Deep Barney Google lore, sure, that’s what the kids want
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Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 11/2/26
Look, I get that they might have been misled by the “racing days” reference, but it’s embarrassing that these two birds have mistaken their fellow avian for a horse. This is just proof that they’re very stupid and, despite their ability to talk in the context of these Barney Google and Snuffy Smith Present … Sparkplug’s Grandson Li’l Sparky strips, it’s actually fine that Snuffy is going to steal them from his neighbors so Loweezy can kill and cook them.
Dick Tracy, 11/2/26
I know I’ve recently celebrated Dick Tracy’s turn back to the macabre, but I have to say the strip may have gone too far today. Streaming media personalities? In the comics? No thanks. Oh also the family appears to have murdered their pinheaded nurse, to cover up their various crimes, I guess.
Mother Goose and Grimm, 11/2/26
I am ignoring whatever joke they’re attempting to implement here, but I do want to point out that it’s now strip canon that the title characters can just drop by the office of Satan, the great Adversary, which is clearly in the depths of Hell itself, whenever they feel like. Not sure if we’re meant to understand that they have the power to move back and forth across the veil that separates the worlds of the living and the dead, or if they in fact inhabit Hell full time themselves, and the various misadventures we see them get into represent some kind of ironic punishment tailored specifically for them, due to their sins.
Mary Worth, 11/2/26
It’s day 17 of the siege by various law enforcement agencies that began when Mary hung Nelly Fenele’s flayed skin on the gates of Charterstone as a warning to those who would dare betray her. The feds thought it would take only a few days for the hungry residents to turn on the woman the media is calling “The Butcher of Santa Royale,” but the produce from the Charterstone garden has so far been enough to keep everyone loyal. Thank goodness for mild California weather!
33 replies to “Deep Barney Google lore, sure, that’s what the kids want”
Blondie – What exactly did Blondie mean by her comment about changing positions?
If The Shape Of Water taught me nothing else, something much, much worse than death could be happening in that third panel.
Putting the “grim” in “Mother Goose & Grimm.”
Sometimes a carrot being stroked by an elderly woman is just a carrot being stroked by an elderly woman, get your minds out of the gutter, everybody!
[IMAGE SAVED]
MG&G has set the new record for “We forgot our strip’s ostensible premise.” Children’s books? Lady, you are literally Mother Groose.
MW: That muffin top makes a fantastic carrot scrubber!
Ph: Ah, so this is how we’re going to “gracefully” end this storyline, by Schmelon simply pulling a Cartman and leaving. Next week, new “adventure”!
MW: ‘Thank goodness we’re not in a multi-year drought or seeing an increase in hurricane activity in the Pacific or having whole neighborhoods wiped out in cataclysmic fires. Nature isn’t telling us we don’t get to live in certain places anymore!! The weather has *always* been mild and *always* will be!!!’
RMMD: Wow, I was right! Last week was just pink hair and glasses. Now it’s those plus pink dress and earrings. It’s spreading! I’m honestly surprised her coat isn’t pink.
MW: Mary Worth strikes me as the kind of person who responds to any talk of global warming with “Actually I like it warm.”
DT: Fun to imagine what this stream would have been like if they hadn’t found a body. What secrets does the industrial canal hold, hmmmm? Probably an old tire and some stunted-looking crayfish.
Maybe Hell is a place that the living can visit, but simply try to avoid. Kinda like your mother-in-law’s house, am I right? Ehhhhhh? Screw you, my kindergartner nephew loved it!
Author’s Note: There is no nephew.
MW: No matter how much you augment your meals with garden produce, 17 days is a long time to stretch the flayed corpse among the remaining Charterstone residents.
Being the understanding kind of guy that I am, I could handle whatever inanity there is in Judge Parker if it comes with bulging breasts. What is happening here? Where are they?
MG&G — The Devil’s Dictionary went off copyright a few years ago, so Satan needs to keep those sweet sweet royalty checks coming in somehow!
Mother Goose and Grimm:
Is everyone writing children’s books these days? Is that a thing now? Anyway, the Devil is getting in on the action, on the fairly reasonable assumption that starting young is the best way to corrupt a soul and incline it to sin, but he’s hampered by his unfamiliarity with modern technology. Forget using LLMs for research and copy editing, he’s still using a pencil and paper! He’ll never make it in the cutthroat world of children’s literature if he can’t keep up with the times!
That was me– @&^%* new keyboard setup!
MW: Panel 3: “And, thank goodness for ME! Or, to paraphrase Caligula: I have existed from the morning of the world and I shall exist until the last star falls from the night. Although I have taken the form of Mary Worth, I am all women as l am no woman, and therefore I am a goddess.
Also, I trust Nelly will be grateful for these carrot peel scrapings.”
BGSS Just imagining that Air Bud moment when Rudy’s owner tries to convince the track association that actually there’s no rule that says you can’t ride an osterich, before the official taps the top of the page where the words HORSE RACING are is large bold font.
MGG They aren’t visiting, they’ve been _summoned_ because despite often going astray that _is_ Mother Goose, bound to children’s tales no matter the authour, required to act out whatever rewrite is being done to the classics. Fortunately Satan is hoping for commercial success so they’ll be Learning Friendship Lessons about demons instead of being featured in a “counting gory tortures” book. (Note: _actual_ kids would _far_ prefer to learn to count with the number of nails pulled out of hands and feet than hear yet another smarmy afterschool special plot, but it’s the parents who buy the books, so…)
MGG They aren’t visiting, they’ve been _summoned_ because despite often going astray that _is_ Mother Goose, bound to children’s tales no matter the authour, required to act out whatever rewrite is being done to the classics. Fortunately Satan is hoping for commercial success so they’ll be Learning Friendship Lessons about demons instead of being featured in a “counting gory t-rtures” book. (Note: _actual_ kids would _far_ prefer to learn to count with the number of nails pulled out of hands and feet than hear yet another smarmy afterschool special plot, but it’s the parents who buy the books, so…)
BG&SS – Now this strip has fully caught the “let’s bring obscure characters from the distant past” bug, probably from some newspaper not being careful what they place near Gasoline Alley. The return of Rudy will excite current crop of regular comics readers, considering most of them remember his debut in 1924.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith:
The “RUDY” written on the ostrich’s… coat? blanket? leads me to believe that this is not going to be a one-off and we’re going to be subjected to more animal antics where the ostrich’s name matters. Maybe we’ll delve into Rudy’s personal history with the duck and the chicken, revealing an deep-seated inter-avian animosity that explains why the latter retreated into the background once they got a good look at him.
MW: The fennel is coming in especially well this season. Must be the fertilizer.
Mother Goose and Grimm again:
You might think Mother Goose’s worried expression is due to her concern about the demonic literary influence of the Devil on unsuspecting children, but actually as a children’s author herself she just doesn’t want the competition.
BG&SS: Rudy needs a Thighmaster.
DT: I’m not sure if “Wander Wednesday” is the girl’s name or the title of her TikTok series or a regular segment on said series, but either way it sounds like she should be talking about quirky local culture or fun day trips, not doing an expose on industrial waste and discovering dead bodies. But hey, maybe that’s how the residents of Neo-Chicago like to spend their free time, for all I know.
MW: Ugh, we’re really going to end this with Mary reflecting on how wonderful everything is, showing she’s so much better than Negative Nelly Fenele(y), aren’t we? And then another week of a non-date with Dr. Jeff so he can tell her how wonderful she is. Frankly Nelly’s better off not hanging around these assholes.
MW- we may not get a week of Mary Worship at the Bum Boat, as it would be pretty uncomfortable talking to Jeff about the latest plot.
‘What do you mean people thought you were boinking Ian? we’ve been dating for years and I still don’t know the color of your underwear!”
Spark Plug and Rudy are doing it, aren’t they? Look how excited Rudy is for whatever the horse is going to do with his tongue. Good for them at their age.
***
Is it bad to be sad that a comic character was murdered because you thought they had an interesting design?
***
Thank goodness Mary’s knowledge of how normal people talk is so non-existent that even her inner voice is bland babbling.
C’shaft: Who is this guy, and what sin did he commit to be drawn as a cameo character in Crankshaft?
GT: That line basically translates as “keep pushing forward until we win or you all die” which may not be the inspirational sentiment Gil is looking for.
Phantom: You’d think Expy Elon’s virulent racism would have come up well before now.
SH: Convenient how she can time his transformations to the Gregorian calendar, a system not exactly known for its regular months.
GT: Herb Brooks, at the 1980 Winter Olympics, in the 2nd intermission of the final game of the Medal Group (not Gold Medal Game, since they did not have knock-out for that), gave the best locker room speech to the US Hockey Men’s Team, who were down a goal:
“If you lose this game, you’ll take it to your fucking graves.”
He then started to walk out, paused, turned back, and repeated:
“Your fucking graves.”
Your move, Lord God Thorp.
yyMT: Or maybe other employees being arrested is your fetish, Agent Ray.
Mother Goose transcending the veil between the worlds? Credible. Satan moving in on her professional realm? He’s gonna regret ever getting kicked out of heaven!
All I want Barney Google and Snuffy Smith to “present” is an explanation for why Sparkplug’s hooves are grotesque, tumorous blobs.
@pugfuggly: Well, the only movie that did the “Animal doing unconventional animal roles” right, in my opinion was “Babe” the pig who entered the sheep herding competition.
It was adorable and heartwarming.
MW: Let that water pour on those carrots, Mary. Just go crazy. Leave that water running while you read a good book for several hours. That’s probably the most petty, wasteful thing you can possibly do without leaving home. Mild weather outside, torrential rains inside, it all balances out in the end.