Mostly old people problems
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Beetle Bailey, 1/14/26

I feel like if you have an elderly authority figure looking startled and somewhat confused and shouting “Take some notes!” and then immediately afterwards passing out, and his subordinates are gleeful about it because it means they don’t have to do work, that’s a little less “Ha, this is a zany situation” and a little more elder abuse. It’s sadly not that unheard of for a powerful but ailing person’s staff to basically puppet them for an extended period of time, and it’s all fun and games until, in this case, the area of the United States protected by Camp Swampy is invaded by enemy forces and no competent general officer is present to coordinate defensive operations.
Mary Worth, 1/14/26

I’m not sure how old Ian is supposed to be so I guess I won’t call this “elder abuse” per se but it’s clear that his mind has been broken by Toby and Sunny. Look at his sleepy, dopey smile as Sunny cackles evilly literally inches in front of his face! This is some real “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother” shit right here, only with a parrot.
Shoe, 1/14/26

To me, one of the most depressing things about the Perfesser and Skyler’s home is that there’s exactly one place to sit in their living room, which tells us volumes about the relationship between the uncle and his barely tolerated nephew/ward. Today we see that even when they eat out together, the Perfesser insists on sitting as far away from his nephew as possible.
Luann, 1/14/26

When I started commenting on Luann again, did I know things were going to end up less than a year later with Luann getting propositioned to go fuck over by the dumpsters? No, of course not. Obviously not. Different choices would’ve been made had I known, I’ll tell you that much.


76 replies to “Mostly old people problems”
Mary Worth:
“Of course, on the positive side, the fire might have ended up consuming the entire complex, which means that the world would have been rid of Mary and those blasted muffins of hers!”
Luann: Dumpster diving meets muff diving!
Now that he’s cheering “After All” and cackling, I ponder – have we ever really taken note of Sunny’s red eyes? Is that actually a parrot thing? Or now, at long, long last, is the Hellraiser-type shit finally gonna start, please God?
MW I am picturing Ian as the dog in the This is fine meme, with the flames replaced by piles of bird-destroyed things, and the floor covered in guano
RMMD: It’s cute because the blond kid thinks an ‘operation’ can undo his lobotomy.
Mary Worth:
“In the comic strip world of instant resolution, I forgive Sunny for:
— attacking me unprovokedly;
— ruining my Sir Richard Whomever playbill;
— demolishing my faculty excellence award;
— calling me a pompous axx; and
— soiling my shoes repeatedly,
all because he happened to smell smoke that might or might not have been of any consequence.”
It’s Luann, guys. They’re not gonna have dumpster area sex, she just really needs to tell Phil about those couple days where she was a stick figure. Phil, resplendent in his one garment that is not scrubs, will be too busy thinking about scrubs to notice anyway.
See? I TOLD you not to read Luann today! This is like that “Monster At The End Of This Book” book, only instead of comical pictures of Grover failing to stop you, each day is going to get you one panel closer to these two, ****ing in a car surrounded by trash and raccoons.
You’d think Buxley would be a WHOLE lot more disconcerted by Halftrack’s right hand placement throughout this interaction.
I feel like this is as good a time as any to point out that, other than the repeated shitting on the nearest article of clothing, not one thing Sunny has done represents the species’ normal behavior. But then I suppose you could say the same thing about Toby.
MW: So, the Camerons live in a coal mine, Wilbur lives in a shit hole, and Mary lives inside her head. Gotta say, that Charterstone complex sure has some unexpected options when it comes to amenities.
MW: Any Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans here? I just want to say that I’m reading Sunny having the exact same voice as Coily the Spring Sprite. “No springs! Ha ha ha!”
SHOE: Is Roz throwing the crispy bugs into omelets? Exactly what is the level of anthropomorphism here?
GT: If Dr Jekyll were a high school coach.
LUANN: Why do I feel like while Luann is thinking hot romance, Phil is thinking a game of Hangman? The guys in this strip tend to be pretty oblivious.
GT – Chill Bill, an unsuccessful early Tarantino draft.
Luann – There have got to be people dying regularly at that nursing home. Couldn’t Phil-her-up and Inner Beauty tear one off in one of the vacated beds before they bring in another soon-to-die person?
“Nothing beats the smell of brewed coffee and freshly zapped bugs, just the right kind of breakfast for bird-people like us.”
A zapper in the office would help Miss Buxley avoid getting bugs in her permanently opened mouth.
is one of the blessings or curses of twenty years of Comics Curmudgeonry that you forget that Luann is like when you’re not looking directly at it? Because “Luann is going to get propositioned to ‘park’ by a dumpster” is the kind of thing you should have known.
MW- so is this problem solved? Since Mary actually made an appearance on this one, I guess the rest of the month will be her victory lap
Shoe — Um, don’t birds eat bugs? An unironic last panel in Shoe would represent a break from SOP as much as the suggestion that Luann might do the nasty. . .
@Schroduck: I hear Sunny in the voice of Chief Keef.
@Pozzo: I don’t know which part of that formula to retch over first.
BB: I think you mean “stroke sessions”. That definitely looks like an infarction.
MW: You know, Toby, the thing about canaries in the coalmine is that they warn miners by dying. I’d still keep an eye on Ian…
Shoe: “I know that that sounds sarcastic, but it’s really not: fried bugs smell great. We’re birds!”
Luann: I was going to say that this would be funny if it escalated even further, but I’m not really sure what comes after ‘sex in a dumpster’. ‘Sex in a manure pond’? “Sex in medical waste’? Seems like differences in degrees but not kinds…
Beetle Bailey: I am here to tell you that the single most important skill in visiting elderly dementia patients is the ability to smile, nod, and wait until they fall asleep. You meet them where they’re at and make sure they’re covered by a blanket, invasion by Canadia or no.
Alice: YIPE!
GT: “Collier!” of course, is the new “Six-Seven!” All the kids are saying/shouting it at incongruous moments to the confused chagrin of their elders.
@Schroduck: @matt w: Funny, I hear this guy.
Blondie Tough choice on what makes the Bumsteads more out of touch today – never having heard of paperless bills, cutting up a credit card to end it rather than calling customer service to close the account, or thinking anyone cares about “stimulating the economy” jokes now instead of inflationary woes.
Luann: There you go again, drawing your logical, inescapable inferences about s-e-x, if you know what I mean.
@Schroduck: I’ve seen that episode! “Honey, get the swatter!”
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Go for the laundry room. It’s warm, it’s private, and if you’re lucky it’s loud enough that no one will hear a screamer.
MW: How exactly is Sunny hovering that closely between two people? When I’ve been around birds flying in the house, there’s a mini-whirlwind of hair, feathers, and arms flailing about. Is this one of those AI fakes I’ve heard so much about?
Luann: Meanwhile at the back of the line, the ambulance waiting to transport an elderly patient to the ER is waiting behind a long line of cars. When informed the patient died waiting, Phil calmly asserts that death is a type of recycling, anyway.
Luann – Dear Penthouse, I never thought this would happen to me, but one day my high-maintenance girlfriend agreed to indulge my public sex fantasy.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: In the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy,” they were always able to fnd a supply room somewere.
Luann-This is Luann we are talking about. Sex is the very last thing she would be propositioned over.
RMMD-Rex is annoyed that he is not performing the surgery. “C’mon, Dave. Whose name is that in the title,” Rex says yelling at his agent.
MW-And end story. No need for two weeks of Mary pontificating.
FC-Mommy’s hungover.
Luann-They’re going to play hand puppets out behind the dumpsters.
@Schroduck: Where does Sunny fit into God’s plan for us?
MW: Honestly, given that Ian was too stupid to chase a bird out a window himself, he deserves to have his mind broken. My only sympathies lie with the students who have to take classes from this moron.
They are birds. Birds eat bugs. The Perfesser isn’t 100% serious here then why am I wasting my time reading a comic about birds?
***
I get that the possibility of getting caught is a major part of the thrill of having sex in a public area, but when it gets to a point where it’s pretty much likely just call it a day and rent a motel room and try pony play or pegging or something else that’s different and forbidden.
Luann – This is what happens when your boyfriend gets all his sex advice from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
Luann – Whether surrounded by recyclers or by a dumpster, car fucking can get you arrested. Reese McGuire, then with the Toronto Blue Jays, found out this is possible even on a solo car date.
And if you do a Reese McGuire, you leave yourself vulnerable when you get into a Fuck You match. (Be sure and what this link – it is hilarious.)
Mary Worth: Why would you mix half a cliched metaphor with reality? Imagine a DA saying, “Looks like we were barking up the wrong tree! Or, in this case, barking up the wrong… wrongly executed man, amirite?” It and “parrot in a coal mine” make the same amount of sense!
Shoe: I remember being fascinated by bug zappers as a kid, so this resonates with me. That said, you know what helps keep the bugs out of your restaurant, Roz? Walls! Walls keep bugs out of restaurants!
“Yep, I can charge insectivorous birds for freshly cooked insects and I don’t have to do the cooking! I’m a fuckin’ genius!”
Do neither of these two losers have a bedroom? Why do they have to fuck in the carpark?
@A Grave Mind:
You’d think Buxley would be a WHOLE lot more disconcerted by Halftrack’s right hand placement throughout this interaction.
Explains why the General’s desk has a modesty shield.
I for one welcome Charterstone’s new parrot overlord. Think of the potential shenanigans! (Or don’t, because Sunny will inevitably be forgotten once the next plotline rolls around, but a girl can dream, right?)
@Victor Von:
MW: Thank you! That was bugging the hell out of me too.
MW: Toby, meanwhile, is suddenly overwhelmed by the terrible feeling that she is being watched—judged—by some unseen viewer just out of sight. “Is that Mary? Please let that be Mary,” she thinks, her smile frozen into a grimace, her eyes swiveling as far to the side as possible, straining to see this invisible presence spying at her through through some kind of “fourth wall.” The mists of reality part of fleeting moment and she sees it: The Curmudgeon. And it’s gone. The mists descend. The parrot, frozen midair, resumes its flapping.
Toby looks uneasily to her left. “Does this mean Ian will stop obsessing about the bird and re-focus on me?”
FG: Jesus, Bok. Chill out. Take a ‘lude.
@Schroduck: *whistle*
BB: Ha-ha, a senile old man is in charge of military operations! Ha-ha-ha…*sobs*
Luann: I refuse to believe Phil is proposing sexual relations. He strikes me as the sort of guy who would not only wait until marriage, but keep a detailed log of Luann’s ovulation cycle and only drop trou at the exact moment her fertility is reaching its peak.
MW: *laugh, freeze frame, roll credits*
DT: Last Week’s Adventure: “I got a hunch about this case, Tracy. If I’m wrong, I’ll eat my hat.”
Phantom: ”Go get the Ouija board. The dead zebra wants to communicate with us. Probably something about being losers.”
JP: Welcome back, Neddy’s sporadically impressive chest!
Crankshaft: I’m not expecting Bob & Ray, but at least get the punchline correct.
“Most accidents happen within three miles from home.”
“I really should move!”
GT: The action drawings are notably more understandable.
FC: Jeffy, stop blowing Thel’s sex!
HtH: I can see Helga’s been binge-warchting Upstairs, Downstairs. Too bad she lives in something more like Njorl’s Saga.
Most birds love to eat bugs. The Perfesser is not most birds.
I’ve been reading people’s comments on the passing of Scott Adams, and had a thought:
My paper replaced Dilbert with Crabgrass, a much better-drawn strip where the characters are kids who sometimes have amazing, serialized adventures, and other times just do kid stuff. I stopped getting the paper three years ago, but I still read Crabgrass online every day, while I rarely think of Dilbert anymore (and when I do, it’s usually in terms of “Hey, this work story reminds me of this strip from 25 years ago”).
CS: In the name of all things holy, Crankshaft, WALK. AWAY. He’s not hurt; he’s workshopping his bad standup material at you. Don’t stand around and let this nobody abuse you. Espeically when you’re supposed to be the cantankerous character with no filter.
BB: Sounds like Beetleverse needs a 1941 style Louisiana Maneuvers and officer culling! Somehow Gen Halftrack doesn’t seem ready for a 24×7 conflict.
Blondie: Dagwood, are you trying to destabilize the economy?
Dustin: Dustin finally gets it. Years of coddling and enabling have atrophied his ability to function as a member of society.
GT: Again, bravo Jason Margos! Great details despite reduction to a small printed size. Coach Gerads is really laying it with acting! He needs to do a soccer flop next. It is going to a jarring (like a car going 60 mph hitting a concrete wall head on) when this guest artist leaves and jowly GT returns in time for the wedding.
JP: Charlotte’s got you Neddy. She knows when she is being dumped. Just honest with her. Your spin off attempt failed and we are not going to get a Neddy and Charlotte strip so back to alky gramps you go. Neddy has to catch a flight to Norway to try to get in on some of the action there.
MW: Poor Ian. Clearly there were some missing frames where he got bonked on the head. He has that drugged and dazed look reciting what was last programmed into him. “I love Sunny and Big Brother”. Toby meanwhile is looking off camera waiting for the director to yell “cut.”
RMMD: Just admit to the kid you are scared Rex. You are frightened that once you are unable to move, someone will pry your hair up and realize that you have a very complex toupee.
Phantom: General Chum asking his yes men to be “no” men is hilarious. It is this confusion at the top of leadership that is the fundamental issue and why the striped bottom one and someone who looks like they are barely into junior high school can take him down.
Luanne: Twenty or so years ago, there was a widely circulated news story about a couple who habitually grabbed some afternoon delight in the dumpster behind their workplace. One day, unfortunately, this coincided with pickup, and both were compacted to death within a garbage truck. (Fingers crossed)…
C’shaft: Your house is on Crankshaft’s route and he’s made it a personal goal to total your mailbox every day. I’d say your driveway is the least safe spot for you to be.
DT: “Or he’s already dead, in which case we can knock off early.”
Dustin: “I mean, all the traditional markers for responsible adulthood, such as a reliable job and home ownership, have been placed out of my reach by late-stage capitalism, media companies constantly repackage the entertainment of my youth in an appeal to nostalgia, and an increasingly aging and out-of-touch ruling class refuses to cede power while dismissing me as ignorant and entitled. Hopefully by the time you’ve grown up there will have been enough time after the inevitable social collapse to rebuild some semblance of stability.”
GT: Yikes, what’s going on with Gerards? He’s giving “Hugh Jackman dehydrating himself so he’ll be all bulgy and veiny as Wolverine” energy.
Phantom: Man, I liked Chuma better when he was a sadistic warlord who framed his crimes against humanity in mild corporate speak rather than another petulant would-be demagogue who rejects reality and substitutes his own.
RMMD: “We’ve talked about this, Blonde-Kid-Whose-Name-I’ve-Forgotten. Surgery is only one method of gender-affirming care, and one which will not be available to you until you’re older…”
Blondie-Women love to shop am I right.
Blondie-Blondie loves spending Dagwood’s money.
Wrecks Moregone:
Kid Number Two *could* do with plastic surgery to fix that bizarre looking head.
@Schroduck: #12: I think the Simpsons did a takeoff of Coily where Bart and his classmates had to watch an old educational film titled “World Without Zinc”.
Every newspaper ombudsman who now has to explain what a “public sex kink” is to angry 80 year-old newspaper readers curses your name, Luann.
RMMD: Dad, my woke guidance councilor at school said I should accept my feminine side. What kind of anesthetic do they give you when they cut off your wiener?
RMMD: Once Rex finds outs what the anesthesia costs he’ll insist on just taking a stiff shot of whiskey and biting down on a bullet.
Luann: At the age of 12, my son decided that professional hair stylists never cut his hair the way he wanted, so he started cutting his own hair. Since then, his hair has pretty much looked like it was self-styled by a twelve year old with one mirror and suboptimal scissors, which is to say that it’s rough and uneven and sticks out in the back. But it’s HIS hair, and he likes it, so we let him do what he wants, even if it kind of makes me cringe. Meanwhile, Phil has the same haircut as my kid. Do the Luann creators think this is attractive? Is this what makes the young ladies swoon? Is my son going to be a “hot item” when he hits the college dating scene? Should I worry about him parking behind the dumpsters?
Luann – Dumpster Lovin’ is bad enough, but Assisted Living Facility Dumpster Lovin’ is especially grim. Lots of soiled items, uneaten gruel, and the belongings of people who died, and whose families were on the clock to get their loved one’s room cleared out. If that doesn’t get your Billy the Bookworm standing at attention, I don’t know what will.
MW: There you have it, folks! Don’t you love a happy ending? Happy ending! ha ha ha Yes, it looks like Sunny will be a regular cast member now, making intermittent appearances as he lives in domestic bliss with Ian and Toby.
But, what if?… Toby thoughtlessly posts about Sunny’s heroism on Social Media! Someone recognizes him as one of the elusive escapees and notifies The Authorities! This could give us another couple of months of Sunny and his dramatic legal battles! This is what we’re shoppin’ to The Ladies as the next development …. also please join us in our “Bring Back Vixen” campaign. Yard signs available soon.
BB – HA-HA! Octogenarian leadership is a regular barrel of monkeys….
MW – Sunny, one so true; Shit in my shoe….
Shoe – I love the smell of electrocuted bugs in the morning….
Luann – How to give blowjobs in downtown alleys for fun and profit….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@Guillermo el chiclero:
“Come back, zinc! Come back!”
So a “Collier” translates into HOW many “Yeets?” Or is this particular dipshit in GT just eventually say “collier” every appearance?
@Guillermo el chiclero:
Nah. RMMD Idiot Child, Blond just wants a hook in his forehead for his smartphone. Go with it! We don’t want them reproducing!
1. Luann getting boned in a car behind a dumpster is EXACTLY how I expected she’d lose her virginity.
2. Sunny the Parrot seems to be able to hover motionlessly in the air, like it’s made out of helium. Brigman DOES know parrots need to flap their wings to fly, right?
3. Will Crankshat’s neighbor need to have his leg or foot amputated? Only Batiuk know for sure, but given his record the answer is probably yes.
4. Tobie’s 4th-wall-breaking side-eye is probably mean to signal that Tobie realizes Ian is a pompous ass and a blowhard, but to me it signals that even a smoothbrain like Tobie can tell this plot is bullshit.
@Schroduck: #12:
@A Grave Mind: #70:
Maybe Wilbur will accidently incur the wrath of Goopy the Mayo Sprite.
“What, your turkey sandwich is too dry, fatboy? No mayo! Ha-ha-ha!”
I live down the street from an old-folks-home and while they often have a lot of strange and puzzling events I can’t ever recall there being one involving recycling. What are they recycling and why does it involve old people?
“Mary Worth” has always been about crushing the will of people too stubborn to accept Mary’s superior wisdom, but now it is about crushing the will of people who do not like having pets. Sad to say it, but this is not an improvement!