Well, if the baby is invisible, no one will see it coming…
But it is not the baby no-one saw coming, it is the announcement. To be the baby, it would have to be an announcement ABOUT something no-one saw coming.
I had to google to find out if Tim and Faith were real people rather than in-comic characters, and I see they are. They seem to have three visible daughters, all 19-yo or older.
However, I am no further on. Why a baby? The punchline could just have easily been an invisible church organ they were buying, couldn’t it? Or an invisble single they were releasing? Unless due to cultural ignorance I am missing some reference.
Nonetheless, despite the incongruity in language, I’m sure lazarusjohn has the cartoonist’s intent.
I thought they were talking about Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and it was just some country music in-joke that I didn’t get.
Narmitaj – Technically you’re correct, but I’m willing to overlook that small nit. Still, not exactly a knee slapper.
No one sees any newborn coming until the very last stage of pregnancy, unless they use x-rays.
Failed joke.
I don’t get it, either. And of all the celebrities in the world, why Tim and Faith, anyway?
Yes, I was going to say in my first comment that I was probably being a bit nitpicky, especially given the lack of space a cartoonist has in speech bubbles, but then I posted before I remembered to add that. And then I thought it wasn’t worth a second follow-up comment to mention it.
But turns out it is worth a second comment!
I still don’t get the joke. OK, you can’t see an invisible baby coming. But why pick this Tim and Faith, who have had visible babies 20 years ago and seem unlikely to be producing any more of whatever visibility.
In UK terms this might be more relevant, if no funnier, if it referred to Boris Johnson, our prime minister, who has an indeterminate number of children and about whom an announcement of an invisible baby would, in some respects, be one that people did see coming. (He has six kids at least – four with his second wife, one from an extra-marital affair, and the most recent with his current fiancée. He is thought to have at least one more, maybe even more – if not, surely he would just say he didn’t – but if so it/they is/are invisible.)
Harsh. I thought it was a fine joke. Why Tim and Faith? Why not Tim and Faith? The joke was supposed to be a click bait type headline and Tim and Faith are as typical click bait names as any. (Actually the more I think about it they are almost the perfect clickbait names; for some reason clickbait always focuses on fourth rate names of people I’m barely aware of yet sound familiar whom I know no-one who follows or care about the yet somehow their position of celebrities in the news is taken as entitlement.) And why a baby rather than a church organ? Well, it’s got to be click bait news, doesn’t it?
“Tim McGraw Reveals Romantic Surprise That Stunned Faith Hill”
That story is Apr 13; the cartoon seems to have a date of Apr 22. This isn’t a comic I am familiar with, but a web comic could have this short a lag time.
zbicyclist: Mike du Jour is a regular GoComics comic, but at least one other that I know of seems to get by with only about two weeks of lead time.
narmitaj: I too figured that due to cultural ignorance I was missing some reference. I’ve heard of Tim and Faith, but have no idea what their music lyrics or titles might be or how they might be relevant here. Apparently, no one here is among their fans, either.
And the comic specifically said “invisible baby,” not announcement or organ.
Just a riff on those clickbait headlines- they breathlessly promise some big reveal which is actually nothing at all, thus the non- (or invisible) baby.
Well, a woman recently gave birth on a flight from the mainland to Honolulu. In a follow-up story it turns out the baby was something like 12 weeks premature, and the mother didn’t know she was pregnant (?!), so I guess a baby doesn’t have to be invisible for no one to see it coming.
“and the mother didn’t know she was pregnant” — to tie this back into comic strips, that’s how L’il Abne’sr perpetually 15 1/2 year old younger brother Tiny was introduced to the strip — a neighbor came to visit Pansy Yokum with Tiny in tow, explaining that 15 1/2 years ago Pansy had been visiting her, was “not feeling well,” and had a baby, apparently while passed out, though she’d never even realized she was pregnant.
I don’t know (in universe) why the neighbor decided to keep that a secret for so long or why she eventually passed him along to the Yokum family.
After Daisy Mae caught Li’l Abner in the Sadie Hawkins Day race and they got married, they were no longer eligible to run in the race. And that is why Tiny Yokum had to suddenly appear: so that there would be a major character in the race.
“Tim and Faith” certainly has instant name recognition to me, and it is not like I’m a big country music fan. Also, I’ve certainly seen their names plenty on both actual clickbait and supermarket tabloids. However, that probably has something to do with my mid-western geezer-ish demographics.
And quite frankly, both of them have had significant success outside the realm of country music. Faith Hill at the top of her popularity was actually quite the cross-over success, charting three #1 albums and four top 10 hits on the pop charts in the space of four years/ In addition to McGraw’s accomplishments as a county recording artist, Tim has had notable success as an actor (e,g,, starring opposite Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”) and was featured on a top 10 hit by rap artist Nelly.
So basically, you have couple of multi-platinum recording artists with 8 Grammy awards between them, She’s gorgeous. They bought an island in the Bahamas. He’s the illegitimate son of a fairly famous baseball player (and unacknowledged by his biological father until he was 17) . She was adopted shortly after her birth and spent years searching for her birth mother. Though the course of almost a quarter century of marriage, they’ve been subject to countless rumors of infidelities, pending breakups and reconciliations, and substance abuse problems. He went public with his substance abuse recovery story, saying how he got clean for her. He’s had significant acting roles in movies with Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon. Oh– and they recently put their island up for sale– at $35Million!
So yeah, there’s plenty of fodder for clickbait.
But I think the big reason for why “Tim and Faith” is a piece of clickbait that has been circulating for almost four years now– “After 21 years of marriage Tim and Faith make a surprise announcement” or variations thereof. They want you to think its the announcement of their breakup, but it’s really just about a joint tour and album. I know I saw it again just a few of weeks ago. I’m guessing the comic creator did, too. At this point neither the announcement nor the subject matter is surprising.
And FWIW, if you could not see the kid, you also would be unlikely to envision an that an announcement of the kids arrival is imminent
Comics I Don't Understand 
Well, if the baby is invisible, no one will see it coming…
But it is not the baby no-one saw coming, it is the announcement. To be the baby, it would have to be an announcement ABOUT something no-one saw coming.
I had to google to find out if Tim and Faith were real people rather than in-comic characters, and I see they are. They seem to have three visible daughters, all 19-yo or older.
However, I am no further on. Why a baby? The punchline could just have easily been an invisible church organ they were buying, couldn’t it? Or an invisble single they were releasing? Unless due to cultural ignorance I am missing some reference.
Nonetheless, despite the incongruity in language, I’m sure lazarusjohn has the cartoonist’s intent.
I thought they were talking about Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and it was just some country music in-joke that I didn’t get.
Narmitaj – Technically you’re correct, but I’m willing to overlook that small nit. Still, not exactly a knee slapper.
No one sees any newborn coming until the very last stage of pregnancy, unless they use x-rays.
Failed joke.
I don’t get it, either. And of all the celebrities in the world, why Tim and Faith, anyway?
Yes, I was going to say in my first comment that I was probably being a bit nitpicky, especially given the lack of space a cartoonist has in speech bubbles, but then I posted before I remembered to add that. And then I thought it wasn’t worth a second follow-up comment to mention it.
But turns out it is worth a second comment!
I still don’t get the joke. OK, you can’t see an invisible baby coming. But why pick this Tim and Faith, who have had visible babies 20 years ago and seem unlikely to be producing any more of whatever visibility.
In UK terms this might be more relevant, if no funnier, if it referred to Boris Johnson, our prime minister, who has an indeterminate number of children and about whom an announcement of an invisible baby would, in some respects, be one that people did see coming. (He has six kids at least – four with his second wife, one from an extra-marital affair, and the most recent with his current fiancée. He is thought to have at least one more, maybe even more – if not, surely he would just say he didn’t – but if so it/they is/are invisible.)
Harsh. I thought it was a fine joke. Why Tim and Faith? Why not Tim and Faith? The joke was supposed to be a click bait type headline and Tim and Faith are as typical click bait names as any. (Actually the more I think about it they are almost the perfect clickbait names; for some reason clickbait always focuses on fourth rate names of people I’m barely aware of yet sound familiar whom I know no-one who follows or care about the yet somehow their position of celebrities in the news is taken as entitlement.) And why a baby rather than a church organ? Well, it’s got to be click bait news, doesn’t it?
https://cmtcody.iheart.com/content/2021-04-13-tim-mcgraw-reveals-romantic-surprise-that-stunned-faith-hill/
“Tim McGraw Reveals Romantic Surprise That Stunned Faith Hill”
That story is Apr 13; the cartoon seems to have a date of Apr 22. This isn’t a comic I am familiar with, but a web comic could have this short a lag time.
zbicyclist: Mike du Jour is a regular GoComics comic, but at least one other that I know of seems to get by with only about two weeks of lead time.
narmitaj: I too figured that due to cultural ignorance I was missing some reference. I’ve heard of Tim and Faith, but have no idea what their music lyrics or titles might be or how they might be relevant here. Apparently, no one here is among their fans, either.
And the comic specifically said “invisible baby,” not announcement or organ.
Just a riff on those clickbait headlines- they breathlessly promise some big reveal which is actually nothing at all, thus the non- (or invisible) baby.
Well, a woman recently gave birth on a flight from the mainland to Honolulu. In a follow-up story it turns out the baby was something like 12 weeks premature, and the mother didn’t know she was pregnant (?!), so I guess a baby doesn’t have to be invisible for no one to see it coming.
“and the mother didn’t know she was pregnant” — to tie this back into comic strips, that’s how L’il Abne’sr perpetually 15 1/2 year old younger brother Tiny was introduced to the strip — a neighbor came to visit Pansy Yokum with Tiny in tow, explaining that 15 1/2 years ago Pansy had been visiting her, was “not feeling well,” and had a baby, apparently while passed out, though she’d never even realized she was pregnant.
I don’t know (in universe) why the neighbor decided to keep that a secret for so long or why she eventually passed him along to the Yokum family.
After Daisy Mae caught Li’l Abner in the Sadie Hawkins Day race and they got married, they were no longer eligible to run in the race. And that is why Tiny Yokum had to suddenly appear: so that there would be a major character in the race.
“Tim and Faith” certainly has instant name recognition to me, and it is not like I’m a big country music fan. Also, I’ve certainly seen their names plenty on both actual clickbait and supermarket tabloids. However, that probably has something to do with my mid-western geezer-ish demographics.
And quite frankly, both of them have had significant success outside the realm of country music. Faith Hill at the top of her popularity was actually quite the cross-over success, charting three #1 albums and four top 10 hits on the pop charts in the space of four years/ In addition to McGraw’s accomplishments as a county recording artist, Tim has had notable success as an actor (e,g,, starring opposite Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”) and was featured on a top 10 hit by rap artist Nelly.
So basically, you have couple of multi-platinum recording artists with 8 Grammy awards between them, She’s gorgeous. They bought an island in the Bahamas. He’s the illegitimate son of a fairly famous baseball player (and unacknowledged by his biological father until he was 17) . She was adopted shortly after her birth and spent years searching for her birth mother. Though the course of almost a quarter century of marriage, they’ve been subject to countless rumors of infidelities, pending breakups and reconciliations, and substance abuse problems. He went public with his substance abuse recovery story, saying how he got clean for her. He’s had significant acting roles in movies with Sandra Bullock and Reese Witherspoon. Oh– and they recently put their island up for sale– at $35Million!
So yeah, there’s plenty of fodder for clickbait.
But I think the big reason for why “Tim and Faith” is a piece of clickbait that has been circulating for almost four years now– “After 21 years of marriage Tim and Faith make a surprise announcement” or variations thereof. They want you to think its the announcement of their breakup, but it’s really just about a joint tour and album. I know I saw it again just a few of weeks ago. I’m guessing the comic creator did, too. At this point neither the announcement nor the subject matter is surprising.
And FWIW, if you could not see the kid, you also would be unlikely to envision an that an announcement of the kids arrival is imminent