Unpleasant whimsy
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Rex Morgan, M.D., 6/10/26
You know, maybe I’m sheltered, but I think that interpersonal violence happens a lot more often in stories than it does in real life, because some fisticuffs are fun to read about and/or watch but most people don’t actually want to engage in them, no matter how mad they are. I think it’s more common that confrontations sort of peter out, like with one guy being like “Uh, yeah, uh, I’m gonna go now” and the other guy glowering and being like “Going? You’re going? That’s good! That’s what you should do!” and then nothing else comes of it. I’m not saying Rex Morgan, M.D. is realistic — there are obviously way more roots country enjoyers per capita in Glenwood than any normal town could support, or endure — but this bit makes sense.
Daddy Daze, 6/10/26
Look, man, if you spend your whole day at home with a pre-verbal infant, and maintain your sanity by projecting semantic meaning onto his babble and stringing together whole made-up conversations out of it, I’m certainly not going to judge you. I do the same thing with my cats! It’s fine and normal. What’s not fine and normal is getting into scat stuff about your boss as you riff. It’s a good thing this kid can’t understand anything yet or this would be pretty scarring!
60 replies to “Unpleasant whimsy”
MW: Is Dawn’s “dear friend” Jared? If so, I legitimately cannot tell if Moy is retconning or if she genuinely believes that going dancing with a platonic friend and checking out a cute stranger at a zoo counts as cheating.
RMMD: For a second there, I was worried the fun might start.
“Getting into scat stuff as you riff.”
A pleasing and melodious entertainment in 1926. An unpleasant and undignified one in 2026.
“Do you mean the controlling being that I’m beholden to in an infinite number of ways? The Forge of the Keys and the Opener of the Ways? The Igniter and Devourer of Stars? The Alpha, Omega, and [infrasonic scream]? The Marrow in my Bones and the Beat of my Heart?”
“Ba.”
“Oh, well, it is not a man, it is something both beyond and beneath humanity. It’s also not toilet trained.”
@Lauralot: Given how Dawn is now claiming that Hugo cheated on her and that it really bothered her all along, I’d say that she’s creating more revisionist history than then a Texas elementary school textbook.
RMMD:
“To borrow a line from fellow musical artists, pal, ‘You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.’ ”
THUMP WHOMP SMASH
‘Now sing me a line from ‘I Go to Pieces,’ pal.”
MW: ‘Wait, what was that last bit again?’
CS: Okay, so Batiuk pulled the ol’ bait and switch on us. What *devastating* revelation could come from Lillian discovering the sister and beau she ruined the lives of once danced at a venue Larry’s dad played at? Was he a fake bandleader who couldn’t read a note? Did he have a wife who happened to look like Liza Minelli who he ruined the life of? Was he… an accordion player?!?!
JP: ‘I’m so happy for you!’ she said through gritted teeth while thinking ‘I wonder if CIApril still has an aversion to wetwork…’
RMMD: Grrr, this is my angry pissy face! Are you properly terrified?
Luann: I’m sorry, but what camp has such huge cabins for their underpaid staff? That place looks like it stretches on to near infinity!
GT: If the denizens of Milford are all you got, you got screwed.
GT: I’m not one to complain (too much) about the quality of art in this strip—I mean, I remember what it was like when Frank McLaughlin was drawing not a strip about sports but a strip about a kabuki play about sports—but is there a reason everyone in Milford is so jowly now? Is there something causing this sudden outbreak of cherubism?
Pluggers: At first I thought this was your standard “women be late” joke, but then I realized that from the phrasing “he’ll always wonder what’s taking her so long” the real joke is “men be impatient,” so that’s progress I guess.
DD: On the flip side, the father’s imaginative comebacks are doing untold damage to the baby’s language development. The baby makes a best effort at “want food” and gets a three-minute soliloquy on the funk-rock genre. The baby tries again and the father talks about circus acrobats. It won’t be long before the kid gives up on language as a bad idea.
Daddy Daze:
I think that it’s great that Daddy is fluent in Bingcrosbyese and can understand what his kid is trying to say.
MARY WORTH: I know that a lot of people here have criticized Tommy in this story for being the dumbest dumbass who ever dumbed, but I’d say our boy is actually pretty smart. After all, if this infodump of (revisionist) history is to go by, Tommy certainly has not been wasting his precious time reading Mary Worth comics. Who’s stupid now?!
RMMD:
“Get out of here — and take your missing pocket pen and shirt pocket with you!”
Crankshaft – Lately, all I can see is the potato noses on these characters. Loathsome Lillian has one!
The loathsome hag smugly listens to Dinkle blathering about his father. She remembers that letter to Dinkle Pere from Rockefeller Center and how he never saw it. Another life ruined. It warms her loathsome heart.
FC – Jeffy is a moron, #5432.
Mary Worth – I will forgive this half assed story if Brandy suddenly storms up to Tommy, slaps him, and screams, “You were supposed to pick me up at the airport! Where the fuck were you? I waited for an hour and then had to pay $50 for a taxi!”
RMMD: Lonnie, you’ve been promising to leave since (checks) May 19. It is now June 10. I’m thinking maybe you want to get punched.
DD: If you’re working from home and still wear a collared shirt with a tie, you’re doing it wrong.
RMMD:
Separated at birth? — Lonnie and a bespectacled Sonny Bono?
@2+2=7: Is the cheater Hugo? I thought it was Dr. What’s His Name.
DT: Why meet again at the SAME hideout? Soly Tare could set up a dummy location; tip the cops who will dispose of Beedy and Double Up. Dick Tracy would be so amped up to get these two and complete the hat trick of capturing the escapees that the rest of heisters and their loot are long gone.
RMMD: Just let it go Mud. You’re singer not a fighter, err then again.
JP: I guess the magic of the Deus Ex Norway has finally run out.
@Bob Tice: 11- Gimme three steps. Gimme three steps, Mister!
@The Quiet Man:
On Crankshaft : Eugene’s mementos included sheet music that seemed to be of Larry Dinkle’s composition. So, the direction I’m guessing this story is going is :
“Oh woe, my poor father, who never knew national fame, and had to unjustly be content with merely being a popular music act that played all the major ballrooms of his home state. He deserved more! … What’s that!? You have found his secret, long-lost musical masterpiece! Then, I will use my influence as band director to have it played EVERYWHERE, so that my father will receive the constant national attention he was so unfairly denied in life!”
@The Quiet Man: I think the only “devastating revelation” of this Crankshaft arc will be by the readers, when they realize they are going to suffer through three weeks of a minor character reminiscing about things that happened sixty-plus years ago to a character that’s never seen before. All while two other characters look on with expressions more appropriate to the disciples listening to Jesus.
MW: The first rule for getting ahead in the coffee industry is spelling it correctly.
Unpleasant Whimsey is the name of my bubblegrunge band.
@Lauralot: Even the writers can’t be arsed to keep track of whatever or whoever Dawn is up to.
Crankshaft: “A lot more at the bottom…”
Now, dont be so mopey-
(Sees dance marathon couple right out of “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”)-
-As you were.
SlyFx: Now’s your chance, Braniac! “They all looked the same. I couldn’t risk saving even one evil robot!” Just like we practiced.
BG&SS: Jughaid was accepting to start small, but he won’t aiming this small. The Theater Department didn’t need one more tree?
At this point, Lonnie should go full-metal passive aggressive, and stick around.
“Hey, guys, how’s stuff? Anybody wanna buy any of the shit I guess I sell? Nah, nah, I’m still not a member of Steely Dan.”
CS: Wait a second, Dinkle. Wasn’t it the Stardust Ballroom yesterday but now it’s Starlight? Either way it’s wrong. As I said yesterday it was simply called the Grand Ballroom. I ought to know, I was in it several times when Chippewa Lake was a working amusement park.
CS: Don’t feel so bad for your father, Dinkle. Considering how hard it is for a musician to even earn a living just getting regular paying gigs is quite an accomplishment.
reposting my yesterthread after actually getting distracted by some work…
RMMD “Good idea – now leave before I scowl some more! No, I’m not going to even threaten you with a fist – do you know how hard those are to draw??” Sheesh, the only way this confrontation could be *more* anticlimactic would be if Mud thanked the guy for accidentally saving the restaurant
Daddy Daze-Who runs Bartertown?
Luann-Luann looks like a bottom bunk to me.
MW-“Then there was the time with Enrico…”
MW-Cheated on a friend? Were you two dating at the time?
MW: Props to June Brigman in panel 2 for making Dawn look like Wilbur. The loser force strong in that one.
Luann: Lifted from yesterday’s comments posted this AM, I just wanted to point out that Zany Sassy Latina Lady’s head in panel 2 was cut, pasted, and reversed from Monday’s panel 3.
I really detest the way the Evanses write their nonwhite characters. One magical Negro after another (in this case perhaps a magical Latina?) and it’s offensive as fuck.
I mean, I get that they’re all pretty shallow and flat characters in this strip, but jeez louise. Even the people who wrote “Song of the South” are cringing.
“Good idea. Checkout time is noon and, as God is my witness, I will charge you for another night’s stay at exactly 12:01. Do you need a receipt?”
REX MORGAN M.D.: You know, there was a Beverly Hills 90210 where Kelly was shot in a drive-by and it made her boyfriend, Brandon, really distraught about the whole thing. Fortunately, much like various other season 8 plotlines it wrapped itself up in the most lazy, half-assed way possible and the shooter got himself killed in an unrelated incident. The pay off was worth it though (at least for camp aficionados) to see Brandon lean over the guy’s corpse at the morgue while snarling menacingly, like he’s some tough bad-ass for threatening a dead guy.
What does that have to do with this Rex Morgan M.D., strip, where Mud angrily snarls at his now-despondent rival, (who was already soundly defeated 14 scenes earlier and was already planning to check out of the motel in any case) to get out? Oh…nothing, just making conversation (whistles inconspicuously and then walks away….)
@CanuckDownSouth: Actually, I’d kind of like it if Mud had said “And thanks for accidentally saving the diner!” It would be a semi-clever parting remark, grinding the guy’s face in the failure of his blackmail scheme. Of course, RMMD can’t even manage semi-clever.
LUANN: “Welcome to Creativity Cabin”??? Yes, this is absolutely how college-age camp staffers would talk in 2026. I feel so, um, with-it, watching this scene. And noting that the cabin is much bigger than any cabin at the camp where I worked. It looks bigger than the dining hall. How much does a stay here cost, I wonder.
RMMD: Glasses Guy’s expression says less “I’m afraid of getting my teeth punched in by Mud Mountain Murphy” and more “*sigh* Same old story, another guy picking a fight with me, unaware that this confrontation will make me transform into the Hulk yet again”.
Good to see after the Sun Asian stereotype character was quickly removed that Evans is doing better writing ethnic characters. Those apostrophes where the Gs should go show a deep understanding of who this woman is.
CS: why is Crankshaft hanging around? Does Batiuk have some kind of quota?
If you tell people to do things they’re already doing, you’ll get your way every time. This pearl of wisdom comes from Augustus Mirakle’s latest book, Think And Grow Obnoxious. It’s selling even better than Frustrating Dad Poor Dad and almost as well as How to Annoy Friends and Annoy People.
Look, dude, just replace that sad green shirt with a fun bowling shirt, grow that facial hair into a fine handlebar moustache, and style that dorky ‘do into a grand pompadour and this town will forgive you anything. That, or ask Mud how he turned his life around and enjoy life in a con man’s accidental cult.
Luann-“Oh no. I share a room all the time with a woman. This’ll be the first time when I’m not used as a pillow.”
Rex Morgan: This guy doesn’t understand how being a paparazzo works at all! It’s when you infuriate a minor celebrity enough that he rages and threatens you, that’s when should be taping — that’s the good stuff! I bet TMZ will pay more for footage of a small-time country singer threatening to punch a dude’s lights out than a slightly more famous actress slinging pancakes. (And don’t worry about ruining his career by publicizing his anger issues — there’s nothing better for a country star’s reputation than being seen as an “outlaw” like Waylon and Hank and Merle. I mean, the wide-collared red shirt won’t help, but that’s for his stylist to figure out.)
Rex Morgan, MD:
“Excuse me” and “you’re excused” generally mean “I’m leaving” and “You can leave”, respectively, so this conversation is essentially “I’m leaving now.” “You can’t leave.” “I’m leaving now.” “Okay.” Never mind that, though, because thanks to the full frontal portrait of Murphy in the final panel there, I’m wondering if he isn’t actually a time-traveling William T. Riker on a crucial mission to preserve the timeline. Becoming a roots country star who once pretended to shit himself onstage is vital to to the future existence of the Federation!
@Hergen: oooooooooo
DADDY DAZE: Little Angus is obviously part of the Poo-geoisie!
@Ukulele Ike: But all the AI chatbots recommend this place!
Daddy Daze – “How do I feel about ‘working for the man’ every night and day? Well, let me put it this way: I never lost one minute of sleepin’ worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been. No, all my lost sleep was due to you, kid.”
Don Abundio, translated:
“I need one of those candy glass bottles they use in movies!”
“If I hit something fragile with this bottle there must be no chance of any damage”
“What do you suppose he wanted that for?”
Daddy Daze: “How do I feel about ‘Working for the Man?’ Well, it’s not my favorite Orbison song, but it’s a nice change of pace from ‘Pretty Woman!'”
RMMD-“This here is a sundown town.”
MW: The beautifully-lettered “COFFFE” sign reminds me of the Snickers ad where the grounds keeper lovingly paints “CHEFS” in the KC endzone.
Crankshaft – Crankshaft, Loathsome Lillian, and Harry Dinkle are in the same place, standing next to each other. Now would be a good time. Come on, giant meteor!
JP – The only thing we saw was the brouhaha at the coffee shop. The story never got into whatever the Boobsey Twins were doing in their internships – in fact, it was never clear exactly what this multi million dollar charity does. However, I’m sure that Reena will do an outstanding job helping poverty stricken Norwegians.
@Joe Blevins: How dare you impinge upon the slow-as-molasses pacing of Rex Morgan M.D. (which is to remind people that this go-nowhere segment of the story has only been going-on in universe for like six hours at most. Yep they were able to have Lorna/Mae Mae out herself publicly, blast it on Hector’s seeming expensive social media channels, humiliate Lonnie, call Hector’s got-nothing-better-to-do peeps on extremely short-notice to help out immediately, gather a large crowd in to dine there within like 30 minutes of the announcement, serve all of them despite extremely lengthy waits and lackadaisical customers causally bugging wait staff to sign their shit, engaging in a lengthy “aren’t we proud of ourselves” post-shift back-patting session, complain endlessly, at foot-fetish levels, about sore feet and meander on to their motel rooms for nappy time all within the span of a morning. And manage to move the plot a fraction of a micron due to all of those compressed events somehow taking, like, three months to tell in real time
RMMD: Better not show Josh some of the reality shows… “Neighbourhood Wars” or “Road Wars” or “Customer Wars” “Christmas Wars” or “Parent Wars”
Lots of fisticuffs going off all the time.
But people prefer watching fights on TV than engaging in them, which is probably good for the ratings.
Rex Morgan translated:
“I’ll be going”
“Not you’re not…”
“I’ll be going”
“You’d better”
LUANN: So…we supposed to ignore that the creators quickly realized that dumb little Luann was never going to be smart or motivated enough to attend “real college”, and that they’d have to improvise if they wanted Luann to have her own “dorm drama” storylines, yes?
@Ken: More than 60+ years ago. 85+ years ago, because this photo (and every plot point in this dumb story) is pre-World War II.
CS: to he dancer is no mbered. Is this a dancing competition or is he an escapee of Twinkletoes Penitentiary?
CURTIS: Kids– a few are ok, if limited in number and place
6CX: Art– a few are good, if limited edition in number and space
PHANTOM: Proving yet again it’s dangerous to stereotype blondes
@I speak Jive: If a rapidly-expanding black hole in Ed Crankshaft’s backyard didn’t put any of these old bastards out of our misery, this story sure isn’t going to. I’ll be content if this story can manage to avoid any awards ceremonies, book signings, found rare comic book, Dead Lisa tributes, or appearances from He Who Shall Not Be Named.
Rex Morgan: Josh’s summation about interpersonal violence in fiction versus real life – that it’s actually pretty vanishingly rare (especially compared to how media likes to make it seem) and the vast, overwhelming majority of people are more likely to just leave than settle things with fists or weapons, assuming things even escalate that far – is extremely accurate.
Also extremely accurate is Rex Morgan’s acknowledgement that literally nobody could be even mildly intimadated by a Rex Morgan character. It’s like a cardboard cutout screaming threats at you while it’s sprayed with a hose.
Daddy Daze: This is one of many installments of this strip that make you think “yeah, this is probably why the Daddy Daze Dad is divorced”.
RXMD: Repeated/paraphrased from yesterthread….
Under the pretext of going out on tour, Mud is going to make sure he runs into Lonnie every now and then, just to threaten him.
Everyone, our Stalker Hero!
Curtis: Since this is this week’s arc, Greg is going to lord it over Curtis over the non-existent third bedroom, until Diane comes in and claims it for herself, which Greg will give Curtis the Stinkeye of Doom over the loss.
You know, the loss of the room that doesn’t exist.