Metapost: Spooky, scary COTW
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It’s Friday the 13th!!! The first of two such days in consecutive months! Hopefully this comment of the week will assuage your fears:
“[patronizingly] That’s an awful big word, Dad. You didn’t hurt yourself, did you? Are your teeth okay?” –Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
The hilarious runners up will similarly soothe you!
“I think we’re misinterpreting this. The alien and robot aren’t trying to stop Heathcliff, they’re just … there. In that empty field. Doin’ stuff.” –A Grave Mind
“Heathcliff, known punk provocateur, set this all up to elicit a lawsuit from the NFL. The ‘Super Bowl’ refers to the name of the dip recipe, something that is not covered by the NFL’s trademark. When the NFL has to pay damages and attorney’s fees, he will use the cash to buy new, novel HAM outfits and props.” –Philip
“Yes, that’s an awful big word, alright. Here are a couple more: POSTOPERATIVE PERITONITIS.” –Charterstoned
“Say what you will about the insanity of the coaches, but both high schools have pretty nice walls with their names on them.” –treetown
“‘There is only ice and time’? Au contraire, there also seems to be a large building, and Randy Parker, and another guy. You can’t fool me, Judge Parker narration box!” –matt w
“Sorry, I cannot believe that this scene is real. I’m guessing tomorrow we’re going to see Dr Jeff snort himself awake from an impromptu nap on a pile of old Auto Mechanic magazines. He phones Mary and immediately gets his call declined.” –pugfuggly
“[Wipes tear] Looks like someone misjudged the futures market.” –Hibbleton
“Please let there be such a thing as bird strikes for yachts, please let there be such a thing as bird strikes for yachts, please…” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
“The Camerons don’t strike me as typical bird owners. Don’t you have to care about another living being in order to do that? Ian and Toby always seemed like they were struggling with the effort to do that about each other.” –2+2=7
“‘URK … UGH … SIGH…‘ is the ‘Christ, what an asshole’ of Shoe. It could be Cosmo’s dialogue in every panel and the strip would probably improve.” –Navigator
“Is Dennis’s mother’s food so bland? I don’t want to make judgments about WASP cuisine, but they think that water is a fancy drink deserving a special straw!” –Ettorre
“I can’t blame Dennis here. Dinner appears to be a wooden cog, three Goldfish™ crackers, and three lima beans. And who set that table, anyway? Drinking glasses go on the RIGHT. This is just a disaster all around.” –Menace the Dennis
“Dick Tracy doesn’t really do catchphrases, but if he did, it would be something like ‘Hey, bad person! [PUNCH] Don’t. Do. Crime.’ or ‘Forget about crime, you deceitful crimer!’” –Hergen
“So my understanding is that humans haven’t invented anything, all of our technology comes from a cadre of archaeological entomologists making bank from what they’ve dug up from ancient ant homes.” –Tabby Lavalamp
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14 replies to “Metapost: Spooky, scary COTW”
Woot woot! Great work, Handsome Harry! And I made the float!!!
Thanks, Josh! Hail Harry Backstayge, our new heavyweight champion! Kudos to my fellow Floaters, The Gravemind sees matt w (I was kicking around one like this, glad I gave up, yours is WAY better), Menace the Dennis (brilliant!), and Hergen (I’m so stealing Dont. Do. Crime.). Y’all brighten the day, funny people!
Congratulations, Harry!
“Is Dad gonna put my appendix in Sarah? She gets everything!”
Congratulations!!
Also time for the Golden Otter Awards :3
(Baja told me he couldn’t do the shadows this week, so he entrusted me to do the Golden Otter awards in his place, as I will)
-The first award goes to……. (a group of adorable otters to the side are doing drumrolls on their little drums)
Hibbleton!
Marvin: And yet, taking Marvin to the vet instead of a pediatrician somehow tracks.
-Runners up is firstly Ettorre
Mary Worth: Dr Jeff is an experienced doctor, during his life he must have met thousands of people from all walks of life. I am very curious what he considers “the typical bird owner”
-And congrats to The Quiet Man
(you know I love a good Simpsons joke)
DT: Frank Grimes faked his own death to get out of Springfield and start a new life. Taking out a gunrunner like RayCzar was just warming up for his ultimate goal, to destroy the indestructible man: Homer Simpson!!
Lastly but not least, Menace the Dennis
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.
Congrats to everyone! And thanks for the encouragement for me to keep doing this guys, when I started the Golden Otter awards, I found it difficult to do, but it got easier the more I did it :3
Congratulations Harry, and congrats to the other float riders and Otters and future scrotes! w’s to Grave Mind, Hibbleton, and Menace the Dennis, and wow thanks @A Grave Mind!
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Anonymous
February 7th, 2026 at 5:12 am Reply
Family Circus– What kind of evangelical Christian household is allowing their children to read books about dinosaur sexual reproduction?
BigTed
February 8th, 2026 at 4:44 am Reply
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.
Noel
February 8th, 2026 at 5:50 am Reply
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!
richardf8
February 8th, 2026 at 5:28 am Reply
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!
Hibbleton
February 8th, 2026 at 5:37 am Reply
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.”
Liam
February 8th, 2026 at 4:36 am Reply
RMMD-Remember folks the only symptom that you have appendicitis is throwing up a weird colored liquid and no excruciating pain whatsoever.
Ukranazi Stepan
February 8th, 2026 at 5:42 am Reply
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!”
Charterstoned
February 8th, 2026 at 5:49 am Reply
RMMD: Your SPLEEN, you get to keep. But the surgeon vented it, just as a precaution.
Horace Broon
February 8th, 2026 at 9:35 am Reply
RMMD: There’s a point where “spleen” stops being a funny word, and I think we passed it a while ago.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
BigTed
February 9th, 2026 at 4:43 am Reply
Gil Thorp: ” ‘Goshen Stinksl’ is a weird message. I wonder what it means?” ” ‘Stinksl’ is the plural of ‘stinkl,’ which rhymes with ‘tinkle.’ They’re greeting us in the name of our famous Outhouse Row, which the town is actually very proud of.” “Oh, well in that case, Goshen Stinksl to you! Goshen Stinksl to everybody!”
Dan
February 9th, 2026 at 4:57 am Reply
I’m not really up to speed on the current stable of Gil Thorp antagonists, so I’m choosing to believe those are students. Possibly held back several years, or maybe Goshen has some sort of 21 Jump Street situation going on. Either way, you really stepped in it this time, Milford! They’ve got a guy in the sheriff’s office!
Weaselboy
February 9th, 2026 at 6:12 am Reply
GT – “This means war!” “Really? I thought it meant that our high school is fetid.”
Hibbleton
February 9th, 2026 at 4:39 am Reply
JP: Figures, Randy’s one friend in prison is the unibomber.
Gil Bates
February 10th, 2026 at 4:34 am Reply
MW: “Are you going to wear that sexy lingerie I bought you for Christmas?” “Depends…”
Charterstoned
February 10th, 2026 at 4:34 am Reply
MW: Nothing says “middle-aged guy who needs to show off his wealth” than a guy who uses a vintage Corvette to hold his garbage can.
Bob Tice
February 10th, 2026 at 4:49 am Reply
MW:
Okay, so it’s great that Dr. Jeff has the cool old Corvette and everything, but you know how Oscar Mayer has the “Wienermobile”? – Mary should be driven everywhere in a “Muffinmobile.”
Lauralot
February 10th, 2026 at 5:07 am Reply
MW: Why, this car is melodramatic/ It’s sychophantic/ It’s diplomatic/ Why, it’s Greased Meddlin’!
Professor Well Actually
February 10th, 2026 at 5:14 am Reply
MW: I’m thinking that if Mary was a heterosexual woman with a sex drive approaching normal she wouldn’t be able to keep her hands off that body. That looks like a pose for a calendar. There’s no way that nurses would not be throwing themselves at him.
Lord Flatulence
February 10th, 2026 at 5:18 am Reply
MW: “You’ll have to pick me up, Mary. My car broke down.”
Ken
February 10th, 2026 at 5:20 am Reply
MW: I’m still unclear what Mary did during the “parrot incident”. Possibly she’ll make up something, or maybe it’s finally time for her to omit she’s no longer “Mary the Meddler” but “Mary the Passive Observer”.
Tabby Lavalamp
February 10th, 2026 at 5:59 am Reply
Mary Worth: Meeting the deadline since 1938.
Ettorre
February 10th, 2026 at 6:24 am Reply
We always wondered, “Does Dr Jeff make love or does Dr Jeff fuck? Today we learned the answer: neither, because he insists on wasting his efforts on Mary Worth”
Weaselboy
February 10th, 2026 at 6:25 am Reply
MW – “I’ll pick you up at 5:00. Also, they sent me the wrong part for my Corvette, so you’re going to have to stick your head out the passenger side and navigate.”
Professor Well Actually
February 10th, 2026 at 6:38 am Reply
MW: Mary needs surgery to pry her knees apart. Call in Rex Morgan.
TheDiva
February 10th, 2026 at 6:53 am Reply
MW: For someone whose entire vibe screams mid-life crisis–the SS Compensation, the sporty convertible, the hair that screams “Just for Men Touch of Grey package model”–Jeff is pretty adamant on maintaining his relationship with Mary rather than hooking up with a twenty-something wellness influencer.
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Hibbleton
February 11th, 2026 at 4:46 am Reply
FC: After PJ demands a food taster, Thel gets in his face.
“How many times do I have to tell you Dead Grandpa wasn’t poisoned!”
Chance
February 11th, 2026 at 4:34 am Reply
It looks like Mary Worth has settled into the Parrot Groove and has no intention of moving. It’s all callbacks to the Parrot Storyline now until the heat death of the universe, with increasingly tenuous segues. A strip circa 2039: “You know, Wilbur, the way you entered through the doorway just now reminds me of the time a parrot flew into Toby’s room…”
CanuckDownSouth
February 11th, 2026 at 5:27 am Reply
MW No, the one constant is that you you won’t stop going on and on about the %^^$#ing PARROTS!
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
February 11th, 2026 at 5:24 am Reply
Crock: Poor, dumb Schmeese. If he really wanted to avoid accountability, he shouldn’t have gotten involved in child labor — he should have gotten involved with a bazillionaire international child sex trafficker.
Unchecked capitalism
February 11th, 2026 at 5:00 am Reply
Wake up from their nap would have been funnier and less disturbing
Scratchy’s Scrotums of the Week
Professor Well Actually
February 13th, 2026 at 6:02 am Reply
MW: Jeff has been dating Mary for years and he hasn’t been able to do so much as slip her a little tongue. Once a month he takes her on a a sunset cruise and dinner at the Bum Boat. Could it be Jeff is set in his ways?
The Quiet Man
February 13th, 2026 at 6:20 am Reply
MW: ‘Speaking of being set in their ways, get your #$&@ing hand off my shoulder, *Jeff*…’
CanuckDownSouth
February 13th, 2026 at 5:22 am Reply
MW Given his “wait for Mary to acknowledge his existence > boat cruise > Bum Boat > allude to anything further than hand-holding and be brushed off” routine, maybe Dr Jeff shouldn’t be catty about who is “set in their ways”
FC There is! This one is a fantasy story where, with no sugar or salt and the most exciting ingredient being dehydrated tofu, the contents are delicious!
Hibbleton
February 13th, 2026 at 6:13 am Reply
FC: A read downer today. Jeffy’s question reminds Thel that it’s aways the same old story.
JP: “We have only each other in this prison, Randolph, each other and time.” –One of the sweeter St. Valentine’s day comic strip hookups I’ve seen this year.
Special Scrotal Awards to the Best No. 69 and Beyond of the Week
69. Melissa Anne Jones
February 9th, 2026 at 7:16 am Reply
RMMD: Is Johnny relieved or disappointed? Did he want to have a big scar to show off to his classmates, like Madeline in Ludwig Bemelmans’s book?
69. I was told there would be no permanent record.
February 10th, 2026 at 7:48 am Reply
No matter how few clothes I wear or how cool my car is. Anytime I mention eating at the Bum she loses all interest.
69. Ettorre
February 11th, 2026 at 7:37 am Reply
Dr Jeff is an experienced doctor, during his life he must have met thousands of people from all walks of life. I am very curious what he considers “the typical bird owner”
It was a short balls week. Sorry to those I missed. I’ll try to catch you next week.
Beatup Bailey: Guess the writers forgot that Rocky was named after Rock and Roll, not Ballboa.
Six Chex /Snuffy Smith : Is today national potato day?
Thanks Josh, Scratchy and… Otter?