Post Content

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/31/13

And so this week has been bookended by strips demonstrating the confusing effect that Hootin’ Holler’s poverty and isolation have on the very language its inhabitants speak. Cliches and turns of phrase filter in from the outside world, but are based on things that most of us take for granted and yet are complete mysteries to Snuffy and his kin. And so, just as the old saying “hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk” is a confusing word-jumble to people who travel by foot on dirt paths through the woods and fields and have never seen a sidewalk, so too is the phrase “fresh as a mountain stream” meaningless to people who have no experience with indoor plumbing and who get all their water from mountain streams as a matter of course. (The stream also doubles as the town sewer, so you can see why Snuffy seems particularly puzzled by the use of “fresh” in this context.)

Momma, 8/31/13

I’m preeeeety sure Momma has been a 43-year-long exercise in establishing that our mothers are responsible for all our emotional problems, actually.

Post Content

Apartment 3-G, 8/30/13

Uh oh, looks like there’s another proposal in the works for Lu Ann! She was already engaged to Scott Gaines the cartoonishly rich janitor in 2005 and then got engaged to Paul Linski on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and I think she was engaged to someone else in between there too? I’m blanking now. We all know the chances of Lu Ann ever actually marrying anybody are nil, because that’d ruin the strip and also she’s emotionally and intellectually a child, so I guess the drama is whether she’ll accept the proposal and then dump the governor later or just kick him to the curb right now.

I suppose it’s appropriate that Lu Ann is most frequently engaged Apartment 3-G girl, since Margo is too much woman for most men; her one shot at marriage came when she found an engagement ring while snooping around her boyfriend’s apartment, right before he died in an avalanche. Pretty sure Tommie’s never been engaged, but even if she had been I’m certain it was super-boring and am not even going to bother hunting through my archives to find the sad evidence.

Momma, 8/30/13

This punchline was supposed to read “699,” right? Because otherwise Momma’s really managing to luck out!

Shoe, 8/30/13

Ha ha, it’s funny because the sexy lady bird has breast implants! Also, she’s sitting like five feet away from these other bird-people who are all ogling and/or gossiping about her. SHE CAN TOTALLY HEAR YOU, GUYS.

Post Content

Mother Goose and Grimm, 8/9/13

Pluggers: Origins

Spider-Man, 8/9/13

At last, the Tarantula has arrived! And he’s right — it’s always a comedown for Spider-Man when a real superhero shows up.

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, 8/9/13

Oh gosh: not only is Ginny being forced to wed the least-desirable feller in Hootin’ Holler, but he expects an arch-conservative marriage including wifely submission. Everyone who has ever met a Hootin’ Holler feller — or gal — finds this hilarious.

Momma, 8/9/13

Francis got promoted to “Dirt”! Those years spent toiling as “Assistant Dirt” really paid off!

Mary Worth, 8/9/13

Adding Mary Worth to your “sharing circle” is like inviting a wolf pack to your all-you-can-eat buffet.

— Uncle Lumpy