s not drugs. No, it’s not porn. Well, she’s been living in her house, and now she’s working as a waitress. Oh, and get this — she gained some weight! What, you say no one will care much about any of that? Darn, I guess I shouldn’t have offered this tipster all the money in the fund for our severance pay. I guess I was as bad an intern as everybody kept saying!’” –BigTed
“Grimm and Ralph might be having a pretty disturbing conversation, but don’t judge them too harshly: according to the label on those cans, they are surrounded by innumerable containers of preserved dog flesh, a situation bizarre and morbid enough to drive even the most stable canine to madness. Frankly the fact that they are confining their desire for revenge on the human race to their traditional enemies is a prodigious act of restraint.” –Vulpes
“Charles makes the rookie mistake of thinking today’s meeting with the king was on medieval Zoom.” –Hibbleton
“This king knows damn well Vikings eat their peas off their knife, just like any other working member of a war band. He’s just casting aspersions to cover up his degenerate adoption of that Italian innovation, the fork.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“Arriving at Guantanamo at 02:00? Just enough time to watch The Grudge! Obviously The Ring would have been first choice of early 2000s supernatural horror films, but it runs a little longer and you don’t want to get stuck wrapping up the ending while people are already deplaning.” –pugfuggly
“‘Real Love’ being the name of the terrible Partridge Family tribute band Sharon and her hub have forced the children into. Harvey’s tambourine skills get put to the test!” –A Grave Mind
“In the fairy tale, Snow White doesn’t employ the dwarfs — she’s just a peasant girl and they’re just some strangers who let her crash in their cottage in exchange for light domestic work. But in our fallen world, sure, I guess Snow White can be a hard-hearted efficiency-maxxing capitalist in charge of a mining conglomerate. Do you think she employs dwarfs because she’s technically registered as a disability charity for tax reasons, or just because you can force them into smaller holes than other people?” –Schroduck
“He may be ripped off and heartbroken again, but I won’t have to watch it.” –MKay
“When will Lonnie accept his destiny and become a middle school woodshop teacher? He has all the prerequisites: the glasses, the mustache, the haircut, the wardrobe, the posture, the general demeanor, etc.” –Joe Blevins
“I’m guessing the back story is that this guy wanted a shirt like Charlie Brown, but a zigzag stripe was too outlandish for his personality.” –nescio
“If this were the old Dick Tracy, this would absolutely be setting up a scene where Mumbles gets crushed to death in a sea of hugs during a suit parade at Midwest FurFest.” –Anonymous Furry
“Note Lillian’s stiff posture in the first panel. She’s come out from behind her table only to find herself confronted by … a fan? She’s heard of such people, and she’s sure they must exist, since against all logic her publisher keeps paying her to write books. But her deep (and not undeserved) sense of self-loathing forbids her from fully accepting the idea, and she tenses up, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But whew! By the third panel she’s relieved to find that the only threat this woman poses is her weak facility for ‘wordplay.’ This, she can handle. She’s known Ed Crankshaft for DECADES. She’s got this!” –Doctor Moreau (Not a Doctor)
“The narration box tells us that Toby is calling Mary, which we can see happening, to ease us into the final shock of Mary saying that she is already packing her bag when she is not literally doing so.” –matt w
“Look at that anteater smile in the first panel. It knows it’s going to ruin some days by making people think about anteaters in the B.C. universe having their tongues in their noses. B.C. ANTEATERS HAVE NOSE TONGUES!” –Tabby Lavalamp
“In an interesting philosophical twist on comic conventions, Gertie does not have an idea in the first panel, but instead merely thinks about an idea. But does thinking about an idea actually bring that idea into being, and thus she actually has an idea but has not realized the idea is there yet? Much to discuss about the nature of existence in the Old Lady NASCAR strip this week.” –Drew Funk
“Let’s all put Ritz crackers over our eyes and meditate on loneliness.” –76VDubber
“Roz’s facial expression is the highlight every time she appears. Deep loathing with a tinge of resignation. Like she just watched the humans below take their cat into the house, once again denying her the sweet release of seeing Shoe and Cosmo, or today’s emotional-pain devotee, becoming the feline’s chew toy.” –Tonio
“Mr. Freaky is my father! Please, call me Steve!” –Old School Allie Cat
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48 replies to “Metapost: May day COTW”
First they’re not interested in your old junk…
If they were interested in your old junk, they may still have been your wives.
Thanks Josh, and preambulatory thanks to Scratchy and Baja, and Voshkudos to Stuart F, Vulpes, Hibbleton (Voshkudo with Oak Leaf Clusters), Schroduck, and Joe Blevins.
Honored to once again ride the float with our leader Stuart F and the usual band of hilarious mudges!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Anonymous
April 25th, 2026 at 4:46 am Reply
Zits: I have never heard of any high school with an “anatomy class”. In high school it’s simply biology. Surprised they didn’t make this class even more specific and say it was a gynecology class.
Gil Bates
April 25th, 2026 at 4:33 am Reply
MW: Who exactly says that, Mary? Yogi Berra instructed “When you see a fork in the road, take it!” I’m guessing she and the doc self-prescribed and consumed some edibles at the forest compound. To misquote Jonah Ray, “I’m not high but my cat is and so am I!”
Schroduck
April 25th, 2026 at 4:38 am Reply
MW: Coincidentally, “The bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn” is also the epitaph on Aldo Kelrast’s tombstone.
Hibbleton
April 25th, 2026 at 4:49 am Reply
MW: Smart of Mary to cut herself off before naming the author of said quote or it would have lost all credibility.
“As it’s been said
by Wilbur…”ValdVin
April 25th, 2026 at 4:50 am Reply
MW: Mary never got the callback to be a driving instructor. The traffic school determined that the last thing our roads need are more teenagers who learned piloting a car via Mary’s feelings and aphorism instead of physics.
A Grave Mind
April 25th, 2026 at 4:40 am Reply
That’s…a harness contraption on the cat, yes? In the car. I assume it can be found on a website called I’m The Asshole? I’ll go classic Simpsons: “This leash demeans us both.”
Charterstoned
April 25th, 2026 at 4:45 am Reply
MW: Muffin will do Olive and the dogs one better, after Mary misses the turn, crashes her car into a ravine, and must rely on her cat to get out of the halter, unlock the car door, and run back to Jeff for help.
Bob Tice
April 25th, 2026 at 4:40 am Reply
Mary Worth:
So Mary has “visit”ed Dr. Jeff’s “big house” “in the woods”? — is that what the geriatrics are calling it these days?
Pluggers:
You’re a plugger if your reading material at the commode is back issues of National Geographic magazine.
A Grave Mind
April 25th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
Hell with the toilet, who in God’s name has a carpeted floor in their bathroom? I’m just gonna tell myself that’s grass, and Andy Bear set up a toilet on the veld somewhere, with a chunk of wall, the better to depict his existential dislocation between two worlds.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
ValdVin
April 26th, 2026 at 5:41 am Reply
FC:
“An’ Stonewall is a place in New York where they invented roasted garlic peanut sauce in 1969!”
“Thel, is it time to pull the kids out of parochial school?”
Hibbleton
April 26th, 2026 at 4:41 am Reply
FC: “The Aristocratics” gag does have a long setup.
JP: Don’t take that wrench, Neddy! In prison, such a gift counts as an engagement present.
Shoe: Not writing “she found a bunch of my old stuff in her box” is what separates the great writers from the ordinary.
Liam
April 26th, 2026 at 4:32 am Reply
Shoe-Telemarketer is code for debt collector.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
But What Do I Know?
April 26th, 2026 at 4:50 am Reply
RMMD — Hey boss, I got some guy who claims he knows what Lorna Starr’s up to these days. Sure, I told him we’d pay him four figures for a video. No, I don’t think he understands how decimal points work. It could be the best $10.00 we ever spent!
Ettorre
April 26th, 2026 at 7:54 am Reply
“I can get you a video! Even a very NSFW video, if you wish! You can title it ‘She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes’”
I speak Jive
April 26th, 2026 at 8:29 am Reply
Rex Morgan – Lonnie will submit photos, only to be told, “That’s Lorna’s maid.”
MKay
April 27th, 2026 at 4:42 am Reply
MW: Does an inflatable woman count as “in-person love?” Asking for an inflatable friend.
The Quiet Man
April 27th, 2026 at 4:48 am Reply
MW: Is Moy taking ‘Masters of Misdirection’ pointers from the Evansii? We all thought it was going to be Mary’s car that runs over ‘Trixie’ but I guess it’s actually going to be Sharon with her gigantic SUV and that big honking trailer. That’s sure going to leave a mark!
Charterstoned
April 27th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
MW: Looks like Sharon has adjusted her driver’s seat to be outside the car. Is that a design flaw, or a feature that gives you more shoulder room?
Ken
April 27th, 2026 at 4:40 am Reply
@Charterstoned: I like the implied backstory here, though.
“Kids! Grandpa is going to be staying with us!”
“Yay!”
“Now get in the car, you’ll need to carry the heavy boxes for him.”
(Teenage grumbling noises)
Maude R. Fawker
April 27th, 2026 at 7:38 am Reply
MW:
Harv: “Nowadays, I only believe in in-person love. So next time you’re passing through Goleta, stop by for another quickie!”
MW:
Sharon: “Dammit. My agent got me guest-star billing. So how come I’m grayed out, no better than these walk-on child actors?”
Hibbleton
April 27th, 2026 at 5:57 am Reply
MW: Sharon has been busy getting her [observes kids in rear seat] 12 and 13 year old boys ready for college? What?
“Yeah, dad. The whole home schooling thing has been a bust. They got a lot of catching up to do.”
FC: As the CHUD pulls Jeffy down into the manhole, Dolly asks if the street has a basement.
Thel responds; “Yes, dear. Now walk faster.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
TheDiva
April 27th, 2026 at 5:37 am Reply
C’shaft: “It makes me realize just how much money I’ve wasted on your crappy books.”
Luann: Les provides Tara with the most useful lesson she’ll receive in this class, by preparing her for the world of corporate sexual harassment.
CanuckDownSouth
April 27th, 2026 at 5:43 am Reply
Luann Evans thinks the way people get jobs is writing a letter to the National Careers Department making the case to send them the key to their assigned career’s office space please and thank you bye.
You could have a college-level project researching present-day job ads in an area that leads to their desired career path, identifying what’s asked for, what’s entry-level versus steps up, what would a strong resume look like for those jobs, what do they have, what are options to improve their resume that they could actually apply for now / in the summer… but this is barely as realistic as some kid’s game where a group figures out who will be the school teacher, and the principal or the mail carrier etc just because they want to roleplay.
Rube
April 27th, 2026 at 5:02 am Reply
Dustin Ed’s coworker is chuckling because he has an eating disorder and a dysfunctional marriage. She really hates him!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
MKay
April 29th, 2026 at 4:42 am Reply
H&L: Poor Charlie Brown. His shirt stripe flatlined, he wears a bad toupee and his life still just sucks.
InvasionOfTheZIM
April 29th, 2026 at 4:49 am Reply
The guy in today’s Hi & Lois has a fascinating shirt on. The yellow-and-black design elicits Charlie Brown energy, yet the pastel shade of yellow and the placement of the stripe make him look like a depressed Powerpuff Girl.
Lake Neuron
April 29th, 2026 at 6:36 am Reply
Hi & Lois: On the advice of an intellectual property attorney, AI was used to replace Dustin’s parents with these generic substitutes. But we know who they really are.
Hibbleton
April 29th, 2026 at 6:09 am Reply
H&L: I’m not an expert in comic making by any means, but Lois missing her right boob and glum lady missing her left seems like a bigger story than a home bound boy.
TheDiva
April 29th, 2026 at 6:33 am Reply
C’shaft: Most people would not want the author’s signature on the (sigh) “sand jacket,” something extremely prone to getting damaged or lost. But then, Lillian’s autograph probably deprecates the value of the book.
MW: I feel sorry for all the other ladies at this high-end wellness retreat, who are about to have their tranquility disrupted by Mary and Toby loudly gossiping about their elderly neighbor’s run-in with a pig-butchering scam.
Tabby Lavalamp
April 29th, 2026 at 6:19 am Reply
TIL Mary reads “Healthy Beauty” magazine and not “Modern Meddler”.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
The Quiet Man
April 29th, 2026 at 4:57 am Reply
Luann: Hush, little girl, the adults are talking smut…
Baja Gaijin
April 30th, 2026 at 4:27 am Reply
Dennis the Menace: Without toys, it’s just a box of sand. Without a lid, it’s just the neighborhood cats’ toilet.
Anonymous
April 30th, 2026 at 6:07 am Reply
Dennis the Menace: The neighborhood cats aren’t the only one using this sandbox as an outdoor bathroom.
Ukranazi Stepan
April 30th, 2026 at 4:28 am Reply
Wrecks Moregone:
“Also, I never thought a big time action movie star like Lorna Starr – that’s you, Lorna Starr – would disappear from her Hollywood mansion to become a waitress at the Glenwood motel, where you are a waitress at, and where some salesman down on his luck would expose you for money. I can do more unnecessary exposition if you want, but for now that should do!”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Ken
April 30th, 2026 at 5:42 am Reply
MW: Day one, Ian calls Mary at the spa. “Your cat’s on the roof and we can’t get her down….”
Or maybe he follows Wilbur’s lead after the cruise-ship mishap, and doesn’t tell Mary until she gets back. “I wanted to surprise you!”
Hibbleton
April 30th, 2026 at 4:39 am Reply
MW: The Uncle Ian who was cucked by a parrot?! These next few days are gonna be great!
Liam
April 30th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
MW-Will Uncle Ian be bringing the parrots for Muffin to “play” with?
MT-Ripped from the panels of ‘Mary Worth’.
Vice President John Adams
April 30th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
Did… did a cartoonist recently get catfished? They’re a pretty close-knit bunch who only acknowledge things that have happened to themselves, so I can only assume that one of them has had their golf game interrupted by a shady con artist, and now we’re going to have to watch everyone from Dustin’s dad to Prince Valiant to Brewster Rockit lamenting the heartbreak of handing over their millions to an ersatz hottie with a jones for geriatrics.
Banana Jr. 6000
April 30th, 2026 at 4:46 am Reply
Luann: The most honest Luann ever.
Anonymous
April 30th, 2026 at 5:01 am Reply
@Banana Jr. 6000:
Luann: The most honest Luann ever.
I dunno, that exaggerated pout Luann is doing is suggesting, to me, that Luann isn’t actually having dark thoughts and depression at her own rudderlessness, but that she’s actually fishing for compliments…
Not going to work, Luann. NO ONE is going to go “That’s not true, Luann, you’re good with kids, and you’ve shown talent at various things relating to the theater.” They’re just going to say “yeah, that’s about right. Guess you don’t get your dream job (especially since you don’t seem to have one)”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hibbleton
May 1st, 2026 at 4:36 am Reply
MW: Of course, we’re too sophisticated to be conned out of our cash as we lie here with pickle slices covering our eyes.
Lauralot
May 1st, 2026 at 4:37 am Reply
MW: Ah yes, who doesn’t love a good visit to “Spa”? It’s exactly what I need to unwind after a long week of work at Business and errands at Store.
A Grave Mind
May 1st, 2026 at 4:37 am Reply
“Do they have any music besides ‘Only Time’ by Enya?”
“No, dear, no spa does.”
Ken
May 1st, 2026 at 5:05 am Reply
MW: A Mary Worth story line that finishes in under six months, doesn’t involve pets (psychic or otherwise), where Mary’s victory lap isn’t during a date with Dr. Jeff? Has Karen Moy been kidnapped and replaced with a
goodslightly better writer?MKay
May 1st, 2026 at 4:40 am Reply
RMMD: Lorna fails to see the guy with the phone, lingering less than ten feet away on an otherwise empty street as she yells out her secret. Not a lot of sympathy, here.
The Rambling Otter
May 1st, 2026 at 5:05 am Reply
I guess Moy thought that recapping the plot at the pool got boring, then recapping on Dr. Jeff’s boat got boring, so we’re just going to have her recap EVERYWHERE.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Tabby Lavalamp
April 25th, 2026 at 7:02 am Reply
I have been in bathrooms with reading material, but never an overstuffed basket almost as big as the toilet bowl. I’m starting to think pluggers may not be well-adjusted.
***
For the love of all the gods and every caring eldritch abomination, can someone PLEASE introduce Moy and Brigman to some real life pets so they can study and learn their behaviours? You can start by having a cat strapped to an open box when you pick them up (it’s okay, you can keep the cat in a normal-ass carrier until you arrive at the designated meeting place).
69. BigTed
April 26th, 2026 at 7:52 am Reply
Rex Morgan: I’d like to think that “Hollywood Update Live” is actually “Access Hollywood,” the real-life entertainment-news show that was just canceled after 30 years. Maybe someone there thinks this could be the one big story that somehow keeps them on the air. “Hey, remember that actress who disappeared? Well, some guy knows where she is and what she’s doing! No, she wasn’t kidnapped. No, it’s not drugs. No, it’s not porn. Well, she’s been living in her house, and now she’s working as a waitress. Oh, and get this — she gained some weight! What, you say no one will care much about any of that? Darn, I guess I shouldn’t have offered this tipster all the money in the fund for our severance pay. I guess I was as bad an intern as everybody kept saying!”
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Rover Berkeley
April 27th, 2026 at 7:24 am Reply
My favorite JP character has always been Sam Driver. When exactly was he muscled out of the strip by all these Sally Forth rejects?
69. Charterstone: Dune
April 29th, 2026 at 6:34 am Reply
MW: Hmmm, what do you think the “conflict” of this new spa story arc will be? Toby and Mary have a moment of introspection amidst the mud baths and cucumber facials and realize they are vapid little busybodies, upon which discovery the they decide to meddle themselves, with the story and artwork veering toward the surreal and psychedelic as they plunge inward in a sort of Meddle-ception journey of growth and healing? Or perhaps the “spa” is actually a front for that pig-butchering call center, and Mary and Tobes are about to undergo a harrowing ordeal as they find themselves trapped in modern-day slavery that’ll put the “problems” they typically deal with into proper perspective? Or maybe, just maybe, someone at the spa will have having a slightly sub-optimal experience due to a fairly piddling personal problem that can be solved with a pair of proverbs over prosecco. Yeah, that’s the one!
69. 2+2=7
May 1st, 2026 at 7:13 am Reply
LUANN: Luann has nothing to worry about, because “comic strip editor” is a job that clearly doesn’t exist in the first place. We know this because:
–Luann has the test and results saved on a computer for what was an oral exam.
–Luann is making a fuss about her matches now and not when this plotline happened two arcs ago.
–Mrs Fogerty is just seeing this job match “mistake” now, indicating that this is the first time the lady who’s supposed to be administering and grading the test is seeing the results
–That this spelling mistake would result in a bunch of “comical” matches (which, are “funny” because they are “degrading” menial jobs, so therefore the people who do them deserve no respect, ha, ha) instead no matches at all (or a system that would have auto-corrected common spelling errors and gotten the “right” results), because the algorithm only produces results with select keywords.
–That the results are considered a “mistake” at all, since there’s no indication of what the criteria of those profile buzzwords is or means, nor any indication why these jobs would be so “wrong” for Luann in the first place.
–more importantly, Luann is treating the results with soul-crushing gravitas after one of her co-stars just sucked all the tension out of the (admittedly-thin) premise with meta-commentary on how no one is taking this class seriously.
That “phantom editor” would have noticed all of this and made corrections.
Thanks, Scratchy.
Hey, thanks, Scratchy, and congrats to Stuart F. and the Floaters!
Thanks, Scratchy! Congratulations, Stuart!
Thank you, Scratchy! Congrats to Stuart and all the others!
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
That “phantom editor” would have noticed all of this and made corrections.
And then would have left skull marks on the Evansii’s jaws. . .
Thanks Scratchy :3
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 1
ValdVin
April 25th, 2026 at 4:50 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary never got the callback to be a driving instructor. The traffic school determined that the last thing our roads need are more teenagers who learned piloting a car via Mary’s feelings and aphorism instead of physics.
cheech wizard
April 25th, 2026 at 5:08 am Reply
Mary Worth: “After snacking on children who stumbled across Dr. Jeff’s big house in the woods, Mary and Toonc — er, Muffin – drive home.”
MKay
April 25th, 2026 at 5:11 am Reply
Wizard of Id: This is Boozehead Gertie. She’s obsessed with pro broom racing and pub crawls.
Hibbleton
April 25th, 2026 at 5:52 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Big house in the woods” sounds like the combo health spa sanitarium where Dr. Jeff dupes his rich clientele with bogus wellness cures. Mary heads home after administering the yogurt enemas.
Ukranazi Stepan
April 25th, 2026 at 6:09 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary fails to make the turn, runs off the road, and accidentally runs over Trixie, who’s hiking across the country after getting away from his captors. She takes him home to meddle him back to health, but he’s sinking fast until Hardy Har Har pays a visit. As soon as Trixie sees the ascot, he asks for $200,000 for spinal fusion surgery, takes it, jumps out of the window (softlanding on Wilbur who is stalking through the shrubbery as usual), and runs off, looking for a better strip. Unfortunately, his frantic sprint merely takes him to Glenwood and the clinic of Wrecks Moregone, Emm Dee.
GarrisonSkunk
April 25th, 2026 at 6:56 am Reply
Mary’s Worst/Pluggers: Did Mary switch Dr. Jeffy’s TP roll after visiting his “waiting room”?
BigTed
April 25th, 2026 at 8:21 am Reply
Wizard of Id: Given that Wizard of Id is a play on The Wizard of Oz, this witch is actually smart to drink nothing but liquor and avoid contact with water. They’ve all been traumatized by what happened to Margaret Hamilton!
Artist formerly known as Ben
April 25th, 2026 at 12:49 pm Reply
Judge Parker: The way you two have been yelling at each other since you got here, you could have dragged in King Tut and he’d have woken up.
Tom
April 25th, 2026 at 1:49 pm Reply
Pluggers: They might be overstepping, but they are also objectively correct. When it comes to hanging toilet paper, beards are cool, mullets are not.
Buck Ripsnort
April 25th, 2026 at 2:14 pm Reply
Pluggers: If you go to the toilet in someone’s house and they not only have a carpeted floor and seat, they have a toilet library so large it can only be a sign of constant constipation, THEY’RE the Pluggers!
GarrisonSkunk
April 25th, 2026 at 10:40 pm Reply
Judge Parker Brothers: “I got an idea! Lets sell him on “Storage Wars”!
Ken
April 26th, 2026 at 4:56 am Reply
Mary Worth: Well that was abrupt, especially after with the recent arcs inspired by Jules Verne’s “[strike]Five[/strike] Fifteen Weeks in a Balloon” and Wilbur’s version of “Nine(teen) and a Half Weeks.”
Bob Tice
April 26th, 2026 at 5:12 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “Also, to my immediate left, there’s a guy who looks a tiny bit like former TV show host Montel Williams — but it isn’t he, so you’re probably not interested in that.”
TheDiva
April 26th, 2026 at 6:31 am Reply
Dick Tracy: How does one become fluent in Mumbling? Pretty sure that’s not a Duolingo offering.
Anonymous
April 26th, 2026 at 7:51 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Sharon and the boys will be back later for the rest of my belongings. They just left with a van load of ascots. There seems to be an issue with the storage unit though. Something about two women having a guy tied up in there. Whatever…”
Artist formerly known as Ben
April 26th, 2026 at 4:16 pm Reply
Shoe: “She found a box of my old stuff in her attic. She smoked it and says it didn’t get her high at all. Why do you think I left it behind in the first place?”
Charterstoned
April 27th, 2026 at 4:31 am Reply
I haven’t read The Phantom in a while, but I’m IN for this story—especially if it features Heloise Walker sharing a space taxi with Mary Worth, heading back to the mothership.
Bob Tice
April 27th, 2026 at 4:32 am Reply
Phantom: Vindicta casually glances out the window of the plane, only to be terrified by the nightmarish sight of William Shatner crouching on the wing at 20,000 feet.
The Quiet Man
April 27th, 2026 at 4:48 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Lonnie Smurf was one of Peyo’s less endearing creations.
TheDiva
April 27th, 2026 at 5:37 am Reply
Luann: Les provides Tara with the most useful lesson she’ll receive in this class, by preparing her for the world of corporate sexual harassment.
Ken
April 27th, 2026 at 5:52 am Reply
Phantom: I’m guessing Vindicta is wearing a disguise, and when this Phantom-paced story wraps up in four or five years, he’ll be unmasked. Will it be some old enemy, possibly one disfigured by the Phantom? Or will it turn out to be Old Man Jenkins, yelling about meddling kids again?
Voshkod
April 27th, 2026 at 6:02 am Reply
Phantom: “What? Gitmo? Space Jesus, I swear I booked a flight to Area 51. This is what I get for buying cheap tickets on Majestic Airlines.”
Schroduck
April 27th, 2026 at 8:36 am Reply
Hägar the Horrible: OK, Hagar, I know you were aiming for ‘Scottish butler’, but you way overshot. This is ‘compere of the drag cabaret at New York’s hottest gay club circa 1985’.
pugfuggly
April 28th, 2026 at 4:37 amReply
Rex Morgan: This looks like a gritty reboot of The Smurfs, with a special plot line for ‘Creepy’.
Ettorre
April 28th, 2026 at 4:51 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Mary, I have not seen H@rvey around”
“Well, Toby, he went to live with his family in another town”
“Mary, I’m not a child, you don’t need to use this euphemism. Just tell me who you hired to liquidate him and whether I can employ his services.”
Victor Von
April 28th, 2026 at 6:04 amReply
Rex Morgan: “Captain Kangaroo, Blackmail in Blue” is a pretty good parody title… or surrealist painting title… not a good name for a rock band, though. They’ll have to keep toiling in the Absurdity Mines until they get it right.
Tabby Lavalamp
April 28th, 2026 at 6:18 amReply
Mother Goose and Grimm: “But you’re not our boss! We took you in!” Grumpy shouted.
“Shush, Grumps, or she’ll fire more of us,” Bashful said, barely audible.
Happy beamed at his… friends? Family? Co-workers? Smiling at his roommates, Happy chimed in, “Well, at least with Sneezy gone we won’t be getting sick all the time.”
“Besides,” said Doc, “you’re always complaining how Sleepy isn’t pulling his weight in the mine. We were talking about firing his ass anyway. And Dopey supported her up until this, so FAFO I guess.”
Grumbling, Grumpy said, “Fine. But if she dies mysteriously again, we’re definitely still not going to give her a proper burial. We’ll just stick her in another glass box in the forest so we can watch her decompose and maybe this time it’ll stick.”
His eyes tearing up as he remembered the fate of the eighth dwarf, Norm, Doc quietly decided to leave the conversation there.
GarrisonSkunk
April 28th, 2026 at 9:35 amReply
Mother Goose and Grimm: Did Snow whistle while she pink slipped?
Charterstoned
April 29th, 2026 at 4:40 amReply
Mary Worth: You people DO realize that women have to disrobe at these spas, right? I wasn’t thrilled with how Mary’s right breast was operating independently yesterday. So I’m not thrilled by the prospect of seeing any more of Mary’s body than I have to. On the other hand, I’m curious about what a purple cowl-neck bathing suit looks like.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 2
MKay
April 29th, 2026 at 4:42 amReply
Hi and Lois: Poor Charlie Brown. His shirt stripe flatlined, he wears a bad toupee and his life still just sucks.
Bob Tice
April 29th, 2026 at 4:47 amReply
Phantom: “Invicta, your head’s even bigger than the Morgan girl’s over at Rex Morgan!”
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
April 29th, 2026 at 5:24 amReply
Phantom: “My name is Inigo Montoya…no, wait, that’s not it…my name is Ignatz Mouse…dammit! We practiced this. My name is Ignis, and I’m a vindictahol—DAMMIT.”
But What Do I Know?
April 29th, 2026 at 5:31 amReply
The Ghost Who Upgrades:
Regular Service: Oligarch buys a pardon for a violent criminal.
Concierge Service: Oligarch buys a pardon and flies to Gitmo in a weird alien costume to pick him up.
Peanut Gallery
April 29th, 2026 at 6:10 amReply
Mary Worth: “That’s great, Mary! And because you’re a friend, I’m only going to charge you $1500 for your ticket!” “$1500!?” “I didn’t say you were a good friend.”
Dan
April 29th, 2026 at 6:14 amReply
Mary Worth: Resolving myself to the lack of Trixie closure, but I would like to see him show up for like a strip every other year or something. Like
March, 2028: One strip in which Trixie washes up, weary, on the shores of California. The next day cuts to Wilbur complaining about his love life for three weeks.
September, 2030: One strip where Trixie thanks the kindly bodega owner who hired him to sweep floors. The next day Toby is anxious about a dinner party, a story that will last through Halloween.
June, 2032: One strip in which Trixie, who has married the owner’s daughter, is inheriting the store as the owner retires. Immediately followed by a month-long plot about Saul Wynter’s dog getting into some chocolate and needing an emergency vet visit.
November, 2034: One strip in which Trixie notices a pothole outside the store, frowns, and thinks, “something ought to be done.” The next day, back to Wilbur’s love life.
February, 2037: In the background of a story about Ian’s academic rivalry with a bearded professor from the neighboring college, the chyron of a news show reads, “PRESIDENT TRIXIE’S APPROVAL RATINGS SOAR”
Bob Tice
April 29th, 2026 at 7:05 amReply
Phantom: “My name is Ignis Vindicta.”
“Mister, that sounds like the product name of a weed-killer!”
2+2=7
April 29th, 2026 at 7:35 amReply
Mary Worth: Now that Mary’s skipping even the “Bum Bost Victory Lap” portion of the stories, Dr. Jeff also has to resort to giving himself “self-care treatments” now.
Hibbleton
April 30th, 2026 at 4:39 amReply
Mary Worth: The Uncle Ian who was cucked by a parrot?! These next few days are gonna be great!
Uncle Lumpy
April 30th, 2026 at 4:48 amReply
Mary Worth: Trixie’s antics make me nostalgic for the old-fashioned in-person scams of Fabiana.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
April 30th, 2026 at 5:20 amReply
Gearhead Gertie: Ssssoooo, Gearhead Gertie is set in The Villages, but with lawnmowers (and less chlamydia, probably)?
CanuckDownSouth
April 30th, 2026 at 5:54 amReply
Mark Trail: It would be glorious if the comics artists had decided to have a slow build of the same scammers showing up in strip after strip, with John/Trixie in the background escaping not just from the compound but across the newspaper to warn of the interdimensional menace and preparing for a collective fight with characters joining forces from Hagar through Flash Gordon, striking at the scammers (who want to take over all realities and drain all the elderly comics-readers of their savings) with Ted Forth finally able to do one of his crazy ideas…
*ahem* oh well, one can dream.
Voshkod
April 30th, 2026 at 6:13 amReply
Gearhead Gertie: Take me down the Gearhead city
Where the grass is black and Gertie’s shitty . . .
Vulpes
April 30th, 2026 at 6:52 amReply
Gearhead Gertie: I question the utility of a riding mower that hovers ten inches above the grass.
Ukulele Ike
April 30th, 2026 at 7:20 amReply
Dick Tracy: The deli man knows that Sam won’t have his sandwiches cut. “All the flavor leaks out!”
Anonymous
April 30th, 2026 at 9:06 amReply
Mark Trail: “He’s been sending huge chunks of cash to an internet sweetheart! By the way, since when did he start wearing ascots?”
2+2=7
April 30th, 2026 at 9:08 amReply
Rex Morgan: By the way, the highlights for this “night on the town” include the world’s most depressing bar and an Applebees knock-off the principal cast doesn’t actually want to eat at. The Glenwood Travel Bureau might want to reconsider their promotional partnership with Rex Morgan M.D.
Hibbleton
May 1st, 2026 at 4:36 am Reply
Mary Worth: Of course, we’re too sophisticated to be conned out of our cash as we lie here with pickle slices covering our eyes.
Hibbleton
May 1st, 2026 at 4:43 am Reply
Phantom: Shouldn’t that be Thonk?
“No. By treaty we can only use balsa sticks. Damn UN.
Pozzo
May 1st, 2026 at 4:59 am Reply
Shoe: Roz looks disappointed — she had the ball gag all ready and everything!
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
May 1st, 2026 at 5:33 am Reply
Shoe: “Sir, this is Roz’s Diner. The Wendy’s is the next tree over.”
MikeP
May 1st, 2026 at 6:30 am Reply
Mary Worth: See? Placing water near your Spa just allows the pirates to get there, kill the patrons, and put gold doubloons on their eyes.
Liam
May 1st, 2026 at 6:44 am Reply
Family Circus: I think it’s time to put Grandma away when she cooked up some asphalt.
Guillermo el chiclero
May 1st, 2026 at 6:55 am Reply
Family Circus: Look here, Grandma, we appreciate that you’re trying to give the kid a decent sized meal but keep in mind that if there’s one kid on Earth who’s stupid enough to drown in a bowl of soup it’s Jeffy.
Voshkod
May 1st, 2026 at 7:56 am Reply
Phantom: I think the most offensive thing about today’s Phantom is that we have a visitor from the stars being met by a mere Seaman. You’d think Mister Freaky would rate an officer at least.
richardf8
May 1st, 2026 at 8:48 am Reply
Flash Gordon: Never enter a vagina you just found lying around underground.
Anonyminimouse
May 1st, 2026 at 12:08 pm Reply
Mary Worth: Mary and Toby are so relaxed that they have partly reverted to their alien forms. Those things either side of their noses are not cucumber slices or Ritz crackers, but are their actual eyes.
Shadow COTW
——————
Horace Broon
April 30th, 2026 at 11:58 amReply
Mark Trail: Goodness, imagine being the hip, cutting-edge Jules Rivera Mark Trail that knows what TikTok is, and then being beaten to a storyline about the internet by Mary freaking Worth.
I’m glad 2+2=7’s #69 made the cut. That was a great takedown of the whole insipid story.
Congrats to Stuart F., everyone on the float, the scratchies, and my fellow shadowfloaters! Broon Croons to But What Do I Know?, I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV, Schroduck, Tabby Lavalamp, and TheDiva.
(BTW, regarding anteaters’ “nose tongues” — if you think they look weird in B.C., they look even weirder in real life.)
Congratulations to Stuart F and the rest of the float gang. Also to the scratchies. Tips of the beret to BigTed, pugfuggly, Doctor Moreau (Not a Doctor), and 76VDubber.
Thanks, Baja.
Thanks, Baja, and congrats on scoring the Shadow COTW, Horace!
Thank you, Baja!
Thanks for the three-peat, Scratchy and Baja!
@Horace Broon: But at least with real life anteaters that’s clearly its mouth, not its nose! There is no smiling maw tucked away underneath all of that! Do B.C. anteaters lick their nose and eat it? Damn it, I’m going to have nightmares now.
Thanks, Josh and Scratchy! Hail Stuart F, new champion of our war band. High fives to the Float, and all the named. The Gravemind sees Joe Blevins (Jesus, I laughed at this), Drew Funk (brilliant!) and Doctor Moreau (Not A Doctor) (the build was glorious!). Y’all make the Internet a better place.
Thanks Josh, Scratchy, and Baja for all the highlights and the mentions. Funny stuff!
Thanks Josh (and Baja and Scratchy), congrats to all the COTWs, and merry Mayday to all!
Thank you, Josh, Scratchy and Baja!
Thanks for the mentions, Baja.
@BigTed:
Tra la, it’s May, the lusty month of May
That lusty month when everyone goes lustfully astray
Tra la, it’s here, that lusty time of year
When tons of lusty little thoughts merrily appear
It’s May, it’s May, that lusty holiday
When every maiden prays that her lad will be a cad
It’s mad, it’s gay, a libelous display
Those dreary vows that everyone takes
Everyone breaks
Everyone makes divine mistakes
The lusty month of May
@Baja Gaijin: THANX!
Thanks, Scratchy and Baja!
@Baja Gaijin: Thanks for the mentions Baja.
@Ukulele Ike:
Eh, it’s just what, the third week of Floreal?
Kudos to Stuart F., thanks to our host, claps for all named, and I appreciate the nods from Scratchy and Baja.
@Ukulele Ike: I trust you’ve got some Rodgers and Hammerstein cued up for 31 days from now.
Yaaaay, a lot of people were very funny!
@A Grave Mind: (shakes fist in the air and yells something filthy in French) MONTH OF FLOWERS, BABY! Vive le republique!!!
@ValdVin: Hang on. (Consults internet pornography) No, still not nearly gay enough to be all that tuned in to Broadway musicals history. Oklahoma? What?
@Ukulele Ike:
Knew you’d get it. :)
Felicitations to all the winners and mentionees, and thank you, Scratchy and Baja!
“but then they are interested in the regular payments you still make to them as compensation for the financial disruption caused by the divorce. This is a funny juxtaposition of two inconsistent positions … ? Because they’re women? Am I … am I right?”
Er, well, if she initiated the divorce then that kind of *would* be a funny juxtaposition of two inconsistent positions.
“compensation for the financial disruption caused by the divorce” … that she wanted and initiated?
Thanks Baja! Congrats to the Shadows and the Floater and the scroters and Stuart F.