
Month / October 2020
Years from now when you talk about this – and you will – be kind.

Danny Boy: “Well how many readers besides the old gaffers will recognize in this a reference to the movie ‘Tea and Sympathy’? And why try to use that allusion when the situation in the comic is nothing at all like the movie?”
Or, you know, if Max doesn’t want to trick-or-treat, just take him home; What’s the endgame here, to get him the maximum amount of candy?

Sorry, sometimes I just don’t have the patience to find humor in parents making their own jobs as unnecessarily difficult as possible.
Price of a small coke

The anonymous submitter asks: “Although virtually all of the movie theaters have been shut down because of Covid-19, I would be interested to know what a “small coke” currently costs in an American theater (or, for that matter, in any fast food restaurant). I’m betting that Breathed’s presumably wildly inflated $6 (in 1986) won’t sound all that inflated now.”
Post-wood? Happy trails?

Stan: “Wood you explain this, please. I get the idea, sort of, but when has this ever occurred? It seems like a pretty wild stretch just to make a ‘joke’ work. Am I missing a reference to something? Also, if it’s a ‘post-wood’ era, then what is the podium behind him made of? It looks like wood to me.”

And a CIDU-Eww from Ignatz.
It’s a stretch

From Stan, who says I’m ‘Racking my Brain’ to work it out.
Bonus for a lazy Sunday afternoon — The Polls are Open
But truth to tell, we just wanted an excuse to try out the poll feature and see if it really works. So here are two cases where various and sundry editors and senders-in were unsure whether and how to agree on how something would be taken, and said: let the vox pop have a say.
First up, Boise Ed sent this one in as a CIDU, asking: “What does the Casper the Friendly Ghost toon have to do with mattresses?”

However, it turns out the puzzle entirely dissolves, and the connection is clear, for people who happen to be aware of a certain fact. But is this a fact most readers will know, or only a few? And then, when you do know, is the cartoon a good joke, or a shrug?
Please record your view in the poll just below. And commenters, please refrain from explaining it all for about 24 hours, if you don’t mind. Thanks!
Next up, Andréa and Chak both sent in this Reality Check of a giant feline on the rampage!

It’s been called a CIDU, a LOL/Oy , and an Ewww. As CIDU: “What is this, just Catzilla? Or is there more to it?” . The Oy factor is the wordplay from the usual sense of “Big box store” for the kind of building, to an idea that it could mean a place to obtain a big box. The Ewww might be if you thought the giant cat wanted to find a suitably large litter box. And the LOL reading is still with the idea of obtaining a very big box, but just for the giant cat’s comfort and amusement — just like your housecat, who will play with and curl up in an empty cardboard box even in preference to the toy or pet bed that may have come in it.
Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 25th, 2020

Some viewers report “It took a second!”

A Halloween themed LOL from Todd. Also suggested by Olivier.

From Olivier.

A bad joke about making a bad joke!

An OY and a lol wrapped into one!
Saturday Morning Oy – October 24th

Sent in by Andréa. This is an Oy, but also a CIDU: why so many coats?


Also from Andréa.


From Olivier.

We don’t see “Shoe” all that often around here. But this seemed like a sweet OY, and ‘just what we deserve’.

A Tomversation from Ollie.
Bonus video for the weekend
For those who consider The New Yorker cartoons to be without rhyme or reason, see what your take is from this video of illustrated dialogue between the cartoon editor and one of their cartoonists.
https://www.newyorker.com/video/watch/liana-finck-demonstrates-how-to-draw-feelings
Which wouldn’t embed as a video from a general address, but let’s see if it is better as YouTube.