Metapost: Comments? Of MY week? It’s more likely than you think
Post Content
Here ya, go folks: that sweet, sweet COTW:
“Oh no! Tommy’s going to get addicted to the dopamine hit that comes from spreading juicy gossip!” –Tabby Lavalamp
And your hilarious runners up!
“Today’s Dick Tracy teaches us that when the cops come to get you, you should also shoot through the wall next to the door. Thanks, Dick Tracy!” –matt w
“Note that Dagwood doesn’t even bother checking the fridge. He knows he wouldn’t keep eclairs in there. No, a true gourmet appreciates the delicate sour note that you only get from leaving a load of raw cream at room temperature overnight.” –Schroduck
“Dagwood does not look like he’s searching for pastries. He looks like he’s reaching for a maybe, probably, dead mouse in each of the 3 panels he’s rummaging.” –Doc Wonmug
“Terrible balloon work on Sunday’s Dick Tracy. After some initial confusion, I eventually realized that Dick (or more precisely, Dick’s shoulder) is meant to be the one shouting that he has a warrant, but my initial read was that Widescreen was shouting through the door, perhaps in an attempt to trick the cops into thinking that he was about to arrest them. ‘I’m the police!’ ‘No, I’m the police!’ ‘No, I’m the police!’ ‘No, I’m the police!’ ‘No, you’re the police!’ ‘You’re the police, and that’s final!’ (Dick puts down gun and allows himself to be handcuffed and led away by Widescreen.)” –samurailizard
“Shouldn’t Tommy be in a funk because his girlfriend Brandy isn’t in his immediate line of sight?” –The Quiet Man
“I won’t be in here forever. Either they’ll let me out, I’ll escape, or I’ll eventually die. One way or another, I’ll be in a different location.” –Joe Blevins
“The alarm rings, rousing Judge Parker from sleep. ‘Ah, it’s finally six P.M.,’ he says sleepily. ‘Time to start drinking.’” –Voshkod
“If this is what Nelly looks like when she’s just gossiping with the stock boy, I can’t wait to see her facial expression explode after she finds out her coupon for toilet paper has expired.” –BigTed
“Does a bear shit in the woods? Well this one shit in his pants!” –Old School Allie Cat
“Cyclospora was a conspiracy by Big Laxative to scare off a generation of pluggers from naturally healthy and fibrous foods that would keep them from relying on prescription-grade Ex-Lax.” –Philip
“I’m a vegetarian, so maybe I’m taking this a bit personally, but this comic strip is … actively incorrect? I know it’s all in service of a pun, but Shoe and its depressed bird-people have not earned the goodwill necessary to disrespect dietary fiber like that.” –Vulpes
“‘This is just between you and me…’ said Tommy, staring up to the surveillance camera, imagining Mary watching the feed from the comfort of her condo. He imagined for a brief moment the incredible relief he would feel when the latest round of loyalty tests was over, before subtly adjusting the mic under his shirt and leaning in closer to Dawn.” –pugfuggly
“Boys, your grades are so bad, you’ve lost bedroom privileges! You’ll be sleeping in The Beige Dimension until I say otherwise!” –Victor Von
“‘THIS IS JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME!’ Tommy shouted, over the sounds of dropped bowling balls and crashing pins.” –CompassRose
“Silly Gil Thorp, you’ve made your bed wrong! When you use one of those Hollywood-approved L-shaped sheets, the half that comes all the way up to the neck goes on the WOMAN’s side, while the half that stops below the chest goes on the MAN’s. You’ve put this one on upside down!” –yo go re
“Beth looks like a woman in those TV ads where you find love by using the product. ‘Thanks for taking me to the big game, Gil! [turns to camera] And thank you, Prell!’” –A. Mulyak
“Sorry to all those Protoss ladies in the audience, Sam Catchem can’t construct any additional pylons for you gals. He’s already married … to justice.” –ectojazzmage
“Routine good?! Jacket Monster leap over and consume you now!” –A Grave Mind
“‘Uh, they’re just pulling your leg.’ June finds the nicest way possible to tell Rex the boys were gaslighting him because they think he’s stupid.” –Hibbleton
“Joke’s on these traffic scofflaws when judge-whisperer Sophie starts digging up colonial-era precedent for sentencing them to hard labor on Spencer Farm.” –Charterstone: Dune
“I’d hate to think they’re not keeping up. But I’d hate even more to have to do something about it!” –Ettorre
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8 replies to “Metapost: Comments? Of MY week? It’s more likely than you think”
Congratulations, Tabby!
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 1
BigTed
September 12th, 2026 at 4:32 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: That pasta looks kinda gross, no? I think the artist is confused about which part of the angel they get “angel hair” from.
Gil Bates
September 12th, 2026 at:33 am Reply
Beetle Bailey: “I think the pubic hair is a special personal touch by the chef for forcing him to make all the pasta together.”
Bob Tice
September 12th, 2026 at 4:38 am Reply
Mary Worth: “…I can only imagine how horrible it is to be deceived like that! And I say ‘imagine’ because no human being on earth would ever want to get close to me in the first instance so as to even be in a position to thereafter engage in that kind of deception!”
Lauralot
September 12th, 2026 at 4:55 am Reply
Mary Worth: “To think of Ian Cameron cheating on his wife…well, that just arches my brows!”
Ukranazi Stepan
September 12th, 2026 at 5:01 am Reply
Wary Morth: “If Toby doesn’t believe it, I know just what to do!”
“You mean, kidnap her until she sees reason?”
“Yes! Do you think anyone can see through these disguises and realise we’re the runaway twins from Wrecks Moregone, MD?”
TheDiva
September 12th, 2026 at 5:22 am Reply
Crankshaft: Tony doesn’t understand why you need AI to provide soulless, incompetent work; he’s been doing that for decades!
MKay
September 12th, 2026 at 9:46 am Reply
Mary Worth: If this gets any more dire, there won’t be any bold text left in the whole, wide world.
Peanut Gallery
September 12th, 2026 at 6:11 pm Reply
Beetle Bailey:
? Gimme a plate of hair
Long, beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, cooked al dente
Fill me up to there, hair
Red sauce or alfredo
Here, Beetle, there, Snorkel
Everywhere, Sergeant, Sergeant
Hair! (Hair! Hair! Hair! Hair! Hair! Hair! Hair!)
Heat it, beat it
Long as Sarge can eat it
That hair
RogerBW
September 13th, 2026 at 1:29 am Reply
Family Circus: “Now, you have your heresy bingo card? Oh boy, he’s going to talk about the Trinity.”
pugfuggly
September 13th, 2026 at 4:34 am Reply
Blondie I feel like this strip starts to make a lot more sense if you imagine that Dagwood is just constantly high. The insatiable appetite, the afternoon naps, his general state of confusion. Intense cravings of a very specific food that you forgot that you already ate not long ago? Classic stoner behavior.
Bob Tice
September 13th, 2026 at 4:36 am Reply
Dick Tracy: “Police! We have a Warrant! — to be precise, a copy of their 1990 double-platinum sophomore release ‘Cherry Pie,’ featuring the hit song of the same name and their hits ‘I Saw Red’ and ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ !”
Ukranazi Stepan
September 13th, 2026 at 4:38 am Reply
Wary Morth: “Yes! It’s suspicious as hell! I mean, just imagine anyone sane being friends with either of these two!”
Maltmash3r
September 13th, 2026 at 5:25 am Reply
Next crime stopper hint:
Always keep treats around your house in order to prevent your food obsessed husband killing you in a glycemic induced rage.
Voshkod
September 13th, 2026 at 5:45 am Reply
Dick Tracy: His gun hurls slurs for Pakistanis! Stay tuned in tomorrow, when it begins to insult the Romani and . . . I’m sorry, I’ve just been informed Dick Tracy has been cancelled.
Tabby Lavalamp
September 13th, 2026 at 8:00 am Reply
Dick Tracy: I don’t follow Dick Tracy closely so I need a reminder – is Widescreen’s crime that mullet?
GarrisonSkunk
September 13th, 2026 at 9:43 am Reply
Blondie: Dagwood is still trying to figure out what the problem was on that “Seinfeld” where George ate the eclair out of the garbage can because it was floating on a doily.
GarrisonSkunk
September 13th, 2026 at 9:57 am Reply
Dirk Twacy Hollistic Defective: “See?!? This is why you don’t warn peeps you’re about to shoot! The bullets start going in the wrong direction!”
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 2
Dilligaf
September 13th, 2026 at 11:44 am Reply
Mary Worth: What’s this? Mary has taken her hat off? In public? The strumpet!
Hibbleton
September 14th, 2026 at 4:39 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Aw, shit. He’s dead, right? I had 2027 in the pool. I figured that lard-asses heart could hold out ’till New Years.”
Schroduck
September 14th, 2026 at 4:43 am Reply
Me reading today’s post: “Wow, Snuffy’s eyes look sad. Wow, Gil’s eyes look sad. Wow, the Plugger’s eyes look sad. Wow, Judge Parker’s eyes look sad. Wow, Rene’s eyes look sad. Wow, Nelly’s eyes look… fucking hell.”
The Quiet Man
September 14th, 2026 at 4:43 am Reply
Mary Worth: From the camera angle, either Nelly has completed a transformation into a tiny Lockhorn-esque goblin-like creature, or she’s so hepped up on the goofballs she can’t focus on the person she’s ostensibly talking to…
Hibbleton
September 14th, 2026 at 4:44 am Reply
Mr Cat Plugger looks like he’s just been fucked stupid -minus the fucked part.
Bob Tice
September 14th, 2026 at 4:49 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Too bad they didn’t show the Tortious Twins driving off in two identical tiny pink cars, each of them labeled the “Scam-Mobile.”
Tom
September 14th, 2026 at 5:00 am Reply
Mary Worth: The thing that gets me is that Nelly is drawn such that if someone with those eyes told me that my least favorite politician had said something dumb I would automatically conclude they had said nothing of the sort.
Handsome Harry Backstayge, Idol of a Million Other Women
September 14th, 2026 at 5:16 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Did you hear aboutProf— wait. Did you say canned tomatoes?!? How much?”
MKay
September 14th, 2026 at 5:31 am Reply
Mary Worth: Forget the canned tomatoes, Nelly looks capable of sucking all the blood out of a living goat in less than five minutes.
Charterstoned
September 14th, 2026 at 5:35 am Reply
Mary Worth: That very day, the Santa Royale Enquirer plasters the headline story with photo: CHARTERSTONE SCANDAL! TWO PROMINENT RESIDENTS SEEN TOGETHER, TWICE, AT THEIR CONDO COMPLEX! COINCIDENCE OR CONNUBIAL CATASTROPHE?
Anonymeaux
September 14th, 2026 at 6:23 am Reply
Pluggers:
You can’t hide — Recliner Eyes
And your gut — cov’ring up your thighs
You could get up — but why even try
There ain’t no way to hide Recliner Eyes
BigTed
September 14th, 2026 at 8:38 am Reply
Mary Worth: If this is what Nelly looks like when she’s just gossiping with the stock boy, I can’t wait to see her facial expression explode after she finds out her coupon for toilet paper has expired.
Everybody Posts, Nobody Reads
September 14th, 2026 at 10:15 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Have you heard about Professor Cameron? He doesn’t know about the sale on canned tomatoes. For the love of God, you have to get over there and tell him. He. Doesn’t. Know.”
Just John
September 14th, 2026 at 10:24 am Reply
Judge Parker: No one will be seated during the thrilling “hit the Snooz Button” scene.
Hibbleton
September 15th, 2026 at 4:42 am Reply
Pluggers: In a glorious act of passive-aggression, submitter Pauline has been feeding her husband massive salads since the outbreak started.
Everything Is Better With Monkeys?.
September 15th, 2026 at 4:45 am Reply
Rex Morgan: We’ve waited what feels like years for our titular hero to return and save us from the epically dull Twins saga. Only to remember that Rex and his brood are somehow even less interesting. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to read this strip daily.
matt w
September 15th, 2026 at 4:47 am Reply
Pluggers: Explosive diarrhea! Sure! Great punchline material! Ball’s in your court, *Marvin*!
MKay
September 15th, 2026 at 4:50 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Cake? Unplanned, unsupervised, unapproved CAKE FOR LUNCH? Here comes the next Morgan crisis!
Lauralot
September 15th, 2026 at 5:00 am Reply
Mary Worth: “Professor Ian Cameron spends more time with Mary Worth than with his own wife!” “Oh, haven’t you heard? They both caught Disproportionately Tiny Hand Disease and the CDC is making them quarantine together to stop the spread.”
But What Do I Know?
September 15th, 2026 at 5:20 am Reply
Plugging — And to think I believed all those lies they told us about bears sh*tting in the woods!
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 3
TheDiva
September 15th, 2026 at 5:23 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “I learned our adult heads on children’s bodies frighten other kids.”
Tabby Lavalamp
September 15th, 2026 at 6:01 am Reply
Pluggers: Well, now we know the Charmin bears aren’t pluggers they’d welcome explosive diarrhea with open opens and ecstatic smiles.
Guillermo el chiclero
September 15th, 2026 at 6:30 am Reply
Pluggers: C’mon, Andy. You’re a bear. There’s woods in the background. Have you forgotten what Baloo taught you about the bare necessities?
Her Father, John Darling
September 15th, 2026 at 6:55 am Reply
Pluggers: An entire bottle of blue cheese, a half-pound of bacon bits, a full cup of shredded cheese, a couple of hard boiled eggs and two contaminated slivers of iceberg lettuce are technically a salad, I guess.
Philip
September 15th, 2026 at 8:44 am Reply
Pluggers: Cyclospora was a conspiracy by Big Laxative to scare off a generation of Pluggers from naturally healthy and fibrous foods that would keep them from relying on prescription-grade Ex-Lax.
Guillermo el chiclero
September 15th, 2026 at 9:18 am Reply
Pluggers: Andy Bear’s wife Sheila Roo is going to dread the next laundry day.
Horace Broon
September 15th, 2026 at 10:24 am Reply
Rex Morgan: And I learned that however dull the nothing that happens around the Morgans might be, the nothing that happens to them is always duller!
Anonymous
September 15th, 2026 at 10:39 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Is Johnny sure it was Mickey Dugan, and not his twin brother Rickey Dugan? Those tricky Dugan twins, running the old “Cake for Pizza” scam again!
Anonymous
September 15th, 2026 at 10:42 am Reply
Pluggers: Pauline Calabrese Is the mayor of Penn Hills. She’s going to be using this comic in her next election for sure. “Vote for Pauline, She Eats Her Greens, and her Colon is Clean”
Artist formerly known as Ben
September 15th, 2026 at 2:13 pm Reply
Judge Parker: The reactivated Judge is well aware of how close the strip came to being retitled Some People Named Parker Might Show Up, I Dunno.
Poteet
September 15th, 2026 at 7:07 pm Reply
Mary Worth: The past two weeks have provided enough views of Ian to last me for the next five years.
Liam
September 16th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
Family Circus: Quick! Throw Jeffy in the oven!
Bob Tice
September 16th, 2026 at 4:44 am Reply
Mary Worth: “This is just between you and me…your hair looks as if it just lost a fight with a cyclotron!”
Victor Von
September 16th, 2026 at 5:54 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “Boys, your grades are so bad, you’ve lost bedroom privileges! You’ll be sleeping in The Beige Dimension until I say otherwise!”
CompassRose
September 16th, 2026 at 6:03 am Reply
Mary Worth: “THIS IS JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME!” Tommy shouted, over the sounds of dropped bowling balls and crashing pins.
Peanut Gallery
September 16th, 2026 at 8:53 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Nice to see Rex working on his Ed Grimley impression, but he needs to throw an “I must say” or an “as doomed as doomed can be, you know” into his conversation once in a while.
Anonymous
September 16th, 2026 at 9:22 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “We learned something about if a boy had one spleen, and had his appendix removed, how much cake would he have left? But I forgot the rest.” “Yeah.. then in English class, we learned that when Mary and Ian go walking, Nelly does the squaking!”
nescio
September 17th, 2026 at 4:46 am Reply
Mary Worth: At this point, I’d expect the Charterstone residents to be highly relieved and elated by the gossip. “The more time that busybody and that blowhard spend together, the less time I have to interact with either of them!”
ComicallyChallenged
September 17th, 2026 at 5:01 am Reply
Mary Worth: The look on Dawn’s face is less “shocking neighbor drama” and more “I just cut the wrong wire on the bomb.”
AmazingLabyrinth
September 17th, 2026 at 5:19 am Reply
A plugger doesn’t care if his socks don’t exactly match, just so long as they are hideous monstrosities that cover up his even more hideous feet.
Shadow COTW Contenders, Part 4
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
September 17th, 2026 at 5:27 am Reply
Mary Worth: Dawn’s expression in panel one convinces me that she is contemplating, in horror, the idea of Mary and Ian doing the horizontal mambo. Or possibly taking an extra large hit from the crack pipe. What am I, a clairvoyant?
The Quiet Man
September 17th, 2026 at 6:05 am Reply
Gil Thorp: Having polished his teeth, Beth places the Gil2000’s head on its place of honor while his body is powered down for the night. It must recharge for the next hard day of sportsballing.
taig
September 17th, 2026 at 11:54 am Reply
Dustin: I dunno. I’d feel better about taking advice from a cookie than from any of the current Dunning-Kruger exemplars giving advice.
HaikuMatt
September 17th, 2026 at 1:15 pm Reply
Gil Thorp: The way he says “We’re just getting started” as they cuddle in bed and look out at the viewer makes me feel like I’m in their cuck chair and am decidedly not comfortable with that. Nuh uh. Nope.
nescio
September 18th, 2026 at 4:35 am Reply
Pluggers refuse to honor the “Best If Used By Date” for neither food nor clothes.
CanuckDownSouth
September 18th, 2026 at 4:36 am Reply
Pluggers: (Attenborough) And here we see how Pluggers use a bottle of expired dairy in their morning routine… they only change underwear when the person next to them can smell it more than sour milk (/Attenborough)
Guillermo el chiclero
September 18th, 2026 at 4:39 am Reply
Family Circus: HTT Grandma is thinking, “Hmph. If that boozy slattern Thel didn’t spend all of Bil’s disposable income on liquor they could buy poor Billy a new football and not come begging to me”.
matt w
September 18th, 2026 at 4:41 am Reply
Pluggers’ spouses should have got rid of them a long time ago but just can’t face the idea of cleaning out their fridge, I can believe it.
Ettorre
September 18th, 2026 at 4:45 am Reply
Rex Morgan: “I’d hate to think they are not keeping up. But I’d hate even more to have to do something about it!”
Ukranazi Stepan
September 18th, 2026 at 4:54 am Reply
Wary Morth:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How do the rumours grow?
With Pompous Axx and forty whacks
And forty meddles all aglow?
Lauralot
September 18th, 2026 at 5:21 am Reply
Rex Morgan: Has anyone else noticed how often foreheads are the focus of Beatty’s close-up panels? When they’re not making unprompted hand gestures, it’s just all foreheads all the time.
I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV
September 18th, 2026 at 5:24 am Reply
Pluggers: Eh, there are worse things than death. A plugger’s boxers, for one. Axe body spray, for another.
pugfuggly
September 18th, 2026 at 5:30 am Reply
Pluggers: No no no: dogs smell butts, not chickens. You’ve got it all backwards!
Shadow COTW
——————
Anonymous
September 15th, 2026 at 11:59 am Reply
Mary Worth: At some point during this story, I would like Mary to say: “My gosh! Is this what being nosy looks like from the other side? I’m a monster!”
That the mayor of Penn Hills, a substantial suburb of my home town, writes in to Pluggers is the second most disturbing thing I’ve learned today. And the first most disturbing thing was real bad.
Thanks for the float and shadow rides! Congrats to Tabby Lavalamp and the fellow floaters and shadowers (and future scroters)! Big w’s to samuralizard, yo go re, Hibbleton, Vulpes, and especially pugfuggly.
Thank you, Baja!