Animal spirits
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 3/4/26
Yeah, it is a good thing they aren’t playing for money! Imagine if the Smifs had learned that Sukey, a being that they have long treated as a beast and a possession that does manual labor at their bidding, were intelligent enough to understand the concept of the exchange value of currency — and, moreover, had somehow already acquired possession of enough of it to wager. The implications would be truly horrific.
Mother Goose and Grimm, 3/4/26
After some reflection, I’m OK with an entire Mother Goose and Grimm strip that consists of a glimpse into the internal monologue of a character we’ve never seen before as he dances with Mother Goose. What’s unsettling me is that he’s a human and none of said monologue includes reflection on the fact that he’s dancing with a human-sized bird. Do you think he already mentally covered that ground before we got here? Do you think he has a plan for when Ma Goose’s person-sized bird boyfriend shows up, and tries to peck him to death or swat at him with his powerful wings?
Mary Worth, 3/4/26
Ah, man, I guess it’s time to start the “blame game” for why our boy Harvey has gotten himself catfished. I think we can all agree that it’s probably a woman’s fault, and “Trixie”’s puppeteer isn’t even female, so I guess the problem is … Harvey’s daughter, for living a fun go-go single life in fast-paced Goleta and not spending her every waking moment monitoring his screen time? Enh, that’ll do.
72 replies to “Animal spirits”
MW: Goleta is the Pottersville to Charterstone’s Bedford falls.
The joke is that Snuffy is playing horseshoes with a… mule? When the strip has a long-established horse character? Barney Google and Snuffy Smith team, do you take us for fools?
BG&SS:
“Why’s everyone always laughin’ in this strip, None’a?– ain’t a danged thing here that’s ever funny!”
I have an idea for the next Mary Worth arc. It’s about a comic strip that invents two brand-new characters and tries to gaslight its readers into thinking that the main characters have known them for years.
MW:
“The last time I said ‘Go, Lita,’ Mary, I was shouting encouragement to her as she played guitar on one of The Runaways’ hits!”
MG and G:
“What’s your name, anyway, dear?”
“Tara. Tara Dachtel.”
MW: Toby’s already looking to bail on this whole story; “Dinner? Uh, I gotta wash my parrots..I mean hair.”
BG&SS: The mule can only ‘throw’ the shoes nailed to its feet.
[After four ringers] What are you gonna do now? You thumbless beast.” Laughs Snuffy.
MW: From the looks on their faces, not even Mary and Toby are buying this bullshit story line.
MG&G: What’s that thing hanging on the wall? A spare bird perch? Dancing human man is either in way over his head or has a kink I don’t want to think about.
I like the absurd chin that the unnamed man in today’s MG&G grows in the second panel.
What is the point of “Santa Royale” instead of “Santa Barbara” if they’re just going to add real towns like Goleta?
BGSS: This strip is a lot less wacky when you remember that “money” in Hootin Hollar is probably, like, acorns or something?
MGG: All I can think of when I see this scene is the famous Kids in the Hall Chicken Lady sketch, which just makes me imagine Mother Goose muttering “Gotta get laid, gotta get laid…” at the end of each and every strip.
MW: Goleta? Isn’t that where young girls are kidnapped? Hmm, something is afoot…
MW- Having been in the traffic between Goleta and Santa Barbara numerous times, I don’t blame his daughter at all.
MW (over muffins in Goleta) “What do you mean, I ‘should’ be keeping a closer eye on my dad’s internet activity? He keeps on asking me for disgusting tips about dating apps – specifically how to attract women younger than I am! I told him I’ll talk or visit if he can stay off the subject and he hasn’t called back for months.”
Wrecks Moregone:
Doug: “We always have rooms available. Who do you suppose wants to stay overnight in this dump?”
___________________________________________
What name will Lorna sign in the register, do you suppose? Sophia Loren? Theda Barra? Gina Lollobrigida?
___________________________________________
“Do we have *any* rooms available? All of them are available! Oh, wait I forgot Mud.”
“Mud?”
“One room is occupied by Mud.”
“What? You mean the roof leaks? I’m not staying here another minute!”
Wary Morth:
(Thought balloons)
Mary: “Which means that I must go and meddle Sharon into moving here right away!”
Toby (looks longingly at the cocktail table): “When will the old hag set off for Goleta so I can get properly sloshed?”
Murky Tail:
“Solar Power, the pro wrestler? Why is he fighting Ted Crass, and when? Are tickets available online? I want to watch!”
@Ukranazi Stepan: I’m also reading “fun vintage look” as “hasn’t been renovated since 1972.” Heaven knows when they last bought new sheets…
HtH: RIP Lucky Eddie, pulverized into fetid, steaming lump of goo, not unlike the meals he used to prepare for his fellow Vikings.
MW: Not just oceans apart, Mary, but world’s apart! Goleta, California, is a real city in the real world, and Sharon has chosen to live there, away from the wholly imaginary Santa Royale, its dysfunctional denizens, and her thoroughly deluded dad. Leave her alone!
@pugfuggly: I remember that poster!
Mother Goose and Grimm: There’s so much going on here I can’t begin to figure it out. Why is he smiling while she’s grimacing? Why does she then smile while he grimaces? And are those pool cues in the background? I can accept that they both lost a bet on a pool match. The world of Mother Goose And Grimm is one where there are no winners.
Mary Worth: Ah, I see we’ve reached the “Daughters should call their lonely, elderly fathers more often” trope, the highlight of any Mary Worth narrative year. (The low is when said father is Wilbur.)
@Spunky The Wonder Squid: I think the “pool cues” are ballet barres, suggesting Mother Goose is taking a dance class, which opens up more questions than were she simply dancing.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith: Eh, I think Lukey’s wallet is safe. Those stakes are barely a single Snuffy apart, maybe four from where she’s kicking. Set them at the regulation 13.3 Snuffies, and Sukey won’t do any better than any other broken-down ass in this strip. Call me back when she can beat the buddies at cornhole!
BG&SS – Ooo Sukey Sukey Sukey Sukey Sooo….
MG&G – Save the last dance for the custodian….
MW – Knock-Knock. Who’s there? Goleta. Goleta who? Goleta that old asshole squander my inheritance on some phoney catfish mail order bride scheme….
Adios Amigos, DJ.
@InvasionOfTheZIM: Her dancing is so bad, it’s turned him into an Easter Island moai!
And also Mary Worth: If you were really hardcore, you’d bring Maggie and Hopey up to visit from Hoppers.
MW: Why doesn’t Mary just call in the woman who lectured us all on Internet safety after Toby fell for a phishing email and again when Estelle was catfished? No, wait. Let me guess. It’s because then she wouldn’t have the opportunity to meddle in familial relationships, isn’t it?
Mary Worth Mashups: Let’s add a panel to see what’s going on in Goleta…
Goleta? I lived in Goleta! I used to deliver pizzas in Goleta! Nothing good happens in Goleta.
RMMD:
“Hey — do y’have a room available?”
“So why wouldn’t you call first to find out?”
“Well, this is a way of increasing the burgeoning dramatic tension.”
Mother Goose and Grimm: I guess they’re in a dance studio? Maybe one of those dance studios in deep space, where only the void between the stars is visible outside every window?
Regardless, take off your hat, Charlie. Euclidean geometry may not exist in this realm, but good manners sure do!
MARY WORTH: To be fair, Toby is speaking from experience as a woman who needs help vetting new lovers (he last one was a parrot, for god’s sake!)
MARY WORTH (2): Pimping your elderly father out is the height of traditional family values. What is wrong with Sharon?
@Baja Gaijin:
Eeeeee ¡qlunq! What the hell is that thing?
It just occurred to me that the worlds of Mother Goose and Grimm, Slylock Fox, and Pluggers could be the result of furry scientists run amok, and looking at the face of Goose’s dance partner, it’s not everything it was cracked up to be. Dreams of dating Disney’s Robin Hood or Maid Marion died a swift death.
***
Mary’s meddle sense is tingling! Wonderful! It’s been a while since we’ve had a good meddle! Lately it’s just been her lending an ear after the fact or encouraging a young woman’s delusions! Meddle away, Mary! Meddle away!
@Bob Tice: The Glenwood is so committed to its retro vibe that they not only don’t have any online bookings, they don’t have a webpage! The only way to find out their phone number is to get your hands on the town’s White Pages – and I mean that literally, it’s only published in the increasingly-rare hardcopy phone books!
@Bob Tice:
Bold of you to imagine Doug has a website, or online listings, or anything else more modern than, say, 1982.
MG&G: Hey Bub, You try doing the Lindy Hop with a large goose egg ready to pop out your cloaca.
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV: Wait till Mary finds out that “Trixie” is short for Beatríz, i.e., Beatríz “Penny Century” García! Since H.R. Costigan passed, she’s been in need of a new sugar daddy!
RMMD-Most of the guests at the Glenwood Motel are long term residents.
FC-If you can’t find what country to send him back to your only other option is to put him down.
Marvin-By Friday I’m sure Marvin’s Dad’ll be threatening to burn that place down to the ground.
MW-Mary smells a challenge. Getting H@rv3y and his daughter back together.
rmmd- hi my name is mud miss but you can call me chubby chaser
Toby thinks ‘”Maybe if I look to the right, Mary won’t know that I am secretly loving this!”‘ and Mary thinks, ‘”Maybe if I look to the left, Toby won’t know that I’m secretly loving this!”‘
Luann-Such fascinating interviews. Luann’s paper is going to be a real page turner.
BG&SS: To quote Elviney, “!”
6 Chix Poutine is French Canadian, not French, and a French Canadian is no more likely to wear a beret than….well, than a Frenchman who isn’t an extra in a movie about the 1940s.
Dustin Kid, you’re in Gen Alpha, the subject of constant media discussion for at least the last year.
REX MORGAN M.D.: Lorna: “The motel’s got a fun vintage look. And is that the warm smell of colitas rising up through the air? This place is going to be alright!”
MW: As the event draws to a close and everyone drifts away from the Charterstone pool party, Carlos Alora takes a break from supervising his basement call center to clean up the food table.
@Baja Gaijin: Nice, I see you are copying the melting face look from Gil Thorp.
DT: This prison break so far is breaking down with everyone off getting whips, settling scores and not keeping their eye on the prize. Or as Mumbles would say “Yz’nthprz”
Flash: Ming clearly inspired the DeBeer’s diamonds are forever campaign
JP: It happened so fast, I missed it. April stopped the truck, and Bogdan jiggled something, tightened something or reconnected something without any tools, not even an Allen wrench and now they are back driving across a barren plain where their tire tracks make them simple to track in the snow.
MW: In the second frame, do Toby and MW have the same eyes but flipped horizontally? If so, another time saving measure!
Phantom: Wait, so the Jungle Patrol could just swoop in and topple General Chump like that?
RMMD: Is she Autumn/Summer’s cousin? If she wanted to fade away, sell her mansion, take her millions and go back to her original pre-Starr name.
MG&:G I’m just going to assume Ma Goose and–Larry? I’m thinking he looks like a Larry–were the last two people without partners in their ballroom dance class, because the only other explanation is they’re on a date, and I’m not willing to admit that possibility.
MW: To be fair, Sharon probably met Mary once and figured her father would be so closely monitored she wouldn’t need to step in.
@TK: Oooh, maybe Toby is going to challenge Mary for the Chief Meddler role. I think she’d be crushed — an
oldseasoned campaigner like Mary has a bag full of tricks that Toby won’t see coming.MG&G: Only one person can be happy at a time in the Grimmiverse. As soon as Mother Goose cracks a smile, her dance partner collapses into misery. And grows a goiter, apparently.
@treetown: Further evidence that Bogdan will turn out to be the head of the criminal organization that was running the prison, in a shocking twist that no-one saw coming. Well, other than the three commenters who predicted it here two weeks ago, obviously.
LUANN: Gee, Luann discovered that if you ask different people a question about their life choices you’ll get (spoiler alert!) different answers! Wow, those Sesame Street episodes our gal’s been watching really are paying off in spades!
MW – “It’s too bad his daughter doesn’t live around here. He really needs to be put in a home.”
FC: “Not sure, but I know he’s Schengen.” Replies Thel. Billy puts away his hypo containing a lethal dose of phenobarbital.
MG&G – With brain ejaculations like that, it’s a good thing this guy has opted for the hat with the reservoir tip.
MW – There’s more to his love interest than meets the eye. Speaking of meeting the eye, if Mary and Toby can just hold those poses for another ten minutes they’ll set a new personal record for avoiding eye contact.
@TomD: I’m just grateful that by using the name “Goleta”, the Mary Worth team avoids further butchering of the Spanish language as they did by naming the strip’s location “Santa Royale.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“Drop the silver flakes here”
“Yes, sir”
“Who hired us to do this?”
“Some rich wacko. Regular snow isn’t good enough for him”
“Ah, much better!”
@Ken: Foreshadowing – signs of quality literature!
MG&G: To explain the chin growth in Panel 2… that’s a pelican beak.
He knew the airborne virus would affect him eventually, the matter was just “when?”
LUANN: Panel #1: By the way that isn’t a summary. That’s the totality of Luann’s college-appropriate essay.
C’shaft: Look, I get it. It’s the twenty-first century, lots of people live together and even have children before they decide to wed and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But was there ever a reason were were supposed to think Max and Hannah weren’t married already?
DT: That last panel has all the makings of a great reaction meme. Who hasn’t gone on social media and thought, “Idtz. S’rndedbyidtz”?
Dustin: Kid, you’re in Dustin. No matter what your age you’re surrounded by Boomer energy.
GT: You mean he isn’t? I mean, he got the school board to roll over for him just because he threatened to quit…
Luann: 1.) Not happening. 2.) She’d need to find some first. 3.) This strip defines “normal” as “as boring and personality-free as possible,” so she’s ahead of the game there.
Phantom: “….at your court marshal.”
RMMD: You say “fun vintage look,” I say “hasn’t been updated since the Nixon administration.”
@TheDiva: Or maybe Mother Goose and Larry were assigned to each other by the dance instructor. If I were running a dance class and all the other participants looked like typical students, I too would probably pair off the giant goose with the guy who never takes off his trucker cap.
@TomD: if I were Santa Barbara, I’d sue Mary Worth. It would affect property values if people thought the ol’ biddies there were that meddling.
@TheDiva:
On Crankshaft : I hope one (or more) of these three things happen :
1) Pam doesn’t give a single shit about the wedding; Hannah spent three whole days demonising her as a bridezilla-by-proxy, and Pam’s reaction is “that’s nice. If I’m free on that day I’ll probably attend”
2) *JEFF* is the one that goes full bridezilla (“We have to have to unite both your comic book collections! And your wedding vows can be Stan Lee quotes! And, instead of formal wear, everyone’s dressed as superheroes!”)
3) Crankshaft gets angry that the two were living in sin under HIS roof and tosses the interloper out, only for a horrified Jeff&Pam to tell him ” *MAX* is your GRANDSON! *HANNAH* IS YOUR IN-LAW!” and Cranky goes ” Hannah? Huh, you mean that’s not Mindy?”
MG&G: Her dancing partner is doomed to becoming a minor figure in a Neo-Greek mythology. After a torrid night of hot feathery love, she will bear him a son who will make Adonis look like a diseased slug by comparison. The son’s overpowering appeal to the opposite sex will provoke a long war between rival women armies. The poetic saga that will be written centuries later will leave out a a critical element – the father having to endure his friends and relatives asking, “You did WHAT with a goose?”
@2+2=7: The “a few emails equals a composition course if you’re an athlete” scandal-plagued UNC instructors from years ago wouldn’t accept this, but Miss Inner beauty will get an A
@CanuckDownSouth: “Since his friend Mr. Epstein went away, it’s been one text after another from Dad”.
I misread colitas as coitus. It works either way.
Equines in the Snuffyverse all have big, round, soft feet unlike the hard keratinous hooves in our world.
So it’s really quite disturbing to find that they still get metal shoes nailed onto them – particularly if the work is as amateurish as seems to be the case here.
BG&SS: Wouldn’t matter if they were playing for money. The only currency they have in Hooten Holler is company scrip issued by the coal mine that closed down 50 years ago or what was issued by the Confederacy.
RMMD: Lady, we’re so vintage we require the hookers to wear lime green hot pants and halters and the drug dealers purple tiger stripe pimp suits.