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Bizarro, 8/17/24

Hey, have you heard of the concept of “burial at sea?” Well, get this, what if there’s a sort of cool party guy — you know, the kind who wears Hawaiian shirts on the regular — who spends a lot of time in hot tubs, and so he requests a “burial at jacuzzi?” Would be pretty funny, right? Not clear if he means his private home jacuzzi, or the one in his condo complex, or just some random jacuzzi in a hotel or gym somewhere, but it would a pretty funny concept if you dumped this guy’s corpse into it, and it slowly bloated and rotted there, and some poor soul stumbled upon it days later, discovering a jacuzzi that has now been turned into an awful soup full of human guts … wait, no, did I say funny? I meant horrible! It would be horrible! Did we already do a cartoon about this, based on the premise from earlier in the paragraph, when it seemed more innocent and carefree? We did? And you’re saying it’s published in newspapers for God and everyone to see? Ah shit ah shit!

Mary Worth, 8/17/24

Oh yeah, also Dr. Ed proposed to Estelle or whatever, which I haven’t bothered talking about because it’s just been two solid weeks of talking about how much they love each other without any hint of upcoming dramatic conflict of any kind. Today, we finally get a glimpse at what an actual story might hold: is it possible that Ed and Estelle are going to be spending too much time together? She already works for him (without pay!) so maybe the scam-prone Estelle is being pulled into a little two-person cult from which she won’t be able to escape. Remember, the court can’t force a wife to testify against her husband for various animal-related crimes, the way it could force a nephew to testify against his uncle!

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It’s Friday morning, and you know what that means: your comment of the week has arrived:

Folks said please and thankee! That’s it! Folks only knew two words! Communicatin’ was difficult back then, we had t’git creative with inflection! That’s why young’uns wuz quiet and polite; they din’t know all these fancy pleases! I mean words! Shoot, there I thankee again!” –els

As have your runners up!

Panel after panel of suspense-building. What is Marvin typing? What is that skritching? What is Marvin typing? What is that skritching? WHAT IS MARVIN TYPING? WHAT IS THAT SKRITCHING? And then we get (a) not gonna tell you, and (b) fleas. They could have done this as a weekday strip, is what I’m saying. It would have been just as lame, but would have wasted 57% less of my time.” –Twinkles the Elf

“‘You doing okay, Parker?’ ‘Why would you be asking me that weeks later at the Youth Center, as opposed to at school, where we run into one another all the time and the incident happened?’ ‘Listen, I don’t create this dialogue! — I just say what’s drawn in the dialogue bubble for me!’” –Bob Tice

“So what if people say it’s not ‘normal’ for 50 year-olds to hang at the youth center. Normal’s overrated. (‘Boring’ will always be in fashion though, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.)” –2+2=7

“Dot, envisioning a future as a ventriloquist, practices by saying ‘Stop’ without opening her mouth. (It’s the ‘p’ that’s tricky.)” –Pozzo

“The twins ending their parents’ ability to do any imagination is made even more sinister when you look at panel two, and see that Hi and Lois are both half-bodies floating in the olive-colored void. This is either Hi or Lois dreaming, but even in the personal space of sleep their children intrude to ground their attempts to live counter-factuals or alternative histories. Like the darkest days of an authoritarian regime, the children are trained to report on parents breaking the rules of the established order, so much so the parents fear them even in their sleep.” –Philip

“Sarge is canonically a WWII veteran, so maybe he is just paralyzed in fear that they are sending him into the meat grinder of the Pacific theatre.” –Ettore Costa, on Twitter

“‘Make sure the avocado has implied boobs’ is the kind of attention to detail you don’t get at Hi and Lois.” –Dan

“I unabashedly love the Jack Benny vibe Dennis gives off in the second panel, smartly complemented by his old-fashioned footwear (what are those, saddle shoes???). It all creates such an anachronistic vaudeville feel that I almost missed the fact that Dennis and Margaret are both standing in puddles of their own urine.” –Doctor Moreau

“The most menacing thing in the Dennisverse today is the concept that they experience their reality in the same format we see them in the comic, which would explain why the television today is oriented in what we consider to be portrait mode.” –Tabby Lavalamp

“Who’s to say the A/C doesn’t dance a truly delightful little jig? It clearly knows its own worth.” –Plaid Phantom

“For all I know, Rodney and Barnes are two different guys. Rodney’s just sore, but Barnes had a bitter argument with Noble about that giant volume of Hans Christian Andersen stories that nobody bought this month. ‘On the bottom display rack, wrapped in plastic, and 20% off!’ Noble sneered, while Barnes wept bitterly. This would ruin his relationship with Torch, he knew that much for sure.” –made of wince

“Mr Wilson is never happier than when he’s pressing his soft belly into a spiky hedge. Just look at that expression on his face: it’s not a good feeling, but at least he’s feeling something.” –pugfuggly

Good humor in Mr. Wilson’s case entails looking like a gleefully deranged Nazi war criminal as opposed to his usual sullen, dyspeptic Nazi war criminal.” –Violet

“Dennis cheerfully informs his best friend that his neighbor is having a great day. Menacing Level: Less than zero.” –astroboy

“[Taps sign] MUST DRIVE MASERATI OR BETTER TO QUESTION FUNERARY PRACTICES” –I’m Not Cthulhu, But I Play Him On TV

“Dolly is actually giving good advice here. When you are asking for God to smite someone, you must speak with a more commanding tone.” –Ranger

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Blondie, 8/16/24

This strip may on first read seem entirely incoherent, but I actually think it nicely captures many people’s instinctive take on generative AI. Delicious, chemically infused slop dished up a vaguely burger-flavored form? Yum yum, bring it on! Uncanny valley content slop that you find when desperately searching for information or recipes online or looking at pictures on Facebook? Ugh, no, gross, absolutely not, kill it with fire.

Judge Parker, 8/16/24

Think I’m siding with mom here. Oh, you think your little underwater sojourn has helped you solve the mystery of the missing dad? Well, have you considered that the missing dad is going to be dead forever, whereas this party is alive and bumpin’ for just a few more hours? Why do you have to ruin it now, when we’ve already spent all this money on nice hors d’oeuvres?

Family Circus, 8/16/24

Sorry, Dolly, if you can’t even rope in your stupidest sibling, I don’t think your plan to declare yourself a God manifest on Earth and demand worship is going to work out.