“Rigor Mortis Theater” is clearly a reliable source
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Curtis, 6/20/26
As a longtime Wikipedia editor and aficionado of Wikipedia silliness, I enjoy it when I stumble upon evidence of a vicious long-ago battle between two editors on the wording of some article. For instance, when some fairly anodyne assertion has a ludicrous number of citations given to support it, that usually means that some editor who wanted that sentence in the article when someone else didn’t went nuclear to justify its inclusion. I bring this up because the article for Spielberg’s War of the Worlds calls it a “science-fiction action thriller film,” and supports that genre description with a footnote that contains seven subordinate footnotes backing it up. But is it a horror movie, maybe? The nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip Curtis calls it a “horror remake.” Maybe it’s time to open this discussion again. See ya out there in the marketplace of ideas!
Dennis the Menace, 6/20/26
I guess Henry is supposed to be sweaty and exhausted, but it really looks to me like he’s crying, possibly because it also really does not look to me that the Mitchells are in Disneyland, the actually trademarked happiest place on Earth. They lied to him and told him this obviously non-branded amusement park was Disneyland, but he can’t handle the deception anymore! He’s weeping because of the web of lies he’s spun for his only son!
Blondie, 6/20/26
Please, Elmo, ever since the Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, nobody cares about tariffs anymore. “Lemonade prices are spiking because so much of this year’s lemon crop has been unable to get through the Strait of Hormuz” is the new hotness!
52 replies to ““Rigor Mortis Theater” is clearly a reliable source”
DtM: I know that it’s probably just an issue with the coloring, but it looks like Alice has her tongue extended, ready to lap up her husband’s sweat/tears right in the middle of this amusement park. The nature of their relationship continues to baffle me…
Elmo doesn’t know what a tariff is, but, going by his sign, he presumably knows what a tayaiff might be.
DtM:
Is it just me, or are there others here who hope that one day, Dennis will trip over those overly-long pants of his?
Murky Tail:
Gail needs to attract a reclusive retired former Hollywood starlet to work in her gorilla sanctuary. I’m told that’s great for business!
Dennis the Menace: There are no crowds, and virtually no lines for the rides? The Mitchells are clearly visiting Disneyland during COVID. Henry hasn’t tested positive yet, but all that feverish sweating indicates that he’s in for a difficult few weeks. Luckily, these characters never age or actually get sick, so he really should be pretty happy about that!
Blondie: The U.S. Sugar Program actually does maintain a minimum price for sugar that’s higher than the world price, thus artificially inflating the cost of sweetened products such as lemonade. But since Elmo probably just dumped a few packets of Crystal Light and water into that pitcher, he may as well charge what the market will bear — and since the local market includes Dagwood and his infinite stomach, 75 cents actually seems pretty reasonable.
Hi and Lois: Looks like it’s Irma who’s the lazy one in the Thurston family — if she’d just get off her butt and find a job, they’d both be just fine! At least, that’s what I hear from Thirsty, who seems like a reliable narrator since he’s only on his third beer of the day.
Mary Worth:
Tommy — “Hey, I’m actually drowning over here!”
Dawn [rolling her eyes] — “Oh, brother, this guy must really think he’s a comedian! Whelp, I’ll just swim back to shore by myself while he flounders around in those big waves. He’ll definitely appreciate me more if I play hard to get!”
Tommy [drowns]
Mary [two days later] — “You two weren’t right for each other anyway. Find yourself a nice doctor!”
Pluggers: If you see a plugger weaving all over the road in front of you, it’s totally on purpose because he’s avoiding manholes — not because he’s on various medications and probably a little drunk. So no cops!
DtM:
Maybe Henry is fretful because the size of his legs is oddly out of proportion to the size of his torso.
Wary Morth:
Tommy gets swept out to sea, rescued by a passing trawler, press ganged into working for his board, and when the trawler returns to port in Cambodia, is immediately recruited by Trixie’s new pig butchering scam company. He then spends 1234567890 strips moaning about whether Dusk misses him. Meanwhile Dusk never thinks of him again.
@Bob Tice:
All anyone has to do is show him a male character from Blondie and he’ll never complain about his legs again.
DtM: Henry is worn out after a round of (looks at background) tea cup minigolf.
Curtis:
“What are they showing today?”
” ‘Dawn Weston at the Beach.’ ”
“Eww, I haven’t eaten dinner yet!!”
DtM:
“Dad just went on the Mad Hatter Teacup Ride, but apparently doesn’t like to have his cerebral cortex stimulated!”
Curtis: The Eye movie title needs to be punchier. Something with a subtitle like “The Last Lashing”, “Air Conjunctivitis” or “Electric Boogerloo”. Forget it, that would be cornear.
Dtm- Henry is sweating and looking frazzled because he just added up how much he’s spent for the day, and they haven’t even had dinner yet.
The 2005 “War of the Worlds” movie only has a dismal 42% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s just not very good. Does “War of the Worlds” belong in the horror genre? Maybe as much as “I Am Legend” does. Actually I think that Spielberg’s true sci fi horror film that should give people nightmares is “AI Artificial Intelligence”. That thing is filled to the brim with disturbing imagery.
Spam flagged and removed.
DtM: My interest is piqued by those bladder/whom rides back there.
MW: Before he is sucked away by a rip current, Tommy knows one brief moment as a fun guy.
RMMD: Aw, Mae Mae got a plug, Doug got a plug, but no plug for Mud.
DtM: Henry is crying because this was supposed to be the best place on Earth to lose Dennis, and it’s just not happening.
I spelled that horribly incorrectly
Is Dennis supposed to be a midget? He’s 6 years old and the size of a toddler. This happens a lot in newspaper comics where the children are freakishly smaller than what they should be. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mitchell’s used this to their advantage to get him in for free. Is that why it always looks like he’s got a sagging diaper?
*sigh* Spam at #15
@BigTed: re: Blondie – it’s also why so many sweetened products have corn syrup instead of sugar and you can notice the difference trying the same brand bottled/canned in Mexico or Canada. (Canada has its own government price distortions through “supply management”, it just doesn’t happen to hit sugar…)
Anyhow, Elmo should have set it at 1$, otherwise he’d better have a *lot* of quarters for change
DtM:
“The backs of my feet feel like balloons, Alice. ‘Carnival of Soles‘ !”
Mother Goose and Grimm: I always found it weird that Grimm refers to her as his mom. Sometimes she treats him like a pet even though he’s a fully independent adult who can talk. Apparently she died in a horrific auto accident and they’ll be a significant life insurance payout.
Spammer on aisle 15
Curtis: Ah, yes, the best horror remakes always have the word “two” in the title. Is this a remake of the second entry in “The Giant Eye Without the Retina” saga? A sequel to a remake of the original, which may or may not have had a sequel itself? Or is Curtis just blathering for two panels to fill time until they get to the punchline of “Barry hates horror movies but still watches them with his brother for some reason?”
Well, the War of the Worlds remake was spoofed in one of the “Scary Movie” films (which usually spoofs horror)
Only one joke I actually found funny though.
After the aliens invaded. a woman is showing the protagonist what went down.
Shows a video on her computer “This is Detroit”
(Everything is on fire, guns and explosions going off everywhere)
“Now this is Detroit after the aliens attacked”
(The same thing, but now with giant aliens stomping around added to it)
C’mon, Elmo. You could have just put “Tariffic Lemonade” and customers would assume that you can’t spell, instead of having dull conversations questioning the price increase.
Luann We should have sent her years ago – the exhaustion, repetitive chanting, and inadequate food *did* do the trick like I said it would – she’s brainwashed herself, re-imagining her life as if we cared for her like Bernice, and when she gets back we can look forward to no more griping!
For those wondering how Wilbur Weston can afford his expansive lifestyle on a throwaway newspaper reporter’s salary, the Weston Family is worth over $10 billion. They pay a lot to keep him away.
DtM: No, they are at Disney, they just inadvertently stumbled into an exhibit called ‘1950s America’.
MW:
“Waves are active today!”
Moy does her part to thwart AI through data poisoning. “Let’s see that sentence show up in someone’s essay.” She laughs.
Curtis: I didn’t see The Giant Eye Without The Retina Two but then again, it couldn’t see me either. (Critics said it had nothing to focus on.)
@Anonymous: Kind of reminds me of in some comics and animated sitcoms, where the human protagonist has a “pet” dog despite the dog is clearly sentient and can take care of himself.
More like a roommate if anything. But nope a pet!
Someone brought up the negative implications in “Buckles” of a human keeping a fully sapient being as a pet.
Then I recall Buckles literally ended a few days later.
I know that had nothing to do with each-other, but still weird.
Dennis the Menace: Somehow Henry and Alice convinced Dennis this sub-county fairway is the famous DisneyLand/World. Menace level: Alice and Henry, very high. Dennis, well…
Blondie. With the nation getting ready to celebrate the bicentennial of the Nullification crisis, I’m glad Dagwood is leading the charge in denouning the tariff of abominations. Truly he will the John C. Calhoun of this moment–and he already has Calhoun’s crazy hair!
MW: at the risk of a banning I actually want the Dawn/Tommy relationship to work out. At least it woul end the stupid relationship storyline.
I’m surprised that unfashionable Henry, of the bow ties and (here) polo shirts, is up-to-date enough to wear footie socks and show his ankles like a hip Millenial.
Elmo has NOTHING on that kid with the lemonade stand from Monkey Island 3 who had the “Bottomless Mug Policy”
He pours the lemonade into a cup on a table from a jug, there is literally no bottom to the cup. The lemonade falls down into another jug beneath the table. (And repeat)
Also, for bonus points that kid was voiced by Gary Coleman.
So what do you do when life doesn’t give you lemons?
MW: Prediction: Sunday-only readers will be startled as Tommy and Dawn jump from last week’s plaintive “Can we be friends?” to a reenactment of the beach scene in “From Here to Eternity”.
Curtis: For fun, imagine how convoluted the wording would be if Herb & Jamaal featured this joke.
@Westing1992: It’s odd that Curtis listed three real horror remakes for panel two, then invented one for the last. If they wanted a “yuck” reaction, save the “Blob” remake for the punchline.
DtM Henry weeps from frustration – they’ve managed to hoodwink Dennis into thinking this rundown midway is Disneyland, but despite their research into the most poorly-run venue, without even stoner carnies as a vague nod towards safety regs, they *still* can’t get him killed (or at least maimed! wouldn’t even *that* improve their lives and give them a bit of freedom??) on a rickety ride.
Alice feels her lower lip float upwards, opening her whole face, the world seeping in as she takes another dose of Mother’s Little Helper to cope with the fact that tonight they will return home with the never-aging tyrant who rules their lives…
@The Rambling Otter:
Grimm goes to restaurants and movie theaters and does basically everything a human adult can do. Yet he still drinks from the toilet and pees on fire hydrants. He’s like a person wearing a dog costume.
*Now I’m remembering that scene from “The Shining” with the guy in the dog costume and even more disturbed. Is this all just some fetish role play?
FC: While most people find it strangely egotistical that Bil makes a drawing of his son giving him a hug while pretending it’s drawn by said son, it’s simply a father’s day message to every dad who’s ever sent themselves a card supposedly signed by their son that it’s okay. It’s a justifiable form of self-soothing for the miserable life you lead.
Curtis: What do children do all day? Do they watch broadcast TV and knowledgeably discuss remakes of horror films from well before they were born? Is that what they do?
DTM: Look how excited Alice is! “This is it,” she thinks. “He’s on the ropes. This is my chance to sneak away and start a new life!”
Blondie: Dag might need remedial instruction in standing like a human being. He has … let’s call them numerous issues.
@Uncle Lumpy: Enjoy a nice, refreshing glass of turnip juice?
“Elmo do you even know what a tariff is?”
“No, but neither does the president so…”
Crank: “When I was in Bunny Berigan’s group, the piano player always bought the new Larry Dinkle records as soon as they came out. Everyone would gather round when he put it on the phonograph, and we would laugh and laugh. Bunny could never figure how Dinkle could get those weird noises out of an ordinary trumpet. We thought he might have been using a vulcanized doorstop as a mouthpiece.”
DT: What’s the mysterious Band-Aid? Dick cut himself shaving, or is he trying to learn to eat with a fork?
JP: “Look, I am perfectly aware what you want to do right now is fuck like a pair of rabid minks. Go on ahead, I’ll buy a magazine or something.”
“You want to come and watch?”
“I’ll get my coat.”
@Ken: And to keep up with current events and memes, Tommy and Dawn wind up coated with green algae. It’s the most topical MW has been in decades.
RMMD-“Excuse me while I step back outside,” Mud says, “There are some more people I have to disappear.”
MW-Sadly the lifeguard will be to busy flirting with Dawn to save Tommy.
Dumbing of Age: See panel one (5 Mouse Ear Blvd by Pat McHoarney) for a subtle dig at 9CL.