Show of hands, did the term “body shop” make you think of lotions and scents, or crumpled fenders?
A couple of maggiethecartoonist suggestions:
When BillR sent this one in, we all racked our brains for common sayings, or notable events, or famous stories, involving tomatoes and lemons …
… but then it dawned on us that there is a traditional remark about comparisons, and it involves apples and oranges. So this could be a joke about literalizing that idiomatic remark, thrown into confusion by a colorist’s error! (Subsequently we found it discussed at the Comic Strip of the Day site, and there also attributed to colorist error.)
Here’s one spotted by Usual John at Comics Kingdom. It feels eerily like something we just recently saw, and discussed, with remarks about how it could stand in for a motto for CIDU. But then again, there’s today’s date, 5-31, right there in the panel; which makes it less likely this could actually be an oldie that CK happened to replay today.
Update! We put the above questions to an expert archivalist, who came thru with answers!
First of all, yes this was a rerun; but because the previous Comics Kingdom appearance was exactly a year earlier, on 2022-05-31, the date “5-31” embedded in the artwork for panel 3 does not mean this comic was actually new this week; nor does it make that date a paste-over job. (Though the syndication copyright notice running vertically between panels 1 and 2 does have the current year inserted.)
Also, it did appear at CIDU, and get discussed, on its publication date last year. Which is not really “just recently” as suggested above, but also is not absurdly far off.
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Comics I Don't Understand 
At https://arts.uchicago.edu/logan-center/logan-center-exhibitions/upcoming/mfa-thesis-exhibition-and-and-and-part-ii please note the venue is given as Muffler Shop, reflecting the previous function of the building.
Okay, for me “a body shop” lowercase, would be automotive. I’m aware of the lotions and powders chain “The Body Shop” but am unlikely to use that generic or common noun form if I needed to speak of a store belonging to that chain. It would probably have to be “a Body Shop store” or “outlet”.
It’s tomato/tomahtoe. There are yellow tomatoes.
Also, I saw the building and therefore knew it was about fenders, so the ambiguity in the phrase didn’t matter in my case.
I saw the apples-and-oranges one, and kind of assumed coloring error. That seems to happen frequently on GC.
Re: Cul de Sac – It was definitely “fenders” for me, and I think that’s necessary for Thompson’s gag, so that Beni’s reaction (interpreting “body” to mean “dead human body”) is a surprising twist.
P.S. The Washington Post Writer’s Group is down to just three comic strips in their syndication lineup, and two of them are “Reply All” (“normal” & “lite”). I wonder whether WPWG thinks that they are really that good, or is it simply that they can’t get another syndicate to take them off their hands…
P.P.S. As long as we are discussing inscrutable humor, Frog Applause appears to be kicking back at ignorant and/or insensitive readers.
P.P.P.S. @ Maggie – I don’t think that GoComics directly responsible for coloration, that’s really the duty of the strip’s author and/or syndicate. GoComics is just a pipeline. The coloration quality is highly variable, some strips are much more prone to errors than others.
Carl Fink, I can’t buy “tomato / tomahtoe” here; bringing up “comparison” just shouts “you’re comparing apples and oranges”! Also the leaf on the twig is sort of iconic for “apple” even if possible for tomato.
Always the odd (wo)man out, I immediately thought of a hospital, although it doesn’t match the picture.
When I first working at Megacorp, my project was part of a larger one with various companies involved. One was in San Diego. I never went on a trip there, but several of my cow-orkers did. At the time, there was a strip club called “The Body Shop” that the guys would often attend.
Re: Cul de Sac: definitely crumpled fenders. “A body shop,” not “The Body Shop” plus I’ve never seen the scented lotions sort as a free-standing business, only part of a mall, whereas body shops that repair vehicles are often lone businesses.
“Oranges (?) and lemons” say the bells of St Clemens …
It’s fenders for me too, but I don’t see any way for the cars to drive into the shop.
I thought I might find that phrase in this, but no luck. Still, not a waste of time watching Pete’s impassioned rendition.
Aha, it’s a different rhyme, and London not Wales, and not searingly political…
From the Wikipedia article “Oranges and Lemons”–
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin’s.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells at Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells at Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell at Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop chip chop the last man is dead[1]
Okay, the Oranges and Lemons rhyme is recorded in writing in the 18th century, but The Bells of Rhymney is 20th Century and known authorship –
”
The Bells of Rhymney” is a song by folk singer Pete Seeger, which consists of Seeger’s own music accompanying words written by Welsh poet Idris Davies. Seeger first released a recording of the song on a live album in 1958, but it is the American folk rock band the Byrds’ 1965 recording that is the best known version of the song.”
The odd part of Cul de Sac is “architecturally significant.”
It’s a box.
@ Chak – Actually, a hospital with those dimensions would be oddly appropriate for Cul de Sac: paralleling the size of Peter Otterloop’s microscopic car:
I seem to remember “Oranges and Lemons” in the book 1984. Winston Smith is trying to track down that half-remembered rhyme, but large parts of history have been deliberately erased.
There is an album by the late British humorist Les Barker by the title of “Oranges And Lemmings”.