OY by virtue of ambiguous parsing of [[comic strip] bar] versus [comic [strip bar]]. But y’know, as Will Rogers is never quite quoted as saying, I never meta man I didn’t like. And also a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, else what’s a metaphor?
Who’s ready for a bit more Fusco?
In case you are unfamiliar with the referenced candy:
Comics I Don't Understand 
I’d say the smarties in Cornered are more likely to be the ones that are similar to M&Ms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smarties).
Having lived in the UK, I am familiar with both and wondered which was intended. Either could work, depending upon coloring (and we know how in/reliable that can be). A nice transatlantic comic, I suppose. Where is the artist from?
Agree with DemetriosX: that’s also what “Smarties” mean in Canada. And since Baldwin was born in Ontario, I think that’s more likely.
I wonder if Baldwin doesn’t even realize that Americans won’t get this! I was in Ontario from age 8-25, have been back in the U.S. since 1986, and still trip over stuff occasionally, like the recent time I went into a liquor store rand said I was looking for a mickey of bourbon for a recipe. Clerk just looked at me; I looked it up later, confirmed that “mickey” for a pint flask is a Canadianism.
Just-pulling-your-leg guy has apparently had his entire face peeled off, though.
@ Carl Fink (4) – Chuckle Bros. don’t do faces, they just do noses; in this case there’s a bonus feature: you can see his open mouth, despite the mask.
I was unfamiliar with the Nestle (UK, etc.) version of Smarties. I learn something new and useless every day.
The canonical Smarties ad:
I went to a boarding school in York, 1968-75, York being the home of Rowntree and Smarties. My parents (from Somerset and Kent) met there by Happenstance and Aftermath of War in 1946, and my older brother was born there (though I myself got borned in Beirut in the late 50s).
Rowntree (along with Fry and Cadbury) was a Quaker choco company, and my school, Bootham, was one of about nine Quaker public schools in the UK at the time. In fact, 2023 is its 200th anniversary. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootham_School – though you can see I am not one of its notable alumni.
In the late 60s/early 70s there were several smells in the air in York that no longer exist: the pong of burning coal from everyone’s personal chimneys (and our school’s central heating system); the sweet but raw tang from sugar beet processing out in the distant hinterland; and the sweet aroma of chocolate from the Rowntree factory, then still operating and making Smarties before they moved production to Germany (see the Wiki link of DemetriosX above).
Maybe because of the Quaker connection, or more probably because any school or group could do it, we had a visit to the Rowntree factory. If my memory is accurate, I remember seeing Smarties being processed, probably being coated, in a device that basically looked like a cement mixer.
I still eat Smarties, but pretty well only when seeing a film in a cinema.
One of my Bootham schoolmates, who I still see regularly, is a Rowntree – connected to the chocolate people, though I believe his branch split a generation above.
Yes, I was aware that Americans may not get the Smarties reference, as my editor pointed out. But I ran it anyway just to be a smartie pants.
@ Mike Baldwin (9) – I think the “smarties” reference still works perfectly in association with the American incarnation of the candy. Both varieties are round and multicolored.
P.S. I don’t think I have eaten any of the American “Smarties” since I moved to Germany nearly three decades ago. Nevertheless, even though I have plenty of contact here with those chocolate “Smarties” (I ate a few of them just last week), when I see the name, I still think of the American version first.
I used to eat SweeTarts all the time. They are an American candy that is almost identical to the British Smarties, although some people say there is a difference, SweeTarts having more flavor and being less crumbly or something.
SweeTarts are almost identical to American Smarties; European (and apparently Canadian) Smarties are like M&Ms….
larK: Smarties are like crappy M&Ms. The chocolate is pretty tasteless.
phsiiicidu –
When husband and I are traveling it is by car/RV in the US, though in our younger years we did cross the border and go to Toronto and Montreal on a trip another) we try hard to hide our NYC area accents. We have learned to say things such as – “$1.00 is your change” instead of “Your change is $1.00” – and many other expressions which vary by area in the US (and NYC area has a big assortment of them).
When we were on our two trips to Canada (yes, I have left the country – these 2 trips and I went on a trip to Mexico with a female college friend before R & I got together plus 5 trips to the UN building in NYC – always told that was leaving the US – three times with my dad to buy stamps in their gift shop, once on a school trip, and once while walking around in Manhattan with R – strangely they do seem well acquainted with NYese at the UN :-).
@ Phil (13) – It’s worth mentioning that European Smarties come in two different sizes. The large one are about 1.5 times the diameter of a plain M&M (and weigh at least twice as much), whereas the small ones are about 2/3rds the diameter (and weigh about half as much). In my experience, the small ones taste much better, probably because they have more sugar coating in relation to the amount of cheap chocolate.