Sympathy for the plugger
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Mary Worth, 1/17/26
Minutes later, Mary would of course be relaying all this information to Toby and Ian’s homeowners insurance carrier. Why should the general Charterstone policy bear all the risk for their negligence?
Blondie, 1/17/26
Look, being Elmo’s #2 is a coveted position, and this kid is not doing well on his first day. Panel two makes it clear this was supposed to be a surprise, but the kid just blurted it out in panel one, ruining it! Sorry, buddy, there’s not going to be any more visits to the house of some weird adult who isn’t your friend’s dad and who doesn’t even have kids your age in your future!
Pluggers, 1/17/26
You can call me cruel for enjoying things like “pluggers routinely pass out on the toilet,” but even I have my limits. I don’t think “pluggers have a bad relationship with their kids” is much fun, actually. I think it’s pretty depressing!
Gil Thorp, 1/17/26
Gil Thorp has had a lot of artists over the years, both permanent and guests, and they’ve all brought something specific and interesting to the strip. The last couple weeks Jason Margos has been filling in, and what he’s brought to the strip is an extreme close-up on Coach Gerards’ weird, gross lips. Enjoy your weekend!
64 replies to “Sympathy for the plugger”
Gil Thorp:
Long thought to be extinct in the United States, leprosy invades the environs of Milford in today’s last panel.
Gil Thorp:
“You going as Marley’s Ghost when you’re trick or treating in Goshen this Halloween, Coach?”
Blondie: It doesn’t look like Dagwood though, does it? It’s a pretty good likeness of beloved British comedian and recent Taskmaster winner Andy Zaltzman, but Dagwood? Nah, I’m not seeing it.
GT: But! The weird lips mean you probably won’t notice coach Gerards nose hairs.
Mary Worth:
[Toby punches in *67 to deactivate caller ID and disguises her voice when she calls Mary]:
“Mary? What are you wearing right now?”
“Why, my purple cowl — the same thing I’ve worn for 1,347 consecutive days — you silly stranger!”
Dustin : “One day I’ll move out” …what an excellent joke! It’s a shame it’s buried inside an enormous paragraph in the second panel, that kinda kills the timing…
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Gil Thorp : You know, this goes BEYOND “90s cartoon gross-out close-up” and straight into Creepypasta-grade “nightmarish vision illustrated in a hyper-realistic style”!
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Mary Worth : that’s the smile of someone who had hoped the outcome Toby was going to describe would have been “Ian and Sunny now get along because they found a common enemy… ME!”
MW: I’m sorry, but “improved outcome” has to be the funniest way to describe your husband coming around to you owning a bird. Did it improve your satisfaction level, Toby? Has it raised your relationship metrics in specific and measurable ways? Maybe we should do a quick SWOT analysis to inform future fauna interactions.
Blondie: “Is that my actual bowtie and shirt button? Goddamnit children, you know I only have the one outfit!”
Pluggers Meanwhile, there are 47 unread texts…
Blondie:
“Now we’re going to build a Mr. Dithers snowman right next to our snowman of you, to subject you to constant, curmudgeonly obloquy, Mr. Bumstead!”
Pluggers: [Knock on the door]
“Dad! I’ve been trying to call you all week. Are you all right?”
“No you haven’t. I’m fine.”
“Let me see your phone. The ringer’s turned off! Again!”
GT – Jason Margos looks at one of McEldowney’s soul-destroying gaping maws and says “hold my beer.”
Pluggers:
Well, then, this anthropomorph isn’t a plugger, because he’s not reminded that the kids haven’t called in weeks — he thinks instead that there’s something wrong with his handheld phone. Get him out of this strip installment!
MW: It’s a close race, ladies and gentlemen! It’s Pompous Axx in first place, and Meddlin’ Mary. Pompous Axx still in the lead, Meddlin’ Mary holding in second. But wait! Sunny Daze is coming up fast—he’s making his move…he’s overtaking Meddlin’ Mary! And now the parrot is moving into second place ahead of Meddlin’ Mary! Sunny Daze is mounting a challenge against Pompous Axx…!
Pluggers:
“I’m at a loss for what to do here! — well, I guess that I’ll just go sit on the toilet.”
GT: Dude, they have Chapstick for that…! Geez!
As others have pointed out, Pluggers are technically illiterate and out of touch with modern communication methods.
GT: Did artist Jason Margos cut his teeth on Ren & Stimpy’s gross closeups?
Sunny: “Wonder what the next egg Mummy lays is going to hatch into?”
Pompous Axx: “Ha ha ha!”
Mary: (Reaches for the Big Book of Platitudes)
GT: I know that competition is the hallmark of sports, but Gil’s opponents are all raving lunatics. Lunatics with giant, cracked orange lips that will star in my nightmares.
MW: Mary has done NOTHING here. She does NOT deserve a Bum Boat Special, a boat ride and Dr Jeff’s groveling ass-kissery. At the very least, she should foot the bill for dinner this time.
9CL: It’s a little late for Amos to launch into his laughable “My daughter’s virtue” routine, but he probably will anyway.
It’s OK, cat-plugger! Your kids just have a lot of trouble operating their mobile phones, with their fur-covered paws and lack of opposable thumbs!
Luann: Next week, new tedium!
RMMD: Is Beatty trying to Section Eight his way out of doing this strip?
S4th: I guess it’s a moot point now, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we learned that these three nitwits forgot that they owned any flashlights.
JP: At least it’s not CIApril, at least it’s not CIApril…
Gil Thorp: Now we know what Wilhelm von Humburg was doing in his final, tragic months of life: Life modeling for Jason Margos.
RMMD – Is it too much to ask for Rex to turn to the reader and wink?
Toby, put the iPhone on speaker and hold it out in front of you. It’s a lot easier than pressing it against your jowl with one finger.
GT: I have never seen a drawing of lips that makes me feel skeevier than this does, and considering that I’ve seen Greg Land’s comic art which is traced from, shall we say, adult movies, that’s saying something.
I learned somewhere – very possibly here, I guess – that Elmo was originally Cookie’s boyfriend when she was in elementary school, but Cookie kept aging up and Elmo didn’t. Sorry, Elmo, you should have bitten and turned her when you had the chance.
GT: So is this some kind of weird come-on in Panel Three? Is Coach Gerards saying that Gil’s going to have to be a bottom?
1976 Peanuts rerun needs a footnote for anyone under 60. “Who the heck is Karl Malden?”
Pluggers: Mister, I know what’s up with your kids. A man who was going to St. Ives distinctly saw them being carried off in sacks.
H&L: “‘Honey do’ always comes with ‘honey don’t’.”
Hi is still pouting about the lack of diversity in last night’s sexual congress.
“Let it go, Hi. It ain’t happening.”
Mary Worth Mashups: How about a trio of missing final panels? Any of them tickle your fancy?
Real pluggers call their kids constantly to tell them all their ailments, what careers they should go into, and most importantly- beg for grand kids.
Pluggers – He would call his kids, but he can’t find the rotary dial.
‘Sorry, buddy, there’s not going to be any more visits to the house of some weird adult who isn’t your friend’s dad and who doesn’t even have kids your age in your future!’
It just occurred to me part of this may not be true AND explain the kid coming around. Having no info about Elmo’s parents, I posit Mom and Dagwood had a brief affair that resulted in Elmo. Elmo stops by because a guilty Dagwood gives him the attention he doesn’t get from his mother’s husband as he suspects Elmo’s true paternity.
@Activist: (yesterday, sorry I fell asleep before I could read your comment)
Yep, I used real raspberries :3
@Baja Gaijin: I think number 1 is most likely. While I might accept that Ian now likes Sunny, why would the bird’s behavior change, especially since they’re not doing anything to train it? It’s only a matter of time before Ian finds bird poop in his toothbrush cup.
Although maybe the trigger will be Toby’s behavior. “Oh, Ian, I know you planned a romantic evening out, but I’d rather sit here with Sunny and laugh at the TV.”
Blondie: That snowman’s posture is way too straight. It’s as if Elmo had never seen Dagwood standing up! (Although, come to think about it… he does nap a lot.)
Pluggers: Sure, the kids aren’t calling, but phones work both ways, as the famous saying goes. (Oh, wait, this is one of those “ubiquitous mobile phones,” and pluggers haven’t figured out the “call out” function yet. They don’t even know how to stop the Candy Crush app from taking 10 bucks from them whenever they play.)
Gil Thorp: There’s definitely some R. Crumb influence in today’s artwork. And while the famous underground cartoonist would never have used girls’ high school basketball as a subject, he would have gone to town on the players — and the Tribune Content Agency should consider itself lucky that they’re only seen far in the background.
Mary Worth: “It’s funny how a near tragedy resulted in an improved outcome, Mary!” “Oh, near-tragedies are funny, all right! They’re basically all I live for. Look at me — I can’t stop smiling!”
GT: looks like this comic has been taken over by the walking dead.
GT: Is he … is he growing a mustache on his lower lip? *Shudder*
Pluggers: I saw they blog title, and I was going to make a joke that at least this wasn’t directed by Park Chan-wook. However, this Pluggers strip is way more grim than anything he’s done.
MW: pugfuggly beat me to the “improved outcome” bit of dialogue, but I do hope it improves their synergy.
Blondie: “We did put a sandwich in one of its hands! Where’d it go?” The snowman’s coal eyes gleam menacingly for a moment while a musical sting sounds.
The Boston Globe is one of the few newspapers that still carries Pluggers. Lamentably, this has resulted in the prolix prose of aging Brahmins replacing the spare stylings of the late hyperprolific Reed Hoover.
Gil Thorp-“I knew it was you, Gil. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!”
MW-Mary won’t say that she’s the one who tampered with the lights.
FC-“Well the good news is that Jeffy has finally stopped thrashing and clawing at my leg.”
Luann-Luann is really a special needs person and Phil is really her caregiver.
Luann: “Yes, it would make me happy to help out two rivals for my attention. Tee hee.”
CS: Well … Crankshaft isn’t dead, so he’ll have to keep wishing.
9CL: “Well, no, I’m not French. I was named for the clarified butter my mom had on her toast the day I was born.” At least now the rest of us know the guy’s name. I guess he transmitted it during one of their special kisses.
FC: “I made a problem I can’t fix. I’m not really good at this whole Calvinist ethos, or maybe I’m really good at it.”
Dustin: On the surface, this seems like a heartwarming vignette where Ed realized how life is fleeting, and he should enjoy collecting precious memories with one of his children. Really, though, Ed just needed an excuse to get out of work.
Pluggers’ children all went no-contact years ago, but they still haven’t gotten the message yet.
Punching up my own joke: “Pluggers’ children all went no-contact years ago. That’s the *real* message they’re not getting.”
@Baja Gaijin: It is probably very revealing that I like the panel of “flaming skeleton head” Sunny pooping on Ian.
Mary Worth: The biggest question in newspaper comics is “where are these characters located?” A close second is “How do humans hold cell phones?” It’s good to see both traditions are still alive.
Gil Thorp: I glanced at the bottom of my screen, and literally thought I was reading Dick Tracy and they’d introduced a new character named “Doctor Prune Lips” or something. Disturbing!
Tune in next week to hear Gil Twerp say, “Please,sir,get your nose out of my ear.”
@35 Ken: I love the panel containing Ian and Sunny glaring at each other.
@46 taig: What does it reveal about me that I thought up the “flaming bird dropping flaming poop on a man” panel?
Beetle Bailey: Like Gen. Halftrack needs a whole hour to complete his tippling to save a bit of money.
HtH: Historical error: Second Viking from the right is using a washboard as a shield. Among that crowd his unscrubbed clothing is unnoticed.
BG&SS: Please tell me that one of the couple had some plastic Dukes of Hazzard souvenir plates left over from their childhood for this occasion.
@Baja Gaijin: It says you try to cater to a lot of sickos on this site.
JP: “Good lord! Where did you get that hat?”
RMMD- June: “Johnny’s spleen? I don’t SEE the correlation .” Rex: “And you think I do? Very funny, by the way.”
Has the near death experience taught Ian to put his sentimental valuables in a safe place? Because I’ve got bad news for you in a couple of weeks, Toby, once his endorphin high has worn off.
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That’s the old Dagwood look with the bow tie and giant button, you stupid kids. He doesn’t wear that anymore. What are you, stupid? No wonder your parents don’t like you and you have to befriend a strange man. That, and you’re tracking snow all over the house! Take off your damned boots before trudging over to the strange man sleeping on his couch! Damned fool kids today with their dated references and messes.
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Hey, cat man, there are Facebook groups for parents whose children have gone no contact where you can get together with like-minded animal folk and blame everyone but yourselves. And you’re a plugger, so you’re definitely still on Facebook.
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Excuse me. I just suddenly feel the need to apply some lip balm.
Gil Thorp: Those lips. They’re more terrifying than most Late Thread Cuisines.
GT- That last panel looks like an abstract rendering of a cheerleaders face, drawn by the former artist.
@Ukulele Ike: What a shocking bad hat! Let’s make sport of her, what?
Sounds like Elmo’s #2 was originally assigned a rhyming line that he found to degrading to go through with. “‘Twas Elmo’s idea, I’m merely his aide!”
Gil Thorp(e): I dropped this strip like a bad habit when Barajas took over, and today’s installment confirms that I have chosen wisely.
9cl: Huh, the timeline is just as absurd as I thought. Thanks for clearing that up, Brooke. (I know i should drop this one like an even worse habit, but I just can’t stop watching this particular train wreck.)
MW – I’m intrigued by the news that Toby ranks her loved ones. Mary’s going to be pissed if she finds out that her place on the list is right below the UPS guy and the mouse that lives behind the kitchen cupboard.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Let the dog in. He needs his dinner”
“In a hurry?”
“Yes, naturally”
“The poor thing is probably weak from hunger”
Blondie, the neighborhood bumstead: “Good start, kids, but you need to make a J.C. Dithers snow boss kicking its butt.”
@Peanut Gallery: Leave it to Don Abundio to get his dog a mobile home!
I know it’s a little early for Sweet Treat Time (even though I never actually set a time to post that)
But I finished icing my cupcakes just now.