Gasoline Alley, 9/15/11
In attempting to banter with a rustic innkeeper, Nina reveals far, far too much about her and Skeezix’s sex life.
Pluggers, 9/15/11
Pluggers are haunted by the fear that if they were to die, neither they nor anyone else would notice.
Pluggers, 9/12/11
Wow, thanks to the Pluggers comic for keeping me up to date on important plugger anthropological developments! If you had asked me before I saw this comic, I would have guessed that a “plugger coffeehouse” was one of those greasy-spoon diners where you can sit at a counter and a waitress will call you “hon” and fill up your mug limitlessly for a quarter. But no, all of those went out of business years ago, obviously, so pluggers just drive out to the McDonald’s on State Route 178 to drink their coffee. They may not get free refills but at least they aren’t going to menaced by any fruity poetry.
But pluggers may need to brush up on their own cultural awareness! Because, based on this comic, I’m guessing that they assume that non-plugger Americans get their java in ill-lit bohemian hideaways, where bearded Communists read slam poetry on stage while the assembled patrons snap their approval. In actuality, of course, non-pluggers get their coffee at Starbucks. Can’t we as a nation come together and bond over our love of soulless chain restaurants, even if they aren’t the same soulless chain restaurants?
Dennis the Menace, 9/12/11
So, uh, Dennis wishes his mother were some kind of pagan nature deity? This is either not menacing at all (i.e., Dennis is into twee neo-pagan spirituality, with, like, faeries and stuff) or extremely menacing (i.e., Dennis yearns for a divine lineage so that he might be imbued with God-like powers and indulge his every whim, to our terror).
Marvin, 9/12/11
Whoah, it looks like Marvin and his cat have turned to high-priced lawyers in their battle over pooping rights. Can you believe that they’ve gotten so corporate? I remember when it was about the shitting, man.
Pluggers, 9/9/11
Now, non-pluggers, you’re probably confused to see a chicken she-plugger refer to her dog husband as “Henny”. This doesn’t mean that he’s taken his wife’s name — ha ha, that would be unthinkable! She’s just name-checking to Henny Youngman, who was the world’s most prominent producer of humor around the time pluggers stopped paying attention to pop culture forever.
Two somewhat subtle points about this panel that I think are important for its correct interpretation: one, this jokey plugger is standing next to a (presumably spiked) punchbowl; and two, there are kangaroo pluggers. In other words, this guy is getting drunk and telling racist jokes at 7 p.m., much to his wife’s horror.
Apartment 3-G, 9/9/11
Fellas! A lady sure does like it when you propose marriage to her without having had any kind of discussion with her about it in advance. She especially likes it when you put her on the spot in front of your entire family, leaving her in the incredibly awkward position of either humiliating you in front of your loved ones or accepting a proposal that she’s still ambivalent about. Try it out on the girl you’ve been dating for a few weeks, and her eyes will almost certainly bug out with love and adoration, just like Lu Ann’s are in panel two.