BUSKSCAM 2026: THE RECKONING
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Rex Morgan, M.D., 7/1/26
Oh, hey, so it turns out June was so snooty about those buskers last week because she could tell that the lady with the violin wasn’t really playing it and their amp was just pumping out prerecorded music. This could’ve been just another minor irritation for the Morgans except that these evil twins seem to know June and Sarah???? It is honestly funny to think that they know not just June but also her minor child and have travelled all the way to their hometown and think it would’ve been “sweet” to “scam” them (by tricking them into putting money into their little tip bucket even though they aren’t really playing music???), but that’s not, like, their main mission or anything. It would’ve been sweet, but the prospect won’t distract them from their overall goal (tricking other people into putting money into their little tip bucket even though they aren’t really playing music).
B.C., 7/1/26
Pretty sure this is just what shingles is. You’re about to get shingles, Curls!
Heathcliff, 7/1/26
IT’S “HAMKY SACK,” C’MON HEATHCLIFF, I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE TO SPELL THIS OUT FOR YOU
168 replies to “BUSKSCAM 2026: THE RECKONING”
Egad! Why could the creepy twins want to scam June out of her precious 37 cents? Unless they were…her ENEMIES!
Don’t worry folks, no need to get excited, this is all gonna end up at a Truck concert, with, I dunno, Augie there too?
RMMD: Beatty: “Damn the interesting plotlines! They’re scammers! June is never wrong!”
Heathcliff: Having this scene take place in front of a meat market can cause some confusion. For all we know, that ham is inside the window and Heathcliff and his friends are doing some kind of incantatory dance.
It’s because they don’t have souls, Red-Headed Caveman Guy! All your beloved pets pass into total oblivion when they die! There, you went and made it deep. Way to ruin a perfectly good day of rock leanin’ and starin’!
Heathcliff: If you imagine that ham hanging inside the shop, it looks like Heathcliff is Madonna-style Vogue-ing and the other two cats are backup dancers.
RMMD: Hey, when Mud was faking his crapfest in the bathroom, wasn’t he scamming? And using music as a pretext?
Look at Heathcliff. There is a guy who found the stash of quality shit, and nothing enhances the taste of ham quite like cat feet and sidewalk. It’s a good day, friends.
RMMD:
I haven’t seen a sneer like the one displayed in the first panel since Snidely Whiplash last appeared in Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties.
BC: I need to know why Peter is leaning against Curls’ rock-desk. I mean, no legacy cartoonist is wasting their time drawing a single unnecessary detail, so why push tee-time back 5 minutes to sketch in a character who doesn’t even speak? My personal theory: B.C. needs to get rid of a few supernumerary characters, and we’re about to see the start of the tragic Paleolithic Pandemic story arc. Peter will be the first to be infected, but he won’t be the last.
BC: Why don’t we ever hear about sightings of live bacteria and viruses? Because we live in the #$*@ Stone Age!
Wrecks Moregone:
“And it wouldn’t have been any crime after their clinic’s negligence crippled mum and put us to busking in the street!”
__________________________________________
Wary Morth:
“Like the love affair Fabiana sold you for an emerald?”
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Suburban Fairy Tales:
“Where is home?”
“Where the heart is.”
“In my chest?” (Tries to burrow into it.)
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Questioned Malcontent:
Good heavens, her boobs are even huger from the side and are growing right out of her clavicles!
The violin notes stopped appearing the moment Twin 1 stopped “playing” the violin. She either has a remote control for the speaker or she was really playing.
Heathcliff:
“Don’t pay any attention to him — he’s just hamming it up!”
RMMD: When did Rene Belluso transmogrify into twin girls?
MW: “Hey Dad, since you’re such a great judge of character, have you talked to Belle lately?”
Heathcliff: Remember the “Invisible Bike” lolcat? Here, Heathcliff demonstrates “Invisible Recliner.”
Heathcliff: That’s a bean bag shaped as a ham, right? Because I doubt kitties could keep a ham aloft with their rear paws or heads.
RMMD:
“We’re such stylized bad girls, you just know that if we were appearing in Mary Worth, we’d be smoking cigarettes!”
RMMD: So, the “scam” is, “Not only am I not really playing this violin, but I’m also NOT using your 75 cents for medicine?” Hardly worth that sneer.
MW: There should be a law, an actual law, that forbids people from giving advice, based on the stupidity level of their past decisions.
GT: Ask any Cleveland sports fan; “We’ll do better next time” is NOT a template you want to use for marriage(s).
RMMD:
“We’re sort of the antimatter Castor and Pollux of Glenwood, aren’t we.”
“Huh?”
RMMD: The Morgans are the Mount Everest of donating in the world of panhandlers. Getting June or Rex to toss a few dimes into their hat guarantees the girls a photo and front page headline in the Hobo News.
RMMD: I swear, when I first saw today’s header I thought it said ‘BUCKscam’ and it was revealed that the DeeDee twins here had an elaborate plot to scam Buck. It *has* been a while since we’ve seen him after all. Hey, maybe June will tell Rex about the scammers (of COURSE she will) and Rex will call Buck (‘ugh, my wife will not stop complaining about…’) and we’ll get one of Beatty’s classic upnostril while awkwardly gesticulating on the phone shots!
GT: ‘I thought it was because I’m the White Male Protagonist. Didn’t I just solve the illegal immigration/mass deportation issue forever? Just in time for Prom too!’
S4th: Dammit Ces! You’re forgetting your own tropes! The Forths were supposed to disappear into their disturbingly frequent fugue state for the rest of this plotline and Ronan and Mrs. Ted Forth were supposed to come back at the end wondering what the hell happened to them because it ruined the trip! If you’re going to keep pulling this crap, at least be consistent about it!!
MW: Of all the things we know and are disturbed by about Wilbur, the fact that he has a beloved ‘Hello Kitty’ mug might be one of the most disturbing of all.
Ph: It’s gonna be those robots with Schmelon Schmusk’s face who like to pontificate, isn’t it?
RMMD:
“I hope that this story arc has us making busking efforts at the local Mennonite, Amish and Quaker communities next!”
“Why is that, Sis?”
“It would be displaying sects and violins!”
Heath: Cats are well-known for playing with their food before they devour it, so this Heathcliff is about as grounded in reality as the strip is permitted by law to be.
RMMD: Yes, getting the loose change in June’s wallet (approximately 78 cents, plus a ten peso piece that managed to get in there somehow) would have been the crowning achievement of your life of larceny.
Jesus Hosea Christ, but the smug, self-righteous superiority of this whole setup makes me want to throw things. Of course the busking violinist is only pretending to play her music. Of course this means they’re probably lying about everything else, including the need to pay their medical bills. Of course they are comically, sneeringly evil about the whole pretense and enjoy the thought of fooling the good, honest people of the town. Of course this means that they (and by extension all transients) are not to be trusted or given money for any reason, because they are criminals and leeches who deserve no empathy or kindness or any acknowledgement that they are fellow human beings sharing this brief, unpredictable and often painful journey through existence as we know it, only the haughty contempt of Good People like June and Sarah. Of course.
RMMD: At this point the only explanation is that a busker ran over Beatty’s dog.
FC In a world where people have only 4 toes per foot and 4 fingers per hand, what *does* happen to “This Little Piggy…”? We can see by the stub-marks that “had roast beef” is still the third one, so does the last toe get “had none” or “cried weeeweewee all the way home”? And does it say something about the society that the rhymes it reaches its children end with sad deprivation or optimistic escape?
GT I suppose one could interject about Mimi here, but it really is hard to argue with “I’m actually not attracted to your sex, sorry”
B.C.: The lore of ghost animals is really quite extensive, especially dogs and cats. As for viruses and bacteria… maybe you need a ghost microscope?
FG: thank goodness we live in a world where we can deliver messages by — phone! Take that, Mongo!
JP: bored, Soph? How about taking over cooking duties as apparently your family has been living on highly processed meats since Marie quit
MW: Daddy Wilbur drinks from Hello Kitty. Another of his endearing qualities.
PHANTOM: Are the guards wearing wigs or did they dye their hair?
Perhaps the author just finished reading the book Sounds Like Titanic, a nonfiction memoir about a violinist who was hired by an orchestra only to find out that they were simply miming along to a tape. That’s not exactly comparable to standing there with a plainly visible speaker and requesting donations, which is arguably (as was pointed out here) some kind of performance art. But then again, anyone asking for money in public in this comic must be planning something evil enough to deserve a Snidely Whiplash sneer.
DT: So Fritz-Ann used department funds to buy a state-of-the-art customized setup to catfish a couple of shut-in nerds playing whatever the Neo-Chicago equivalent of Call of Duty is. They’re right, the police are massively overfunded.
C’shaft: Okay, so now I want to know what the ballroom owner’s angle is in all this? Because apparently they’re paying all their staff and a big band to play for an audience of two, and have been doing so for quite some time, and that doesn’t make sense unless this is a larger-scale version of those little Italian restaurants that are secretly fronts for the Mafia.
Dustin: Dustdad is a middle-aged manchild who doesn’t want to eat his vegetables or watch movies without explosions in them and who would be wallowing in a dirty house filled with discarded takeout containers if his wife ever got up the sense to leave him, I don’t want to hear about Dustin being in a state of arrested development.
GT: “Your stick-to-it-tive-ness is why you, White Male Protagonist Gil Thorp, are the most beloved person in your community as you deserve to be.”
Luann: Come on, Bernice, I’m sure you have inter…um, tal…people who tol…you know what, you just sit there and keep talking to your fish.
MW: Oh SHUT UP, Mister “Belle is a really nice gal, I’m sure once you take the time to get to know her she’ll stop trying to kill you!”
@Activist: re: Phantom – almost certainly headdresses showing the Wambesi have cultural similarities to the Maasai, Oromo, etc, and that these guards are therefore elite warriors serving in effectively dress uniforms
Questionable Content : I would have preferred if this had gone
Panel 1 : NuZlata : …Well, since no one has seen me like this, I could just transfer back to my old body, no harm no foul…
Panel 2 : OldZlata (regaining consciousness) : …Huh? Wha-? Where am I? Who-!?
Panel 3 : *Uncomfortable beat as the two Zlata stare at each other*
Panel 4 : BothZlata : ZLATA YOU FOOL! “Copy data” is no the same a “Transfer data”!
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Rex Morgan M.D. : ideally, a narrative shouldn’t have to cut back to characters the protagonists snubbed going “IT’S OKAY THE PROTAGONIST SNUBBED US, WE ARE EVIL BAD GUYS!”
I recognise there are times when its necessary, like as a way to show that the protagonist is shrewd, but I don’t think this is quite one of those times?
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Ripley’s Don’t Believe It :
d) Ancient Mesopotamians did not spend 49 hours a year sitting on the toilet, looking at pictures of cute cats on their phones. This is merely a liberty the artist took to try and find a common element between today’s surprisingly disparate ‘fun’ ‘facts’.
Rex Morgan, M.D.: CHILDREN OF THE CORN, EXCEPT IT’S CHILDREN OF RENE BELLUSO (THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS SECRETLY BALD AND WEARS A WIG)
RMMD- Grinning evilly whilst busting kinda destroys the “poor us” mythos. They’re not scammers, they’re auditioning to be Mae Mae’s backup band.
“What the hell are you talking about, man? We live in a demon-haunted world, to quote Carl Sagan. Every noise in the night, every light in the sky, every wisp of cloud or low-hanging mist is a ghost, maybe of man, woman, child, dog, or the saber-toothed tiger. That’s why we propitiate all these spirits with offerings and defend ourselves with wards. That’s why we bury our dead with beads and weapons. Did you think we did it to confuse archeologists or anthropologists? I mean, that’s a funny side effect, but not our main reason.”
Also Rex Morgan M.D.: An absurdly complicated scam carried out for absurdly low stakes by odd-looking villains who have beef with the designated good guys? Look out, folks: Dick Tracy has escaped its containment! It got Judge Parker long ago, and now it’s coming for Rex Morgan, M.D.!
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Their names are Jené and Esmé.
I doubt the B.C. writers are aware that Hitmen for Destiny did a much funnier bit about “why don’t animals have ghosts?”
I dunno, Josh. “Hack-y sack” seems like it would have been a good title for today’s post. Hiyooo!!
BC: Actually kind of a solid gag. If the subtext wasn’t “How dare you demonstrate skepticism? Die in a plague!” I’d like it better, though.
B.C.: There is a theory that hunter-gatherer societies such as we find in B.C. are more intimately connected with nature, sensing the presence of diffuse spirit in all living things. It would stand to reason therefore that those societies are also more aware of “ghosts” as the continued presence of the living after their death, e.g. as in ancestor worship. Sadly, that theory has never reckoned with a legacy cartoonist coming up hard against a deadline.
BC: I do like that the Ghost of Maladies Past has magnified itself millions of times (for visibility), and has learned to say “BOOOO.” It knows who its audience is, and it’s not other viruses!
Beetle Bailey-Ms. Buxley, remove your panties!
MW-“Tommy showed me his chip.”
FC-Dolly stomped on your foot?
RMMD-Who are these people?
RMMD: At dinner tonight, June goes on a rant about how she knew the busker wasn’t really playing the instrument.
“Any idiot knows the difference in tone between a violin and viola,” Glares at Sarah.
RMMD: Deep in sleep, Truck Tyler has the recurring nightmare of his illegitimate twins begging on a street corner holding instruments they can’t play while “Glenwood Motel” plays in the background.*
*This comment inspired by Sonja Hobbs
RMMD/MT: Meanwhile, Jules is juggling two concurrent arc about hustlers, scammers, and liars. And those plots and characters are more elaborate and interesting than Beatty’s Busker Bash.
(Yes, yes, you can say ‘low bar’. But it’s a guarantee that Ranger Mike’s kid isn’t going to jail on felony charges for lying about taking the picture. The Overlook Twins, on the other hand…. I wouldn’t put it past Beatty.)
CS: “September 27, 1941, was the day it all ended. The world was at war, and the entire band was sick of Lorenzo. He was making us play his awful ‘Moonlight Over Kilimanjaro’ piece, so we all decided to quit after the intermission instead. We threw the sheet music on the floor, where that one pathetic couple that was in that dance hall every night would find it. I wonder if the guy ever got the message we wrote on the back: ‘propose to her right now, stupid.'” — Juanito “Johnny Redd” Rosa, trumpeter, excerpted from VH1’s Behind The Music: The Larry Dinkle Orchestra.
Butcher shop guy seems uncharacteristically happy. Is it possible that Heathcliff paid for the ham?
“I wonder if us being twins is critical to the scam, or whether it’s just making it easier for the artist?”
“I’m wondering which one of us is Mary and which is Maria.”
“Have you considered that pan-handlers are not just lazy and scammy, but actively conspiring to hurt you?” is the platonic ideal of bourgeois respectability
Yesterday, I’d commented something about RMMD moving toward 9CL. Well, they got there. I recognize the hair color. That’s Lolly & Polly scamming people at the supermarket parking lot!
FC: How in the world do you stub only the middle toe?
LUANN: Well, Bernice, back where I come from, there’s something called a “job”…
I know I’m repeating myself here, but I can’t believe the plot is setting up a scenario where the Morgans not tipping is heroic. Villains want you to tip, which is a scam by the way
Rex Morgan – This could have been a story about the high cost of medical care destroying lives, with a lesson in compassion and helping our neighbors. But, NOOOOO, June was immediately suspicious because -Gasp! Horrors! – the busker was faking playing her violin. Now, in the most anvilicious way possible, Beatty drops the development that the girls are evil scammers. Beatty now joins Batiuk in the Fuck You Club, as in, fuck you, Beatty.
Arlo & Janis – I can relate. Sigh.
Frazz – Add cable TV to the long list of things Frazz is superior to.
JP – Uh, didn’t Sophie return home because the internship was time limited? However, it could have been extended when the employer suddenly changed from a charity to a company.
RMMD: This must be the setup for what Comics Kingdom persists in describing as “tackling contemporary and contentious healthcare issues with sensitivity and intelligence.” One of these two will be hit by a car. Rex has to operate — but recognizes the patient once pretended to play the violin. How will Rex resolve this moral dilemma?
RMMD. I know this is a family friendly comic strip and all but I can’t help but think that two attractive young red-headed female twins with no apparent scruples could earn a quick buck a lot easier by miming something else.
Rex Morgan: These able-bodied young women with access to fancy matching outfits and expensive hair dye clearly don’t need to beg for money, any more than they actually know how to play the violin. So what exactly is the “scam” they’re pulling by getting people to throw a buck or two into their tip can? The only possible answer is that they’re extracting DNA from the bills, then creating clones of the tippers that they can use to steal their identities and drain their bank accounts. Sure, it seems like an extremely difficult, complicated plan with major upfront costs compared to the potential profit — but the sisters’ cultish outfits suggest that the eventual goal is to create a clone army that will answer only to their leader, a genetics specialist who’s still mad that Rex beat him on a test in medical school or something. Just wait until he has clones of June and Sarah, which he can use for especially nefarious shenanigans after two or three decades of training! Anyway, that must be where this plot is going — because otherwise it would end up as something pointless and boring, rather than one of the thrilling tales we’ve come to expect from Rex Morgan, M.D.
@Little Guy: Re RMMD – Mud gets a pass because he’s a roots country musician. These girls get a much higher level of disapproval because they have the audacity to use fake music that isn’t roots country.
@Rover Berkeley: We’ll know for sure if they’re Polly and Lolly if they take a break to boink random men.
B.C.: Maybe because you’re cavemen and viruses and bacteria won’t be discovered for millennia?
MW: I’m pretty sure that Karen Moy didn’t specify a Hello Kitty cup for Wilbur, so is this June Brigman quietly telling us that she knows he’s a ridiculous manchild? A cry for help? An ode to her favorite cup? A job application?
Luann: “Puddles bites (come on Frenchie)/Puddles chews it…”
RMMD: how much could they possible be scamming?
MW: I hope this ends with both Dawn AMD Wilbur addicted to meth.
REX MORGAN M.D.: Evil Ginger #1: “Too bad they didn’t tip us. I would have loved to scammed them?”
Evil Ginger #2: “That would have been sweet.”
(beat)
Evil Ginger #1: “Hmmm. Hey, do you think we should have this loud public cackling session somewhere other than the place we’re doing the scam.”
Evil Ginger #2: “Maybe. I guess I was just so eager to gloat about how right uppity bitch June is and to signal to people that Rene Bellusco is involved here (whoops, “spoilers!”) that I got carried away giving out petty and inept ‘signifiers’ to the audience.”
Evil Ginger #1: “Well just remember to pace yourself. After all we have a whole other week and a half to giggle conspiratorially to ourselves over how we’re transparently evil scammers fooling the dumb rubes!”
(The girls look around the see a crowd of onlookers in the parking lot, looking at them suspiciously.)
Evil Ginger #1: “Oops, looks like I forgot to take my own advice”
@Her Father, John Darling: You missed the arc from several years ago where the Morgans got the local strip club closed…not because of the First Amendment protected content…but because one of the dancers asked Rex to leave something on the rail.
@Ken: Or, as Shorty and the Beanpole would doubtless say:
“Doctor! Will I be able to play the violin after this operation?”
“Certainly.”
“Great, because I never could before!”
@comicfan1988: speaking of scammers: clean up at comment 57, spam/scam post.
@brendancalling:
Hey, we all know about those street buskers, all drinking Moet, taking rocket rides with Katy Perry, buying Rolls Royces.
RMMD: Diva and I Speak Jive really said it all about the contempt the writers show for people.
Everything is a scam. From complimenting entitled children to get access to their parents to asking for donations on behalf of a sick parent.
It’s also really repetitive.
Speaking of that — unwanted post at #57.
June Morgan is a twat.
FG: I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but I’m pleased the “new” Flash Gordon artist vanished and we’re back to Dan Schkrade’s razored cheekbones and El Greco physiques. The other guy’s chubby baby faces on Flash and Dale and Bok were disconcerting.
BB: Don’t be such a self-disciplinarian, General. You can always pack a Thermos of Martinis and start attitude-adjusting by lunchtime. Hell, just come into work drunk — that’s why the Bloody Mary was invented!
Rex Morgan: I mentioned yesterday at length that this arc is starting to creep me out a little, and I realize now that its because it’s very much giving the vibe that Beatty saw somebody busking in real life and it fucking ENRAGED him for God knows what reason and now he’s venting angrily about it in his comic, including portraying buskers as pure evil schemers. It’s bizarre, ugly, and more than a little pathetic if I’m being honest.
B.C.: There ARE plenty of reported sightings of ghosts of animals, dipshit, it’s modestly common as far as ghost reports go. And why did you just randomly say that to your friends and than walk away before they could answer? I hope the chickenpox phantom kills this redheaded caveman, he’s a bitchass.
Heathcliff: “Wait, I don’t see any of our inventory missing, where did they get that ham?”
“It’s what’s left of our stockboy.”
Replace the ham with a t-bone and they can play hackey steak instead.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Hilda writes a lot of fantasy stories”
“Yeah. It’s good to have an escape from the dull routine of existence”
“Nothing interesting ever happens around here”
This is a comic that used to give us Rene Belluso, and now the biggest scam they can give us is a pair of twins who are pretending to be buskers? I mean sure, buskers are famously wealthy and… Hold on. *scamming you by pretending to get a note handed to me* This just in, I hope those twins enjoy the gum they’ll be able to buy from the money they pull in.
***
Ghosts of non-humans? Creatures with spirits? Johnny’s heirs sure don’t have the same beliefs – at least to the same degree – that he had, do they?
***
But seriously, once you get close enough to give them money, you should be able to tell that the one twin isn’t actually playing, right? The sound would be coming from the speaker but the violin isn’t connected to it at all.
Those twins can’t be that evil if their idea of scamming is wearing modest clothing and pretending to play the violin instead of starting a Doublemint Gum themed OnlyFans.
B.C.:Sorry, caveman, bur that bacterium coming for you is your past gonorrhea.
–explaining for a friend.
@I speak Jive: Random men who inexplicably vanish without a trace, never to be seen again. It’s my theory that Polly & Lolly are modern day Typhoid Marys, carrying some sort of STD that they can transmit, while they themselves are immune to it. This mystery disease can apparently kill you within a week of contracting it.
@19 The Quiet Man: on Mary Worth: “Of all the things we know and are disturbed by about Wilbur, the fact that he has a beloved ‘Hello Kitty’ mug might be one of the most disturbing of all.” Not even remotely close to Wilbur’s disturbingest. Note: Linked content isn’t “Wilbur in a Speedo.”
RMMD-“How dare those Morgans have things better than us!”
@21 TheDiva: on Rex Morgan: Tell us how you really feel, Diva. Don’t edit yourself.
@UncleJeff: I genuinely can’t tell or remember if you’re joking or not but if you’re serious, than holy shit, what is with this comic?
@Little Blue Bicycle: In a better comic, it’d either just be a silly visual gag or a character detail of Wilbur still having a bunch of stuff from when Dawn was a kid laying around the house (so to speak). But this is Mary Worth, so who knows.
@Dan: It reminds me of that bit at the start of Reservoir Dogs where Mr. Pink says he refuses to tip unless the service was especially good and all the other robbers – even the one that turns out to be a sadistic, triggerhappy lunatic – immediately give him shit for it. Beatty doesn’t just think Pink has a point in that scene; he thinks Pink is a fucking hero for being brave enough to say it and that the waitresses asking for tips are probably scammers who need to be taught a lesson.
@TheDiva: Your comment about Dustin’s Dad is so on point. For a comic supposedly about ripping into the younger generations for not being as great as the boomers, it makes the boomers’ main representative, the Dickhead Dad in question, seem so much worse on every conceivable front.
@The Quiet Man: If Buck does appear in this arc, maybe we’ll finally get an explanation for why he looks like a fat clone of Rex.
Dustin-“People are stupid. They believe it when I tell them they’re the best I ever had.”
RMMD – Recognized June and Sarah? I call BS. Those two are way too young to be reading soap opera strips.
Crankshaft-“Hey here’s some sheet music we can hang onto forever instead of passing them off as our own and sell them.”
DT: It is like the writers know about things in a very broad way but none of the nuances. They have heard about hackers wreaking havoc but not really how they work and who they are. They assume the gamer crowd cross over with the hackers.
JP: Abbey is well off right – so that guy with the dark glasses behind her and Sam is one of her security team right? Neddy and Sophie are back in where they were years ago as teenagers. C’mon Charlotte – break free of the cycle!
MW: Yeah, Wilbur, make sure Tommy has changed – ask for random drug tests and tag him to track him as he goes about his day.
Phantom: Are these the same drones and operators that helped Soly Tare?
Rex Morgan MD: These villains looked much younger in the earlier strips -like they were kids; these look like they are in their twenties.Still holding out that they are tied to some nefarious activity in June’s past.
Cliff – No, no, it’s not Hamky Sack, that kind of thing leads to Crankshaft. Do you want Heathcliff to be Crankshaft? Well, do you?
@Rover Berkeley: So Tall Amos who plays the piano should be dead soon, right?
Right?
(Tomorrow we’re on schedule to find out the tooth fairy check his wealthy mother put under the pillow is for fifteen million dollars, so I’m anxious for him to be dead by then.)
JP: “I need you to hose Charlotte off in the yard. Abbey won’t let her use any of the indoor bathrooms.”
(this is a real thing among certain types of rich people. See Jared and Ivanka making the workmen renovating their DC mansion having to walk four blocks to pee)
RMMD Yesterday I suggested that Beatty was using fake music as an analogy to AI creating fake art. That would have been pretty stupid, but it looks like what is actually happening is WAY stupider.
Oh, and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canucks. Strong and free, buds, strong and free.
RMMD-For shame on June stealing Rex from this woman. She would have been just as good of a beard as June is maybe even better.
@Baja Gaijin: That’s just his face, which we already knew was ugly as sin. I’m talking about the depths of his *mind*. What reason would he have for owning a Hello Kitty mug unless he’s intending for someone to see it? Do you need me to spell it out any farther??
The Morgans really have a bug up their ass about fake art scams. Wasn’t there that guy who was painting knock-off masterpieces, who then violated the copyright of their concussed child, and then became a scam self-help guru? Thing is, all of these “scams” involved faking art using real art skills. These people are all artists, is my point. Pantomiming violin is an impressive skill, and all self-help a scam unless it helps people, which it did. If they get joy from these scams I say let them!
@87 The Quiet Man: You don’t need to spell it out. It was a premium that came in a crate of mayo.
@Rube:
#84. Yes, Happy Canada Day. “This Day in History” newsletter said it’s one of the few times a country has peacefully separated from a other (congrats). But I like to think the US revolution and civil war mad England more willing
A&J: and after that leisurely 5pm dinner with witty conversation, you can go for a leisurely stroll, followed by a relaxing boatride on the bay, and still get to bed by 8pm. Confirm this with Mary and Jeff
FBoFW: careful. You’re a role model. What you do for your parents will be passed down.
DOONESBURY: Compare and contrast to TJ in “Luann”, who manages Kafe Kablooie, does all cooking at home, babysits Shannon, and helps remodel house. While paying rent, I think.
MANDRAKE: Why would a friend act like an enemy? I doubt Hay U is preparing a surprise birthday party
TINA G: Dinner dates during World Cup.
@ectojazzmage: I suspect that it’s for the reasons that someone else here implied earlier in the storyline: that Terry Beatty has a big mad-on for art fakery. Remember how outraged Buck and his woodchuck family were about comic panel forgery (which was actually a scam by Rene)? And remember how fandom turned to hatedom after Sarah was accused of plagiarism (which was actually a scam by Rene)? And recall how Rex personally intervened in the Mirakle Method situation (despite dismissing it as total quackery) simply because he was so enraged about the copyright infringement (you’ll never guess who this was a scam by, by the way)? Incidentally, I know everyone doesn’t have my keen poker intuition, but this was Beatty’s oh-so subtle “tell” about Rene’s eventual involvement in this story.
Anyway, about Beatty, before this gig, I think he worked in comic books. I suspect someone from the industry used one of his panels or characters in Ways He Didn’t Like (probably not even illegally. Just in ways that Beatty considers “unethical.” Like a fan reselling one of his autographed drawings or whatever.) in any case, it seems to have left him with an axe to grind. Good thing he runs a legacy comic, which has no precedent of creators using the medium that way, eh? (wink, wink )
There have been animal ghost sightings though.
Not common, but still existing.
Also shortly after my Dog died, I heard his collar/tags jingling down the hall.
Which twin is Rene B.?
CS: So after the band stomped off in a huff the drummer just left his full kit there? If I were Eugene I’d be scooping that up.
RMMD- “Oh, she may not look like other girls, but she’s a snarl toothed Seether!” – Veruca Salt.
MARY WORTH Wilbur might want to step carefully here, since “people can change” is supposedly the foundation for a majority of his plots. Like the reason we’re supposed to
enable“forgive” Wilbur so much is that he’s just a “diamond-in-the-rough” that’ll eventually shine through if given enough polish, remember?MARY WORTH (2): This also seems particularly egregious on Wilbur’s part, because his other frequent subplot is him hoping that, husband and common-sense be damned, Iris will eventually get back together with him. And I’m sure insulting her son as a hopeless white-trash junkie is bound to make he succumb to his doughy sweaty charms!
@The Ghost of Jarrod: . Do you want Heathcliff to be Crankshaft? Well, do you?
_____________________________________________
“You got Heathcliff in my Crankshaft!” “You got Crankshaft in my Heathcliff!” “Hey! Now it REALLY stinks!”
REESE’S Heathcrank Cups™ Two Carpy tastes that taste carpy together!
RMMD: Apparently Rex Morganville has eliminated all crime and injustice, to the extent that “buskers are misrepresenting their abilities and/or motives” is the most alarming drama that June and Sarah will ever encounter. As June deftly handles this “teachable moment,” Sarah is shocked to learn that someone ostensibly playing the violin is not REALLY playing the violin, how dare they. I notice that Sarah is not bothering to engage with the injustice advertised on the buskers’ sign, i.e. if the twins don’t fork over some money to their landlord/bank/healthcare provider there will be dire consequences, but I’m sure that June is ready to read her the prosperity gospel if Sarah has follow-up questions. “But mom, can’t we give them money anyway? Their sign says–” “If they were good people they wouldn’t be begging on the street, sweetie.”
Heathcliff: The ham needs wiggly motion lines around it to tie it to the foot movement below. As it is, it looks like a clip art failure.
BC: Because they don’t have souls! BC is the last place I would ever think I had to explain this.
CS: “Let’s hide this away so no one ever finds it!”
S4: We’re way past the point where people reacting to Ted can still be funny.
@Rita Lake: “Apparently Rex Morganville has eliminated all crime and injustice”
Thank the StreetSweeper for that.
He was truly the hero we needed, but didn’t deserve.
@2+2=7: Wilbur [is] just a “diamond-in-the-rough” that’ll eventually shine through if given enough polish
There are other proverbs about polishing things which seem more apropos.
@Baja Gaijin: Touché!
@Activist: re: Doonesbury— Keep in mind that Zonker is an ageless, magical creature who resents having to perform mortal chores like working or paying rent. TJ does what he does for his own creepy needs.
@A Grave Mind: The Familiar Mucus: “Thats a terrible thing to say about your sister, I don’t care if she DID step on your toe!”
RMMD: “I thought the same thing, which is odd because I’ve never met June or Sarah Morgan. Wait, is this one of those deals where twins share a psychic bond?”
BC: Imagine if you and your homey were just chilling by a big rock when, all of a sudden, some random dude walks up to you and just starts talking about ghosts and viruses? Would you be irritated? Confused? A little afraid?
‘clff: This is interesting. We all know Garfield is obsessed with lasagna because he enjoys eating it. That’s the whole point — eating. But Heathcliff’s love of ham is more abstract and mysterious. Maybe he just likes the shape of a ham? Or the sound of the word ham?
MT- “Other zookeepers had to care for their illnesses. They were contagious! Symptoms included an angry rash on the forehead, below the eyes, on the chin, paleness, difficulty breathing and swallowing. ..”
Pluggers aren’t fooling anyone at the medication window with their 8-day-week pill dispenser. You’re not getting extra pills for Glemsday, and if you want to supply your addiction, break into a pharmacy at 2am like the rest of us.
GT: Do you quit coaching golf when your student swings right handed in one panel and left handed in the next? No, you never give up. You get a guest artist. And that’s why people love you, Gil Thorp.”
Blondie:
“Philately will get you nowhere!”
“How would you know, Bumstead. You don’t even try anymore! What’s happened to us?”
FC:
“If you think that toe hurts, Jeffy, wait till we take the other one to market. ”
“What? To go shopping?”
“Uh, sure…yeah.”
MW: Unfortunately, Dawn’s goldfish-like memory prevents her from asking Wilbur if he’s always going to be a drunken loser, based on his premise.
Dustin: Damn it, Parker and Kelley! Stay out of Luann’s lane!
@Baja Gaijin: Yep. Wouldn’t want to see that up close.
B.C.:
Josh likes to harp on anachronisms in the strips set in the past for comedic effect, to the point he occasionally has to remind everyone that, yes, he understands that the anachronisms are frequently the point and he doesn’t expect, say, Hagar the Horrible to be a historically-accurate depiction of Viking Age Scandinavia. And I, too, understand that we can’t expect B.C. to accurately portray the lives of our Stone Age ancestors. Still, this—this is too much. Not only do they understand the germ theory of disease (to the point they draw a distinction between viruses and bacteria), but they have an accurate understanding of what a neuron looks like, judging by the disembodied one in the final panel representing the reactivation of the chickenpox virus that has been lying dormant in that caveman’s nervous system since childhood. To make things worse, this strip also violates longstanding B.C. precedent: while it’s true that rocks such as the one in this strip are often used for the site of weird jokes that don’t really fit the comic strip format, they generally have the general concept behind the joke, such as “Wiley’s Dictionary” or “Show Me”, written on them. This rock’s blank! These guys are just hanging out by this rock when Orange-Haired-Caveman-I-Don’t-Remember-And-Possibly-Never-Knew-The-Name-Of comes along unprompted and belligerently asks them a question that ends up causing one of them physical harm—and to add insult to injury, he doesn’t even wait around for the answer. Still, I can’t be too mad at this comic, because it implies necromancy is real in the B.C. universe, which would undoubtedly upset Johnny Hart.
RMMD – identical twins, and female as well. This is certainly René’s most elaborate disguise yet. However, it seems to be placing a strain on him and he’s begun talking to himself.
RMMD: I’m just glad someone is finally doing a hard-hitting exposé of the scams that can be perpetrated when you put an entire dollar bill in a cup. Look for Dateline or Sixty Minutes to pick up this scoop.
Crank: Okay, fine, Batty, in a purely mechanical this-happened-because-that-happened way, it makes sense. It still doesn’t make sense sense.
JP: Now, why would Sophie see coming back home as some kind of defeat, when it was her own decision because she’d achieved everything she could in Norway, missed her family, and no longer wanted to be tied to the charity job with its connections to her ex, even if she and Reena were both up for a promotion?
She was fired, right? She was fired the same day she broke up with Glenn, because that was the only reason she was hired, and Reena being promoted in a job she only took because Sophie made her was the last straw. But Ces is trying to write that story without actually saying it.
OTF: “With sub-zero temperatures there are no cooling costs.” Huh, this might … actually be right?
It’s wrong as far as orbital data centres go, which was my kneejerk response to seeing the phrase, because space is a vacuum, and if you think conductive heat easily escapes into a vacuum then let me tell you about the miracle of science called a Thermos. But Mars isn’t a vacuum. It’s got a thin and, yes, cold atmosphere. Would that channel the heat away or is 2% atmospheric density still too thin? I dunno, maybe?
RMMD: I’ve been predicting this for over a week, and I’m still kind of shocked about just how blatantly eeeeevil Beatty is making the twins. Ironically, it makes me realise I was wrong to say there’s no shades of grey in the Rexiverse, because he was much more understanding about the circumstances that might drive someone to mere invasion of privacy and blackmail! The guy was an asshole, but he was an asshole due to having his own problems!
It takes a lot for me to quit reading a strip (you will note that, much to my own bewilderment, I appear to still be reading Crankshaft). But congratulations, Beatty, you’ve done it.
@Horace Broon:
On On the Fastrack : None of the actual practicality of building data centres on Mars matters because it’s not going to happen. In the comic, I mean. Samantha Argus is going to legally adopt Mars as a child to prevent anyone from developping on it, and also Mars is going to be terraformed into an Earth-like planet populated by evil human-eating plants and evil cyborg dodos waging constant war against one another (which also puts a cramp on development), remember?
@Activist: #90:
“Happy Canada Day”
The reason there was no Canadian War of Idependence (or Australia for that matter) was the British apparently learned by their mistakes (Except Ireland for some reason, which they always ruled badly). Whatever they did to make us revolt they didn’t repeat with Canada.
America: We want self rule.
Britain: Fight me.
Canada: We want self rule.
Britain: Okay, just keep the Queen’s picture on your money.
@Anonymous: Oh, goodness, that’s right, yes. I keep forgetting that this story set in the current year of 2026 is the prequel to a story where the Mars explorers reflected on how they were no more stuck in their capsule than everyone on Earth was because of the Covid lockdowns. I really thought that with Batty down to one comic I could stop worrying about things like that!
@Guillermo el chiclero: Yeah, pretty much. The problem some Brits have with Ireland is that it seems to be too close to be a country we’ve colonised. It must actually be part of Britain, so Irish independence gets lumped in with the similar noises from us Scots, the Welsh and the Cornish, which is completely historically illiterate.
@Horace Broon: It won’t last. Brothers and sisters are natural enemies! Like Englishmen and Scots! Or Welshmen and Scots! Or Japanese and Scots! Or Scots and other Scots! Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!
— Groundskeeper Willie, a Damn Scot.
B. C.: A caveman wonders if the teeny, tiny little creatures which cause diseases have ghosts —which is probably closer to reality than the beliefs of our current head of the Dept. of Health and Human Services..
LUANN: It’s cute how Bernice gets off a passive-aggressive dig at her Luann’s activities, and yet is still pondering why no one wants to do any of their summer plans with her. It’s such a mystery.
(As an aside, the Trufans can say what they want about us–and yes they are aware of this blog’s existence–but no one here is pretend to be Luann’s bestie when we talk about what a dumbass she is.)
LUANN (2): Also I’m calling shenanigans on this whole story…and not just because the ridiculous contrivance of having everyone text Bernice their plans instead of their actual friends. I mean the whole point of Bernice is that she’s an obnoxious stuck-up-the-ass overachiever. Instead of sitting on her ass all day indulging in PG “steaminess”, the Bernice we know and
loathelove would be getting prepared for her this makes me an expert now internship at some psychiatric clinic just before her stint at some resume-padding charity work. That is, if she weren’t already taking summer classes do she can graduate early (she’ll have a leg up by taking only 20 years to leave college instead of 39 like everyone else ).@Horace Broon: re: OTF and cooling data centers – don’t downplay conductive heat flow into that cold, cold surface, nevermind *radiative* cooling (serious plans for orbital ones must grapple with thermal radiation as their only reasonable heat sink, and that is being discussed and designed)
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: 118 Don’t forget parrots and Scots.
RMMD: As a tech-savvy guy, I’m paranoid about tipping people with Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, etc. But I don’t see a QR code on the twins’ sign. Which Terry Beatty could use to scam the general public, come to think of it.
@118 Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: Fun fact: Should you stop by for a lager at Tennent’s (Glasgow), you’ll hear at least one man who sounds like Groundskeeper Willie.
@120 2+2=7: Everyone texts Bernice their FOMO moments trying to bring a little joy to that joyless future spinster. Or just to rub her nose in the fun she’ll never have because she’s such a sour-pussed priggish fuddy duddy.
@121 CanuckDownSouth: Yeah, getting rid of heat in the vacuum of space is quite difficult. Heat not wafting away is one of the suspected causes of the Space Launch System’s thruster failures.
Mark Trail Mix: “Criminy! THIS is the woman my dad wants to marry?!? She doesn’t even have any facial hair! How am I supposed to punch her out?” ” Well, Mark, further reading of her zoo records indicate she owns and cultivates a fine crop of underarm hair. Was a major winner in the 2025 Madonna Underarm Hair-Off.” “Hmmmmm…..underarm hair?!??” …(Thought bubble of Mark imagining Madonna’s underarm hair)… “close enough! It’s punching time!”
Sex Organ, V.D.: If both twins turn out to be Rene Balusco, I’ll grant him his claim as the world’s greatest master of disguise.
LUANN: Lampshading the fact that the strip always pursues the least interesting storytelling option is certainly a choice here. But you know what would be a better choice? Showing the interesting stuff instead of having us watch Bernice talk about it.
@GarrisonSkunk:
Rene is so talented he is both of them.
@Baja Gaijin: Yeah, sorry, this one’s really touching a nerve. I live in an area where there’s unfortunately a higher than average number of unhoused people, and consequently an even higher than average of jerkwads yelling “When are they going to do something* about all these homeless people?!” into every public forum available.
*”do something” in this case invariably meaning not “provide food, shelter, and assistance to address the immediate crisis, while working on long-term solutions addressing the root causes of the issue at both individual and societal levels,” but “get rid of all these filthy bums so I never have to interact with, see, or even think about them ever again.”
@Guillermo el chiclero: When I visited London for the first time, I got to hear the UK version of the American Revolution, which was mostly “America had gotten way too big, and we knew we couldn’t keep it anyway.” Which I imagine influenced their decision not to try and keep the similarly huge Canada and Australia.
@Banana Jr. 6000: The British government obviously handed the situation horribly, but there was a real problem. Giving the colonies representation in Parliament would have totally changed the government of Britain itself. After the American revolution, they basically dropped the idea of taxing the colonies, which changed the dynamics.
@TheDiva:
The losers in question should actually be looking into feeding/housing/anything themselves. Too Righty?
H-Cliff: [Breathes a sigh of profound relief that the animal Heathcliff and his pals are tormenting is already dead.]
RMMD: Two sneers, two evil grins. Everyone who said that June’s insane judgment on the Ginger Twins would somehow turn out to be correct, please collect your No Prize.
@Banana Jr. 6000: The last time I was in London as a tourist, my bitter old tour guide was definitely of the “Let’s send the Royal Navy to take back Boston” set. Every other sentence in his diatribe about the USA was like “something, something, Taco Bell and KFC, something, something.”
@Rube: Sports talk radio pointed out today that the tea tax was just 3%. This compared to a local bill to tack on a 15-25% fee for sports tickets that has the local teams irate.
9CL: Alistair’s mother snuck in and left them money because the actual Tooth Fairy isn’t going to wade into the grounds where these two monstrosities have sex. Her remit doesn’t even cover adults, people!
C-Shaft: This has been your very rare occasional reminder that this story has something to do with Eugene, who may once again now be forgotten.
DT: Shades of when Dick had to infiltrate a hippy gang by asking, “Do any of you lay-abouts have a marijuana cigarette, also known as a joint?”
Dustin: As a non-cynic, Dustin is in the wrong family and in a strip written by the wrong people. Sucks to be, well, anyone involved here.
GT: “And when I say they love you, I mean…Well, I mean something at any rate.”
HtH: Okay, so is Hagar basically a 50s Protestant American in Viking drag? Or is Christianity so alien to him that he takes all statements about Heaven as literal truth? Being inconsistent about history is one thing, but not knowing who your characters are is another.
JP: Just as Sophie is feeling adrift and out of place, Neddy comes to her needing help. There’s a shallow grave to dig and fill in, and Neddy and Ann can’t do it all by themselves. Not with all those bags of lime they’ll have to carry!
MW: Wilbur drinks his coffee from a Hello Kitty mug. On some men that quirk actually would be endearing. Wilbur is not one of these men, but let’s just leave it at that.
Re OTF: What I’m not sure about is whether this data center is supposed to have living employees. If it does, well, there’s a reason why there aren’t already residents on Mars, and it rhymes with “schmuninhabitable.” If it doesn’t, the prospect of building on an atmosphere-free rock isn’t as inherently dumb, but sooner or later the works is going to break down and there’ll be no one there to fix it.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Meant as a reply to @Horace Broon:
@Artist formerly known as Ben: plus, ping times are going be a total b!tch.
@TheDiva:
June Morgan: “Well that’s a newsletter I’d like to subscribe to. Where do I sign up?”
B.C.: From left to right, it’s Curls, Peter, and B.C. Reading the 50-cent Fawcett paperbacks in the 1960s left with the superpower of being able to identify the characters in this strip.
Thor is the tall brown-haired one with the wheel, Clumsy Carp has black hair and glasses (somehow) and studies fish, Wiley is the grizzled one with the peg leg who writes poetry and hates water.
@Artist formerly known as Ben: Alistair and Lolly don’t receive any income from their “music making,” so Mom slips into their bedroom periodically to leave a fifteen million dollar check for walking around money.
@139 Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: Yeah, echo replies will be measured in hours instead of milliseconds.
@Al of the Christian Singles Jungle Patrol: Isn’t a Tour Guide for London, supposed to talk about you know… London?
If I wanted to hear people ramble about how sucky the States are, I can stay at home.
@2+2=7:
*120 LUANN 2: oops, you might have confused Bee with Sarah, Jeremy’s smart, enlightened o er-achievinf gf in “Zits”. Being friends with Nancy is not helping her growth.
@TheDiva:
#129. You nailed it, Diva. Those reactionaries want the difficulties hidden, not solved. And without time, money, or energy on their part.
Baut as a long-time worker with unhoused, I must acknowledge there are a few long-term homeless who refuse housing, pretending they are independent pioneers. But these are relatively few.
@144 Activist: I’m not sure being friends with Nancy has hindered Bernice’s growth. Bernice can now poop and pee in other people’s toilets without having a nervous breakdown. That’s gotta be some kind of growth. Would she be reading softcore porn now if it weren’t for Nancy sharing hers a while back?
I love how in the RexMorgan-verse, Rene is apparently a super-criminal who controls ALL crime. EVERYWHERE.
He’ll bend logic to do it too.
@The Rambling Otter: If alleged good is going to triumph over the forces of crime by tee time, it helps if the forces of crime are led by a sap who resembles the love child of John Denver and Robert Morse.
@The Rambling Otter: Tour guides vary wildly in quality. On our recent trip to the eastern Mediterranean, we had a number of good ones. The one in Cyprus…well, did he did talk about Cyprus, but mostly in terms of how the Turks ruin it.
RMMD: Wouldn’t it be hilarious if Rene Belluso turns out to be the mastermind behind this state-of-the-art scam?
MW- I have to come clean about something . I’m afraid I kinda relate to Wilbur on this one. I wouldn’t want my daughter running around with a creep like him either. Now where the Hell is my naked lady coffee cup?
@Rube: (Lost my message, have to repost)
My Mom was in Gettysburg years back, due to the violence and trauma of the past, it was said to be very haunted, they had “Ghost Walks”
A previous tour, the guide was giving the tour as usual, when suddenly she ran off screaming!
The people on the tour were either freaking out themselves or wondering what she had seen.
A spider had landed on her… that was why she ran off xD
Late Thread Cuisine: It’s a burger with avocado dice!
@Rube: Why did Constantinople get the works?
That’s nobody’s business but the Turks!
I don’t know how many times I had to stifle “not Constantinople” after saying “Istanbul”. Anyway, call it what you will, great place for tourists. And New Rome is way cleaner than old Rome.
@Rube: Every tour guide we had in Istanbul took pains to inform us how much Erdogan was hated by pretty much everyone they knew. I often wonder if American guides are having similar conversations these days…
@The Rambling Otter: A spider had landed on her… that was why she ran off xD
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A ghost spider? B.C. caveman wants to know.
Curls somewhat resembles a Capybara.
Are we sure that BC wasn’t originally meant to have animal characters, before Johnny Hart changed his mind at the last minute? ;-)
Edit: I mean, aside from the animal characters that DO feature sometimes.
@Baja Gaijin: Late Thread Cuisine: It’s a burger with avocado dice!
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Reminds me of the game where you have to abstract the bad teeth from the plastic alligators mouth, or perhaps I’m thinking of Hungry,Hungry,Hamburgers™.
@TheDiva: Our Turkish tour guides were women. They weren’t as direct as that, but they conspicuously mentioned that Ataturk was the hero of Turkish women, because he was the reason they were equal.
@GarrisonSkunk: xD perfect!
@GarrisonSkunk: open wide and show everyone what’s *on* your patty and *in* your patty! good burger!
@162 CanuckDownSouth: Did you notice what’s in the Cuisine patty? Shrimp!
@Baja Gaijin: yes, it looked like they had pulled back breading to show shrimp chunks. Not sure if the shrimp chunkiness is supposed to match the avocado dice size. The exaggerated “pose” to show it all off may be a bit weird but it probably tastes pretty good.
@Baja Gaijin:
#163. As long as the patty is of shrimp and not eel snake, I’d eat it– shrimp and avocado would be nice together perhaps with a vinaigrette dressing. But id eat some of avocado separately so it wouldn’t fall in my lap (Im like Dawn in messiness)
@TheDiva: I strongly suspect so, since all the World Cup games are in major cities.
@165 Activist: Not eel; that was yesterthread. The sauce is avocado-based.
Just as a general observation, I’m noticing how many people here read BC and don’t recognize the character BC. There are no promises in life for comic strip title characters. Probably why the Wizard of Id has gotten so obnoxiously self-promotional.
For a beautiful moment, I failed to notice the plugger’s dummy thicc ass, and thought the panel had arrived at a state of punchline-free nirvana of which Hi and Lois could only dream. This is a plugger! He drank too much last night, and now he’s quietly suffering the consequences! Behold, a man!