Metapost: You know it, you love it: It’s the COTW
Post Content
This week’s comment of the week comin’ at ya … right now:
“I’m really uncomfortable with the way Truck is breaking the fourth wall here. ‘Are you this guy’s father? You, the reader? Well, if I remember my Roland Barthes then, yes, indeed, you could be described as a metaphorical parent to both of us…’” –Spunky The Wonder Squid
And your runners up! Very funny!
“Lighthouses have traditionally served as phallic images in romance novels and Dot and Ditto show us the consequences of those romantic urges. A timely warning as couples head out on their summer vacations.” –Hibbleton
“The twins scampered around to the other side of Lois’s chair before delivering the ‘sand’ line. Their next complaint about the beach will be ‘The blocking is too fussy.’” –Peanut Gallery
“Pubs must have had a seniority system based on hours spent in the establishment, which entitled the most frequent customers to benefits. In the strict class structure of the UK, it’s the only status Andy is eligible to have over the other mere-drunks who spend most of their days on other fruitless pursuits like productive, but low-paid, labor.” –Philip
“How tall is Hi? I’m trying to decide if he’s slouching to fit into the frame with his much shorter wife, or slumped over to make him look like a loser. Eh, why not both?” –Victor Von
“I love that something medical is finally happening in Rex Morgan, M.D., and Rex is nowhere in sight. He’s probably pretty happy with that too.” –Dan
“I know that this strip over describes everything it does, but in this case it really makes it sound like an obvious fraud. ‘Here’s the website … and now I’m putting in the password … and here are the results …wow, it says here that you are super-duper my dad! It’s funny how these new websites looks just like a PowerPoint file. It’s not, though.’” –pugfuggly
“Truck must have been assuming this would be like an episode of Maury, where the DNA test would just shout out the identity of the father without needing any interpretation. Which, now that I think about it, would be a much funnier way for 23AndMe to work. ‘Travis, you are … NOT 1/16th Cherokee!’” –Navigator
“Trixie may be filled with the same malaise as the rest of her family, a malaise so deep that not even magenta carpet can cheer them up, but she’s already mastered the art of the convincing fake smile. She might just be OK.” –Guts Dozier
“Considering Trixie has been a preverbal infant for decades, I’m pretty sure it’s always too early to apply for her preschool, actually.” –Morgan Wick
“If by ‘applying for Trixie’s preschool‘ you mean ‘searching for houses in a better school district than the monstrosity that produced Chip, Ditto and the other one,’ then yes, yes I am.” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“Gertie tried to have Dale’s actual body mounted in the car as well, but Earnhardt family lawyers and a cemetery night watchman put a stop to THAT, the killjoys.” –A Grave Mind
“I guess this answers my question from yesterday. They didn’t take a paternity test, as anyone who knew what ‘paternity’ means would have done. Instead, they sent off to some ancestry-type service. And not one that just says they’re (eyeballing the characters) 107% white. This one matches their genes with everyone else who’s ever used the service, and sends a HIPAA-violating list of close relatives.” –Ken
“Those vampire posers are not real goths! You know who is? Gearhead Gertie! Nothing but a morbid and sexual fascination with death could explain why she put Dale Earnhardt’s car against a wall, the same way he tragically died!” –Ettorre
“I understand why everyone got so outraged by inflation if three bags of Skittles, two bags of chips and an off-brand bottle of Faygo costs $105.95. This price increase is going to drive home-grown American WoW guilds out of business, and before we know it the Chinese will have monopolized the Spine of Deathwing raid business.” –Schroduck
“Wow. Two options, both so unappealing that the only solution is to use each one to get out of the other, then hide out in a decent hotel all week.” –MKay
“Look, man, fuck you, I’m the one that has to collect the phlogiston, the bat urine, the crystalized heart of a mountain, and the blood of a royal virgin for this potion, and that shit costs!” –Voshkod
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45 replies to “Metapost: You know it, you love it: It’s the COTW”
Congrats on the CotW, Spunky The Wonder Squid!
Way to go, Spunky, the Floaters, and the Scroters:
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Liam
July 12th, 2025 at 4:31 am Reply
MW-“I need to organize a going away party in my honor.”
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 12th, 2025 at 12:19 pm Reply
MW: Mary looks in the last panel like she just discovered she has a clitoris.
Charterstoned
July 12th, 2025 at 4:41 am Reply
MW: “I have things to DO!” The word balloon might be coming from Mary, but I hear Julia Child’s voice.
MKay
July 12th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
MW: Since Mary and Jeff just had their tri-monthly tryst, he should be good for a while. As long as he’s not asked to feed Wilbur twice a day.
Hibbleton
July 12th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
MW: Mary’s eyes in P2 are typical of a person who’s just been goosed. Perhaps she backed into the vacuum handle. “I have things to.. DO!“
Vice President John Adams
July 12th, 2025 at 4:49 am Reply
The last item on a to-do list is the least important, so you can bet the farm that Jeff is NOT getting that call. He’ll just be wandering around The Bum Boat for weeks muttering “…Mary?”
Professor Well Actually
July 12th, 2025 at 5:06 am Reply
MW: Mary’s eyes got so big when she saw the crotchless granny panties she’s packing.
Weaselboy
July 12th, 2025 at 5:51 am Reply
MW – Moy is once again using her signature narrative tool of “think, don’t tell.”
Wool Worth
July 12th, 2025 at 10:00 am Reply
MW: After giving terrible, out of touch advice to everyone she knows on the West Coast, Mary heads east.
pugfuggly
July 12th, 2025 at 4:59 am Reply
MW: Some lesser strips might have considered skipping over the crucial ‘packing for a trip’ scene in a story but not Mary Worth! I’m looking forward to other exciting vignettes like ‘Mary takes the shuttle from long-term parking’, ‘Mary waits in a TSA line’ and ‘Mary stands in the middle of the terminal trying to decide whether to get Panda Express or Chick-Fil-A for lunch until finally just grabbing a pack of mixed nuts and a Fresca’
Myrtle
July 12th, 2025 at 9:27 am Reply
@pugfuggly: re Mary waits in the TSA line: Will they be up-to-date and let Mary keep her Sketchers on?
Little Blue Bicycle
July 12th, 2025 at 6:39 am Reply
MW: Telling Jeff is so low on Mary’s to-do that it’s under “unplug computer ” and “flush toilets.”
Needless Exposition
July 12th, 2025 at 8:41 am Reply
MW: Mary has more excitement in seeing this underage girl than she ever has when she’s doing her regular extortion of Dr. Jeff for his money/boat/restaurant visit/social clout. It’s going to be so satisfying when she goes to see her “kindred spirit” only to find a teenager telling her to take her wrinkly old ass to a hotel.
BigTed
July 12th, 2025 at 4:43 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary has to tell Jeff she’s leaving, or else he may not notice. He’s a handsome doctor with a boat in a beach town during summertime — it’s a miracle that he even remembers he has a steady girlfriend while she’s still in town.
Gil Thorp: “I was your therapist — I can tell when you’re sad” is just about the worst thing you could say to your boyfriend on a date. Well, other than “Of course we should visit him — he’s my grandpa too!”
Everything Is Better With Monkeys
July 12th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
RMMD – they’re dragging the DNA results so long that I realized I haven’t shared my theory that this guy will turn out to be Mud Mountain’s kid. I’m only one of all the people following this story to,think of this, right? All of the 14 people actually reading this strip have likely considered this.
I speak Jive
July 12th, 2025 at 8:35 am Reply
Rex Morgan – Next: A week of talking about whether Truck should wait in the motel lobby or just go directly to Cody’s room.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Horace Broon
July 13th, 2025 at 5:33 am Reply
FC: It’s funny because Big Daddy Keane thinks he’s bonding with his kids!
MW: Concerned that now that Olive’s a teenager, she might think her elderly friend isn’t “cool”, Mary got a book about teen slang out of the library, and now she knows words like “kiddo” and “23-skidoo”.
Liam
July 13th, 2025 at 4:33 am Reply
MW-“I’ll see you soon to finish the job.”
MW-Thank god they didn’t show us where Mary’s hands have strayed to.
Needless Exposition
July 13th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
MW: Wait, who the hell are these people in what is supposedly the Charterstone pool? Instead of her inappropriate fantasies about Olive, Mary should be meddling and nosing her way into these people’s lives. After all, there’s no children allowed under the age of twenty due to Ian and Wilbur (and now Mary) living here.
TheDiva
July 13th, 2025 at 7:08 am Reply
MW: “I ruined a perfectly good dress jumping in that pool after you, so you’d BETTER be worth it!”
Hibbleton
July 13th, 2025 at 5:33 am Reply
MW: “If any life’s worth saving, it’s yours my dear girl. Unlike that brat in the third panel splashing water all over the pool deck.”
B. Bailey: Beetle takes off his hat to reveal another hat, and another, and another, and so on and so forth until a copyright infringement letter from the estate of Dr Seuss appears in the final panel.
Dennis Jimenez
July 13th, 2025 at 7:19 am Reply
BB – Are you talkin’ to me…cuz I don’t see anybody else here. Man – artistic gold!
Roscoe
July 13th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
Nice try, Walker-Browne Amalgamated Humor Industries LLC, but we all know from MAD Magazine that Beetle has “GET OUT OF VIETNAM!” tattooed on his forehead.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Everything Is Better With Monkeys
July 14th, 2025 at 5:58 am Reply
Opening the “when do we get the payoff in RMMD” pool. Tomorrow pays best because it seems highly unlikely, and working out how they’ll drag out opening the envelope, the surprised expressions, the meaningless exclamations…. I have “Friday” and “sometime in October as my spots. (Mud is definitely the dad, right?}
MKay
July 14th, 2025 at 4:50 am Reply
RMMD: This has been the longest metaphorical drum roll in the history of metaphorical drum rolls.
MW: So, when you get close to NYC, just follow the signs that say, “This Way To Olive, The Girl Who Was Saved By Mary Worth.”
Charterstoned
July 14th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
MW: Dr. Jeff handles his banana fork with the delicacy of a brain surgeon about to perform a lobotomy, thinking, “I could get away with it. I know I could…!”
Astroboy
July 14th, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
MW: So we’re just going with “Mary saved her from drowning” as Pimento’s Defining Characteristic. No mention of dream angels, tummy brains, Dr. Kapuht, none of that weird-ass stuff. But, “Mary saved her from drowning” serves as proper hagiography for Mary, so that’s how we are to remember things.
Weaselboy
July 14th, 2025 at 5:59 am Reply
MW – “Yes, she is the girl whom I saved…hold on. I should use ‘who’ since ‘the girl’ is the predicate nominative in the sentence…I think. Damn you, Jeff! Why couldn’t you have just said ‘that girl you saved’ like normal people!
Little Blue Bicycle
July 14th, 2025 at 6:07 am Reply
MW: Mary and Dr. Jeff’s relationship has all the intimacy and emotion of a stranger asking for the time.
Horace Broon
July 14th, 2025 at 11:23 am Reply
MW: “Gosh, you’ve taken so many trips to New York! We should call you ‘Big Apple Mary’!”
“Jeff, you even think about saying that again and I’ll cut you. And the syndicate will back me on that.”
Somebody Somewhere All At Once
July 14th, 2025 at 7:15 am Reply
MW: As a graduate of the Miss Manners School of Etiquette, Mary knows you always pair the wine with your guest’s attire, in case of spills.
GarrisonSkunk
July 14th, 2025 at 8:47 am Reply
@Hibbleton: MW: Dr Jeff eats a single round cheerio with a shrimp fork.
____________________________________
Its an ad for new Mary Worth Meddle-Os™ cereal! Free Willburp Weston mayo pack in specially marked boxes!
Hibbleton
July 14th, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
FC: An angry Billy starts to pull down his trunks. “Hump my leg, will ya.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
ValdVin
July 14th, 2025 at 6:45 am Reply
GT: “Swoon” in a speech bubble is what we get for grousing about “Catch” sound effects on the baseball diamond.
Daisy
July 14th, 2025 at 7:42 am Reply
GT: I know I’m at a disadvantage because I rarely look at this strip due to the herky-jerky art and incomprehensible narratives, plus I’m long past the high-school demographic the strip presumably targets, but I’ve got to know…who is the beautiful blonde Keri is enamored with??? I know it isn’t her horse therapist (i.e. a *human* therapist who specializes in equine therapy, not *a therapist that’s a horse*).
taig
July 14th, 2025 at 7:01 am Reply
CS: “Also, for some reason, they give it to me by throwing it through my studio window. It was very whimsical.”
I speak Jive
July 14th, 2025 at 8:49 am Reply
Crankshaft – Gaaah! No! Not this again!
So much to hate. I loathe Skip on general principles, but his pinned up sleeve just adds points. I guess that’s in case anyone has forgotten that he is missing an arm. And then there’s Batiuk’s smarmy avatar. He looks so self satisfied with his WTF story about the rock that I know that Batty just basked in self regard when he wrote this. He’s still patting himself on the back.
Rube
July 14th, 2025 at 7:05 am Reply
Pluggers are boring jackasses. Who knew?
Dave
July 14th, 2025 at 7:25 am Reply
Pluggers: Apparently, you’re a Plugger if others want to interact with you as little as possible.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Dr. Larry Erhardt
July 14th, 2025 at 7:40 am Reply
Luann: Earlier I speculated that the resolution of Luann’s summer camp/Weenie World dilemma would rest on whatever Greg Evans could spend less time drawing. Kudos to the old pro for out-clevering me with the clip show solution.
Tom T.
July 14th, 2025 at 10:01 am Reply
Luann: Looks too much like “Pad ‘n’ Period.” Boys won’t read it.
TheDiva
July 14th, 2025 at 8:03 am Reply
JP: “Sorry, I’m still trying to figure out who you are and how we know each other…”
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 15th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
Dustin: The last panel was originally going to have Meg say “That’s nice, Dustin, but I’m still not having sex with you.” but the syndicate rejected it.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Charterstoned
July 15th, 2025 at 4:48 am Reply
MW: Why is Mary emphasizing KEPT? Why is Jeff emphasizing EMOTIONS? And while we’re at it, WHAT the HELL are these people EATING?!!
Old School Allie Cat
July 15th, 2025 at 6:27 am Reply
It is my sincere hope that when Mary Worth arrives in New York City, Olive enlists her help in getting drugs, alcohol, an abortion, a tattoo, or any combination of the above without the consent of her parents.
Teenagers! Amirite?
Peanut Gallery
July 15th, 2025 at 6:37 am Reply
MW – “Olive and I have kept in touch over the years. I never mentioned it until now because, well, you know… Wilbur Wilbur Wilbur!” And then they both laughed and laughed.
Voshkod
July 15th, 2025 at 6:58 am Reply
“She must a teenager by now.”
“Cut!”
“Goddamn it, we’re supposed to be off book by now, Greg. How the hell can you play Dr. Jeff if you can’t remember your lines!”
“Look, George, you expect us to remember this crap? Oh, she’s a teenager, emotions go with the territory? Who writes this shit?”
“Listen, you all figure this out, I’ll be in my trailer practicing my lines for tomorrow, because I’m a fucking professional, Greg!”
“No, everyone back to their marks and we’re doing this again. Mary Worth, July 15, Panel two, Take 18, and action!”
Daisy
July 15th, 2025 at 9:25 am Reply
@Voshkod: #66
Hilarious!!! And for some reason I’m imaging Frances Bavier playing Mary…
ectojazzmage
July 15th, 2025 at 7:19 am Reply
Mary Worth: I’m starting to think that Dr. Jeff and Mary’s relationship is built on some kind of weird pseudo-BDSM thing where Jeff gets off on being exploited, neglected, and emotionally abused by Mary. Its the only real explanation I can think of for why he hasn’t dumped her ass.
Lord Flatulence
July 15th, 2025 at 6:08 am Reply
MW: We have to endure two dinner dates in a row with these two knuckleheads?
RMMD: The suspense is inconveniencing me.
ValdVin
July 15th, 2025 at 7:31 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: A cranky old white guy, with a drinking problem, in a failing marriage, trying to hold desperately onto power and his sense of self-worth, with all that war materiel in his home?
Signs approaching of ” ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” headline again.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week (All Penii All the Time)
KMD
July 15th, 2025 at 4:31 am Reply
PMP: Did he have to have his hand in his pocket as he ponders the “hardest thing known to man?” Comics are filth.
nescio
July 15th, 2025 at 4:37 am Reply
I’m adamantly against Pardon My Planet.
Schroduck
July 15th, 2025 at 4:44 am Reply
PMP: The comics have given us a lot of disturbing images over the years, but the Pardon My Planet guy having a massive erection at the mall is a new, horrifying low.
Hibbleton
July 15th, 2025 at 4:52 am Reply
PMP: And the fact that I have the ring on my middle finger is also a reflection of our relationship.
erdmann
July 15th, 2025 at 7:20 am Reply
PmP: Hardest thing known to man? He’s talking about his penis, isn’t he.
GT: Whip out the waterguns? She’s talking about penises, isn’t she.
CS: So, he took a soggy maple leaf and put it in with his artwork — likely ruining it — as a promise to himself. Sure, Batty. At least he’s not talking about his penis.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Ukulele Ike
July 15th, 2025 at 7:32 am Reply
JP: That poor little old lady we saw sitting behind Bad Guy in yesterday’s strip is going to get coffee and mug shards all over her dowdy Kelly-green overcoat.
Hibbleton
July 15th, 2025 at 6:41 am Reply
JP: Trained operative April knows just the right moment to push the table into Ømulf’s coffee filled bladder.
“I hope you’re wearing Depends, Chump!!“
TheDiva
July 15th, 2025 at 8:29 am Reply
Pluggers: You’re a Plugger if you even have something you consider your “good plastic tableware.”
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 16th, 2025 at 4:56 am Reply
RMMD: Not only does Cody look like Rex with sideburns but he’s got the pissyface down pat.
2+2=7
July 16th, 2025 at 5:07 am Reply
REX MORGAN M.D.: “Well then, who the heck is?”
Um…whoever was sleeping with Cody’s mother around the same time you were. That’s how that works dude. Duh!
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 16th, 2025 at 5:13 am Reply
So they dragged out the revelation of the paternity tests for weeks, only for…nothing to happen? Oh, this is good Rex Morgan, M.D., it is the best Rex Morgan, M.D.
Spunky The Wonder Squid
July 16th, 2025 at 5:44 am Reply
Rex Morgan, M.D.: I’m really uncomfortable with the way Truck is breaking the fourth wall here. “Are you this guy’s father? You, the reader? Well, if I remember my Roland Barthes then, yes, indeed, you could be described as a metaphorical parent to both of us…”
Daisy
July 16th, 2025 at 7:10 am Reply
WrecksMD: So Cody and Truck begin searching for Cody’s *real* father by demanding DNA samples from every male on the planet…
Tabby Lavalamp
July 16th, 2025 at 6:08 am Reply
Well, Truck, it could be INLknsisojdvls.
sdvkm
Sorry. The indifference hit me so hard I fell asleep there.
Navigator
July 17th, 2025 at 9:23 am Reply
“So Spuds was just a nickname, because of all the illegitimate children! I shoulda guessed, but I never actually heard of nicknames before, ‘Truck’ bein’ on my birth certificate an’ all.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Treetown
July 16th, 2025 at 5:31 am Reply
JP: Moustache guy just wanted a blue berry muffin and small mocha. Instead April delivers a knuckle sandwich. Another odd tradecraft choice – in general not good to hit someone’s hard jaw with your brittle fragile metacarpals. Sheesh, April, didn’t you pay attention at the training camp.
Vanya
July 16th, 2025 at 5:52 am Reply
JP: This is going off the rails fast. Why is April now pummeling a random mustachioed black guy we’ve never seen before? What happened to the middle aged woman who was sitting directly behind goatee guy when he toppled over? Why is the cowardly barista’s first instinct to run away as fast as possible? I guess he knows from experience what happens when unarmed 30-something blonde women lose their shit in a coffee house?
Credit where credit is due – there is more action taking place in today’s panels alone than in 1 year of Mary Worth.
Charterstoned
July 16th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
MW: “What an AGE that is! I got my first period when I was 14!”
Guts Dozier
July 16th, 2025 at 4:59 am Reply
MW: Half a glass of wine is all it takes for Mary and Jeff to start fantasizing about banging each other back when they were teenagers.
Ken
July 17th, 2025 at 5:02 am Reply
RMMD: I guess this answers my question from yesterday. They didn’t take a paternity test, as anyone who knew what “paternity” means would have done.
Instead, they sent off to some ancestry-type service. And not one that just says they’re (eyeballing the characters) 107% white. This one matches their genes with everyone else who’s ever used the service, and sends a HIPAA-violating list of close relatives.
But What Do I Know?
July 17th, 2025 at 5:12 am Reply
RMMD:
There once was a drummer named Morton
Who, while with Varla cavortin
Created a son
Known to no one
Until one day Truck started snortin’
Myrtle
July 17th, 2025 at 5:43 am Reply
RMMD: “There’s a bunch of other names, too! None of them are my mother’s relatives.”
“What? It’s the whole dang band!”
Ettorre
July 17th, 2025 at 5:57 am Reply
Truck: “Kid, I’m sorry, your mother is a whore! Well, we already knew that, otherwise we would not have made a paternity test, but she is an even bigger whore than we expected!”
Tonio
July 17th, 2025 at 6:04 am Reply
So Truck found out that Varla cheated on him, and he’s mad not at her but at Spuds? To him, wives are like guitars or hot rods and his drummer merely borrowed her without asking, huh?
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 17th, 2025 at 6:06 am Reply
RMMD: The drummer, the most expendable member of the band! That’s almost as bad as doing it with one of the roadies. Couldn’t your ma have at least cucked me with the bass player?
Ukranazi Stepan
July 17th, 2025 at 6:10 am Reply
Lorry: “Oh, good, I can *finally* stop feeling guilty about the times I cheated on Varla!”
Voshkod
July 17th, 2025 at 6:12 am Reply
“Spuds could never keep his eyes off Varla!”
cheech wizard
July 17th, 2025 at 6:40 am Reply
RMMD – Is Truck a Texan? Because I distinctly recall that in Texas, if you catch your wife cheating on you, you can shoot both of ’em. And I don’t remember hearing anything about any statute of limitations.
richardf8
July 17th, 2025 at 6:58 am Reply
RMMD – It stretches credibility to suppose that a drummer in a roots country band doesn’t have his DNA in a public database somewhere, so what the fuck did these two do? Request a genealogy from the Mormons?
Guts Dozier
July 17th, 2025 at 4:55 am Reply
RMMD: “Sorry, kid. Looks like I’m gonna have to bust yer ol’ pa’s head open before you get a chance to meet him.”
taig
July 17th, 2025 at 8:07 am Reply
RMMD: Yes! He is a heretofore unheard of bland character!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hannibal’s Lectern
July 17th, 2025 at 5:47 am Reply
GG: well, we now know Gertie’s a poser. Any true member of the NASCAR cult knows Dale “The Intimidator” Earnhardt’s car sports his distinctively squared-off and inclined number 3 on the hood and doors, not the wimpy straight-and-rounded number we see. All this time she’s been faking her devotion to NASCAR, just to irritate her husband.
Yep, “GG” is really just a ripoff of “The Lockhorns.”
Or maybe Mike Smith, who probably started this strip as a one-shot gag (“let’s see how long I can keep people interested in a strip about an old biddy obsessed with NASCAR”), was then captured by a one-gag strip that refuses to die, and envies Tom Arnold, whose “Marvin” at least revolves around something human, is planting intentional mistakes in the hope of being cancelled.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 17th, 2025 at 5:49 am Reply
Good luck getting your rental deposit back with the amount of nails you’d need to hang a car on the wall.
Weaselboy
July 17th, 2025 at 6:18 am Reply
GG – The banked couch has been replaced with a single chair. Dude finally moved out.
BananaSam
July 17th, 2025 at 9:33 am Reply
Fake fan! Fake fan! Nascar cars put the number on the roof not the hood! and they’re rotated to the left so that the number is visible from the infield as they race around counter clockwise. I figured this out by accident in the ten seconds it took to idly google Dale Earnhardts car. you had one job Gearhead Gertie, it was to be the worlds preeminent Nascar enthusiast newspaper comic and you blew it! For shame!
Anonymous
July 17th, 2025 at 5:00 am Reply
GG: Unfortunately the subject of wall studs rarely comes up at a NASCAR race, and so this will be the last Gearhead Gertie.
Charterstoned
July 17th, 2025 at 5:01 am Reply
MW: I thought “Mary Goes to The Big Apple to Visit Olive and Her Parents” was bad enough. If it’s “Mary Takes Jeff Along to The Big Apple to Visit Olive and Her Parents, All of Whom Are Unknown to Jeff,” I hope Jeff gets the bunkbed.
Weaselboy
July 17th, 2025 at 6:55 am Reply
MW – The New York City Tourism Bureau has to use this. “New York – Vibrant, yes. But also fast.” A nominal licensing fee to Karen Moy should seal the deal.
Midtown
July 17th, 2025 at 7:02 am Reply
MW: What? Does Jeff really have a plane as well as a yacht? There’s been a lot of small plane crashes in the news lately. But unfortunately Mary Worth doesn’t do timely stories.
Ukulele Ike
July 17th, 2025 at 7:03 am Reply
MW: Bad manners to bring along an unforeseen guest when you’re staying at someone else’s home, Mary. And most NYC apartments only got one bathroom, so you’ll be dancin’ in the foyer waiting to poop.
Enormous Dump
July 17th, 2025 at 7:21 am Reply
I just took an enormous dump.
richardf8
July 17th, 2025 at 7:30 am Reply
@Enormous Dump: Good to hear. You were absent for so long I thought you might be constipated.
Ukulele Ike
July 17th, 2025 at 8:00 am Reply
@Enormous Dump: Ah, then it’s a good bet you’re not staying at Olive’s place with Jeff and Mary. There’s a line.
Bob Tice
July 18th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
RMMD:
“I guess I shoulda thought more of it when I saw Varla ‘n’ Spuds on the Jumbotron together during the Hank Jr. concert!”
MKay
July 18th, 2025 at 4:58 am Reply
RMMD: Truck really is a jerk. If this culminated in him discovering Wanda/Rhonda and Cory/Cody doing the horizontal hula, that would be supremely satisfying.
2+2=7
July 18th, 2025 at 6:53 am Reply
REX MORGAN M.D.: I was going to complain that, no Truck, this doesn’t explain why you’re marriage fell apart, since you didn’t know about Spuds banging more than his drum until now, and you’ve implied earlier in the story (and the strip as a whole) that you were responsible for the disillusion of your marriage(s), but then I realized that this is what this arc is really about: to retroactively place the blame for his multiple divorces on his former wives and reassure Wanda that moody, cantankerous, uncommunicative Truck is the perfect husband after all!
Old School Allie Cat
July 18th, 2025 at 6:23 am Reply
RMMD – What do you call a woman who uses the rhythm
sectionmethod?Mom.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
ValdVin
July 18th, 2025 at 4:47 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: Mort Walker coined grawlixes; this gets a hat tip.
Pozzo
July 18th, 2025 at 4:39 am Reply
IL: Gamer’s look in panel two shows that he considering this to be humblebragging. The cashier is not impressed.
Ettorre
July 18th, 2025 at 5:07 am Reply
Listen, as long as this guy’s gaming hobby centres around actually playing videogame and not publishing YouTube videos about how female characters are made too old and too ugly by feminist game developers, we should cut him some slack
Dennis Jimenez
July 18th, 2025 at 4:53 am Reply
IL – A Benjamin of crap from a “convenience” store fits in one bag. That’s Plugger wisdom….
The Rambling Otter
July 18th, 2025 at 5:35 am Reply
I never understood “gaming food”
It’s a stereotype for gamers to binge on junk like Doritos and Cheetos while gaming.
If I was eating that stuff and playing at the same time, all I can think of, is how horrifying it would be to have all that cheese dust clogging my (expensive) controllers from my cheese-gunked fingers. And that’s disgusting.
Nobody
July 18th, 2025 at 5:42 am Reply
@The Rambling Otter: Don’t forget the 2l bottle of Mtn Dew to wash all that down with. A responsible gamer has moist toweletts at the ready sitting next to the Jergens lotion.
UncleJeff
July 18th, 2025 at 7:18 am Reply
I was working the register at the store just before closing time.
A shlub who looks a lot like the guy in IL comes over to buy 90 cans of a discounted energy drink we had on sale.
Said it would last him about a month of gaming marathons.
He also bought a toilet seat.
I think there might have been a connection.
Navigator
July 18th, 2025 at 7:51 am Reply
What really gets me is that our gamer friend has purchased three bags of Skittles, but not all of the same size. Two large bags, and one extra small one. Is he afraid the Skittles will go bad if he buys too many? Is he spending his last worldly funds on these gamer snax, and $105.95 wasn’t enough to cover three whole bags? Is the third bag actually the same size and just farther away from the viewer? Questions torment me.
Joe Blevins
July 18th, 2025 at 4:39 am Reply
IL: Judgmental, opinionated cashiers are definitely a thing. If you’ve ever wondered why people opt for the self-checkout, that’s why.
MW: Is there a single healthy relationship in which one partner calls the other “dear”?
lynn
July 18th, 2025 at 5:07 am Reply
@Joe Blevins: MW: Is there a single healthy relationship in which one partner calls the other “dear”?
I’ve never called my husband ‘dear’. ‘Sweetie pea’, ‘love poodle’, etc. but never dear. I agree with you.
Hibbleton
July 18th, 2025 at 5:03 am Reply
MW: Dr Jeff presses his groin against Mary’s during their hug. She pushes him back to arms length.
“I’ll miss you more, Jeff —but not that much.”
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 18th, 2025 at 5:45 am Reply
Mary Worth: June Brigman does a really good job depicting Mary’s arms draped over Jeff’s shoulders as they move in for the kiss, almost as if they really loved one another. I demand this filth be removed from the comics page immediately.
Needless Exposition
July 18th, 2025 at 4:39 am Reply
MW: I love how emphatic Jeff is about not going with Mary and is finding the most out of the way excuse to get out of this trip. After all, who can honestly say that they remember, let alone be fully invested in the story of Dr. Adrian Corey who was scammed by a dating site but would eventually hook up with the son of Jeff’s
true lovecollege roommate?GarrisonSkunk
July 18th, 2025 at 8:05 am Reply
Mary’s Worst: “I’ll miss you more, Shmoopy, no I’ll miss you more, Shmoopy!”
pugfuggly
July 18th, 2025 at 4:45 am Reply
MW Ha, nice save,Dr Jeff: preemptively find an reason to skip out in the trip to spare yourself the embarrassment of Mary telling you plainly why she doesn’t want you to come along. I think I’m finally understanding how this relationship has lasted so long…
BigTed
July 18th, 2025 at 8:07 am Reply
Mary Worth: “To keep from having to travel to New York with you to see your weird friends, I promised to help someone move. I also would have promised to take someone to the airport, babysit a screaming toddler for a weekend, or spend a whole day with Wilbur. That’s how much I didn’t want to go!”
Anonymous
July 18th, 2025 at 4:47 am Reply
Mary Worth : “I’ll miss you more” is, of course, multiplicative rather than additive, which means Mary is telling the truth; multiplying zero by ANY number is still zero.
MKay
July 18th, 2025 at 4:58 am Reply
MW: Wow. Two options, both so unappealing that the only solution is to use each one to get out of the other, then hide out in a decent hotel all week.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 18th, 2025 at 8:52 am Reply
MW: In the unlikely event that Mary is curious enough to check Jeff’s cover story, Adrian and Scott know all about the “helping them move” bit. Then if she notices later that they’re still living in the same house they can just say, “Yeah, new place didn’t work out.”
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
TheDiva
July 18th, 2025 at 6:25 am Reply
Dustin: “It also helps to treat them like individuals with identities and personalities of their own, rather than prizes in a claw game that you can grab if you just know the right strategy.”
Peanut Gallery
July 18th, 2025 at 7:31 am Reply
FC – Thel looks disappionted that Jeffy remembered to put on his life jacket. If anyone could manage to drown in six inches of water, it’s him!
taig
July 18th, 2025 at 8:11 am Reply
@Peanut Gallery: You think a puny life jacket will counteract Jeffy’s stupid? Ha!
Luann: I can see why Knute was written out of this strip. He’s optimistic and fun.
Little Guy
July 18th, 2025 at 6:06 am Reply
Luann: Yeah, how do you make the hole wider?
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Peanut Gallery
July 14th, 2025 at 7:57 am Reply
love is… proposing to your AI chatbot.
69. taig
July 15th, 2025 at 7:06 am Reply
CS: “I found out that tree got tree cancer and died, which inspired me to write, uh, Lucy’s Story. But that’s a tale for another time.”
Luann: Most cartoonists choose a well-regarded story from the archives to rerun, but here it seems that Greg Evans just randomly clicked on the calendar and shrugged. I could be wildly misunderstanding the importance of or level of affection for these strips, though.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Lawyerbob
July 16th, 2025 at 6:54 am Reply
Pluggers: “Just go home and do nothing” means “die,” right? I mean, isn’t every “Pluggers” about that longing for the sweet release from all earthly burdens?
69. Voshkod
July 17th, 2025 at 6:29 am Reply
“The new exhibit at MoMA, Trouble Comes in Threes, reflects on life and death and death in life. A replica of the car in which Dale Earnhardt died is nailed to the wall like a crucifix, an arresting vision of willful sacrifice to America’s insatiable love of blood sports. As transfixing as the vehicle is, it becomes easy to overlook the true focus of the piece – an aging Earnhardt groupie, a NASCAR fanatic, sits smiling beneath the cenotaph, oblivious to the pain it represents. She sits alone, abandoned by both her idol Earnhardt and all other human warmth, with the cold machine of death her only companion, hanging over her like the Sword of Damocles. A powerful vision of America’s soul. Four stars.”
69. Joshua K.
July 18th, 2025 at 6:41 am Reply
I think Luann did go to Comic Con with Knute and Gunther, but she wound up having to dress as “Paddy the notepad” to promote the Paddy and Penrod comic that K&G were selling. It was an uncomfortable and unattractive costume.
Thanks for the mentions, Scratchy!
Wow, I’m genuinely honored to be leading up this week’s parade. The Comments Of The Week always make me laugh but this week–not counting my own contribution–seems especially great. Congratulations everyone!
Thanks, Scratchy.
Congrats to Spunky The Wonder Squid, everyone on the float, and my fellow scratchies! Broon Croons to Morgan Wick, MKay, Voshkod, Hibbleton, and TheDiva!
Thanks Josh, and thanks Scratchy, and Voshkudos to Spunky The Wonder Squid, Peanut Gallery, pugfuggly, A Grave Mind, and Ettorre.
Thanks Scratchy :3
And Happy Belated Birthday Josh ^w^
You are a treasure!
Thanks, Josh and Scratchy! Congrats to everyone!
Thanks to Josh, as always an honor to be on the float. Props to Spunky, our Big Gold Belt-wearer for the week. You guys are hilarious, happy birthday Josh, your site makes the Internet a better place, really.
Congratulations to Spunky the Wonder Squid and the other float folk. Also to the scratch-ies, with thanks to Scratchy Scrotum LXIX for the mention. Tips of the beret to Peanut Gallery, Dan, A Grave Mind, Schroduck, and TheDiva.
Thanks for the mention! A case of Meddle-Os™ for everyone!
Thanks to our birthday host, claps for all the named, and I appreciate the multiple scrotes from Scratchy.
Congrats to the big winners and mentionees!
Thanks, Anonymous!
Thank you, Scratchy, for the pair of scrotes. And thanks to all for giving me something to laugh about every day
Thanks, Josh and Scratchy!
“It really was a fake mustache”- Paul McCartney, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Congrats to Spunky and the floaters and thanks, Scratchy!
Thanks to Josh and Scratchy for all the highlights and thanks to Josh and Scratchy for the mentions.
Funny stuff!
Thank you, Scratchy, and thank god for poop jokes.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 1
Charterstoned
July 12th, 2025 at 4:38 am Reply
Mary Worth: Bingo. Out of all the really hideous old-lady garments Mary has in her wardrobe, she predictably went for the long-sleeved purple cowl-neck blouse.
Dmsilev
July 12th, 2025 at 4:39 am Reply
Mary Worth: Apparently Belle Eyes is a contagious disease. Memo to all Charterstone residents: Now, more than usual, do not eat the muffins.
Hibbleton
July 12th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary’s eyes in Panel 2 are typical of a person who’s just been goosed. Perhaps she backed into the vacuum handle. “I have things to.. DO!“
pugfuggly
July 12th, 2025 at 4:59 am Reply
Mary Worth: Some lesser strips might have considered skipping over the crucial ‘packing for a trip’ scene in a story but not Mary Worth! I’m looking forward to other exciting vignettes like ‘Mary takes the shuttle from long-term parking’, ‘Mary waits in a TSA line’ and ‘Mary stands in the middle of the terminal trying to decide whether to get Panda Express or Chick-Fil-A for lunch until finally just grabbing a pack of mixed nuts and a Fresca’.
Comically Challenged
July 12th, 2025 at 5:26 am Reply
Gil Thorp: It’s good to see that Dee Snider’s stylist from his Twisted Sister days is still getting work.
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 12th, 2025 at 12:19 pm Reply
Mary Worth: Mary looks in the last panel like she just discovered she has a clitoris.
BigTed
July 13th, 2025 at 4:46 am Reply
Hi and Lois: The beach, the sand, the pool? C’mon, kids, this strip has given you three different places to pee, and you don’t appreciate any of them!
Lord Flatulence
July 13th, 2025 at 6:25 am Reply
Phantom: They’re dead, who cares? Just haul the gold to your minor treasure room and call it a day.
Hibbleton
July 13th, 2025 at 6:39 am Reply
Judge Parker: “I may be losing my touch but I’m not the one drinking coffee with ricin in it.”
Guillermo el Chiclero
July 13th, 2025 at 1:08 pm Reply
Phantom: Hey, can some of your Wambesi warriors help me truck those gold bricks back to the Skullcave? The beer and pizzas are on me.
Philip
July 13th, 2025 at 3:57 pm Reply
Beetle Bailey: Camp Swampy is kept open to contain Beetle’s eyes, which are so horrible to see that he could defeat X-Men’s Cyclops in a staring contest.
Little Blue Bicycle
July 14th, 2025 at 6:07 am Reply
Mary Worth: Mary and Dr. Jeff’s relationship has all the intimacy and emotion of a stranger asking for the time.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 14th, 2025 at 6:59 am Reply
Hägar the Horrible: Well, one clue to Hagar’s location is his shield. He’ll need that less for defense against clubs and arrows than pushing the peasant rabble out of his way. That castle has a Buffalo Wild Wings all-you-can-eat wings bar, is what I’m saying.
taig
July 14th, 2025 at 7:12 am Reply
Mary Worth: “By the way, this hex nut ravioli is great.”
Somebody Somewhere All At Once
July 14th, 2025 at 7:15 am Reply
Mary Worth: As a graduate of the Miss Manners School of Etiquette, Mary knows you always pair the wine with your guest’s attire, in case of spills.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 14th, 2025 at 2:44 pm Reply
Hägar the Horrible: I know this strip sometimes likes to ditch whatever verisimilitude it might have and show flying dragons as part of the action, which raises some interesting questions about where these hot wings come from and what’s cooking them.
matt w
July 14th, 2025 at 5:37 pm Reply
Andy Capp: Figured out what the emotional arc of Andy Capp reminds me of: The Garfield strip where Garfield throws his teddy bear Pooky away as Jon walks by and then rushes to make sure Pooky’s OK. Which also reminds me that, though they are surprisingly similar in many ways, there’s a reason I have pet cats and not pet drunken abusive English layabouts.
Bob Tice
July 15th, 2025 at 4:41 am Reply
Pardon My Planet: “This diamond was formed under intense heat and pressure — 2500 degrees Fahrenheit, and 825,000 pounds per square inch. It will mirror our perception of the crushing, unbearable, blistering tension that our relationship will have brought to one another!”
Dennis Jimenez
July 15th, 2025 at 5:45 am Reply
Rex Morgan: What will the moving finger write on the wall? “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine…”
Lord Flatulence
July 15th, 2025 at 6:10 am Reply
Rex Morgan: The suspense is inconveniencing me.
Peanut Gallery
July 15th, 2025 at 6:37 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Hmm. According to these results, Truck, you’re 75% chimpanzee. Thought it would be higher, honestly.
Hibbleton
July 16th, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
Judge Parker: April proceeds to pummel all the guests in the cafe. She gets to Sophie and says; “Hey! I know you. Your sister wrote that horrible TV show.” Punches her in the face.
Tabby Lavalamp
July 16th, 2025 at 6:08 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Well, Truck, it could be INLknsisojdvls.
sdvkm
Sorry. The indifference hit me so hard I fell asleep there.
GarrisonSkunk
July 16th, 2025 at 6:12 am Reply
The Familliar Mucus: “I told you not to eat that salmon square, Jeffy!”
Daisy
July 16th, 2025 at 7:14 am Reply
Family Circus: Jeffy’s “Dorian Gray” moment is revealed.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 2
TheDiva
July 16th, 2025 at 8:11 am Reply
Judge Parker: Sure, they rag on America for all the gun deaths, but what Norwegians don’t tell you is that their country leads the world in clandestine spy encounters going horribly wrong.
Rover Berkeley
July 16th, 2025 at 7:24 pm Reply
Family Circus: Jeffy looks like he’s cranking out a turd the size of Rhode Island.
Uncle Lumpy
July 17th, 2025 at 4:32 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “Spuds Morton? I won’t stand for it! Reckon I’ll just keep sittin’—that’s kind of my deal, anyway.”
A Grave Mind
July 17th, 2025 at 4:40 am Reply
Gearhead Gertie: Gertie tried to have Dale’s actual body mounted in the car as well, but Earnhardt family lawyers and a cemetary night watchman put a stop to THAT, the killjoys.
Needless Exposition
July 17th, 2025 at 5:04 am Reply
Mary Worth: “I would rather go to first base with Wilbur Weston than go anywhere with you, Mary Worth. Now where’s your bathroom? This garbage you made is making a return trip and I don’t know what route it’s taking.”
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
July 17th, 2025 at 5:19 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Man, everywhere you look, it gets worse for Truck. My wife slept with someone from my band? My wife slept with the drummer?? I’m in Rex Morgan, M.D.???
ValdVin
July 17th, 2025 at 6:36 am Reply
Blondie: Does Dagwood’s tongue always hang out like that when he’s going in to bite a sandwich, or are there some Bumsteads in Hootin’ Holler we don’t know about?
Philip
July 17th, 2025 at 6:49 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “’Spuds’ Morton! That Dirty Song of a Gun!!!” will be both a revenge song and a surprise hit for Truck, leading to a short-lived popular revival of roots country on TikTok.
Daisy
July 17th, 2025 at 7:13 am Reply
TrainwreckMD: “I hope we dive ever more deeply into his psychosexual landscape over the rest of the week.”
Josh, that is one deep dive you’ll have to do on your own…I for one will not be accompanying you. I suspect if you dive deep enough, you’ll find Wilbur Weston in his tiny black Spandex Speedo.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 17th, 2025 at 1:27 pm Reply
Mary Worth: “Nah, I’ll just wait around to see the inevitable grisly story on Dateline NBC. Wait, did I say that out loud?”
Bob Tice
July 18th, 2025 at 4:30 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “I guess I shoulda thought more of it when I saw Varla ‘n’ Spuds on the Jumbotron together during the Hank Jr. concert!”
Tabby Lavalamp
July 18th, 2025 at 5:57 am Reply
Mary Worth asks us to suspend our disbelief a LOT. We’re expected to believe that there are people who want to have sex with Wilbur, that the grey slop Mary feeds people is delicious, or that occasionally there is anything even remotely interesting about Ian and Toby. But asking us to believe a doctor in the modern United States would physically help people move? I’d sooner believe that Toby finds Ian’s chin beard attractive.
Daisy
July 18th, 2025 at 7:48 am Reply
Mary Worth: Having initiated the imprinting protocol early in their long relationship, Mary now reaches behind the nape of android “Jeff’s” neck and presses the nodules to reset its “affinity” and “affection” subroutines to “hibernate” for the duration of her leave. Damned if she will let her supertoy interact with another human being in her absence.
Artist formerly known as Ben
July 18th, 2025 at 12:50 pm Reply
Family Circus: Does Jeffy really need a lifejacket to step in the wading pool? Let’s just say that past experience suggests “yes.”
GarrisonSkunk
July 18th, 2025 at 1:08 pm Reply
Mark Trail Mix: “Mark, you and your family are invited to my golf resort for the weekend, and by all means, wear those Thurston Howell the third eyebrows you won on eBay.”
Shadow CsOTW
——————
Little Blue Bicycle
July 12th, 2025 at 6:39 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Telling Jeff” is so low on Mary’s to-do that it’s under “unplug computer” and “flush toilets.”
Thank you so much, Josh Scratchy and Baja! A tip o’ the tentacles to Spunky The Wonder Squid — I read half your comment when it was posted, did not notice the Barthes reference bringing it all back home (signifyingly speaking) — and wing flaps to all the floaters!
I coulda been a contendah, and thanks to Baja, I am!
(I promise to not make this joke ever again.)
Thanks, Scratchy and Baja!
Thanks, Baja!
Thanks Scratchy!
Thank you muchly, Baja.
Huzzahs for Spunky The Wonder Squid and the other clever amusing snarkers, and more huzzahs for those who majestically select the best of the best to present to us each Friday! This week’s poteeterisks* go to A Grave Mind, Daisy, Guillermo el Chiclero, and Dr. Larry Erhardt.
Sorry this is so late. Every Friday something weird happens. Today it was trying to figure out why honeybees have been showing up in the basement. G’night all.
Thank you, Scratchy and Baja!