Troubled youth
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Dennis the Menace, 8/27/26
As my readers well know, part of Dennis’s whole deal is that he hates his mother’s cooking and will insult it at any opportunity. Today, though, he ruefully admits that, even though his mother is bad at cooking, he doesn’t know anyone who’s better at it. Presumably he knows what good food tastes like as a result of his parents’ occasional attempts to bring him to fancy restaurants, but he doesn’t know any other cooks personally because his parents’ occasional attempts to make friends end in disaster when Dennis repeats their catty insults, so they never get invited over to anyone else’s house for dinner.
Daddy Daze, 8/27/26
Uh oh! The Daddy Daze family’s car is being fixed, but the garage won’t take credit cards, and the Daddy Daze daddy doesn’t have enough cash. What is he going to do? Follow the Daddy Daze baby’s suggestion, and … steal money from a carnival bathroom, I think?
42 replies to “Troubled youth”
MW: Hoping for a generous tip for his attentive service to Mary and Jeff at dinner, the waiter finds himself stiffed by a thank-you note written on a sea motif card.
FG: Looks like are old buddy Wolfang got to star in a few army training films. Wonder if they made him do the hygiene films too.
DtM: Dennis ups his game. “You’re the best cook I know…More’s the pity.”
That’s fantastic news about Josh’s novel. I’ve always been fascinated by the history of newspaper comics, so I’ll definitely look into it.
We all know that the Baby of Daddy daze doesn’t speak, it is just a way for daddy to externalise his intrusive thoughts and immoral ideas (“should I blow the mechanic to pay the bill?”). He has simply reinvented the bicameral mind
@StripReader: BOT!
Dennis the Menace: Since Alice is an original tradwife from the actual mid-20th century, I guess it makes sense that she’s spending all day at home in nice dress, full jewelry, and a protective white apron. Which is actually very practical, since the bright-orange pumpkin soup she’s cooking Dennis for lunch is about to boil over the top of the pot and make a big mess — at which point she’ll have to clean up and put some chicken nuggets in the air fryer, like every other mom in 2026.
Daddy Daze: The baby is actually whispering, “You can’t break a one-syllable word onto the next line, dummy!”
He is just six year old and he is already insulting people using the overtly narrow superlative? Dennis might not be fit for an office job, but he’ll make a great drag queen!
DtM: Dennis has either ingested a controlled substance or been replaced by a pod person. Mom is just too exhausted to care.
MW: To Whom It May Concern: Putting a perky little streak of gray on a buff forty year-old does NOT make him look any less like Mary’s grandson.
JP: No longer a judge? You’re lucky you haven’t been disbarred.
DtM Ah but you do know one cook, Dennis, you said it yourself! If you want to riff with pedantry, you best come correct.
DD So…the baby was proposing carnaval prostitution, right? I can’t be the only one who read it like that..
@Guillermo el chiclero:
Yes, and they also made him do the PSAs about not babbling secrets to civilians, and the ones about VDs. Like, he was hyped up as an invincible super-gladiator mercenary bounty hunter, but most of Mongo knew Wolfgang as their equivalent to Private SNAFU/Beetle Bailey.
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Daddy Daze : Paul is SMILING at Angus’ suggestion. Whatever it is, they’re going through with it.
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Sally Forth : One minor criticism : Ted Forth’s thought bubble should read “…’Cause I’ve got STRENGTH of the SOUL, and NOONE’s gonna BEND or BREAK me! I can reach any star… ‘Cause I’ve got FAITH… FAITH of the HEART~” I’m sure Poteet would appreciate THAT aspect of Ted Forth!
(By which I mean, I want Poteet to fully grasp how Ted Forth’s twee Sci-fi obsession is insufferable)Daddy Daze:
The solution that Baby Angus is proposing is Kakaesque.
Daddy Daze-“You want me to bet on podracing?”
Dennis the Menace-A sudden chill runs down Mary Worth’s spine. She casually picks up the phone. “Have Dennis Mitchell eliminated.”
MW-“This’ll increase my meddling powers tenfold.”
FC-“Let’s hope they don’t come back.”
Blondie-Sadly the barber has yet gotten any female customers who want a Brazilian.
DD: “Whisper whisper?” What, are they afraid we’ll be able to translate “ba ba ba” and thus spoil the punch line?
Daddy Daze: Did he follow the Forths back to the 1980s? Even the small, sole-proprietor type places at least take Cash App/Venmo/Zelle. Heck, I have a harder time using cash these days now that most stores have self-checkout machines that refuse to make change.
DtM:
“But how come you don’t have dark hair, like Betty Crocker?”
DtM: 1950s TV housewife dress, makeup, and perfume in 2026 is a very specific kink. Alice has to get Dennis fed and out to play before Henry gets home.
“Guess what came in the mail, big guy.”
“The Playtex girdle?!”
DD: Baby Angus is just offering the deposit he just made.
Murky Tail:
Tomorrow: the cave has buyer’s remorse and spits him back out.
Wary Morth:
Looks like Moy has abandoned Dusk’s single tear heartbreak as completely as she did Trixie’s Great Escape. Unlike Trixie, who had genuinely interesting possibilities – far too interesting for this strip – even MOY probably is bored to (both eye) tears about Dusk and her romances.
MW: Ah, Baloney!
Wrecks Moregone:
Janejean or Jeanjane has suddenly developed acute constipation while Jeanjane or Janejean has suddenly developed acute wisdom toothache, right? That’s what their body language shows, right?
DT: KA-BOOM!!!
Luann: This begs the question of course, how did Luann get into the Community College if she has no conception of basic paperwork? I wonder if this is part of some big retcon and a few months down the line Luann is going to wake up and the past several years have just been a dream?
DD — No, I don’t think even the carnival will allow you to pawn an infant.
@ComicallyChallenged: Yeah, and don’t banks still give cash advances on credit cards? I legitimately wonder how cartoonists manage to justify ignoring everyday reality in the aid of producing jokes that aren’t even funny.
Daddy Daze: Oh. My. God. Daddy and baby are going to become carnies??!! Call child protective services!
@Guillermo el chiclero:
#10. JP: they’ve been disbarred for neglecting court as well as client affairs since, oh, 2022. Luckily for them, but not all the people of Cavelton, they have blanket strip protection.
Dennis the Menace: Sophistry and polysemy are truly the province of five-year-olds in search of a cookie. A+ menacing, no notes.
@Ettorre: [Screaming and pointing like Donald Sutherland at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers]
@I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV:
Soylent Green is bots!
DD: I can think of few things more suspicious than an auto shop that only accepts cash. They gotta be running some combination of chop shop and meth lab in the back.
DtM: Dennis can’t be more than eight years old, yet he’s already learned the fine art of passive-aggressive menacing.
Dennis normally hates his mother’s cooking, but the orange goop that clearly is never brought to a boil or it would make one hell of a mess on the stove top at least doesn’t leave him in the bathroom all night.
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The best thing about having a character who doesn’t speak actual English words is that you can come up with a punchline that doesn’t require someone setting it up and you can confuse your readers with that character going “whisper whisper” instead of their usual “da da”.
FC: The Keanes look out onto the shack they lived in before Bil hit it big and built their glass house.
MW: Ever prim and proper, Mary readies her thank you cards for the upcoming orgy.
Dennis should use this “insult buried inside a compliment” technique more often. He’s good at it, and it leaves his victims seeking his approval. He’ll finally get that cult he always wanted off the ground!
Daddy Daze: This is the first time I’ve really looked at how this guy carries his baby, and frankly I’m not OK with it. Unless the laws of weight and mass simply choose to stay as far away from this weirdo as possible, which is a decision I can respect.
B. Bailey:
Answer: You can’t put a square peg in a round hole.
Question: Doc, can I make a dildo out of Legos?
DD – is the joke that they’ve travelled back to the 70s? Or are in some deep backwoods area and Snuffy Smif is about to appear? The mechanic doesn’t take credit cards????
@The Quiet Man: when I was at university a popular bumper sticker for students there was a dig at the local county college… “If you can’t read this, you can go to PG Community College.”
DTM: “…other than Mrs. Wilson, that is. But she’s not so damn emotionally needy and doesn’t require positive reinforcement to do her job!” (Now, that’s menace.)
C’shaft: Weird that a strip that’s been characteristically suspicious and resentful of any technological advance less than thirty years old is so on board with this particular trend. Maybe Batiuk just hates having to tip his waitstaff.
DT: “And please ignore the implicitly ominous way I phrased that.”
Dustin: Taking small steps and celebrating small victories is widely considered a good thing for mental and emotional health, especially for people with high executive dysfunction (which all evidence indicates Dustin has). I’m guessing the writers of Dustin don’t know that and we’re supposed to be laughing at the low bar he’s set for himself.
GT: I think Beth has every right to be worried: Coach Permawave’s vendetta might target her as well, she’s not an immortal god-king like Gil, and she’s exactly the sort of young, vibrant wife who would get fridged in order to traumatize her white male protagonist husband.
JP: “Retired,” “disgraced,” six on one hand…
Luann: How did Luann even get into this college if she’s this clueless about the process? Has she just been wandering into classes at random? (Would explain a lot…)
MW: Dr. Jeff may be the lamest sugar daddy ever.
RMMD: “Curses, we’ve been thwarted by the gentle intervention of our grandfather who we don’t live with and who has no apparent means, legal or otherwise, to keep us from doing what we want!”
“Step right up, step right up, into the House of Oddities, and here’s the Amazing Telepathic Sheep Baby, it talks like a sheep, walks like a sheep, but can transmit fully formed thoughts straight into your mind! Purchased at a steep price from a Russian prince!”