You must remember this. Or not, see if I care
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Judge Parker, 8/22/26
Hey, remember how Neddy was freaking out because April, or maybe a fake April, was coming to violently drag Charlotte off into her world of intrigue and spycraft? Well, let’s check in on how that exciting story is goi– oh, what’s that you say? It’s endless boring emotional processing, as predicted? Ah well. Let’s check back a few weeks from now, or maybe never.
Crankshaft, 8/22/26
Hey, remember how Crankshaft dragged Harry away in the middle of choir practice for some mysterious and very important reason? Well that reason was that Montoni’s, a place that Harry has visited before since he lives in Westview and everything in Westview revolves around Montoni’s for some god-forsaken reason, has a picture of Harry’s dad and his band on the wall, proving that Montoni had served mediocre Ohio-style pizza to not one but two generations of Dinkles. Harry never noticed the picture before because of his trauma, probably, but now that he’s made peace with the fact that his dad was a neglectful drunk, he apparently is happy to learn the extremely boring fact that his dad also bought pizza from the local pizza-making restaurant.
Dennis the Menace, 8/22/26
Look, I guess Monopoly is a game about business, sort of, but I don’t think Henry should’ve required Dennis to dress in business casual just to play it.
34 replies to “You must remember this. Or not, see if I care”
DtM:
“Next, Mr. Wilson wants to play ‘The Game of Life’ with me, because he says I’m destined for the Poor Farm!”
Crankshaft:
“This picture was taken just before Dad and his cohorts ingested psychotropic drugs, sprouted facial hair and long locks, and repurposed themselves as ‘The New Vaudeville Band’ !”
Judge Parker:
“Wait a minute! I can see from looking at your second-panel visage that you’re not ‘April’ at all — you’re one of the ‘Nelsons’ of After the Rain fame, aren’t you.”
DtM:
“The rents are frozen here, Mom! — is this supposed to be New York City?”
JP: The dialogue is “serious family discussion” but April’s expression looks a lot more like “jesus what is that smell..?”
CSh: Not at all the point, but why the how does trading band candy for pizza work? That’s not your candy, and that doesn’t raise any money for the band, you’re just getting yourself some free pizza. Funny how every time Harry reminisces about his dad, we find out another way he was a real piece of shit.
DtM: I love that Henry is pretending to sleep in the most unconvincing way possible: completely upright, head tilted just slightly forward. Funny that Dennis is smart enough not to fall for it, but not so much to grasp how stupid his dad thinks he is.
Dennis showboats his victory as he takes a sip from his long island iced tea.
Dennis the Menace : Alice’s expression is because she’s noticing that Dennis didn’t touch his drink, and OBVIOUSLY he didn’t, otherwise he’d be “pretending” to “sleep” like his father at this point!
DtM: Looks like they lost all the cards, deeds, and most of the money years ago. Probably a lot easier to win with whatever rules Dennis has made up.
CS – Harry never noticed the picture before because he wears his cap with the visor down over his eyes, Beetle Bailey style. Hell, this may be the first time he’s seen the interior of Montoni’s at all!
DtM – You win at Monopoly by being the first to make the pain end. Henry’s strategy worked well. Now if only he’d stop using it in those meetings about door plug design at work, we could all fly safer!
Murky Tail:
Alternatively, Violet can start eating the insects that the bats would eat. That way the balance of nature is maintained.
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Wary Morth:
Wilbur: “I’m so concerned about Dusk’s welfare that I raced her to the door to get away from Bats Bellefrey!”
__________________________________________
Wrecks Moregone:
“I have a job offer for you! A pig butchering scam centre is looking for a replacement for their top scammer, Trixie.”
“You said a replacement. But there are two of us.”
“Yes. So whichever of you manages to scam the other gets the job!”
MW –
WILBUR: “Tolerates my feedback”? Don’t you mean “values my opinion’?
MARY: You heard me.
Rex Morgan Mashup: Fill in Grandpa Lyle’s blank speech bubble.
MW: If we’re VERY lucky, Mary and Jeff will take Wilbur on their next Encapsulate Date, and we’ll get to see it!
H&L: It was bound to happen eventually; Hi is drunker than Thirsty.
GT: Gil can’t risk being across the pond in case they invent a new sport that he has to coach.
DtM: Do we doubt for a single minute that Dennis won by means that will someday land him in Federal prison?
If you look at the first panel it’s reeeeeeal obvious how the band photo was inserted after the fact. If I had any figs left to give about the Funkyverse, I’d try to dig up the original panel and see what was actually there. Luckily, I’m fresh out of figs.
@pugfuggly: JP – What do you expect? Manley’s got interesting problems to solve, like illustrating how Mollusk McGreyFace is going to get his ass kicked by the Phantom because he’s too busy arguing with a chatbot on his phone to notice the sudden appearance of heatmapped Phantom on the panopticon that surrounds him.
DTM: The Mitchells bought a vertical format TV so they could watch TikToks on the big screen.
@Austria:
On “obviously the Larry Dinkle picture was inserted into the flashback, but what was there originally?” :
a) Nothing. There was nothing there originally, and since that was an empty spot they could sneak the picture in, they took it.
b) There’s also the possibility that this isn’t even an actual panel from an old strip, but an entirely new one, drawn in the old style to sell the “that picture has ALWAYS been there” angle.
@Baja Gaijin:
“I’m instantaneously changing my haberdashery from a black sweater with buttons, paired with a green shirt, to a green sweater without buttons, paired with a white shirt! — can’t you two nimrods see that?!?”
Pluggers Mashup: I’m pretty sure this is what the plugger’s first word is.
@Baja Gaijin:
“I’m pointing my finger at the same thing that all baseball players point at when they circle the bases after hitting a home run. Whatever that ‘thing’ is.”
@19 Bob Tice: Damnit! I forgot to change his clothes. I’m so accustomed to Mary Worth–she has so few items in her wardrobe, I can copy-and-paste without having to worry about what she’s wearing.
@pugfuggly: This “band candy for pizza” swap works pretty easily. Next time Dinkle needs to feed the marching band, Montoni won’t charge him for x number of pizzas, with being whatever number of boxes Montoni got.
This scheme, of course, has several issues, like the inevitable falsifying of records, but it’s not totally deranged.
@Baja Gaijin:
I honestly actually thought that that’s the way he presented in the original strip — all of which is to say that it’s too early in the morning for me to have done the actual work of checking the original.
I’m sorry I missed this one for a Scrotal Award yesterday, from Roger M. Wilcox (one of us, I presume) on the Mudge Facebook site with the panel of Mary saying “Especially in these uncertain times.”:
Well said, Roger (or whoever you really are on here).
Rex Morgan Mashup, Bob Tice Edition
GT: Well this marriage is off to a shining start, what with all the light-hearted bickering that is not at all passive aggressive!
@Baja Gaijin:
Okay, one more. Then I have to turn my attention to class planning, because my semester starts next week:
“I’ve got an idea for a reality show podcast starring the two of you that will earn you legitimate dollars at your next destination: ‘Reform School Girls Gone Wild’ !”
Crankshaft:
We’ve seen Harry looking at this exact picture before—the only thing novel about it now is that’s it’s in Montoni’s and has a dedication. Based on this I suspect that the band went to Montoni’s exactly once, hated it, and gave them one of their many copies of the picture out of social obligation.
Crank: Is the photo supposed to initiate a “Do the Right Thing” moment which ends with Dinkle throwing a garbage can through Montoni’s window?
Has anyone ever played Monopoly to its conclusion? Recreationaly.
JP: “Just make sure that ‘bridge’ isn’t a rainbow one. Alan is easily triggered these days.” Pantomimes lifting a bottle and chugging.
“Dad says he gets to pick the next game. Mom, do you know what the Campaign for North Africa is?”
Apologies if someone has made this joke previously, but maybe Harry would have noticed the picture sooner had he not worn his band hat over his eyes all the time Beetle Bailey style.