The disturbing reason for the season
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Crock, 12/21/25
I kind of like the worldbuilding in today’s Crock, which implies that Magi simply spontaneously generate in desert climes, and can be instinctively attracted to your location by any large star-shaped object. I feel less affection for the final panel, though. Look at those faces: our heroes from the legion are definitely going to kill the Magi, right? Kill them, and possibly eat them?
Dennis the Menace, 12/21/25
This young woman’s “What are you doing here?” is a wholly appropriate expression of surprise. If Dennis’s parents allow him to just roam the neighborhood unsupervised, why do they bother to hire babysitters at all?
Mary Worth, 12/21/25
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And I will definitely set a woman’s parrot against her husband. I cannot emphasize enough that I did not come to bring peace to the households of woman-man-parrot triads. Please do not use the occasion of my birth to give others false hope that parrots and husbands can live in harmony with one another, because they very much cannot.”
71 replies to “The disturbing reason for the season”
Crankshaft Mashups: Ever want to see a cardinal act like a parrot? Inspired by commenter treetown yesterday…which of the three linked panels do you like best?
Mary Worth Mashup: How about a different final panel?
“If I were you I’d find another girlfriend. She’s way too bossy”
Skeletor meme: “Joke’s on you I’m into that shit!”
“If I were you” instead of “If I was you”, because he’s a menace, but not to proper grammar!
Crock-They should have followed the grail shaped light to Castle Anthrax instead.
FC-While Tiny Tim tiptoed through the tulips.
MW-“It helps to talk about what’s on your mind.” It gives Mary blackmail material.
RMMD-“Well that’s enough reminiscing. Our readers nowadays can’t handle the multi-sentence panels that they used to do.”
Slylock Fox-“Round up the usual suspects,” Slylock declares.
MW-Toby has a fantasy of walking in on Ian and Sunny in bed together having a post-coital cigarette.
DtM: The Mitchells have installed a park style bench in front of their house so Dennis can harangue people without having to roam the neighborhood.
DTM: I’m glad this strip came out just as the Christmas vacation arrived, because I’m going need to spend the entire next week working out what the hell this joke has to do with the phrase “voice activated”.
Crock: The Biblical narrative says that the Magi arrived at Herod’s palace and blabbed about the baby Jesus, king of kings, leading the jealous Herod to kill all the children in his kingdom. I’m not saying Crock is going to do the same thing, but if any funny page character would recreate the Massacre of the Innocents, it’d be Vermin P. Crock, right?
Dennis the Menace: Check out this young woman’s unhappy body language: arms crossed in front of her, legs crossed away from the young man. I think Dennis actually convinced her boyfriend to break up with her just in time to deny her the pleasure of breaking up with him — which is pretty darn menacing, if you ask me!
Mary Worth:
— “It’s just terrible, Mary — Ian and Sunny have been fighting!”
— “Well, it’s not really an equal fight, is it? One of them is a dumb creature who talks a lot, but doesn’t really say anything.”
— “Yes, I guess that’s true.”
— “…And the other one is a bird!”
Hi and Lois: So what will baby Trixie encounter today as she crawls around the house unsupervised? A box of breakable glass Christmas ornaments, a fireplace (lucky there’s no fire going, at least not this time!), a hot stove, and loud music blasting from an amplifier. Luckily, her mom will finally pay some attention to her just in time to comfort her existential sadness, which stems from an understanding of time’s passing that’s far beyond her years. Anyhow, if this infant gets through the four days till Christmas uninjured, it’ll be a win for everyone!
@Baja Gaijin:
Cranky’s axx being flamed, of course.
MW: TIL Robert Frost threw parties honoring Bob Hope, Hope Lange, Hope Emerson, Hope Andrade, and the like.
Sunny (last panel thought balloon):
“Christmas spirit? I’ll show the pompous axx Christmas spirit! Three Christmas spirits in fact! Squawk! Chirp! Ha ha ha!”
@Ettorre:
Subjunctive mood is very menacing!
MW: Sunny eavesdropping, to see if there’s a plot afoot. When he hears Mary blathering her usual generic drivel, he knows that his triumph will be swift and effortless.
CROCK: They’re not hungry, they’re just dying for myrrh oil massages.
DtM: Dennis, the master of embarrassing revelations, has just phoned this one in.
Crock Ha, it’s funny because Crock is pretending to be the Messiah for his own nefarious purposes, which I guess makes him the Antichrist? Personally I think Satan could have done better, but who am I to judge his wicked ways..
DtM: Jeez, once again this week it seems like Dennis is biting Calvin’s bits. If he starts assuming a spaceman persona next week, the jig is really up.
MW: Aside from the complete non-solution (“Don’t give up!”), I love that Mary’s biggest insight into Toby’s conflict is to ‘consider’ her husband. I’m not sure if she means that Toby should really think about his perspective, or just consider who he is, what he means to her, and if she honestly might not be better off with a non-human companion who just screeches back her own words to her.
DtM:
“Besides, Mister, you don’t have rosacea like everyone else in this strip does, so you don’t belong here, anyway!”
Mary Worth:
“It helps to talk about what’s on your mind…although in your case, that would be what is known in mathematics as ‘the null set‘ !”
Chix (sic): Just in time for Xmas, Patrinos has a corpse rotting in bed as a punch line.
Mary Worth:
“My older brother Jack is probably better loved by the masses, even though he’s fond of ‘nipping at your nose’ at this time of year!”
— Robert Frost
MW: So far not a hint of “you own a birdcage, right?” from Mary, though in all honesty I’m not expecting it.
MW Toby’s I’ve tried nothing and I’m all out of ideas! is well matched to Mary’s top-notch advising skills, which don’t involve asking anything about steps taken or options to try – forget whether or not there is such a thing as pet behaviour training for birds, has Toby even once considered closing the dang birdcage door??!
CS: I have a dead cardinal we can use as a tree topper.
Mary Worth:
“Now, don’t be holding Sunny in too close a proximity to your inner abdominal wall, Toby. You might end up with parrotinitis!”
@Baja Gaijin: I like your MW mashup, though now that I’ve noticed Sunny is listening to the phone conversation, I’m horribly convinced that this is going to end on Thursday with Sunny chirping “it’s in the Christmas spirit to have hope” and melting Ian’s grinchy heart.
Daddy Daze: “Today, I will hold the reader’s scant interest by drawing a different chair in each panel. Ta da!”
@1 Baja Gaijin:
Ah, a true mashup! Because today’s Crankshaft looks like this.
I was wondering how you would work the cardinal into that.
Sunday has come and so has JUNGLE JIM!
Today’s episode shows yet another way smoking can kill you.
Crock:
“Behold! It’s the Friendly Ghost, a copper alloy in a box that someone is carrying, and Romeo’s manservant in Romeo and Juliet!”
“No. Don’t say it, Watchman!”
“Yep. Casper, Melchior and Balthasar!”
“What a Crock that is!”
New Tricks has a comic just for Baja!
DtM: In the first panel of the second row, I thought at first that the tree (?) behind the boyfriend was an indication that Dennis was whapping him repeatedly on the back of his head to get his attention. That would have earned him the “Menace” designation; now he’s more “Dennis the Nuisance.”
@CanuckDownSouth: “has Toby even once considered closing the dang birdcage door??!”
Oh, sure. But how is she going to get Ian squeezed n there?
@Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women: Hey, it’s supposedly a top-of-the-line extra-large one… (-:
DtM: Girl, you’re no Rosalyn.
Whoops apologies to pugfuggly@14 for the oversnark! I searched for Rosalyn’s name but that didn’t turn it up.
FC: Much like Nast, Dickens, and Moore invented modern Christmas, as more and more AI bots scour the internet for data, Dolly’s Xmas tale will become an established part of the holiday canon.
MW: “Live together in peace” until death; Toby knowing the parrot will outlive Ian, this is her dream.
@Sequitur: Ten days ago I suggested that “Hey, it works for politicians” could replace “Christ, what an asshole” as an all-purpose New Yorker cartoon caption. It certainly makes more sense than that one.
Crock and company are posed like the magi come bearing gold, silver, and bronze.
MW: “I always entertain great dopes.” – Sunny the parrot.
Comics Worth Reading
– PLUGGERS: Re-upping after 50– the service continues
– CURTIS: Sometimes it IS the thought that counts.
– JP: remember when so many disliked Char and her stoicism? Turns out she was just miserable.
6Cx: Brilliant portrayal of original observation
TINAS GROOVE: Really, this must happen all the time.
And Others:
LUANN: Yikes! But then, why is Toni dressing in front of an uncovered first-floor window?
FG: real question: should Flash have killed Wolfang in the arena when he had the chance?
JUMP START: Life lesson: its not a lack of memory, it’s a lack of focus
PHANTOM: And how is Kurt Bauer going to explain the two dead bodies and the gold in the plane? Question is, is confinement in Psych Ward better than jail time?
PV: Aleta sure is sure about herself.
DtM: Dennis sprouts out of the ground, delivers his toxic message to George and the would-be Mrs Bailey, and then disappears into the ether. “Bedford Falls, I think not. Heh, heh.”
DtM – I’m trying to parse Dennis’ expression in the penultimate panel. He’s either thinking “my work here is done” or “maybe I crossed a line here. I just gave someone unsolicited relationship advice. Who do I think I am, Mary Worth?”
Crock’s ancient!
Dennis: He’s completely unsupervised. He’s by himself wandering around and won’t be around when his parents get home. They trusted her.
@Bob Tice: #18 MW- Let’s not forget his other brother, David, and his revealing interview with Richard Nixon.
Mary Worth: I’ll be real for a moment. A couple of years ago, I found an abandoned domestic rabbit. I thought I was finding a home for him when I picked him up, thought he’d never be able to coexist with my dim-witted-but-lovable pitbull. Welp, he’s been an important part of our family ever since, and the dog got over his reservations quickly and now accepts the 4 1/2 lb. bunny as an authority figure.
It’s all about roles. Once Ian recognizes that Sunny is the husband, Toby is the pet, and he’s the weirdo who drops by in between academic conferences, they’ll all get along swimmingly!
Hägar the Horrible: As soon as Santa and Honi are out of sight, Hägar is totally eating that injured reindeer. Not even cooking it, just nom nom nom BURP!
MW: Well, hope IS the thing with feathers.
HTH: Some of those deliveries might be … delayed.
@7 Schroduck: On Dennis the Menace: Dennis’ voice “activates” the babysitter. Her annoyance, PTSD, take your pick. You’re welcome.
Dennis The Menace: Dennis’ behavior has been so neutered for so long that it’s actually pretty jarring to see him do and say something genuinely assholish here.
Mary Worth: Love how Christmas stuff and mentions have just abruptly spawned in between comics even though no time has passed at all between yesterday’s and today’s.
As if a summer storm was ending, the Vietminh artillery suddenly let up, and the Algerian battalion at Gabrielle raised their heads. This was the end. The Vietminh sappers would hit the line at any moment, and the strongpoint would be overrun. Balthazar took a long final drag on his Gauloises and felt a moment of relief that at least this nasty habit would soon be done. Tobacco has not the sweet scent of myrrh, he thought. An explosion shook the bunker. He remembered when Caspar was killed in Algiers by that FLN sniper as he raised a cup of coffee to his mouth, the fine porcelain shattering a split second before his skull did. He thought about Melchior’s dying breath in a shattered truck amid the chaos of a Vietminh ambush on La Rue Sans Joie north of Hue. He remembered the moment it all went wrong, when they’d followed the false star and ended up in the Foreign Legion. Gunfire close now, the smell of shit and cordite. Some wise men we were, he scoffed silently as he rose from cover. “Come on, you sons of bitches, the Christ Child awaits” he screamed as he opened fire with his MAS-49. “I’ve got your Star right here!” Hours later, when the Vietminh had secured Gabrielle, they found the body of strange French soldier in blue robes, surrounded by the dead.
MW- @CanuckDownSouth: #31- MW- Maybe Ian could just stuff Toby in the cage. She could be a dancer, kind of a whiskey-a-go-go thing. Or Scotch-a-go-go, in this case.
MW – What we need here is a Christmas miracle. Like Sunny not being a parrot at all, but a juvenile Terror Bird that was frozen eons ago and somehow survived until thawing out recently. And will soon grow to 10 feet tall and tear Ian apart with its powerful talons and beak. I love happy endings.
“I always entertain great hopes.” – Robert Frost
“I always entertain by serving rancid muffins.” – Mary Worth
Zits-“How did you get your mother to foom? She usually fakes her fooms with me?”
MW-Ian and parrots living together. Mass hysteria!
Crock – Crock and his minions just want revenge for “myrrh” being the Wordle word a couple days ago.
Luann: A rare instance of the Sunday strip dovetailing with the dailies. B-wad would rather go put up more decorations with his special friend The Man Who Laughs than service his wife. Augie Doggy Ding Dong Daddy, take note!
JP: Don’t worry Neddy. When CIApril and Whatsisface come to whisk the Raspberry-Haired Brat away, they’ll probably take you along this time to keep her out of their hair.
RMMD: How sweet, but did Blondie ever find out where babies actually come from?????
DT: Yup, called it.
Luann-“You’re not my five-thirty peeper.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“You should see Don Abundio’s pet seal! It can spin a ball on its nose”
“Is the seal being fed well?”
“Probably…”
“It will only let him down in exchange for an extra fish”
“You have to consider your husband as well.” But the hint that maybe Toby could just get rid of Ian goes over her head. Mary is too subtle – some things take a menace.
@9 Ukranazi Stepan: I figured it’d be a popular choice.
@23 Ken: I hope not; I’m enjoying this ménage a trois.
@25 Sequitur: Did you notice the “beauty” trapped inside the ice blocks?
CROCK: This one’s almost 30 years old. The copyright label says 1997. But at least they are upfront about it. Half the comics in perpetual reruns (which probably account for at LEAST half of what’s in the newspapers these days) use updated labels as if trying to fool readers.
DTM Yesterday: I love Santa’s look here. Dennis must be one of the few kids that admits to not quite being good all year, and Santa’s thinking, “Oh, you are getting coal every Christmas for the rest of your miserable life!”
DTM Today: In the panel where he first accosts the two lovebirds, it looks like he’s wearing a floor-length red dress.
@28 Sequitur: That’s it! I’m sending Sunny to Texas to take care of you! Prepare for searing psittaciformish insults raining down from the parrot flying just outside your reach!
@38 Activist: on Luann: “why is Toni dressing in front of an uncovered first-floor window?” It’s her way to let her side piece know he can stop by for a quickie.
Is Crock going to myrrh-der those men? But that makes no frankincense if he hopes for more gifts! I won’t apologize for any of that, because we live in the golden age of puns.
***
Sometimes he hits a home run, today he’s just Dennis the Meh-nace.
***
Is Sunny listening in on the call to make sure that old biddy doesn’t put any wrong ideas into Toby’s head? Maybe Ian’s on to something. Other than it being a bad idea to have an unsupervised bird flying around your home. Maybe he’s on to something else too. Ian can be on to two things.
@Baja Gaijin:
These are wonderful! Thank you!
Crock: Geez, I knew things were tough in first century Judea, what with the Roman Empire on one hand and the Herodian Tetrarchy on the other, but they had to deal with the French Foreign Legion as well?
MW: “Just hope everything will work out”? Has Mary outsourced her advice to the characters of Rex Morgan?
Divaling Two once had a canary, which occasionally was allowed to fly around in his room. Unfortunately it had been left out of its cage one day while our cats could get in there, and…well, nature took its course. So in addition with helping him cope with the grief of pet loss, we had to help him (and ourselves) cope with the guilt of not managing our pets the way we should have.
My point is, Toby needs to recognize that it’s her responsibility to fix this situation–and if she doesn’t, Ian can borrow Libby and save himself a lot of trouble.
DT: As everyone expected (Chekov’s car, cliff, etc.) Rojo Ozob despite clearly knowing his way around a motor vehicle somehow loses control (?) Or did Deputy Catman during his slinking about in his cat-gimp outfit secretly cut the brake lines?
Dustin: His dad correctly recalls that his music collection went from vinyl to cassette tape to CD to MPs and now streaming. What is odd is why doesn’t he simply play the MP or CDs There are a lot of players and cheap! Why is using Spotify? Is this is an ad placement? Or is Dustin Dad simply revealing a truth – he always was a follower and a lazy one at that – so much easier to just click and consume rather than take on the laborious process of loading a CD tray and clicking the play button.
Judge Parker: Don’t worry Neddy Charlotte isn’t going anywhere. You and her are about to spin off and hope to be the new Nancy and Aunt Fritzi Ritzi. You already have the distinct name and she has a trademark outfit with beret.
Crankshft: This is just filler to set up BajaGajin’s scenes!
MW: Sunny is beautifully rendered. So is Mary going to arrange a “sit down” between Ian and Sunny? Isn’t humilating enough that a bird has achieved domestic equivalency with Ian. Please have Ian stomp off and try to find someone to commiserate with – say, Wilbur.
RMMD: We all miss Renee very much, and nice reminder that the strip was once about medical issues and how they affect lives. It has sort of gone off into roots country, genetic family tracing and now whatever this is.
Phantom: Love how the Striped Underwear One just chalks this up to one of those strange things that occur out in the jungle where the laws of physics, time, space and causality are either weak or non-existent.
Slylock: Max in a classic drawer room mystery lays out the clues: the buttons, scarf, hat, and carrot were all part of the missing Frosty The Snow Man – and he points dramatically at SLylock, screaming “J’Accuse!” You were always jealous of Frosty. You secretly despised him. You lured him out to the woods and then viscously attacked him. You then desposed of the body by dissolving with your hot scalding coffee – using that very cup!
@Voshkod: @Voshkod:
THis is how Crock should end!
9CL: Impressionists play with light, cubists play with form, Brooke plays with proportion and perspective. He’s a genius, you know.
I hope MW suggests that Ian and Toby agree on cage time for Sunny.
But ultimately the solution is to cage Ian. Like this classic Bushmiller Nancy rerun. It just makes sense.
https://www.gocomics.com/nancy/2025/12/17
@61 Baja Gaijin:
Actually, I’m a pretty good shot with a rifle or pistol.
When does Mary advise Ian to invite a live in concubine into the apartment to counter Sunny?
My last comment disappeared into the ether and I don’t know why…