Troubling biology
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/28/25
Imagine: You’ve just finished putting together the script for a perfectly serviceable Barney Google and Snuffy Smith strip, which hinges on wordplay around the phrase “Mr. Right.” But then you remember: in Hootin’ Holler patois, they never say “mister”; they say “mistopher.” Does this make the joke clunkier and weirder, and leave the reader wondering if “mistopher” itself is part of the punchline? Well, yes. But it doesn’t matter. You are the keeper of the sacred trust that is Barney Google and Snuffy Smith. You must scrupulously adhere to the lore, or else what’s the point? Would you jettison decades of tradition for a single day’s laugh? You wouldn’t dare.
Pluggers, 8/28/25
The joke here is whatever, but I’m very unsettled by the look on this plugger’s face as he approaches the bathroom. He looks like he knows he has a journey of awful discovery in store for him in there, and it is not reading-media-related. It’s something much darker and more visceral; he knows something awful is about to begin, but he can’t guess when or how it will end.
Heathcliff, 8/28/25
The robot’s smooth, featureless crotch is a reminder that cybernetic organisms are ghastly parodies of humanity, lacking the natural urges and drives that, troublesome as they may be, make us people. Grandma Nutmeg’s right to demand it be hidden from sight!
124 replies to “Troubling biology”
Heathcliff:
“Grandma’s next target is the Pillsbury Doughboy!”
Mary Worth Mashup: Be careful what you ask for, kiddo.
Nah, no worries, Andy Bear just noticed his kangaroo wife has swapped out the Zest for Coast, and he is confused. And yet, PUMPED.
Blondie: Thought it was gonna be a joke about how the ‘new flea’ collar doesn’t kill ‘old fleas’ but I guess Dagwood having fleas is funnier.
BG&SS:
“Not a lotta people know this, Cousin Loweezy, but Perfesser Henry Higgins came to mah house first on accounta he had the gumption ta try ta teach me how ta speak English proper-like. But I frustrated that edjeecated feller so much that he ended up givin’ up an’ settlin’ on Eliza Doolittle!”
Snuffy Smith-Sadly she’s going to settle for Wilbur Weston.
Blondie-Great. Now they have bedbugs.
MW-“Yes I meddled that man into being an artist.”
The robot was confused at the idea of covering his non-existent genitalia, and resolved logically that he should open the skull of every sentient being he encountered, to see where ideas come from.
Dustin-Comic strip women and their weird recipes. Where do they find this stuff?
@Hibbleton:
Blondie is remarkably sanguine about the presence of horrifying, difficult to dispose of parasites inside the house, no? Like, ew? Wonder what her business kitchen is like ew?
Plugger man is both pissed his wife forgot to buy toilet paper and happy he has a newspaper.
MW: Yes, Olive, you need to travel. You live in one of the most cultured cities in the world, where you can do whatever you want, and are amazed by the contents of a basic art museum. But no, you’re Little Miss Vague Special Powers and need the world to teach you. Can we please have Dawn and Wilbur back? They seem downright wholesome compared to this insufferable snowflake.
Also, Mary’s obviously just reading facts off the display. “John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was known for his portraits but later switched to landscapes.”
BGSS: Why does Loweezy’s “cuzzin” resemble her husband in a wig and dress? Just further confirms that the Smith family tree is more of a GMO with every generation.
MW: Olive, you’ll be lucky if your parents don’t boot you out of the apartment they can’t afford as soon as you turn eighteen.
@Baja Gaijin:
….Has there been a Isekai where the character becomes a renaissance-style artist? Like, that would be an idea, a loser with minimal doodling (and manga tracing) skills being teleported into a Renaissance-style fantasy world where they have to learn actual figure drawing and technical drawing to avoid getting pilloried (or worse) for their ‘art’…
Nah, no modern comic/manga/webtoon artist would make a story with the message being “learn ACTUAL drawing technique, your art will be better for it”.
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Heathcliff : …that just makes the robot look even MORE naked, IMHO
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Pluggers : Andy Bear is somehow walking in on Andy Bear coming out of the shower, naked.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Dawn and Wilbur are at least able to not center every conversation about themselves and can at least wipe themselves without having to ask Mary for permission.
BG&SS: Cuzzin could always date Dee Snider, lead singer of Twistedfer Sistofer.
RMMD: This plot would have a smoother flow if Cody had established himself as having even a little first aid knowledge. What’s he going to do, bash Jonah in the sternum with a banjo?
BG&SS: In P3, it’s dawning on Loweezy that she’s living with Mistopher Omigod What Did I Do?
HEATHCLIFF: If a household robot is included in Medicare, where do I sign up?
MW: “I want to learn from the world…how remarkable, gifted, amazing and special I am. Mary, how do you say ‘Olive is remarkably gifted, amazing and special’ in French?”
MW – “Maybe when I’m older, I’ll travel outside of New York to study! I want to be painted like these French girls.”
HC: And yet, the model itself is still brazenly shoving their robo-crotch in our faces.
BG&SS: Hootin’ Holler may be free of anything that could reasonably be characterized as “law enforcement”, but it is still a repressive environment in many ways. For example, if you come to Loweezy’s house for tea, then you had better stick out your pinky on the hand holding the teacup AND on the hand holding the saucer.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: The theory that the. . . artists?. . . are obliged by tradition to use “Mistofer” for “Mister” falls apart when you see that Loweezy is not responding with the expected tongue-wag, instead opting for the more human “What the fuck are you talking about?” side glance.
BGSS: “Mistofer” is short for “Mister Lucifer”. Hootin’ Holler is a den of devil worshippers, and Loweezy’s cuzzin wants to take her thelemic sex magick to the next level.
@Banana Jr. 6000: Perhaps Olive is illiterate and can’t read the display? As I recall, there is a (tongue-in-cheek) theory that Sherlock Holmes was illiterate, because every time a letter came he would look briefly at it then ask Watson to read it.
“Mistofer” makes it sound like Loweezy’s non-Elviney friend is going to a performance of “Cats.”
Mary Worth:
“I want to learn from the world. I want to go to Paris, Kentucky; London, Ontario; Rome, New York; and Berlin, Ohio!”
RMMD:
An angry Jonah rails at Cody.
Actually, I thought he was off the rails.
Heathcliff: Joke’s on Grandma Nutmeg: that’s no fig leaf, and it’s radioactive.
True story: When I woke up this morning the word “Mistofer” was bouncing around my head, and I couldn’t remember where it was from–Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, maybe?–and then I came to this website and had a horrible self-discovery.
We talk a lot about Heathcliff talent in designing helmets or in gathering large crowds for his antics, but we must also recognise that he is an amazing photorealistic painter! Truly, a Renaissance cat!
Pluggers – It would be funnier if they substituted “Sears catalog” for “newspaper.”
Dustin Another meal from the Mad Libs of unappetizing healthy ingredients. Are we supposed the think she’s working her way through the 1001 Recipes So Vile Nobody Can Eat Enough to Get Fat cookbook? Or is she doing didnthaveeggs bad recipe substitutions of her own design?
Sorry I don’t comment much, but if you find yourself in upstate NY this fall the Fenimore museum is having an exhibition of Calvin and Hobbs art! It will run 13-September to 31-December
https://fenimoreartmuseum.org/future-exhibitions/calvin-and-hobbes
From the website:
“Exploring Calvin and Hobbes revisits the beloved comic strip created by Bill Watterson from 1985 to 1995. This exhibit explores his mastery of the comic strip art form through engaging characters, thoughtful writing, and creative layouts.”
I mean, you can throw in the trash a newspaper full of faecal bacteria, but you can’t do the same with a smartphone — though you should! I have to hand this victory to Pluggers
MW: Mary should drop Olive off in the Bronx. She’ll get schooled.
MW: High on the list of things I shouldn’t be surprised by is that whatever possible storyline Moy/Brigman choose, it will absolutely be the most boring one. And yet here I am. Surprised again.
That really makes me the doofus, not them, I’m willing to acknowledge.
Also Heathcliff: Grandma Nutmeg knows a thing or two: that before robots, men spoke of golems and homunculii, almost-humans conceived and born deep in the uncanny valley. She knows that the origins of the word robot itself are from Old Church Slavonic — the one and true Christian liturgical language — and its term for servitude, and that every servant from the angels downward has the potential for rebellion. She knows that the cybernetic man, like all men, has a penchant for sticking his d*ck where it does not belong and should feel the hot sting of shame no less than any man.
BGSS: Aleister Crowley later strolls into Hootin’ Holler…
Pluggers: It makes more sense for him to bring the newspaper to the bathroom rather than to his phone. I guess people who are deemed non-Pluggers have dementia.
HC: It’s an Uncanny Valley{TM} Fig Leaf.
Pluggers are unmoored from time, as evidenced by the size of that newspaper.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Besides, everybody knows Pluggers bring Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader with them, or more likely, already have it stashed near the toilet already.
FC: Only if you enjoy the taste of ginger.
MW: I’m glad he moved on to landscape. I hate it when influencers always use portrait mode!
Dustin: I’m going to guess DustDad “accidentally” bumped the stove when he was in there rummaging around for junk food. There’s no way either of these lazy assholes would have otherwise gotten off the couch to sabotage dinner.
You’re a Plugger if you’re convinced that people are interested in your bathroom habits.
@Baja Gaijin: I thought it would end as Olive X!
True story. Back in the early 2000s, my parents were looking at a new house, and I went with them to check it out. It was nice, spacious, all on one level, just what they needed. However, the wallpaper throughout the home was pale pink, the homeowner favored round, unshaded bulbs for light, and almost every exposed surface was either black or gold-colored.
The pièce de résistance was a medium-sized pink hot tub in the middle of the main bedroom’s bathroom. Knowing they’d have to renovate the place, they still bought it and discovered that the owner was the renowned NASCAR driver and bootlegger, Junior Johnson! He’d bought the house for his mistress. She’d decorated it to her liking; he was selling the place now that they were getting married!
And in 2025, somehow, the late Junior Johnson’s widow decorated this Plugger’s bathroom, too.
@Charterstoned: lololol
DT: Again, LaKoyle zap zap the venture capitalist won’t end the 1/3rd hold the VC / entity has on the company. Why does Faust worry about that? Does he want exclusive control? Then just arrange a pay day for the VC to cash out. If this is really liquid green platinum crude oil gold, then there is more than enough for everyone.
GT: Good thing, that shoulder tenderness (clavicle?) is in his non-throwing arm.
RMMD: Please let it be gas pain and Jonah will let out a great belch just as Cody comes up to try to do CPR!
JP: For a guy who has seen a lot and done a lot, Randy is borderline hysterical. It is time for him to switch to decaf coffee!
MW: Olive’s parents will be all for MW taking Olive on the GRAND TOUR. Seeing London, Paris, and Rome. Seeing more naked statues. This gives the folks months of blissful bonking with no Olive peeping into their sweaty carnal thoughts.
@astroboy: Olive est remarquablement douée, extraordinaire et spéciale.
MW: I have a strange urge to tell Creepy Mary to fuck herself. I apologize.
GT: “I’m taking you to the doctor, and that’s it!” “Coach, we’re on the ‘Rex Morgan’ strip.”
Bad move, Grandma. The robot standing there just made me question how its legs work as they’re not jointed like its arms. Adding the fig leaf? Well, if you’ll excuse me I’ll be in my room with this comic.
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I appreciate Barney Google and Snuffy Smith making me spend precious morning brain power figuring out what “mistofer” means before not laughing at the joke I’m pretty sure I can find a version of on a plaque on Etsy.
@Victor Von: This was the Pluggers/Gearhead Gertie crossover I didn’t expect to want, but did.
Questionablecontent:
So, let’s see if I’ve got this right.
1. Yay went poking about Cubetown’s network and was detected by the jellyfish.
2. The jellyfish did nothing to harm Yay but sent a message with Goo Girl asking if Yay wanted to be friends.
3. This caused Yay to run away and disappear, while taking time to leave a printed goodbye card for Roko.
4. Roko, who had never shown any affection for Yay before this, began pining for them to the extent of becoming a basket case, while to all evidence not using her police training to look for Yay.
5. Yay was very concerned for their privacy, despite
(a) all but one of their identical bodies living in the same flat with two greyhounds, something one would imagine would draw attention
(b) having, unprompted, disclosed their nature to, let’s see, Bubbles, Faye, Emily, Marten, Claire, Roko, Aurelia, Corpse Witch, and possibly Clinton and Dora, and at second hand to Station.
6. Yay did not bother to attempt to communicate with Marten or Claire, who were right there in Cubetown with the jellyfish, to see if they had any information on what it might do.
7. Yay then secured communication with the jellyfish in a big fat 47 seconds, after which they went into a weeks/months long “panic attack”.
8. Yay then made some kind of mutually beneficial partnership with the jellyfish.
9. Yay then put on probably the worst disguise ever and came to Roko’s flat, pretending to be someone else.
10. After convincing Roko that they were, actually, someone else, they then gratuitously admitted that they were Yay, and throwing in a reference to Aurelia, who had claimed to not know where Yay was, but had said she’d clear out the “air raid shelter” in her basement.
11. After this admission, they then claimed that they weren’t *they* any longer, but one.
12. After which they again began referring to themselves as “we”, thereby
13. Re-establishing the status quo ante, with the only change being Yay’s new horrible blonde hairstyle?
What was the point of this rigmarole? So Roko finally admits she loves Yay, and then they can be both memory holed just like Marigold and Dale and Tai and Dora?
Luann: I owe treetown an apology. Obviously, the Evanses have to get through the “girls play video games shallowly” phase before they can get to in-app purchases.
CS: OK, Zoomer.
9CL: No, detention won’t do, but retiring this comic strip will.
Barney Google & Snuffy Smith – “Christopher” means “bearer of Christ”, but in Hootin’ Holler we know the clergy are fraudulent grifters.
“Mistopher” means “bearer of Mist”, the Hootin’ Holler singular term for on of the Old Gods that still lives in the Holler, and whose presence are felt in the cold mists. These Old Gods are mysterious, their motivations opaque, but they do seek a human bride ever century or so. Loweezy’s cousin is hoping to find a better one of them to wed, but may have to settle for one of the Dark Ones, or end up a witchy spinster like Granny Creeps.
Plugger – Generations ago, before they became Manimals, Pluggers were wild animals, free from the conventions of the human world they now inhabit. While normally docile and domesticated, sometimes the call of nature is met with the call of the wild. An eternal question now passes through this Plugger’s mind, in modified form: Why doesn’t a bear shit in the woods?
Heathcliff – What is it to be human? Grandma Nutmeg believes it’s shame, an essential element to Abrahamic religions.
@Baja Gaijin: Excellent job with the painter’s hat.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
Pluggers – It would be funnier if they substituted “Sears catalog” for “newspaper.”
My mind went there, too.
HC: I agree with others — the fig leaf makes the whole thing curiously disturbing. It’s rather like Monday’s XKCD, https://xkcd.com/3133/
Olive est tres arrogante et narcissique. Zee cree-pee enfant…fais-la partir!
If Grandma wants to imagine a sexy robo-cock, Heathcliff knows better than to ruin her fantasy.
Luann: 24 hairdo varieties? Tiff, why don’t you try one on yourself? You’ve been wearing the same Cleopatra hair helmet since grade school.
Pluggers: Don’t be so hard on Andy. He’ll probably end up clogging that toilet and he needs the newspapers to catch the overflow. Sheila’s already told him she’s not cleaning up any more of his messes.
Pickles: missed a chance to point out that ‘shrewd’ – ‘d’ = shrew.
“Funny, Grandma doesn’t look shrewish.”
@Professor Well Actually: You should only apologize if you yourself want to get into her Depends. Telling her she should go fuck herself is a very normal reaction because I feel that way about her and the rest of the non-animal cast.
MW: Olive is a modern-day Belle; “I want more than this provincial life!” because NYC is such a provincial town. What could she ever learn there? And you have to travel to meet people from other countries, right?
As the world’s most ardent Hi & Lois chronicler, I’m a little concerned that 3.5 of the last eight strips have featured a featureless void background. Eric Reaves usually puts in more effort.
I’m not at all concerned that every character in today’s strip has forgotten how to experience joy. That’s normal. Nor that the writers forgot that punchlines go at the end. That’s also normal.
Heath: I’ve recently rewatched The Shape of Water in which a humanoid fish creature, despite having no external genitalia, is able to make love with the heroine via means that, despite her muteness, she makes unmistakably clear. I’m just saying that Grandma Nutmeg’s insistence on the fig leaf indicates a knowledge with robotic anatomy that, depending on where your personal tastes fall, can be anything from very intriguing to very disturbing.
Pluggers: Honestly, I’ll give Pluggers this one. At least people don’t feel compelled to talk to the paper when they’re on the can.
Baby Blues – Hammie is coming up with a variation of the Pull My Finger trick.
G. *(&@#$! Thorp – I thought Gil was going for the Pull My Finger, but it appears more likely that Leo’s getting a procto exam.
MW – We all know that Olive really wants to go back and see the penii statues.
Rex Morgan, MILF Diver – This is just a knockoff of the Mary Worth strip of people who don’t know what “No” means. The lesson here is that you harangue them into a coronary event so you can save them and then become a BFF. Pretty disturbing messages all around.
Disappointingly, no mention of Josh Fruhlinger.
@lynn: Kinda confirms that Olive is the most sheltered child in NYC considering she basically lives right in Manhattan but has never gone to the beach or the museum. It wouldn’t be surprising if she only leaves the apartment to go to school and then stays in her room for “private” chats with Mary while staring at a blank wall.
Plug: As a true plugger, Andy Bear was an Elvis fan and can never forget his last words, “I’m going to the bathroom to read.” The constipation is real.
LUANN: “One Game, Two Loves”
GA: Check his references! He introduced himself as Doone, like Boone but with a D. An actual baker/cook would have said Doone, as in Lorna Doone cookies.
FRAZZ: Mrs Olson didn’t cheat, she outsmarted him. Running and other sports are smarts as well as braun.
FG: is this a team contest? If so, Bok can help.
PHANTOM: Rats, looks like Kit tripped over his wolf. The “yows” blow the cover of night.
MANDRAKE: Of course a hollow artificial tree is the portal to….
@Banana Jr. 6000: Thing is, Olive DOES need to travel, in order to avoid becoming one of those utterly insufferable New Yorkers who thinks civilization ends at the Hudson. However, where she needs to travel isn’t abroad–she needs to go to Maine, the Gulf Coast, Texas, the Rockies, really just the flyover states in general, and she needs to do it by car.
FC: Billy actually said “Can we have tansan inry? (carbonated drink) instead of tea?” but adult Jeff thought “Japanese sodas” would play better in today’s political climate.
@Little Blue Bicycle:
#68. PLUGGER: Yes, both Andy and Elvis think it’s constipation. But a clogged bowel and a clogged aorta have similar symptoms.
Pluggers: Volume of the encyclopedia. “U-V” for a short time, “M” if it’s going to be a while.
C’shaft: Crankshaft has wedged himself under the bed, out of sight and only communicating with the world remotely? I fail to see how this is a problem.
DT: Look, doc, this guy obvious wants a monopoly on your revolutionary new technology, which means that it’s only a matter of time before he cuts you out of the profits of your own invention. You might be smart when it comes to renewable energy sources, but damn are you stupid in business.
Dustin: Women, amirite? Always trying to make us eat healthy food that comes from plants! Why, we have to resort to cruel tricks in order to eat pizza and fast food like real men!
Luann: Women, amirite? They insist on having fun in ways that are not approved by the Official Institute of Masculinity!
MW: I notice that Mary’s side-stepping the subject of how risque Sargent’s Portrait of Madame X was considered at its debut in 1884, with its ample display of shoulders and decolletage and only a pair of thin chains keeping the subject’s dress from falling off entirely. Given the gross undercurrents of her behavior with Olive, this is probably for the best.
@Tom: “Insufferable New Yorker who thinks Civilization ends at the Hudson” would be a huge improvement for Olive. First she needs to learn that anything exists outside her own head. And Lord knows she’s not going to learn that from Mary.
Lockhorns: Leroy is biting his tongue. I sorta expected the classic
“When is high tide?”
“Whenever you get here, lady.”
MW: Olive, if you think it’s interesting, you should know the salacious details about it. Ask a docent or read the sign next to the painting, Mary isn’t going to tell your virgin ears the real story.
Gasoline Alley: I want some names and menus to determine what Howie, hell, anyone in Gasoline Alley, considers “high dollar restaurants”.
Luann: Tiffany is basically glamming up a My Little Pony character. MLP has a seahorse, right?
Blondie: I take it that Dagwood scratching at fleas means at least the Bumsteads don’t have bedbugs.
Beetle Bailey: An army marches on its stomach, which means tonight Beetle marches on the gastrointestinal expulsions of the soldier in front of him.
Zits: Credit where it’s due for a good wham panel.
@Guillermo el Chiclero:
On Luann and Tiff’s hairstyle :
a) if they ever changed her hairstyle, it would alter her design to the point of her being unrecognisable, and that would confuse the readers! I mean, when she became “fat”, her design didn’t change at all, to make sure she would still be recognisable!
b) it’s crazy that the ONLY character that changed their hairstyle in the whole 40 years the comic has run is BERNICE, isn’t it? And it was meant to signal that she was taking a turn to becoming more outgoing, and, well… the latest week featuring her was about how barren her social life that the most exciting thing to happen to her was buying a pet sea snail for her pet goldfish.
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@Activist:
Pluggers : are often found dead on the toilet
I mean, you’re the ones who are going there!MW: Well, this confirms they’re at the Metropolitan. Surprised Mary didn’t take Olive to MOMA, to show her the Balthus paintings.
@Ukranazi Stepan: Re: QC: I thought Roko was sexually stimulated by freshly baked bread. Has that been memory-holed too?
HEATHCLIFFE: THE joke suggest Granpa a d the kid are looking at Heathcliffe’s painting, but the appear to be standing outside the room, looking at the wal. Are the rules of perspective simply suggestions, and the artist is laughing at us, the readers, for expecting reality to intrude upon a world of Garbage Apes and hats that say MEAT?
Yes, yes, that is exactly what is happening.
Today’s Heathcliff commentary illustrates why having a master’s in classics, and a sideline in writing cybersecurity articles pays off.
Heathcliff – Opinions are still divided as to whether robots should have navels. But it would be a handy location for a USB port.
Pluggers – You’re a plugger if you’re careless about when to use “when” vs. when to use “if.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Juan wants to put Monin in his next picture”
“Are you okay with your dog becoming a movie star?”
“I’m not worried”
“Monin is really good at contract negotiations!”
Snuffy Smith: One of the things that annoys me about Snuffy Smith as a proud lifelong native of Appalachia – the region that this comic is built around being an extremely offensive and stereotyped caricature of – is how it seems to operate under the idea that Appalachians are some kind of orc-like beings that speak a fractured version of English that literally nobody in the mountains has ever used. Case in point, I have never once in my entire life heard even a single person use the phrase “mistopher” and I have absolutely no idea where the writer got the idea that mountain people use what sounds like a name from Cats instead of the word “mister”.
Pluggers: That’s a plugger who’s about to notice a book in the bathroom that makes him realize his brother-in-law is an infamous drug dealer.
Heathcliff: So this is whatever happend to Robot Jones.
Was Snuffy/Loweezy’s house always on the side of a cliff?
Or is Loweezy visiting her friend’s house I wonder?
Regardless, unless you’re a wizard, there is no reason to have your house right on the side of a cliff or mountain top.
@ectojazzmage: All I remember about Robot Jones is how his father, the aptly named Dad Unit, spoke mainly in triplicate courtesy of MacInTalk Ralph. Go to school, go to school, go to school.
@ectojazzmage: I don’t know much about Hillbillies, but when we were on vacation in the States years back, a Hillbilly gave us directions, and asked where we were from.
We said Canada.
He literally went “HOOO-WHEEEE!!!”
Until then we didn’t know they actually talked like that.
@ValdVin: Luann Yup, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic canonically has seaponies, and the main characters were magically transformed into seapony versions to go to an underwater kingdom. Fancy hair, marks, and accessories = pretty much what Tiffany is glamming up
Pluggers: Are several Mudges implying that Elvis was a plugger?
@Treetown: On JP: Switching to decaf wouldn’t help him stop thinking the CIA are omnipotent superheroes who can just snap their fingers and have April walk through Ms. Sourpuss’ door.
You’re a GenX plugger if you take the newspaper into the bathroom with you but find yourself reflexively looking at the top of the page to check the time.
@CanuckDownSouth: Hasbro did that often, a specific episode solely to say “BUY OUR TOYS!!!!!”
Littlest Pet Shop wasn’t immune to that either, when promoting their candy themed toy-sets.
Although the animals in-universe got sick from eating too much candy (which seemed counterproductive to the advertising)
Https g guys gggg g GTgot
@Activist:
#94: not exactly a butt call, rather a front pocket in laundromat call. Sorry.
Pluggers: Of course he doesn’t take his phone into the bathroom — the screen’s been cracked since 2017, and a single drop of water will make it stop working forever. (Millennial plugger joke!)
@Ukulele Ike:
Ayo said to Faye that Roko was “always hanging around the baked goods for some reason” a few months ago, but apart from that nobody’s mentioned it in years.
Pluggers – He’s got that expression because the door is open and, after 30 years of matrimony, Rabbit Lady no longer cares if he sees her taking a shit or not. Which is about as Plugger as it gets, come to think of it.
Pluggers: His wife recently redecorated and he’s wondering why there’s all this frilly stuff and porcelain fixtures in there instead of trees and the Great Outdoors.
Heathcliff proposes the ultimate question:
“Should robots have genitalia?” but the bigger question would be “why?”
Data from Star Trek: TNG being a fully-humanoid Android, once did it with Tasha Yar (in an episode where all of the humans lost their inhibitions) and he never forgot that fond fond memory.
@cheech wizard: I can see a older Plugger confusing the bathroom door for the back door. I can also see them taking at least 20 minutes before realizing what the mistake was.
@taig: #66: Remember back in the 80s when half the boys born that decade were named Jason? J names seem to be real popular, Joshua, Jason, Jonah, Jeremy, Jonathan, etc. Of the top 10 most popular boys names in 1900 (in the English speaking world) only one is still in the top 10 today, William, and that’s probably because the current Prince of Wales bears that name. Parents today who do name their kid William insist on using the full name, no Bill, Billy, or Willie. In fact, lots of parents today are averse to nicknames. Many people under 30 are ignorant of common nicknames, Chuck for Charles, Ted for Edward, Hank for Henry, etc.
Andy Bear is leery of the bathroom at all times, because he never knows if his perpetually naked cousin with a bizarre penchant for toilet paper will be lying in wait to try to sell him something.
@Guillermo el Chiclero: I mean, some names just don’t age well.
I can’t imagine someone naming their daughter today “Hazel” or “Edna”
Although Mabel made a bit of a comeback due to Gravity Falls.
@Victor Von: Pluggers: Perhaps the bear-man is shocked to find Gearhead Gertie in his bathroom.
Off-topic, but I just learned that Malcolm in the Middle is now a NASCAR driver.
@Ukranazi Stepan: QC: I don’t regret my decision to quit reading this strip.
@CJG: Informative.
Newsworthy.
Brief and to the point.
You are excellent, CJG.
@The Rambling Otter:
To be fair, this robot seems pretty different from Data, who was designed to replicate, and to his torture, wish to further understand humani-oh, Hell with it, if I’d banged Tasha Yar in that episode, everybody that knows me would remember it forever.
PLUGGERS: I’m not yet a Plugger, but I’m old enough to remember when practically everyone read the paper on the can. Never did it myself.
ZITS yesterday: I know Jeremy’s not the heaviest teen around, but his mom is clearly much stronger than she looks. She must lift weights when we’re not looking.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith
First it was Mr. Right—
the dream, the straight note.
Then—Mr. Almost,
close enough to hum along.
Now? Mr. Just-This-Side-of-Wrong,
crooked but familiar.
Maybe I’ve climbed the wrong tree,
barked up the wrong branch.
Or maybe—lean closer—
you are Ms. Right.
Beat lands, chord holds.
@Guillermo el Chiclero:
#102. Fun article, thanks for the link. In pro bb these days, there seems to be a rule you can’t start unless your name begins with J.
Our Josh is appropriately named, but in politics I would take an Earnest more seriously.
@Activist:
Oops, you didn’t provide the link, Taig did. Thanks, Taig, I’ll treat you to the coffee.
@MKay:
#17. RMMD: agreed. But am I correct in remembering that when he introduced himself to Truck, Cody said he’d been a medic?
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Or even “Montgomery Ward catalog” (or “monkey ward catalog” as one of my great-uncles liked to say it).
@A Grave Mind: I think it’s supposed to say more about Data’s creator than Data himself that not only did he think this whole new lifeform should have human sexual anatomy, he came preprogrammed with “multiple techniques”
Grandma Nutmeg is just trying to protect herself from acting on her burning womanly needs. She knows that the robot’s advanced programming can satisfy her all night and have enough battery charge left for a little morning action.
@The Rambling Otter: Oh, when watching the series with my kids, I’ve called out “look at the new toy tie-in, kids!” at “magic gem builds new palace” and “power of friendship goes EXTRA and the pony hair and marks get temporarily MORE fancy” moments
For true masters-level Pluggerdom, the newspaper can’t be once-proud institutions that have descended into phony centrism, like the New York Times or the Washington Post. Advanced Pluggers get their commode reading from the National Enquirer or the Weekly World News.
@Ukulele Ike: Reading that article reminded me why I don’t read art criticism. “Is he sexualizing adolescents? Ehhhh, probably, but he’s doing so in a way that’s intended to make the viewer uncomfortable, so it’s fine.”
Pluggers-You’re a Plugger if you still use indoor plumbing and not do it anywhere out in the open.
Pluggers-You’re a Plugger if you still use a porcelain toilet and not a fancy digital toilet app.
@CJG:
Sounds like we need to round up all the current strip writers and lock them in the museum for at least a week
RMMD: is this the slowest moving heart attack ever?
@The Rambling Otter: “I can’t imagine someone naming their daughter today “Hazel” or “Edna””
9CL – Or “Edda” or “Lolly” I don’t encounter too many “Amos”, ether, but that may just because I no longer live near Lancaster PA, where the Amish build their barns.
You’re a Plugger if you go into the bathroom and forget why you went in there.
@Needless Exposition: I’d say it’s Eric Idle, but the accent’s wrong.