Comment of the Week

When Prussian gymnast and bodybuilder Joseph Pilates developed a mind-body method of strength training with a spring-based apparatus in the early 20th century -- one that would become popular with ballet dancers and eventually enter the mainstream fitness world -- he never could have known that many decades later, a U.S. federal court would declare that his very last name was a generic term, and that anyone could use the word 'Pilates,' whether or not they joined the Pilates Method Alliance professional organization. Heck, they could even have a talking dog mispronounce his name in a comic strip as a way of making a cheap pun, if they wanted to. It's a funny, funny world sometimes, even if you wouldn't know that from the punchline.

BigTed

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Mark Trail, 6/19/26

Oh wow, I think this gorilla sanctuary storyline is adding yet more layers of moral complexity. If you ran a failing gorilla sanctuary and needed a cash infusion to keep these noble creatures well cared for, how far would you go to do it? Would you scam a guy online for money? Would you have sex with him if he showed up in person? Would you marry him, if he asked, which Mark’s dad did, by the way? Would you give the gorillas to a more successful sanctuary? No to that last one? You’ll do the sex/marriage thing, instead? Interesting. Interesting.

Marvin, 6/19/26

There’s lots of philosophical yammering these days about whether AI chatbots are intelligent or sentient or however you want to describe it. From my perspective, there’s only one way I’ll admit that a machine-mind could be a being like me with inalienable rights: if it loathes Marvin, the main character in the comic strip Marvin, as much as I do.

Shoe, 6/19/26

“A bird? A bird that can talk and play guitar? Like a bird with feathers, the kind that flies in the fucking sky? Thank God you warned us. Deploy the police. Call in the army. We’ve got to stop this monster before it’s too late for the good people of Kansas City.”

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Blondie, 6/18/26

When Blondie started a business, back in 1991, it might’ve presented the strip with an opportunity to step beyond the tired food-mania cliches it had been orbiting around for decades. Unfortunately the business she started was a catering company, and most of the jokes it generated are about various customers coming in and making terrible food puns based on whatever their forced-zany shtick is. Anyway, today’s strip is notably sad because I’m reasonably sure Blondie’s “Do you happen to be marketing executives?” line is meant to be complimentary.

Six Chix, 6/18/26

The “mainstream media” won’t cover it, but the giant bug-things are coming and they will kill us all if we don’t prepare for all-out war against them. The gang at Six Chix has been trying to raise the alarm, and I just hope it’s not too late!

Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/18/26

“It’s sure better than the piece of shit cafe where I work. The food there’s barely edible. You can put that in your report if you want!”

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Dennis the Menace, 6/17/26

I can see why Dennis thinks that Henry, who wears a bow tie everywhere and thinks that you should change into a polo shirt when it’s time to do manual labor outdoors, would be good at owning a horse, if by “good at owning a horse” you mean “wealthy enough to own an animal that’s very expensive to purchase, house, and care for, and that does not provide any economic benefits in modern society.” He’s wrong, though: the Mitchells live in a modest suburban home and all their meals are prepared by Alice, who is by all accounts terrible at it but the family apparently doesn’t have other options. Your dad doesn’t have horse money, Dennis! He barely has dog money!

Luann, 6/17/26

“Lily and Brenna remind me of two other girls I know! Girls with similar names! Those girls are you and me, by the way. I made sure they’d draw us in the last panel so that people know that’s who I’m talking about, because I don’t respect our readers’ intelligence.”

Mary Worth, 6/17/26

Remember when Tommy was the type of guy who earnestly thought-ballooned about having his own meth lab? Well, now he’s the type of guy who earnestly refers to a bathing suit as “skivvies.” It’s true what they say: jail changes a man, for the worse.

Crankshaft, 6/17/26

I’m sorry, is this strip trying to sell us the idea that Harry Dinkle’s dad, who would’ve been alive well into the 20th century, invented the concept of uniforms? No. Absolutely not. I refute this. I refute this!