Stop trying to make “Mrs. W.” happen, also
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Mother Goose and Grimm, 10/30/26
I will reluctantly agree that “gummy bear” -> “Smokey has no teeth” is a decent joke and I can see the appeal of committing it to comic strip form. However, I cannot condone this particular visual interpretation, in which Smokey seems genuinely shocked by his own gumminess, as if his teeth had been cruelly ripped from his mouth mere moments ago and he’s not only suffering intense pain but realizing he’ll no longer be able to rip and tear meat, crack bones, or crush tough plant matter — all important aspects of the bear lifestyle.
Family Circus, 10/30/26
I guess Jeffy is supposed to look sheepish, but to me it honestly seems like he’s rolling his eyes at his sister. Dolly, you idiot, you philistine, for his costume he’s a practitioner of the ancient, storied art of clowning. His role is to act the fool and hold up a distorted mirror to our society and ourselves. Every day is April Fool, to him! He’s in character!
Mary Worth, 10/30/26
Tommy, have you seen the amount of muffins this woman produces? Do you think she’s interested in gluten-free anything? Your interrogation is going to be extra painful now.
33 replies to “Stop trying to make “Mrs. W.” happen, also”
Blondie: I wonder what Sigmund Freud would say about the fact that Daggy prefers to snuggle with his dog rather than his extremely hot wife. Something about “sometimes a cigar is just a dildo substitute” I guess.
Family Circus: Jeffy saying “April Fools!” on Halloween is Peak Jeffy.
I was initially concerned about Smokey being drawn with his name on his hat, as if the reader would not recognize him, and have forgotten who the joke was about between panels. But given the target audience of MG&G, maybe those are valid concerns.
Hope Mary likes 20 minutes of Tommy looking thoughtful and going, “Let’s see… I know it was from a… person. They had eyes, and… I think hands. No, they had hands. I’m pretty sure.”
My “It is a FALSE rumor that I was secretly seeing Professor Cameron?” T-shirt is raising a lot of questions that are already answered by my shirt.
MW:
“Sure. What would you like to know?”
“Who has the higher IQ? — you, or the potatoes over my right shoulder?”
MW: Clipped third panel: Tommy’s boots sticking upside down out of the potato locker.
MW:
“I’m afraid that I’m experiencing cognitive dissonance, Mrs. W. If there were get-togethers between you and Professor Cameron that were taking place ‘secretly,’ how would anybody know about them to be able to initiate or pass along the rumor?”
FC:
“Do I hafta go out with Jeffy? — I’m coulrophobic!”
MT Police reports, arrests for felonies… the word you’re looking for isn’t “suspicious”, Mark – sorry, but you can’t pull off understated British phrasing. Also, your investigation finding something is about as groundbreaking as the umpteenth schoolkid’s “Invertebrate Characteristics: Shrimp” report.
Mother Goose and Grimm:
Smokey the Bear and Max Mouse from Slylock Fox must both go to the same couturier. They both go for the “I’m-wearing-pants-but-no-shirt” look.
Mother Goose and Grimm-Only you can prevent tooth decay.
MW-“Such a nice store, Tommy. Shame if something was to happen to it.”
MW-“From you, Mary. I learned it by watching you.”
FC-How cute. Jeffy is going as Gacy.
MGG: Is it just me or did they model Smokey after the 2000 Yard Stare soldier? “Only you can imagine the horrors I’ve seen…”
MW You know Mary, when you emphasize false rumors like that, its only going to make people question you more.
MW Where did you hear that _false_ rumour, Tommy? I repeat – _false_ rumour. No, I’m not worried about the _true_ one, Mr. Allora and I find it titillating to hear the speculations about _our_ activities. It spices things up
MW: Not sure who this guy “Sal” is, but he’s sure trying to make his presence known.
Hey Mary, you were secretly seeing Professor Cameron. He was in your visual field and that was a fact that you were keeping his wife unaware of. What you were not doing, we are assured, is secretly fucking him. You have to spell things out tfor Tommy!
MW: Sometimes I think Mary Worth doesn’t have its finger on the pulse of modern-day California, but sometimes they drop a nugget like “Mary buys gluten-free pasta even though she doesn’t need it, just because she thinks it’s somehow superior” that makes me reluctantly admit, maybe they’ve still got it.
@Bob Tice: In this context, the pants are assumed.
FC: Saying “April Fools!” is exactly the kind of ‘trick’ a kid Jeffy’s age would play on Halloween and then giggle uncontrollably. Wear it with pride, little man.
And… Tommy gets fired for casually chatting during work hours.
Wary Morth:
“I’ve no idea. I had just got a little present from my friend Vin that day and sampled it.”
“Dolly, you know that your brother is not the sharpest knife! That’s why Billy gets to become one of the greatest animators in history while we gift Jeffy the job of putting new captions on old clip arts!”
MG&G: Smokey is still capable of whacking potential meals with his shovel and pureeing them into smoothies; a fact that mockers would do well to remember.
MW: In order to reprimand this wide-spread group of miscreants, Mary is going to need something resembling the Men In Black “flashy thing.”
RMMD: I have a vision of the town teeming with candy-craving mini Mud Murphys. It might be a screenplay idea, but should I peddle it to Tim Burton or John Waters?
GT: Hitting Gerads in the forehead with a small hammer didn’t even slow him down. The ref is going to need to resort to more drastic measures.
FW: You think that’s bad, Dolly, wait until the other kids laugh at the two of you for your ridiculously dated costumes. Have neither of you heard of Bluey or K-Pop Demon Hunters?
MW: “Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Initial” is usually a nickname for someone whose last name is difficult to say or remember, especially if they work with kids. Neither is the case here, and in fact “Mrs. W” takes longer to say than simply “Mrs. Worth.” But then again, Tommy is incredibly stupid, so it’s entirely possible “Mrs. Worth” is beyond his mental capacity.
MW – Mary needs to be more precise in her wording, especially with a poor boy who often doesn’t get things right. She was seeing Ian. She needs to ask Tommy where he heard the false rumor that she was riding Ian like Rex the Wonder Dog.
FC — The onesie may say “clown”, but the hat shrieks “hobo.” And I suppose the mask adds subtle hints of crazed supervillian. With such mismatched accoutrements, it is clear that Jeffy, as usual, doesn’t know what day it is and is just blurting out guesses.
MW: I feel that as a recovering drug addict in a soap opera strip, who calls his girlfriend “babe,” Tommy’s hip-lingo greeting for Mary would be something like, “Hey, Mrs. Dubs.” As far as the gluten-free pasta goes, Freda’s probably has some Trader Joe’s-esque policy where the managers, Freditos or Freditas, as they are called, require the Fredistas to make at least one sales pitch per customer interaction to deliver that cherished “Experiencia de Guau.”
C’shaft: If this is what won the essay contest, I shudder to think what the other essays looked like.
DT: “Meshuga” is the adjective, Sam. I think you mean to say meshuganer, or meshugoyim if you want to refer to the family as a whole. If you’re going to talk like a Borscht Belt stereotype the least you can do is get the grammar right.
Phantom: Okay, points for Tokoloshe delivering the riff on Ghostbusters’ “there is no Dana, only Zuul” from the fridge. Well played, sir/madam/non-binary inorganic entity.
Mary Worth:
A grocery store will typically have many different items on sale at any given time, but Tommy only mentions gluten-free pasta, so I guess that’s the only discount in the whole place right now, despite the giant “SALE” signs visible in both panels. You’d think they’d put the Brown Potato Chips in a Brown Bag on sale instead, you’re not going to shift many units of that on their own.
MW – Maybe I’m just too easygoing, but I think if I were Mary, I would let it drop. It’s been proven false, and I could see where the casual observer could have misread what they were seeing, and, whatever, man, people are nuts.
The more she chases down “the truth”, the guiltier she seems.
GT: So Milford is going to win this one because a taunting penalty sets up the winning score? Or is Orlov going to sack the quarterback so hard that Goshen gets a safety?
Curtis: Is Billingsley trying to give Derrick a “Tragic Backstory” and doubling down from yesterday? Because I’m not feeling it.
MW – Next week – Mary learns about the Streisand Effect. Unfortunately, what she doesn’t learn is when to keep her big mouth shut.
Family Circus:
Actually, the fact that Jeffy is so in character as to say “April Fool!” instead of “trick or treat!” is why Dolly doesn’t want to accompany him. His dedication to the bit will make her witch costume look low-effort by comparison unless she enters a dark pact with Satan, the Lord of Lies!
Only you can prevent sticking something sensitive in a bear trap.