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Pluggers, 2/4/17

Pluggers today made me realize that it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a house of worship for non-wedding-or-funeral-related reasons — long enough that it never occurred to me that the same people who infuriate me for blithely texting throughout a movie (WHY WOULD YOU PAY $16.50 A TICKET TO SEE SILENCE, A QUIET AND EMOTIONALLY GRUELLING CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE FROM A MASTER FILMMAKER, ON ITS OPENING WEEKEND, AND THEN BE ON YOUR PHONE THE WHOLE TIME? YOU’RE A GROWN-ASS ADULT! YES, I CAN SEE YOU!) also do it while they’re at church, to the extent that beleaguered clergy have to beg parishioners to put their gizmos in their pockets for just a little while, for pete’s sake, just how flight attendants have to specifically point out that you can’t vape in 30,000 feet over Nebraska or whatever.

And, while my irreligion probably differentiates me from most pluggers, I do have to say that as a person with a hearing aid I very, very strongly related to today’s panel. Like, the ability to turn a hearing aid off is easily one of the top five best things about having one. It’s not that I can’t hear with it off, but … well, it’s sort of like when you open a beer right when you get home from a hard day’s work. Your problems don’t go away, but it takes the edge off, you know?

Shoe, 2/4/17

I know it’s something I harp on a lot, but the emotional disconnect between the jokes and dialogue in Shoe is one of my favorite bizarre things about the strip! Usually this takes the form of the patented goggle eyes of horror in reaction to a punchline, but today’s strip gets even more intense. “Roz, I need something to release all this tension I have” is mildly concerning in isolation; but when accompanied with the Perfesser’s bug-eyed stare, it seems like the last thing you hear a guy say before you become the first victim in his multi-state killing spree.

Mary Worth, 2/4/17

Oh my God, Iris just told Zak she loves him … in German! Safe in the knowledge that sweet, dim, uncultured Zak would never in a million years understand it! This is a delight because it’s a move she chose to make wholly predicated on her boy-toy’s ignorance, but it makes me sad because it probably means she’s going back to Wilbur when he blows back into town. Hopefully he hasn’t picked up any nasty Antarctic venereal diseases!

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Y’ALL! You are aware that I am the HOST of a MONTHLY LIVE COMEDY SHOW in SUNNY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, are you not? If you’re not familiar with this event, it’s calle The Internet Read Aloud, and it features hilarious people making hilarious jokes, about and derived from … the Internet! Plus me! I tell jokes too! Anyway, you should come to tonight’s show, it’ll be off the chain, plus it’ll be over by 9 so you can go home and get to sleep at a reasonable hour.

More information is here, on the Facebook!

Anyhoo, now is the time when we all enjoy the comment of the week!

“Pluggers know better than to patronize any business whose name includes ‘State Farm’. That’s Communism, and, from what they can tell from the nightly news, Communist countries don’t even HAVE coupons.” –Here come the Judge

Along with the runners up! They’re very funny!

“Something, something, Gallop poll.” –A Concerned Reader

Slylock Fox: NCIS” –Uncle Lumpy

“It’s a good thing that Animaltopia hasn’t yet evolved to the point of recreating the more sophisticated aspects of human supply-chain management. ‘Does Slylock take the container labeled UDS2345923 or UXDE452345?’” –Dmsilev

“In other news, Rusty calls ‘Mom’ a soulless, dead-eyed woman whose very existence has been reduced to (literally) feeding Mark’s strange sexual appetites. Flapjacks. I’m talking about flapjacks. Don’t think for a moment that Rusty hasn’t noticed and is taking mental notes about his adopted mother/gimp/cook-figure.” –pastordan

“‘I still can’t choose a career path! Please, liberate me from the burden of free will!’ ‘Well, you are writing to the right person.’” –Ettorre

“It was near twenty years since Wilson had left his life as a mob hitman but the trade that had served him so well was about to end this menace to his sanity. The gun nestled gently in the fake cast. The target close at hand. For the first time in years, Mr. Wilson felt alive.” –Escape Zeppelin

“Maybe that look on his face is because he realizes that no-one likes him enough to have a memorial run when he dies.” –Maltmash3r

“Peter Parker looks mad. If he finds those no-good punks who want to desecrate Ancestral Pueblo petroglyphs by adding a new one, he’ll tear them a new one with the proportional new-one-tearing ability of a spider.” –Schroduck

“In straight up medical terms, he’s got a funky on his bean.” –Dood

“I’d say that this is a perfect chance to talk about life after death, but I don’t want to ‘floss-ifize.’ Get it? Flo-aaAAAAAHHH–[has soul harvested]” –pugfuggly

“Pluggers go to the doctor constantly, yet they’re still unfamiliar with the routine.” –TheDiva

“‘Expect the second on the next day at the same hour. The third upon the next day when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to vibrate.’ ‘I’m afraid the office is closed at noon for lunch. Can the third spirit show up at, say, 1:15?’ ‘Uh, yes, that’ll do.’ ‘OK! Here’s an appointment card. Don’t forget to floss!’” –Voshkod

“He looks like he just found a buyer for both his kidneys.” –Brian Byrne, on Twitter

That mass that showed up on your scan was nothing more than a harmless water-filled cyst. At first I thought it must be your brain scan, ha ha ha ha! No, but seriously, you have cancer.” –Mikey

“Not only a closeup of the Phantom’s ass, but the vivid onomatopoeic FOOMP! of flatulence so foul it can incapacitate a man.” –Steve S

“‘Yes, like a leaf barely clinging to a branch Bumstead is literally dying right in front of us. Not even he could sleep in that position so he’s obviously having a heart attack or some sort of seizure but after all these years I just can’t bring myself to care. Instead his mortality has inspired lyricism in me. Like Wallace Stevens the humdrum of office work causes me to conceive of poetry as a world on a table. Well,’ Mr. Dithers removed his glasses and thoughtfully cleaned them. ‘Someone should probably call a doctor.’” –Spunky The Wonder Squid

“Dithers’ poetry needs some analysis. First line, images of icing and cake, like a birthday cake, a celebration of life. Next line is dismal death. If I remember collegiate English lit class, that’s either shitty poetry or ‘juxtaposition.’ (Pro tip: just using the word ‘juxtaposition’ gives you an automatic B at minimum.)” –Hogenmogen

“A ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ reading would have fit well with Dithers’s whole… well. Y’know. [waves hand up and down] All that.” –Dan

“The freckle-faced kid has a lot in common with Gil. They both love spinning elaborate theories about Aaron, but the people closest to them don’t seem to care. Hopefully, by the end of this storyline, Gil and Alfalfa will meet up and exchange notes. ‘Remember Career Day in 6th grade?’ ‘Like it was yesterday. Continue.’” –Joe Blevins

And I must give a huge thanks to all the extremely kind people who signed up to be a Comics Curmudgeon Supporter, put some scratch in my tip jar or backed me on Patreon! I’m taking a moratorium on ad buys because we’re still tweaking the ad slots, but look for exciting ways you can advertise on this site come 2017!

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Blondie, 2/3/17

Today’s Blondie is a great illustration of how dictatorship is degrading even to the dictator. Here’s Mr. Dithers, having thought up a sick but lyrical burn on his least favorite employee, and all he wants to do is unleash it, you know? Get a genuine laugh out of it. But no, this bald sycophant is terrified of what would happen if he isn’t praising his lord and master at all times, so he just blurts out “nice poetry, boss!” the moment it becomes clear that Dithers is getting a little adventurous with his language. Dithers reacts really the only we he can — by just plowing forward with his cruel little monologue, and acting as if he never even heard his subordinate’s premature praise — but you have to think he feels pretty undermined by how it all played out.

Gil Thorp, 2/3/17

Oh man, it looks like this winter’s Gil Thorp plot is taking on issues of social and economic class in our society! Presumably in order to make a big impression on Tweedle-Dee here Aaron’s dad came to school on career day wearing a top hat and monocole and shouting “I COULD BUY ALL OF YOU CHILDREN AND PUT YOU TO WORK POLISHING MY GOLD IN MY SOUTHEAST ASIAN GOLD-POLISHING SWEATSHOP IF I WANTED TO.” Now, though, just a few years later, Aaron lives in a mildly rundown apartment building. This makes his mom sad, which in turn makes Aaron inconsistent at basketball. If anything, it makes too much sense.

Anyway, in panel two, we see Coach Thorp and Mrs. Coach Thorp and Coach Kaz and Coach Kaz’s girlfriend/hype woman whose name I forget enjoying a delicious meal out at someplace fancy enough to serve wine but in touch with American values enough to serve burgers and fries. That’s America’s meritocratic socioeconomic system in a nutshell right there! Get with the program, panels one and two, with your implication that our class position affects every aspect of our lives!