He’s already named “Ozob,” how many clown aliases does one guy need
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Dick Tracy, 11/21/25
Look, I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, and I’m not going to say I’m glad that Sheriff Somners plummeted to his death off that cliff. But if the guy saw this horrifying country fair act where “Roacho the Clown” ran around spraying poison onto two weirdos in comically grotesque giant bug costumes and thought to himself, “Now this is the vibe I want at that local charity event,” then I question his judgment, honestly.
Hi and Lois, 11/21/25
Hmm, this seems like good news, so why does Hi look so disappointed by this big reveal? Because Ditto is describing a shift from a violent and primitive mode of production to a more orderly capitalist one, and Hi is familiar enough with the theory of historical materialism to know what comes next: full-on communism.
Mary Worth, 11/21/25
I was gonna do a riff here about Mary suspecting that Toby has taken a lover, but look at her face in that first panel. She’s clearly more like, “Wait, is another person here? Does Toby know someone socially other than me and Ian? Hmm. Hmm. No, sorry, that just doesn’t add up.
37 replies to “He’s already named “Ozob,” how many clown aliases does one guy need”
Mary Worth Mashup: I think they should have included the missing final panel. Whaddya think?
JP: Emil apparently thought he was coming to celebrate Halloween, as he’s dressed like a 1970s burglar
@Poteet: Yesterthread JP: I’m guessing theirs was an outdoor cat that fled these two morons quite some time ago.
RMMD: That seems to be the only way any conflict happens in this strip nowadays: staggering incompetence.
Dick Tracy:
Baka, is one of those giant insects you?!?
Phantom:
“You know, I just read in GQ that you should never sling bread into a jungle oven without first accessorizing yourself with a jaunty ascot!”
Questionable Content:
Imagine a boot treading on Goddess Empress Claire’s Backpfeifengesicht, forever.
@Baja Gaijin: Chirp!
MW: Mary brings a third muffin for Toby’s “guest” but after the big reveal realizes that listening devices alone are not enough. It’s time she installed some cameras in Toby’s apartment.
Wrecks Moregone:
Hey, Auuuuughie: are you colour blind? Do you see green for red? Because Winter’s flying more red flags than the People’s Republic of China, Albania, Macedonia, Kyrgyzstan, Tunisia, Tonga, Morocco, and the former Soviet Union put together.
Phantom:
“I think I’ll rouse the indentured servant laborers to action by assembling them and adapting a call from the Woodstock Festival!”
[Moments later]:
“Give me an ‘M‘ !”
” ‘M‘ !”
“Give me a ‘U’ !”
” ‘U‘ !”
“Give me a ‘C‘ !”
” ‘C‘ !”
“Give me a ‘K‘ !”
” ‘K‘ !”
“What’s that spell?”
“MUCK!”
“What’s that spell?”
“MUCK!”
“What’s that spell?”
“MUCK!”
“What’s that spell?”
“MUCK!”
…
Wary Morth:
“Sunny?!? I’ll give her sunny! How dare she have a single ray of sunshine in her life without me?”
MW: “Oh, crap — should I have brought another muffin?”
Dick Tracy:
“There were more creatures hanging or running around, on display, at the County Fair than in your average Slylock Fox installment. And that’s saying something!”
GT: “Why do they get to scream, but we can’t?”
“We’re Canadians.”
Hi also knows that, Ditto’s holdings lacking exchange value, he’s the one whose going to be reduced to embodied labor power in this scenario.
Alternate Marx joke: Hi’s read enough of Capital to realize that pretty soon this winds up with the bread made with plaster and allium, and he has to eat that bread too.
MW:
“It’s Phyllis Diller on TV, laughing at her own jokes!”
MW-The moment Mary enters anywhere she automatically goes into meddle-mode.
RMMD-You’ll miss out on the money, Summer.
Dick Tracy-And before that he was Krusty the Clown.
DT Im trying to imagine the pitch for this act “I see it as a spiritual sequel to Metamorphosis, but like, carnaval-style…”
H&L I think Hi is just sad thst this other kid is out there making money while Ditto is a total mark. Your mom makes cookies too! Just take one with you!
MW: Mary feigns surprise, even though she herself enlisted the services of the bird to listen in on her tenants and report back to her on their activities.
JP: Emil stares straight at the audience as he holds up his hand. “Stop right there! If you think I’m gonna be your proxy for this cockamamie story, forget it.”
MW:
“It’s Aldo Kelrast! — I’ve summoned him using my Ouija board!”
DT: To be fair, most police entertainment in the Dick Tracy-verse involves watching vermin being chased around and killed. This cockroach burlesque just has plausible deniability.
H and L:
“I know I’m supposed to come up with some kind of wry but stentorian retort to your remark, Ditto — you know, like the protagonist dads in ‘My Three Sons’ or “Father Knows Best” would do — but the truth is, I’m so dense that I’m utterly speechless!”
CS: Is the joke here really “buy the canned cranberry sauce we know Lillian doesn’t need, so we can act like we contributed something to Thanksgiving dinner when we didn’t?” Because that would be very in-character for the Funkyverse.
If that’s not the joke, what is? I thought “there’s a difference between bringing and making some” was a nice sentiment that meant “it’s more meaningful to make something for Thanksgiving than to buy it in a can.” But the third panel contradicts that notion, by having Pam take the canned cranberry sauce, while also agreeing with that sentiment?
H&L: Plugger Hi sadly remembers when a dollar bought you a dozen schoolyard cookies.
@Little Guy:
GT: “Why do they get to scream, but we can’t?”
“We’re Canadians.”
GT: “You mean the 51st State?”
(screams)
@Baja Gaijin: ‘Nooooooo muffins!’ (whistle)
DT: Reminds me of the old Robert Klein bit about TV ads they air during kids shows. First they show us a bunch of adorable cartoon roaches jamming with saxophones behind the wall boards and then Raid shows up and kills them all.
The creators of Dustin could talk to someone in their twenties about the contemporary club scene, but why bother when you can use a Leisure Suit Larry gag that was stale 50 years ago.
DT: Is the county CALLED Nearly, or is this a dig? The Almost State Fair. The Not Quite World’s Fair.
MW: Is Mary going to feel the need to explain to Toby how talking birds work? You wouldn’t think it necessary, but it’s Mary, and it’s Toby, so…
9CL: We would all feel an immense sense of release if these morons would just go off somewhere and have sex. For months and months.
RMMD: So, Augie should go ahead with the book, and then invoke the time-honored, “But we were on a break!”
MW: With Toby out of the room, Sunny quickly takes the opportunity to change the channel from CNN to Fox News.
I assume Sunny just saw what Mary brought in on a plate and is laughing at what humans consider “food”.
***
Hi realizing that today his son is buying cookies off some kid at school, and in a few years it will be weed, and after that he’s hoping his drug addict son will at least be as functional as his alcoholic neighbour.
MW: Not to be cruel, but who would have an affair with Toby that involved them staying over after doing the horizontal mambo? The woman is utterly vapid, possibly has the least interesting personality in this strip, which is saying quite a lot, and while she isn’t an especially bad person she’s not an especially good one either.
Mary is rightfully curious about why Toby has company, is what I’m saying.
@Charterstoned: The “Birds Aren’t Real” people have it all wrong–the “birds” are Mary’s spy network, not the government’s.
Family Circlejerk – The melonhead/turtlehead cap looks a lot like Cunther’s wormcock outfit.
DtM – Ketchum LLC stole that line from Office Space.
Don Abundio, translated:
“I want to see Don Abundio”
“He’s in his money vault and can’t be disturbed”
“Will he be out soon?”
“No…”
“We’ll probably let him out around dinnertime!”
DT: I know that he means “the annual fair of a county with the name of Nearly” but I can’t help but read it as “a fair that isn’t quite as good as an actual county fair, but is somewhat similar.” The fact that the entertainment is a guy called “Roacho the Clown” supports this interpretation–was Foreigner already booked at the real county fair down the road?
H&L: How long before a kid drops dead after trace amounts of nuts in the homemade cookies trigger his allergy?
MW: Mary, knowing that Toby can’t possibly be referring to living human companionship, assumes she must have raised the ghost of Sonny Bono.
MW- “Sunny? How old is she, and does she have a tummy brain?”