Sunday highs and lows
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Heathcliff, 2/8/26
I gotta respect these guys for saying to hell with the NFL’s trademarks and hanging a giant banner that says “SUPER BOWL” from the ceiling of their living room to mark their Super Bowl party. Sure, it’s not strictly necessary, but it’s festive, and what if an outside viewer caught a glimpse of the room and had forgotten what day it was and needed a signifier in order to parse what exactly they were looking at? These revelers are true heroes. A living room “SUPER BOWL” sign, a dip cat, aliens and robots trying to stymie that dip cat for some reason, but not really trying very hard — all good, normal stuff.
Rhymes With Orange, 2/8/26
I kind of enjoy the way these people, who I assume just recently died, are casually chatting as they queue up to be tortured for all eternity. They spent their life weighted down by sin, so they aren’t surprised to be here or anything, though they are surprised to discover their sins are actually cute li’l anthropomorphized demons.
50 replies to “Sunday highs and lows”
Rhymes with Orange:
“What I like about this place is its devil-may-care attitude!”
Heathcliff:
Reading Heathcliff is kind of like watching a Bergman film. You think you’re sort of “getting” it while it’s unfolding and you’re experiencing it, but by the time it’s over, it’s clear to you that you didn’t really understand anything that transpired, or, even more importantly, why it did.
RWO: Open plan rooms? Business casual attire? Standing desks? The modern workplace really is hell. They take hotdesking very literally there.
Blondie-“No I just have a lot of emotional issues that I eat my feelings.”
RMMD-Remember folks the only symptom that you have appendicitis is throwing up a weird colored liquid and no excruciating pain whatsoever.
MW-Oh yes. Such salty language from Sunny.
Heathcliff-“The dip is here!” And he brought dip.
Slylock Fox-“Hey! I didn’t even watch half of these movies.”
Beetle Bailey: I don’t know which is more grody: the food Cookie’s cooking or his exposed hairy, diseased shoulders near the food he’s cooking. Seriously, what kind of skin fungus does he have going on?
Pluggers: Alternate caption: You’re a plugger if your only follower is your young grandson. Because he can smell the candy in your pocket.
Heathcliff: I guess Heathcliff must know that onions are toxic to cats, or he would have devoured that dip the moment he got his paws on it. Still, I guess he’s going to have to run another mile back to that empty void when the guys realize they also don’t have any potato chips.
Rhymes With Orange: The little demons are kind of like pets, but the big demon checking everyone in is more like a human adult with a menial job? So he’s basically a plugger. A plugger from hell (but I repeat myself).
Mary Worth: Hoo-boy, now the birds are learning catch-phrases by copying Joey on “Friends.” I guess it’s a good thing they aren’t tuning into early Ross episodes — after barely hanging onto his marriage, the last thing Ian wants to hear is “Waah, my wife left me!” all day long.
Heathcliff: When I started this strip, I thought that the bit DIP on the helmet was a derogatory name for Heathcliff himself. And when I finished it, I feel like it’s still possible.
RWO: Any Canadian of a certain age will remember the Hostess potato chips mascots the Munchies. Very disturbing to find out that they are actually tiny demons. Or at least one of them was? In any event, the theological ramifications of Satan’s involvement in the salted snack industry is pretty shocking.
RwO: “These are the demons I forged in life!” Now I see why Dickens went with chains.
Slylock Fox-Mr. Brownbear watched a lot of barely legal panda movies.
If she didn’t KNOW it was BYOD, how does it happen that she’s got three demons with her? Did they just show up when she got there? If so, then it’s *not* BYOD, right, because SHE didn’t BRING them! And if you’re supposed to bring your own, then presumably you could decline (or “forget”) to do so? Is that an option? Why doesn’t everyone take that option???
This doesn’t make any sense.
Rhymes with Orange:
“And it’s B.Y.O.D.E., too! — ‘Bring Your Own Deviled Eggs’ !”
The lady at the front of the queue has only two demons. Is that good or bad?
Rhymes with Orange:
I wonder if “Matt Cholodewitsch of Tucson, AZ” is like “Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey.”
Rhymes with Orange:
“I never expected it would be B.Y.O.D. — Bring Your Own Demons.”
“Hey, don’t get exorcised over it!”
@Twinkles the Elf: Maybe in the world of RWO the demons you bring to Hell are the ones you accumulate over a lifetime of sin?
RWO: Nothing like a little light hearted eternal damnation.
Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.
And a bunch of little pink devils
That make one question the most profound.
Is it better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n?
I was expecting something cooler.
More metal, like an Ozzy cover.
– John Milton, Paradise Lost
RMMD – Hey! A medical procedure being illustrated in RMMD! Too bad you don’t get to see it if your paper doesn’t carry the drop-panel!
RMMD: “Hey, Dad. How come I’m not hooked up to an IV to receive pain meds after surgery?”
“We still haven’t met your deductible. Here. Have a gummy.”
Get Fuzzy: Bucky’s sidewalk anti-dog display is missing the ‘Prove Me Wrong’ sign.
Wrecks Moregone:
Surgeon bursts in. “There’s been a terrible mix-up! We thought his name was Jimmy, left his appendix, and took out his spleen!”
____________________________________
Wary Morth:
Next, Mary invites herself over so both Sunny and Rosie can learn to speak Meddle.
____________________________________
Luann:
Inner Beauty is a mental 6 year old, part 1234567890.
JP: Isn’t Charlotte taking care of Neddy? Or have I missed some plot twist?
It takes a certain type of bravado to appear in public wearing a hat that says “DIP.” It’s almost like wearing an “I’m With Stupid” shirt with an arrow pointing straight up.
RMMD: Your SPLEEN, you get to keep. But the surgeon vented it, just as a precaution.
RMMD: Rex is a dead ringer for Basil St. John.
MW: Hopefully this is the end of this story, so let’s say it one last time for the road. All together now! Three, two, one… THAT’S NOT HOW PARROTS WORK!
Heathcliff is wearing an old-timey football helmet that doesn’t offer much in the way of protection. Tune in tomorrow when he’s diagnosed with CTE.
Garfield: Dustin’s father beat you to it-all those impressive looking law books on his office shelves are hollowed out snack containers. He has an emergency cherry pie stashed in his Black’s Law Dictionary.
RwO – While I’m sure this was meant to be a chilling insight into the human psyche, I can’t help but be enchanted by those little demons. They’re smiling and hugging and holding their owners’ hands like excited toddlers. If my inner demons were as adorable and loving as these guys are, I wouldn’t be filled with self-loathing.
RMMD Shouldn’t Rex and June be concerned that Jimmy is on supplemental oxygen after supposedly the operation went fine?
MW Another week, another Sunday that seems scripted by a human who didn’t need to summarize the dailies, and might have tossed today’s dialogue at ChatGPT to make up six treading-water strip scripts for the previous week.
@14 Bob Tice: I prefer to think “Matt Cholodewitsch” is a future Blondie ancillary character. He could be the new “Glambaster”.
@22 Ukranazi Stepan: Love it!
@CanuckDownSouth: Why should they be concerned? It isn’t like they don’t have a spare, two in fact if you include the de-smartified Sarah.
RMMD:
Surgeon: Say while we are down here, should we take out his spleen?
Anesthesiologist: Let’s flip, call it.
Surgeon: Heads
Anesthesiologist: Tails, no spleen for you.
Heathcliff – I like the fact that the two chairs are facing away from the TV and towards the couch. Watching people’s reaction to the Super Bowl is far more interesting than watching the Super Bowl itself. Plus, there’s 50 bucks riding on whether one of the guys on the couch will stand up and yell “YEAHHHH!” at some point before the end of the third quarter.
Don Abundio, translated:
“Hey! All the lights went out!”
“But I will protect you”
“A dried-up little shrimp like you?”
“You might as well turn the lights back on now”
MW: It’s never going to end, is it?
JP: It’s ok Ann, I remember the days when underserved largesse would fall into laps solely because we are Parker-Spencer-Drivers. Now it’s all gloom, doom, despair, and just gone completely absurd. It’s like being in a soap opera and they changed writers.
Crankshaft: Senile dementia is always a good source for laughs.
Phantom:
“Now, boy, if you had lost an appendage during your shipwreck and then done a sketch of what had transpired, would that be a ‘Phantom limn‘ ?” *
*In the Pundar tongue.
Luann: Go sit in the corner, it’s 90 degrees. (♪Sad trombone♪)
MW – We’re getting into Sartre territory here. Hell is other parrots.
Dustin: Unironically liked.
MW: Today in the Uncanny Valley: Matt LeBlanc
Hell does not even serve the full experience anymore, there are now basic components that you must bring yourself, probably at your expenses. Truly, they learned from airlines!
Luann: This was only cute when Calvin and Hobbes did it. Here, it’s just more evidence that Luann has some serious problems.
Dustin: This wasn’t cute when Funky Winkerbean did it, and it’s not cute here. You don’t get to tap into your inner child when you’re an embittered manchild who never grew up in the first place.
CS: This isn’t cute in a world that constantly retcons itself. Don’t make jokes that draw attention to your worst qualities as a writer. We saw Lisa die on camera, and in the 20 years since then it’s been a very open question how dead she actually is.
Pluggers: This is legitimately cute.
Is Luann covering her chest in the first panel to hide the fact that her high beams are on?
I don’t think anyone was trying to stop Heathcliff from delivering the dip. He’s just using the Super Bowl as an excuse for him to attack clusters of dogs and bewilder the local robo-alien community.
I guess we all need to rationalize our passions at some point. Good for him! Unless it’s a metaphor for racism, in which case, Bad for him!
Rex Morgan Mashup: What if the operation didn’t proceed as expected? [thanks to Ukranazi Stepan for the inspiration]
H&L: If I know my NFL players, Hi is cosplaying as Joe Montana, Lois is Wan’Dale Robinson, Thirsty is Paul Hornung, and the guy bringing in the Coca Cola (which Paul…er…Thirsty will have no use for unless someone else brought rum) is Terry Bradshaw. Random Colts Fan Blonde Woman won’t commit to any one player, but is the only guest to brandish an actual team logo.
@45 Scratchy Scrotum LXIX: Do you think Luann’s nipples are smart enough to know how to do that? I’m not so sure.
@46 Victor Von: I think Heathcliff was a homage to Family Circus’ wandering children, sans dashed lines.
@Scratchy Scrotum LXIX:
@Baja Gaijin:
Why are the two of you assuming the Evansii would give Luann such appendages in the first place? I have no doubt she’s as Ken-Doll smooth as all the men are.