Tough questions
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Rex Morgan, M.D., 10/7/26
Back in the day, when he was first introduced into this comic strip, Mud Mountain Murphy used to be depicted as a giant of a man who loomed over everybody and spoke in boldface at all times. He seems to have chilled out/shrunk a bit since then, but as a tall guy I’m pretty sure that he may be talking a good game about the structural changes to the film industry, where multiplexes with access to bulk concession purchases are simply more labor-efficient and profitable than traditional single-screen theaters, but he’s probably thinking about the comfy recliners all the new movie theaters have as a matter of course.
Dennis the Menace, 10/7/26
Here’s a fun little game to play. It’s called “What’s Keeping Dennis Aloft?” Clearly his feet aren’t on the ground, but [audience shouts each word] WHAT’S! KEEPING! DENNIS! ALOFT! Is he standing on that chair, despite the fact that its shading matches the house and it seems like it’s supposed to be several feet behind him? Does he have superhuman wrist strength, so that the hand that seems so casually rested on Mr. Wilson’s stomach is actually bearing the child’s entire weight? Is he just kind of floating? Does Dennis have floating powers? It would be pretty menacing if he could just float in mid-air, right?
25 replies to “Tough questions”
RMMD: I’m going to give the public what the big multiplex theaters can’t, hardcore p0rn!
DtM Forget how he’s staying up, how is Dennis alive with his head floating disconnected from his body?? The answer to both is that he’s a ghost, tormenting Mr Wilson for his past sins, possibly including burying that annoying neighbouring kid in a shallow grave…
@Guillermo el chiclero: That was _exactly_ my first thought!
RMMD: Mae Mae’s plan is to buy the whole town, one business at a time.
I’m going to guess that Dennis is actually a hallucination, and that the real Dennis died years ago. Mr. Wilson accidentally ran him over in his driveway twenty years prior, and since then has been imagining that the kid would grow up to be a real asshole if he had survived.
RMMD: A brand new multiplex!? In 2026!? I guess there are a few advantages to living in the remote corners of the country that have still yet to receive rural broadband. (The main disadvantage is of course all the roots country you have to hear.)
@CanuckDownSouth: Gah! Beat me to it!
RMMD:
“How will this old place compete with that?”
“Well, if you’d let me get out more than one sentence at a time before questioning me, I could tell you my business plan.”
“No can do, Mae. Then this plot would be over in a single strip, and Beatty would have to think of something interesting to write.”
RMMD:
“I’m going to turn it into a shvitz, so as to attract roustabouts and ne’er-do-wells like Buck Wise and Rene Belluso!”
RMMD:
It’s a shame that stinging hornets aren’t attracted by the floral embroidery on Mud’s shirt.
DtM:
Thesis: Mr. Wilson’s girth is approaching infinity as a limit. Discuss.
DtM: As Wilson’s hammock sinks closer to the ground as the trees holding it up bend closer together from his weight, Dennis rises to conserve mass, or energy, or something. It’s physics, or metaphysics, hard to tell.
How many movies did Mae Mae make before “retiring”? Maybe she’ll just play them on a loop at the “CinaMae Mae”
DtM: I’ll tell you what’s menacing. Dennis trying to make it look like he and Mr. Wilson have a “Let me ‘casually’ rest my hand on your protruding belly” relationship, presumably for the benefit of a nearby Ring camera and planned lawsuit. To his credit, Mr. W is having none of it.
DTM these days seems to be a disturbing mix of recycled strips and new ones that are so badly drawn they put me in mind of the last days of “Apartment 3-G.”
I find it difficult to believe that the Wilsons use tiny umbrellas for everyday drinks. Too much whimsy. Martha probably put it in George’s drink to symbolically emasculate him, and gave him a straw to remind him that he sucks.
GT: Mimi shrivels before our eyes. There’s some sort of Faust/Dorian Grey mishmash going on here.
RMMD: She has way more money than you, Mud, and she’s not stupid. So you can just lower The Mighty Finger of Authority, before it gets snapped off.
DtM: You just know that Dennis has sticky hands and that he smells like hot kid.
@Guillermo el chiclero: RMMD: Mae Mae’s plan is to buy the whole town, one business at a time.
That shouldn’t take long, considering the businesses consist of a bar, two cafes, one nicer restaurant, a clinic, and a hospital. Oh, and one big-box electronics store that’s probably gone under already, because the management staff can’t recognize a pair of scammers even when they come back to pull the same scam.
RMMD: Vintage movie theaters? Why do I get the sense that this strip is trying to move into the void left by latter-day Funky Winkerbean ?
DtM: Hey, looks like Mr Wilson got himself one of those vintage HyperColor t-shirts! Oh boy, is your belly supposed to be that hot? You might want to get that checked out…
DTM: Dennis, please leave Mr. Wilson alone in his hammock with his mixed drink. He’s truly happy for once.
RxMD: It does? Wait, of course it does.
So the Multiplex shows the latest releases, and the Mae Mae Movie Theatre shows arts films and niche films. Happens all the times.
GA: Remember that short little storyline with Joel and Rufus finding the Lincoln Letter and they lost it and the storyline ended? Well, in the spirit of the season, IT’S NOT OVER YET!!!
JP: I’m waiting for that meet-and-greet with the arms dealer to have been set up by the CIA so that the CIA can get April back. Look, just nuke the CIA, April. They’re blackmailers who want more.
RMMD: “Two words: Liquor. License.”
@Schroduck: I used to live somewhere like that. I would’ve preferred roots country to the unending barrage of Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line, and their many derivatives that I experienced every time I went in a store.
RMMD: Mae Mae’s investment portfolio would look great in, like, 1950 but in 2026 where chains have thoroughly killed mom and pop establishments it seems like a recipe for bankruptcy. Granted, Glenwood seems to have a higher concentration of hipster than the national average so maybe there’s hope.
Mae Mae realizes Glenwood is full of Pluggers who won’t step foot in some newfangled multiplex.