Sunday is for teens and/or birds
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Shoe, 8/24/25
You of course all know that one of my favorite things to grapple with in every Shoe strip that’s even vaguely bird-related is “Did the Shoe creative team remember that all their characters are birds when they wrote this joke?” Many of the regular bird characters have bird-related names — P. Martin Shoemaker, Cosmo Fishhawk, Loon, Roz Specklehen, Muffy Hollandaise … uh, well, not her, but you get the point — so for this one, I’m concluding that all these celebrities are not the ones we know and love but are their aviamorphic counterparts in the Shoeniverse. “Steven Seagull” was the tipoff. Anyway, no idea what The Birds was about in this reality, but I’m assuming it portrayed birds in a much more positive light than Hitchcock did in his frankly offensive anti-bird polemic.
Luann, 8/24/25
Years ago, the whole point of Tiffany within the larger narrative of Luann was that she was a hot, vapid, scheming cheerleader who bullied and belittled our heroine, Luann, and who got made fun of in turn behind her back. After a while they decided that maybe it was kind of grim to have one of the strip’s main characters be that kind of caricature, so they gave her depth and positive qualities and such, and then I sort of checked out of reading Luann for like a decade, but now I’m back and … I guess we have a new one of those? And she’s Tiffany’s college roommate? Interesting that this is a comic strip ecological niche that simply must be filled. More on this story, such as whether I bother to learn this person’s name, as it develops.
Hi and Lois, 8/24/25
Honestly I think the thing that actually works here is that instead of just texting each other, they’ve snuck off from their respective homes to the secluded woods where they can presumably fool around; the handwritten letter is I’m sure nice but probably isn’t the most important factor. Anyway, Chip, maybe don’t talk about your mom too much right now.
132 replies to “Sunday is for teens and/or birds”
Luann:
Are they at Arizona State?
Hi and Lois-“You seem to have exaggerated this drawing a bit.”
Shoe:
“Not to mention Steve Martin, Robin Wright, Martin Sheen and Martin Short. Oh — and additional soundtrack assistance from Sheryl Crow. They were also going to have Walter Pidgeon and Robin Williams in the cast, but sadly, they have passed this sphere.”
The name of that character is Stef, and stress am utter caricature even by the standards of this strip. However, she is enthusiastically sexually active, so at least in that regard she’s the only character in this strip who’s normal.
H and L:
“Mom, why does everyone in this strip have a roundish face, regardless of whether they’re related to us?”
Luann: Unlike Tiffany in high school, Stephanie is really horny and actually gets laid a lot… but to be clear; that’s not a source of humor, it’s a signifier that she’s bad.
H&L: “Yeah, my mom said we should take our séxting to the next level.”
Shoe: I can only assume that The Birds is just chapter one their version of Genesis, or at least their romanticized version of it. I really like the idea of Bird Church, with monotone readings of verses describing Suzanne Pleshette getting pecked to death.
Luann: Hey red-headed roommate: I am a middle-aged man and even I know that’s not what that phrase means.
H&L: Yeesh. Pro-tip Chip: nothing ruins a romantic moment, at any age, than the phrase “It was my mom’s idea”.
Saying “It was my Mom’s idea” kind of dulls the romance there.
Shoe: You see, Alfred Hitchcock made “The Birds” before the animal uprising, before birds grew sentient and… some celebrities may have turned into birds themselves (if not playing the humans in the remake?)
Ironically… this remake will be a reenactment of how the birds ended up actually killing most of the humans as they take over the planet.
(SO MUCH PECKING!)
H&L: Chip, everyone knows your mom is a MILF.
MW: Olive’s face in the last panel suggests that she’s going to use her
Shinningtummy brain“special gifts” to set all of their heads on fire for not immediately worshipping her and merely saying that she’s “all right.”@pugfuggly: Oops, hehe we said the same joke at the same time xD
@Hibbleton:
And by “Steffi gets laid a lot”, we mean “her roommates had to set up a privacy tent for her to fuck in (the “fuck hut”, if you will), and told her to schedule how long each day she would be using it, and she basically scheduled using it 24/7″. And then there was the storyline where her roommates were all “Hey, you are NOT actually using it 24/7, would you mind letting us use it as a privacy tent for our own stuff (studying, nude yoga)?” and Steffi threw a temper tantrum, and they gave up after Steffi’s boyfriend said something like “She NEEDS the constant sex to deal with the stress of her day-to-day life!”
(Also, à propos of nothing : Tiffany being the only “legacy” character left in the Dorm/Moony U. setting makes it a really weird space that’s kinda disconnected from the rest of the strip now, doesn’t it? I mean, when’s the last time the strip reminded you that Gunther goes there? That BERNICE is
supposedlystill studying there?)***********
Moose and Molly : …That’s supposed to be a mole? I thought it was some gross mutant that is actually meant to be Chester’s spawn!
MW: Naomi is still one of the few characters in this story with any sort of sanity. She’s the only one who knows that Olive is a narcissistic weirdo constantly seeking out attention. But thanks to everyone else having a sharp drop in intelligence, they think Olive is some sort of hero. Moy must really depend on the audience consuming mind altering substances before reading this comic.
OK Chip, but last time you decided to move a relationship offline to IRL it didn’t work out so well. At least I think that’s a different girl.
Mary Worth quotevestigation: “All things can be forgiven if we can progress” is indeed Cat Stevens, or more properly Yusuf Islam, because it’s about him getting deported from the US as a security threat.
@Hibbleton: I maintain that there’s no actual sex. All of this ‘tee hee, we just had SO much sex, honest!’ with Steff’s over-the-top, insult-to-Dolly-Parton accent and Kip’s pushover Ken-doll blandness tells me that it’s all just a put-on. That ‘privacy tent’ BS? All they’d have to do is just step inside and pull a ‘When Harry Met Sally’.
I won’t believe anything until the Evansii have the guts to actually depict them in the afterglow, under the sheets, talking honestly about having just done it, just like they allegedly did with Bets and Gunther (because no, I did NOT shell out for that grift and I’m surprised someone hasn’t put it online somewhere for free as an ‘F you’ to the Evansii for being so blatantly grasping).
Shoe: “Hitchcock‘s The Birds is paired in a double-feature with Peckinpah’s One-Eyed Jackdaws.”
Shoe: The Birds is best known for its lead actress Tippi Hedren, but I guess in this reactionary, anti-woke era you can’t have radical feminist provocations like “women in movies”. Looking forward to seeing Stephen Segal as a femme fatale screaming in a phone booth.
Luann: The phrase “Don’t yuck her yum” indicates two disturbing things. One: Luann is familiar enough with the online kink community to recognise that phrase. Two: The Luann creative team is familiar enough with the online kink community to recognise that phrase.
Lurking underneath Cosmo’s cynical sullenness is an unchecked lust for bloody avian revenge against the human race. He’s already drafted a script that ends with birds hunting us for sport and eating us with stuffing and gravy.
SlyF – I just love me a “Slylock Fox” where the solution is “Because Max is an idiot.”
@Anonymous: Unfortunately none of the characters in Luann are interesting enough to have declared a college major, so their higher education was quietly forgotten.
MW: I might be reading this wrong but did Olive just float into the room a few inches above the floor?
@17 The Quiet Man: Did you forget about the “jizz towel”? I wish I could.
Luann Remember being in university, and how every year you kept sharing a place with someone you hated? What? You say you don’t remember that, because you’re not a moron?
Hmmm…,
H&L: I always hated it when sales coaches recommended sending handwritten notes to clients, because my handwriting is frankly atrocious. Nothing kills the “I’m competent and professional” vibe like chicken scratch you can barely read.
Luann: Pep rallies? Spirit club? Dammit Clan Evans, how many times do we have to remind you that these characters are in college and not “high school but with dorms”? Stef should be pledging half a dozen sororities, not going on about cheer practice.
Shoe: Today I learned that Shoe operates on the same principles as the Flintstones universe, with theme-named variations of our own celebrities. I hope this extends to having a host of lesser animals performing menial tasks for them–I would love to discover Cosmo’s computer is powered by a little chipmunk on a treadmill sighing, “It’s a living…”
SHOE:
If it has “Steven Seagull” in it…probably not (this also nullify the claim that it has an “all-star lineup.”)
Lio: Too soon, Lio, WAY too soon!
MW: “‘All right?’ You’d better up your praise game, Vicki; don’t forget that you owe me your life and I could call it the debt at any moment.”
Phantom: Diana, you married a man who wears a purple bodysuit and lives in a cave in the woods where he maintains his family’s colonialist shadow dynasty, and this is where you decide his whole deal is too crazy?
RMMD: Discussion topic: between Jonah and Mary Worth’s Naomi, which character is being more unfairly vilified for calling out the behavior of the protagonists?
MW: Where are Vicki’s parents?
@Charterstoned: She truly is Little Orphan Knockoff!
DT: If LaKoyle has already venture capital backing, why does she need that piddling loan shark money? Tens or even hundred thousands are small compared to the millions poured in by the venture capitalist. One third percentage isn’t a bad deal. What this option to buy means is not clear? Usually the lab/inventors still keeps a stake, and Smith Industries would be licensing the rights – and it would be lucrative for everyone. Her whole team would be kept on and can get new deals for future work – since it is doubtful anyone else has much working knowledge of the magical green goo.
Even a cursory watching of Dragon’s Den would clue the writer’s in on this. I like the new DT direction but they need to try to tighten up the plot points. The earlier find-a-body and fake a death to cover up embezzlement was likewise good but needed to be more carefully fleshed out.
FG: The gang’s all back – and we finally get to hear/see the war plans.
MW: Yeah, Olive is now cool! But why did they have to drag Aquaman into this! Since the writer is in “the comic industry”, she should know that for a long time Aquaman was mocked for being one of the least useful members of the Justice League and his name was used in a pejorative way. Leave Arthur Curry out of this!
RMMD: Yes, that would be an expected response. This sort of thing (people taking commercial genetic testing and discovering new siblings) evidently is a real thing. These hits are termed NPE or “non paternity even” or “not parent expected” and can lead to some tense family moments. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/08/25/the-family-fallout-of-dna-surprises
@TheDiva: Re: H&L: I think Chip’s handwriting is similarly atrocious, which is why the girl thinks this is a “romantic handwritten letter, instead of vulgar pornographic ramblings.
Girlfriend: “Oh Chip, this is so romantic!”
Chip: “Especially the part where I mention how much I want to (bleep) my (bleep) all over your (bleep), right?”
@TheDiva:
Luann: […]these characters are in college and not “high school but with dorms”?[…]
Better than Luann’s free community college, or “elementary school daycare but the ‘kids’ are in their twenties”.
…Speaking of, is Luann going to quit her Weenie World job now that classes are starting again, and thus both her “studies” (sarcasm quotes necessary because it’s “no major + daycare show&tell”) and her tutor job would pick back up, or has her motive for taking it completely shifted to “LOOK PHIL I HAVE A REAL JOB LIKE A REAL ADULT”?
@TheDiva: Re: H&L: I think Chip’s handwriting is similarly atrocious, which is why the girl thinks this is a “romantic handwritten letter, instead of vulgar pornographic ramblings.
Girlfriend: “Oh Chip, this is so romantic!”
Chip: “Especially the part where I mention how much I want to (bleep) my (bleep) all over your (bleep), right?”
HnL: “It’s in cursive!” “My mom wrote it.”
Shoe: I hope the movie has weirdly edited shots where it looks like Steven Seagull is tai-chiing something to death.
Luann: Dez, tell that to School Management when Stef flunks out of Mooney U.
@Charterstoned:
MW: Where are Vicki’s parents?
Probably boinking.
CS: Can’t Crankshaft tell you? He was with an entire football team for a large part of a game very recently.
9CL: Amos looks so coquettish in panel 4.
Alternate Universe Luann: A depressed Steph with sore feet and swollen ankles enters the room six-months pregnant. In a show of sisterhood, the others put aside their past conflicts to assist her as she struggles to complete her degree while struggling with the prospect of being a single mother.
@Hibbleton: Mary Worth cringes at the idea that a married couple have sexual relations when they should be practicing celibacy like good sexually repressed Protestants.
FC: Is that street canonically only a one-way street? Also, Jeffy (how could it be any other child?) will gain the nickname “Barfy” after this incident.
MW: “Aquaman has nothing on you, girl!” I call bullshit, unless Olive’s powers also include talking to aquatic animals. Right now, all she can do is make proto-Stefs angry.
Dustin: Oh, Hayden. You really need to stop hanging out with Dustin. He is nowhere near a role model.
LUANN: Gee, I dunno, Tiff. Has anyone told the creators that? Just saying, I don’t recall any of you dumb chippies ever going to classes or anything.
H&L – It just occurred to me that Chip’s eyes are always covered by his hair, much like his uncle Beetle’s hats/helmets. So it looks like one of the comics world’s greatest mysteries has finally been solved in that last panel.
@2+2=7: I kinda recall Bets complaining about how homework got in the way of her “influencer” lifestyle, until she gave that up for *urk* Gunther.
@Bob Tice: Making the same joke I see. Good one.
Shoe: They seriously couldn’t find a fourth celebrity with a bird name? They had to tweak Steven Seagal’s name? Steven Martin was right there, man!
Luann: Did you just describe a character from Luann as having “depth”? That might just be your funniest and most absurd joke yet, Josh.
Also Luann: The lady in the green shirt looks a lot like a cartoon version of my wife. I pointed this out to her. She is NOT a fan of it.
Hi And Lois: I feel like Lois is going to regret indulging in this “kids these days and their DAMN phones” nonsense when Chip knocks up Jenny instead of just texting her, beginning a very special episode about teen pregnancy.
Shoe: Of course, “Muffy Hollandaise” is named for a sauce made with eggs, which in the context of bird-people brings up some thorny issues. Were her ancestors French immigrant cannibals? Or did she choose it herself as some sort of rebellious punk-rock name, like Sid Vicious or Shirley Manson?
Hi and Lois: I guess this is supposed to be a romantic setting — but the ominous canopy of pure-black trees in the daylight suggests we’re getting to the part of the movie where a pair of hormonal teens will be axe-murdered by inbred monster-folk as soon as they start getting frisky.
Mark Trail: Geez, Mark, do you really think people living in hurricane-prone areas need ultra-basic advice like “have a radio” and “stock up on peanut butter”? In any case, you’re not exactly the best person to lecture us on this topic, since your personal storm plan seems to be standing outside in red cotton hoodie.
Non Sequitur: If only Olive were there to help.
This was all I could think about for Olive’s face in the last panel when her new cronies didn’t worship her to her liking.
I was trying to figure out a joke about Steven Seagal’s (sorry, “Seagull’s”) lack of acting chops compared to the rest of the genuine talent within that all-star lineup until I realized that I would pay to see him in the Tippi Hendren role if it was a Gun Van Sant directed shot-by-shot remake à la Psycho (1998).
***
Lois is the rare cool mom who will help her teenage son get out there and fuck.
@taig: Hey,yeah! I remember because this was when Bets returned back to school in LATE OCTOBER, well past the cutoff date for any registration period. See that was a girl who took the college experience seriously, not like some bimbo who wants to party (who does that at college?)
Belated happy birthday wishes to Guillermo el Chiclero.
FC – The rental car company is going to add a cleaning fee due to Jeffy’s barf.
Just how fast are they going down Lombard Street? Cars go pretty slow because of all the turns.
JP – This is strictly make-it-up- from-one-panel-to-the-next territory.
Rex Morgan – Now it’s obvious – Anger Management Issues Brother will get sick and need a kidney transplant, and Cody will be the only match. Either that, or Cody will rescue him from an undertow.
Breaking Cat News – Get that bottle of water and spray them in the face.
Frazz – Shoe only talked about it, but Frazz and Caulfield are living it. I hope they end up like Suzanne Pleshette.
FC-So it’s not a straight street?
Hi and Lois
Whispers in the room—mother, son.
Something unclean in the shadows.
But no, look again:
Lois watches the girl,
eyes tilted sideways, hungry.
Not Oedipus, not the old Greek curse.
Different script, softer lighting:
The Graduate.
She leans in—
and gets the splash of cold water from Jenny.
“Mrs. Flagston, you’re trying to seduce me
…aren’t you?”
Will Steven Speilbird be directing “The Bird’s List”?
@TheDiva: 28- absolutely hands down Jonah.
@Hibbleton: “MW: I might be reading this wrong but did Olive just float into the room a few inches above the floor?”
Olive’s special abilities now include levitation. By the time she hits 18, she’ll have all the powers of the DC Legion of Super Heroes. (I’m looking forward to her doing Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad)
JP: ”But, Neddy — it’s the only place in Norway that sells coffee! The locals prefer strong hot lichen tea with a pat of reindeer butter in it.”
9CL: If Brooke had an
editorsomeone who gave a damn about anything he published, they’d have pointed out that NO ONE except extreme movie nerds and everyone at the Comics Curmudgeon knows who Ben Turpin was. “Use Spiro Agnew, Brooke,” they would say. “Spiro Agnew is always good for a laugh.”6ix Chix: “Ready to fuck?”
Hi and Lois-Well, Chip, and I know this is going to sound crass but have you consider actually showing her your dick instead of pictures of it.
@38 Hibbleton: In this universe, Stef is boinking everything wearing trousers because she found out she has no ovaries after her early gynecology visits. No chance of pregnancy. STD’s? Uh…
REX MORGAN M.D.: Lorna: “It’s nice. He seems like a good guy—much more pleasant than my other brother who thinks wishes should be respected and boundaries should be un-violated, the asshole!”
REX MORGAN M.D. (2): Hey, apropos of nothing, remember a couple of storylines back when Kelly’s mother, Summer, had to deal with an obsessed stalker who wouldn’t get her clear and direct hints that she had no interest in pursuing a relationship with him and he would perpetually refuse to take no for an answer or give her the space she requested?
Why am I bringing this up now? Oh….just some memory that suddenly popped into my head for some reason. I’m sure it has absolutely no relevance to themes and subtext of this plot at all, so pay it no mind.
Luann: There is a towel that should be a biohazard to be deposed due to all the Stef/Kip Fuck Tent action.
Oh, in the normal world, when a college woman needs to release sexual tension without a human partner, there is an ‘app’ for that.
@Needless Exposition, MW: No, that’s Mary.
“All I, the parent of a teenager, ever see of teenage romance is the two of them texting back and forth. Surely no part of this relationship could exist outside my benevolent supervision. Time to write a comic strip that validates my views!”
S4th: For some reason, in my local paper, Hil’s hair is always darker in the leftmost panels, and grows lighter toward the right. This is not the case on the Comics Kingdom website.
Curtis: This is, of course, a long-running Curtis trope. Ages ago, Uncle Lumpy raised the question of whether Diane is somehow oblivious to this crowd of people that suddenly appears to laugh at her son, or whether they only exist in Curtis’s head, as a symbol of his embarassment. The phones, I’m pretty sure, are a new addition, and I have never hoped more that it’s the second one.
DT: Boy, I can’t wait for this time next week, when Faust is vaguely wondering whether Lakoyle’s final comment here, followed by her coming back the next day and saying “Everything’s sorted, there’s now nothing stopping you buying my high-power electrical storage gel” might possibly be related to the news that a venture capitalist was the latest victim of the zappy-death-ray killer? And if so, whether he should tell his boss, aka Dick Tracy’s buddy Diet Smith, or if that’s not really something worth bothering him about?
S4th: Sorry, Hil, “hidden fees” are old news. Real music groups know that the reason to jack up the ticket price is “dynamic pricing” — aka “we charge whatever we think you’re dumb enough to pay, because we can”.
@pugfuggly: Luann: Hey red-headed roommate: I am a middle-aged man and even I know that’s not what that phrase means.
Pretty sure it was a last minute alteration after the Evansii questioned if The Kids Today were still saying “harsh her mellow”.
@Little Guy: Mary is using her Shinning to possess Olive. The ritual has worked.
MW-” Girl, Aquaman’s got nothing on you. You swim like a Spuds Morton’s sperm cell!
@Charterstoned: Actually the question is where are Olive’s parents? Did she and her tummy-brain wish them into the cornfield (or, more likely, a “rooms-by-the-hour” motel so they can do what they do best).
I guess I was right after all when I suggested yesterday that Olive’s parents would be gone as soon as they presented their obligatory “concern” scene about their daughter.
@Ed Kranepool:
How’re those amazin’ Mets, Ed?
@2+2=7: They’re not important to the story. Only Mary and Olive are which is why that poor lifeguard gets no acknowledgement for doing all the work. The only people who have pointed out that Olive basically did nothing (Naomi and Ed) are deemed Bad for not worshipping Pope Olive and her patron Saint Mary.
Hi is 39 and Lois must be around the same age. She was a teenager around the turn of the millennium, so she should not know anything about handwritten letters. She should encourage her son to call the girl, text using ton of abbreviations to stay within characters limit or go to AOL messaging
@TheDiva: I remember there was a storyline for a while about Tiffany studying business, but she stopped after like a week because it was too hard and everyone told her she couldn’t do it, and it was never mentioned again.
@BigTed: Shoe: Of course, “Muffy Hollandaise” is named for a sauce made with eggs, which in the context of bird-people brings up some thorny issues.
______________________
Unviable Gator eggs. Fairs fair!
The Familliar Mucus: “Daddy, if these are the streets of San Francisco where’s that nose guy?
@The Man With The Plan: Tiff already earns big bucks selling her used underwear online; a business degree would be superfluous.
@75 GarrisonSkunk: The nose guy?
Luann: “Has anyone told her that this is also a school?”
Has anyone told you that it’s the middle of August?
@TheDiva: Stef should be pledging half a dozen sororities, not going on about cheer practice.
And this would happen every year, because, through the magic of comic strip time, despite these characters having memories of prior years together, they are perennial freshmen.
@TheDiva: I would love to discover Cosmo’s computer is powered by a little chipmunk on a treadmill sighing, “It’s a living…”
Now that we’ve entered the age of AI with its increased power demands, that would have to be a capybara.
Blondie: I always wondered what kind of dog Daisy was. Now we can cross pointer, and all the hunting breeds, off the list.
H&L: Apparently there exists no model sheet of Chip at Walker Comics-Like Industries Amalgamated, so the rough sketch including little dots made it into print by what I am hoping is error.
Zits: Unnamed dad of longtime girlfriend doesn’t outright hate you, Jeremy? Archie is very jealous right now.
Crankshaft: White helmets and that’s not Mike O’Shea. Apparently the CFL didn’t approve of this strip.
@The Man With The Plan:
Are you sure that’s how it happened?
Because it seems to me like you’re describing the Tiff as Nails storyline, except it goes the other way; it was how the cast talked Tiffany into becoming a business major instead of talking her out of it.
I mean, I *think* Tiffany is still a business major? That was the pretext for her and Bets to do that idiotic “BATUBS Rebranding” scheme?
@Baja Gaijin: Karl Malden
@Baja Gaijin: He means Karl Malden. After Jimmy Durante passed on to Nose Heaven, Karl took his place in the Hollywood Pantheon of nose guys.
Pete Townsend and Ringo Starr continue their co-reign as the nose guys of rock n’ roll.
@I speak Jive: FC: “Just how fast are they going down Lombard Street? Cars go pretty slow because of all the turns.”
Bil went to the Frank Bullitt School of Driving.
(One of the funniest bits I’ve ever heard was Bill Cosby’s “Driving in San Francisco”)
@Ukulele Ike: @Ukulele Ike: Barbra Streisand and Rod Stewart called.
@54 GarrisonSkunk:
No, it will still be Alfred HitchCOCK.
@Sequitur: Which means he’ll terrorize his female actors even more.
@The Man With The Plan: It’s nice that Mooney U has an “open dorms” policy so, uh, students can just hang out there any time.
@richardf8: I’ve been reading and enjoying Dumbing of Age for years, watching all the major characters enjoy not only one-night stands but deep and fulfilling romantic entanglements: hetero, homo, bi, polycule, human/Great Dane, human/hawthorne tree. There have been kidnappings, murders, violent campus protests, and terrorist attacks. Not only is it still the first term of freshman year, but due to all the snow and the prevalence of heavy coats and boots, it looks like everything has happened between Thanksgiving and the Winter Break.
@ValdVin: If you were Mr. Lodge, and you had raised Veronica from perfect little princess into a paragon of lush, throbbing, voluptuous womanhood, would you accept Archie Andrews as an appropriate suitor? Archie’s lucky Dad doesn’t meet him at the door with a double-barreled shotgun.
@Ukulele Ike:
@UncleJeff:
I believe Jamie Farr is still living.
MW: To quote Raj Koothapali, “Aquaman sucks!”
@Bob Tice: <—— Triggered
Hi and Lois – As the old saying goes, a good mom will help you with your homework; a great mom will help you get laid.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Your head would look good up there too, wouldn’t it?”
“I can’t believe you said that”
“Are you a homicidal maniac?”
“It won’t hurt”
@83 Die Rosenkavalieren: That’s a schnozz!
@GarrisonSkunk: The Familliar Mucus: “Daddy, if these are the streets of San Francisco where’s that nose guy?
Tell us you are old, yet without saying the words “I am old.”
@matt w: All things can be forgiven except blasphemy? Not forgetting that Cat Stevens endorsed killing Salman Rushdie so fuck him.
MW: I see from the first two panels that Olive’s evaluation is being done telepathically. It’s good that the hospital could bring in her regular handlers.
Will the movie be directed by Jay Jay Abrams from a screenplay by Heron Sorkin?
MW: Did Olive’s “gifts” turn the last unnamed bully from Latina to Merely Tanned?
Shoe – We’re also looking forward to the remake of Vertigo starring a computer-regenerated Dizzy Gillespie.
LUANN: Cute, but I didn’t get it until I went back and read Nameless’s tee.
BLONDIE: Cultural query: do the wives handle the daily finances in most families? I know my mom did as does Blondie, though it seems that would be a trad husband’s job.
JP: at least Randy isn’t stuck in a trunk, or even blindfolded. Leaving Char alone with boogie men around, to all Child Protection.
Slylock – And then the police tracked down the car with plate 8HMO and arrested the wrong guy, because the real crook’s license plate was OWH8, but he turned it upside-down to evade detection!
Curtis: For the thousandth time, Curtis. Those dressing room doors lock from the inside. I suppose whenever Curtis is using a public restroom his dad flings open the stall door so everyone can see him on the porcelain throne.
FC: Poor Bil. Now he’s got to drive all the way back to Scottsdale in a car full of melonhead puke.
@Ukulele Ike: Now there’s an idea for an engaging storyline!
@Anonymous: Maybe so, there’s only so much brainpower I can spare to remember Luann storylines these days.
Anyway, my point was that Luann has done the one storyline focused on college studies (that I can recall) and never again, in favor of what it was already doing when the characters were still in high school.
H&L:
Lois: May I make a suggestion?
Jenny: Fucking in the woods? How romantic!
Chip: It was my Mom’s idea.
@Bob Tice: Why do you ask?
JP: Randy is with the Agent Smiths.
@astroboy: Apparently Mary’s desire for a WASPy paradise means Spicy Latina has to be Cafe Latte.
RMMD: GRRRRRRRRR!!!
FG: Well aren’t YOU the shirty one, Empress Aura, all decked out in your Wonder Woman cosplay outfit. You know, Diana Prince at least had good manners.
Save that breastplate and tiara for Barin and the royal bedroom. Dress like a sensible Empress (say, 1985 Maggie Thatcher) and maybe your “proud royal stewards” will show you some respect.
I hope Sigourney Warbler will be in the “The Birds” reboot. She was funny in “Goosebusters” and “Goosebusters 2”
@Needless Exposition: I wouldn’t go calling Naomi a Cassandra for the modern ages just yet. Her “calling Olive out” has pretty much just been her sulking while proclaiming to everyone that she could have needlessly endangered her life too if she really wanted to, you know! She just didn’t want to, because fuck Red over there!
@2+2=7: I wonder if Little Orphan Knockoff was having any personal issues which was what made her ignore the red flags warning about
Olive’s attention seeking behaviorthe undertow.@Baja Gaijin: You fellow Mudges dubbed it that. When any of the characters, in universe, state that that towel has anything other than run of the mill human sweat on it, then I’ll believe actual sex is taking place.
Remember, Tiffany acted like a slut to cover up the pain of her empty life, but never actually had sex, and eventually broke down and became as bland and (in universe at least) inoffensive as the rest of the cast. The Evansii will eventually pull the same stunt with Steff, when they run out of ideas for ‘bitchy cheerleader’ gags, again. Maybe instead of making Steff fat they’ll make her anorexic or a cutter.
RwO: for those with limited knowledge of kid’s lit, “Charlotte’s Web “
@Activist: You mean 6Chx, right?
Yeah, I noticed it. Piro certainly enjoys an unwarranted sense of self-esteem, putting herself on a level with E.B. White.
JumpStart – As usual, the “Klondike Ike” ones hit too close to home.
@Ukulele Ike:
#90 ARCHIE: funny, but when I thought of hateful dads of girlfriends, I thought Archie was of “All in the Family” fame
@The Man With The Plan: Do you have children who are college age? They have all gone back now.
@Ukulele Ike:
#118. 6CX, right. Thanks Ike. I hadn’t even read Rhymes with Orange… yet. Cute how understandably only first “visitor” is smiling. Hummm, maybe this is a political metaphor.
Hagar the Horrible: Olga may be no good for Lucky Eddie, but I’m thinking I may have a shot…
“Their nests destroyed, their females caged, their eggs stolen. Steven and Johnathan Livingston ARE: Gulls in Sea Major! Rated R. Adult situationssomeviolentcontent.”
Talking about your mother when you’re trying to score is ALWAYS gold! The severed heads and vaginas in jars in my basement all agree! Right everone? They’re not talking right now. They’re shy. They DON’T LIKE YOU.
BTW: I brought pierogis to the church potluck, sautéed in butter with mushrooms. I was afraid the WASPish Methodists would look at them thinking, “That looks like something those ethnic people eat” but they got scarfed down.
I distinctly remember shedding the roommate in college we didn’t want to live with anymore, it was…astoundingly easy? The cheerleaders were about .2 percent of the population? WERE there pep rallies? Did the Evans Brigade never even watch a slightly accurate college movie? Brain…HURT!
@Guillermo el Chiclero:
#126. Guillermo, pierogis are a lot of work to make (tho may be easier when you’re experienced.). Your friends probably saw the love in the making.
Shoe – Since they shared the same founding cartoonist, I consider Shoe and Pluggers in the same universe of animal-people who had their own revolutions like Slylock Fox. But while Slylock is the early years of an animal revolution, the Shoeniverse is centuries later, where the early energy is lost, and things have ossified for most species.
In the Shoeniverse, like our time, they have lost the ability to create new myths and stories, and turn constantly back to remaking old stuff, including the pre-Revolution material of the humans. The Hitchcock film has entered mythology as a precursor to the uprising, like many American colonial revolts.
The Pluggers and Bird People have reach their late stages, and the world is ready for whatever is to replace their fading empires to take over.
Luann – The architecture, fonts, and names of the building makes this college campus feel like a former prison complex, or a shuttered military base, that was converted to a college due to local political pressure to have something to replace the major employer in the area.
The buildings are concrete fortresses, except for the main building of brick that was administrative. The fonts look like a basic selection made by some untrained administrative assistant given an assignment and quick deadline. “Dorm Building B” is cold and basic, unlike most colleges where dorms have names of donors or some president/top administrator honored for a career of service to the institution.
My guess is that the lack of attention to aesthetics was intentional. The area wants the economic benefits of hosting college students, but its prior military/prison background means the local politics are conservative, and the architecture, names, and fonts are there to keep students living in a space that exerts authority and prevents the growth of radial new ideas.
Hi and Lois – Hi and Lois is actually current in how the younger generations feel more lonely and isolated due to the dehumanizing mediation of communications technology replacing face-to-face interaction? And the solution offered is not terrible or reactionary?
Did Hi and Lois give a Sunday strip to the intern while the main cartoonist dealt with the hangover from the golf course bar? If so, give the intern more chances. They could reach Zits level of relevancy to people under the age of 50.
Finally, in times of the world feeling shaky, uncertainty abounding, etc. etc., I enjoy that Rex Morgan, MD can invariably be counted on for a boringass conclusion to a tense situation. You’re a treasured glass of warm milk laced with laudenam, guys.
Late Thread Cuisine: Too bad GeC didn’t bring these to the church pot luck. He’d be the talk of the ecumenical town.
@131 Baja Gaijin:
Tuna. Of course you realize that you evoked this.