@Mitch: Cannibal pots are pretty problematic these days. I think the only time you see desert islands is either in Super-Fun Pak, mocking the concept, or occasionally Hagar. Psychiatrist couches, OTHO, seem to be doing all right, better if you include doctor and patient sitting in chairs. Two guys chained to the dungeon wall is also still going strong.
Clearly the era hasn’t passed of telling one’s woes to another in a bar. Speaking of which, I’m not so sure telling that to a traffic court judge would necessarily hurt his case. Probably wouldn’t help but…
DemetriosX: “Two guys chained to the dungeon wall is still going strong.” Even if some of the variations are atrociously drawn and the joke isn’t very funny; yup. Witness today’s CLOSE TO HOME.
Years ago I saw an interesting book in the library. It was published in the 1940’s or 1950’s and it was intended as a resource for cartoonists who had run out of ideas. It had several thousand short descriptions of potential cartoons, for instance: Devil in elevator, frightened elevator operator runs out: “He wants to go DOWN!”
From it I learned that there were short names for all the tropes, like “desert crawler.”
Carl: I saw your post but didn’t fully process it, and the mental image I immediately got was a cauldron with a lot of teeth and a large pink tongue. (Then it took me a while trying to reconcile that with “joint” before I realized I’d misread.)
@ Shrug – My word.: two tolerable CtH comics with a week – about as rare as a pair of eclipses within a month. We can add another category to his capability list: “Space Aliens”, and “Fuzzy Dungeon Prisoners”.
I used to (and may still) have a button ‘Does “anal retentive” have a hyphen? How about a colon?’
Go to http COLON w w w period nancybuttons period com slash catalog period cgi if you want one. (Pardon the moderation avoidance.)
And I can’t remember its name, but there’s a filk song whose refrain asks
Does anal-retentive have a hyphen or not?
Does a fella fall forward or back when he’s shot?
And does Dolly Parton really have what she’s got?
Does anal-retentive have a hyphen or not?
Arthur: your song about the hyphen reminds me of a recent Paula Poundstone podcast. Every week there is a “word of the week” and an ever-growing song about all the words.
Sung to what can only charitably be called a tune:
This week’s word is sesquipedalian
It means a foot and a half long.
It’s also an adjective to describe a very long word
Or a person who uses very long words.
It’s sesquipedalian to say “sesquipedalian”.
Replying to Arthur: The filksinger is Joe Bethancourt and song is called “Unanswered Questions”. I have it on a CD called “The Best of Conterpoint 3”; I don’t know where else he might have recorded it.
Comics I Don't Understand 
OK, let’s make that “Russian Nesting Dolls”,”Gesundheit!”, “Death”, AND “Clown Car” comics.
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Kilby, that wouldn’t be much of a competition: Death would win with one bony arm tied behind his back.
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@ Bill – We could level the playing field by letting the other three types band together to gang up on Death.
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Has the era passed of peak desert Island, psychiatrist couch, and cannibal pot?
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@Mitch: Cannibal pots are pretty problematic these days. I think the only time you see desert islands is either in Super-Fun Pak, mocking the concept, or occasionally Hagar. Psychiatrist couches, OTHO, seem to be doing all right, better if you include doctor and patient sitting in chairs. Two guys chained to the dungeon wall is also still going strong.
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I saw “cannibal pot” and my mental image was of a joint eating people.
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A cannibal pot would be a joint that eats other joints. A joint that eats humans is a mad reefer.
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Clearly the era hasn’t passed of telling one’s woes to another in a bar. Speaking of which, I’m not so sure telling that to a traffic court judge would necessarily hurt his case. Probably wouldn’t help but…
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I saw the ‘man crawling thru the desert’ trope just this week – he was crawling thru a kid’s sandbox. Certainly a different take on it.
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I’m not sure when this was actually published, but it showed up on one of my feeds today:
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DemetriosX: “Two guys chained to the dungeon wall is still going strong.” Even if some of the variations are atrociously drawn and the joke isn’t very funny; yup. Witness today’s CLOSE TO HOME.
https://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2020/01/26
Certainly makes me start to think Torquemada sometimes may have had the right idea.
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Kilby: We could level the playing field by letting the other three types band together to gang up on Death
Kilby, the part I love most about that is that I can call it Death Match.
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Years ago I saw an interesting book in the library. It was published in the 1940’s or 1950’s and it was intended as a resource for cartoonists who had run out of ideas. It had several thousand short descriptions of potential cartoons, for instance: Devil in elevator, frightened elevator operator runs out: “He wants to go DOWN!”
From it I learned that there were short names for all the tropes, like “desert crawler.”
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Carl: I saw your post but didn’t fully process it, and the mental image I immediately got was a cauldron with a lot of teeth and a large pink tongue. (Then it took me a while trying to reconcile that with “joint” before I realized I’d misread.)
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@ Shrug – My word.: two tolerable CtH comics with a week – about as rare as a pair of eclipses within a month. We can add another category to his capability list: “Space Aliens”, and “Fuzzy Dungeon Prisoners”.
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I used to (and may still) have a button ‘Does “anal retentive” have a hyphen? How about a colon?’
Go to http COLON w w w period nancybuttons period com slash catalog period cgi if you want one. (Pardon the moderation avoidance.)
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And I can’t remember its name, but there’s a filk song whose refrain asks
Does anal-retentive have a hyphen or not?
Does a fella fall forward or back when he’s shot?
And does Dolly Parton really have what she’s got?
Does anal-retentive have a hyphen or not?
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Andréa, for all I know the idea for that cartoon may be in the book I mentioned. If so, here’s what it says: Desert crawler in child’s sandbox.
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Arthur: your song about the hyphen reminds me of a recent Paula Poundstone podcast. Every week there is a “word of the week” and an ever-growing song about all the words.
Sung to what can only charitably be called a tune:
This week’s word is sesquipedalian
It means a foot and a half long.
It’s also an adjective to describe a very long word
Or a person who uses very long words.
It’s sesquipedalian to say “sesquipedalian”.
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Replying to Arthur: The filksinger is Joe Bethancourt and song is called “Unanswered Questions”. I have it on a CD called “The Best of Conterpoint 3”; I don’t know where else he might have recorded it.
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Thank you. I suspect that I have it on the same CD, but I couldn’t find it. I try to correctly cite writers/composers when I can.
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