He’s the one who has to tell the bear she’s breaking up with it. Awkward.
He really wants to take the bear. But taking a stuffed animal from a kid is not cool.
Or he *doesn’t* want to take the bear, he was just being polite, and now is stuck.
Apparently, it’s a DIY comic.He gives us the raw materials, then we see what we want.
I took it as he doesn’t really like the bear, therefore he doesn’t want it. She put him in the awkward position of telling the bear he doesn’t like it.
I thought the same as Chak, and that Arlo was just messing with Meg, expecting her to demand that Arlo give it back.
But the conversation about the bear’s name in the first two panels is confusing. I guess it doesn’t really add to the joke.
I’m with Chak; he doesn’t want the bear, but how to say so?
I’d thought the same as most, but James’ version is funnier, so let’s go with it.
Two thoughts: First, if my granddaughter asked me to adopt her teddy bear (even though it’s apparently one that’s no longer near and dear to her), I would feel honored.
And second, apparently Arlo’s already having serious discussions with Waldo outside of Meg’s earshot — which is a little weird, to be honest, and makes me think he needs Waldo more than Meg does.
(Disclaimer: I technically do not have a granddaughter — but I have a niece 59 years my junior, which is essentially the same thing)
Bill,
Arlo also has serious discussions with Ludwig. Just sayin’
Meg is very old-fashioned: you slept with Waldo, you now have a committment to him.
He had a one night stand with the Teddy Bear, as is his wont, but as he was attempting to leave ’em after lovin’ ’em, he instead got introduced, so now he knows his hookup’s name, and so now is forced to have breakfast with ’em and make conversation, which is really awkward, amIrite?
Chak, at least Ludwig is alive. And to be honest, I consider this less weird than I used to after my discussions last summer with my cousin’s dog Dog.
Chatting with a stuffed animal (out of earshot of a child) is another matter.
Respectfully disagree. Animals real or stuffed make excellent confidantes.
But then, I’m a CCL (Crazy Cat Lady) so you should take what I say with a grain of salt.
Chak, I’m still making a distinction between live and stuffed animals.
Arlo is whimsical. This leads him to having conversations with things that don’t normally have conversations, purely for his own amusement. Not much different if it’s a (live) cat or a (stuffed) bear. Of course, if you have read all the back catalog, you know that the part of Ludwig the Cat is actually played by a dog, who (very rarely) gets a speaking part in the show.
I still say the “awkward” part is having to explain to the bear that the child no longer sees him as indispensible. If it were a person instead of a stuffed bear, that would be a breakup, Arlo’s whimsy has cast the stuffed bear in that role. It’s not that he wants the bear, there’s no setup that would support that. My explanation is based on observed events… Meg has decided to give poor Waldo away, and, thanks to the Toy Story movies, we know what that means.
Maybe my eyes are going, but Waldo looks seriously ticked off in that last panel.
And if Arlo didn’t want the bear, he should have said “Oh, I think he’ll be much happier staying with you” or soemthing like that. ‘Course, you wouldn’t have a comic, which is the ultimate point.
@CIDU Bill – a niece 59 years your junior is pretty good going. But how about actor Charles Dance, born 1946, who discovered in 2017 during a BBC Who Do You Think You Are? programme that he had a sister (well, half-sister) who was 48 years older than him? She was born 1898 and died in South Africa in the 1990s. He had no knowledge of her until nearly 120 years after her birth, but presumably she had heard of him. He was already pretty high profile for things like Jewel In The Crown by the time she died, even in South Africa, which had no TV service until 1975, and Dance is an unusual surname.
Well, Narmitaj, my brother is 12 years younger than I am, and my niece is the child of a second marriage, which is how there came to be a bigger age gap between my niece and me than there was between my grandparents and me.
It’s interesting hearing of generational oddities like that. I know someone who is the aunt of a woman older than she is by a couple of years. I wonder what the record is for that sort of thing?
My youngest is 3 weeks shy of being 60 years younger than my wife’s oldest brother (who is 25 years older than she is). Technically, there’s a step-niece who’s about 3 years younger than my daughter, but there was a bit of a falling out between those sides of the family. My wife’s father basically invented the blended family by the late 1950s.
“the aunt of a woman older than she is by a couple of years” – oops, got that the wrong way round – the person I know is the niece. Her aunt is younger than she is as her father’s youngest sister was born a couple of years after she was.
President John Tyler was born in 1790, died in 1862, had 15 children, and two of his grandchildren are still alive: Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. born in 1924 and Harrison Ruffin Tyler born in 1928.
And frankly, the weirdest part of the comic is the first panel, “I slept with your teddy bear, Meg!”
Mick Jagger was born 1943 and has a son currently aged two; he also has a great-granddaughter who is almost five. There’s about 46 years between Jagger’s first child and most recent. I am great-uncle to a girl 59 years younger than me, but Jagger’s (currently) final child is great-uncle to a girl a couple of years older than he is.
And if Jagger’s last child reproduces at the same age as Jagger (73 – unlikely but clearly not implausible) and the offspring lives as long a Tyler’s g-granchildren (split the difference in their births to 1926, which is the year both my mother and the Queen were born), then that person could be sitting around in 2181 saying his grandad was born 238 years ago. He’s only have to get to 102 to make the full quarter-millennium!
I recited the verse I know from “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear”, but it didn’t in the end illuminate the cartoon.
On the old TV show “I’ve Got a Secret” they had one of Tyler’s grandsons. (By the way, one can tour the Tyler family home Sherwood Forest Plantation on the John Tyler Highway (Rte 5) between Richmond and Williamsburg, VA and when we did some years ago, family members were about as they still seemed to still live in the house). His second wife (who the grandsons are descended from) was a Long Island Girl – Julia Gardiner Tyler of the Gardiner family & Gardiner Island. Our reenactment unit is working on applying a grant from the Gardiner family foundation for an event. Julia is also featured in a Civil War Museum in PA (not sure if new NHP Gettsyburg Museum or the Harrisburg Civil War Museum) with someone reading in an exhibition from a letter she sent as she, a Yankee, lived in the South during the Civil War.
On another show there were two older women who were grandchildren of a Revolutionary War Veteran – also the from the youngest child of a much later wife.
I actually have a small bear named Waldo! He claims to be a grand nephew of the Great Waldo Pepper Bear, daring aviator, but he himself is not involved with airplanes at all.
A friend of my family had her youngest child (as far as I know) the same day as her oldest daughter (oldest child) had her first child. Not quite the spans you’ve been talking about, but still a trifle odd.
Comics I Don't Understand 
He’s the one who has to tell the bear she’s breaking up with it. Awkward.
He really wants to take the bear. But taking a stuffed animal from a kid is not cool.
Or he *doesn’t* want to take the bear, he was just being polite, and now is stuck.
Apparently, it’s a DIY comic.He gives us the raw materials, then we see what we want.
I took it as he doesn’t really like the bear, therefore he doesn’t want it. She put him in the awkward position of telling the bear he doesn’t like it.
I thought the same as Chak, and that Arlo was just messing with Meg, expecting her to demand that Arlo give it back.
But the conversation about the bear’s name in the first two panels is confusing. I guess it doesn’t really add to the joke.
I’m with Chak; he doesn’t want the bear, but how to say so?
I’d thought the same as most, but James’ version is funnier, so let’s go with it.
Two thoughts: First, if my granddaughter asked me to adopt her teddy bear (even though it’s apparently one that’s no longer near and dear to her), I would feel honored.
And second, apparently Arlo’s already having serious discussions with Waldo outside of Meg’s earshot — which is a little weird, to be honest, and makes me think he needs Waldo more than Meg does.
(Disclaimer: I technically do not have a granddaughter — but I have a niece 59 years my junior, which is essentially the same thing)
Bill,
Arlo also has serious discussions with Ludwig. Just sayin’
Meg is very old-fashioned: you slept with Waldo, you now have a committment to him.
He had a one night stand with the Teddy Bear, as is his wont, but as he was attempting to leave ’em after lovin’ ’em, he instead got introduced, so now he knows his hookup’s name, and so now is forced to have breakfast with ’em and make conversation, which is really awkward, amIrite?
Chak, at least Ludwig is alive. And to be honest, I consider this less weird than I used to after my discussions last summer with my cousin’s dog Dog.
Chatting with a stuffed animal (out of earshot of a child) is another matter.
Respectfully disagree. Animals real or stuffed make excellent confidantes.
But then, I’m a CCL (Crazy Cat Lady) so you should take what I say with a grain of salt.
Chak, I’m still making a distinction between live and stuffed animals.
Arlo is whimsical. This leads him to having conversations with things that don’t normally have conversations, purely for his own amusement. Not much different if it’s a (live) cat or a (stuffed) bear. Of course, if you have read all the back catalog, you know that the part of Ludwig the Cat is actually played by a dog, who (very rarely) gets a speaking part in the show.
I still say the “awkward” part is having to explain to the bear that the child no longer sees him as indispensible. If it were a person instead of a stuffed bear, that would be a breakup, Arlo’s whimsy has cast the stuffed bear in that role. It’s not that he wants the bear, there’s no setup that would support that. My explanation is based on observed events… Meg has decided to give poor Waldo away, and, thanks to the Toy Story movies, we know what that means.
Maybe my eyes are going, but Waldo looks seriously ticked off in that last panel.
And if Arlo didn’t want the bear, he should have said “Oh, I think he’ll be much happier staying with you” or soemthing like that. ‘Course, you wouldn’t have a comic, which is the ultimate point.
@CIDU Bill – a niece 59 years your junior is pretty good going. But how about actor Charles Dance, born 1946, who discovered in 2017 during a BBC Who Do You Think You Are? programme that he had a sister (well, half-sister) who was 48 years older than him? She was born 1898 and died in South Africa in the 1990s. He had no knowledge of her until nearly 120 years after her birth, but presumably she had heard of him. He was already pretty high profile for things like Jewel In The Crown by the time she died, even in South Africa, which had no TV service until 1975, and Dance is an unusual surname.
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2017/who-do-you-think-you-are/charles-dance–541/
Well, Narmitaj, my brother is 12 years younger than I am, and my niece is the child of a second marriage, which is how there came to be a bigger age gap between my niece and me than there was between my grandparents and me.
It’s interesting hearing of generational oddities like that. I know someone who is the aunt of a woman older than she is by a couple of years. I wonder what the record is for that sort of thing?
My youngest is 3 weeks shy of being 60 years younger than my wife’s oldest brother (who is 25 years older than she is). Technically, there’s a step-niece who’s about 3 years younger than my daughter, but there was a bit of a falling out between those sides of the family. My wife’s father basically invented the blended family by the late 1950s.
“the aunt of a woman older than she is by a couple of years” – oops, got that the wrong way round – the person I know is the niece. Her aunt is younger than she is as her father’s youngest sister was born a couple of years after she was.
President John Tyler was born in 1790, died in 1862, had 15 children, and two of his grandchildren are still alive: Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. born in 1924 and Harrison Ruffin Tyler born in 1928.
And frankly, the weirdest part of the comic is the first panel, “I slept with your teddy bear, Meg!”
Mick Jagger was born 1943 and has a son currently aged two; he also has a great-granddaughter who is almost five. There’s about 46 years between Jagger’s first child and most recent. I am great-uncle to a girl 59 years younger than me, but Jagger’s (currently) final child is great-uncle to a girl a couple of years older than he is.
And if Jagger’s last child reproduces at the same age as Jagger (73 – unlikely but clearly not implausible) and the offspring lives as long a Tyler’s g-granchildren (split the difference in their births to 1926, which is the year both my mother and the Queen were born), then that person could be sitting around in 2181 saying his grandad was born 238 years ago. He’s only have to get to 102 to make the full quarter-millennium!
I recited the verse I know from “Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear”, but it didn’t in the end illuminate the cartoon.
On the old TV show “I’ve Got a Secret” they had one of Tyler’s grandsons. (By the way, one can tour the Tyler family home Sherwood Forest Plantation on the John Tyler Highway (Rte 5) between Richmond and Williamsburg, VA and when we did some years ago, family members were about as they still seemed to still live in the house). His second wife (who the grandsons are descended from) was a Long Island Girl – Julia Gardiner Tyler of the Gardiner family & Gardiner Island. Our reenactment unit is working on applying a grant from the Gardiner family foundation for an event. Julia is also featured in a Civil War Museum in PA (not sure if new NHP Gettsyburg Museum or the Harrisburg Civil War Museum) with someone reading in an exhibition from a letter she sent as she, a Yankee, lived in the South during the Civil War.
On another show there were two older women who were grandchildren of a Revolutionary War Veteran – also the from the youngest child of a much later wife.
I actually have a small bear named Waldo! He claims to be a grand nephew of the Great Waldo Pepper Bear, daring aviator, but he himself is not involved with airplanes at all.
A friend of my family had her youngest child (as far as I know) the same day as her oldest daughter (oldest child) had her first child. Not quite the spans you’ve been talking about, but still a trifle odd.
@ MiB – The Smithsonian Magazine reported that one of Tyler’s grandsons died on September 26th.