Cute enough!
Thanks to Boise Ed for this OY-CIDU from Lola:
The partial CIDU designation is occasioned by the surprisingly large number of GoComics commenters who aver they just don’t get it — even after putting together “Skip Recap”. Evidently not in the habit of watching serialized TV over a streaming service.
The squirrel’s comment was briefly puzzling. The drawing doesn’t look much like a bottle, nor a glass, so the “alcoholic beverages” reading of “spirits” was blocked. But that’s what it has to be, isn’t it?
Comics I Don't Understand 
At first I thought Ernie took “wideout” directly from the Batiuktionary, but Wikipedia confirms that it really is an alternative name for a “wide receiver” (or “split end”).
P.S. I was able to concatenate “skip recap” when I first saw the comic last week, but the GoComics comments were no help at all, so I did not really understand what it meant until I read the editorial caption here. It should have been obvious: Currently my son and I are in the middle of the sixth season of “The Big Bang Theory” on DVD, and the first new episode of each new season includes exactly that kind of a quick summary.
P.P.S. The primary defect in the drawing of the squirrel is that his right front paw is missing between his shoulder and his tooth. He is holding a short cocktail glass with a swizzle stick in it. I don’t know enough about mixed drinks to recognize what sort of cocktail would be served that way.
P.P.P.S. In the mid 1980s I attended a non-denominational religious event that was held at sports arena in southern California. As usual, the gender division of the restrooms was (at best) 50:50, so the women’s lines were extremely long, whereas the men’s facilities had very short lines. The solution was obvious, but nobody was willing to take the first step until two Catholic nuns (in full regalia) broke the gender barrier and got into a line for a men’s room (I was lucky enough to see this happen). It was brilliant, and while it did not solve the inequality, it did go a long way toward balancing the lengths, both for all the women who were bold enough to follow suit, as well as for those who stayed in the women’s lines, which were then correspondingly shorter.
P.P.P.P.S. A recent post at The Daily Cartoonist has some interesting information on this subject, including a link to an article that points out that “…unisex facilities would solve not only the lines/no lines issue but issues of gender identity as well…”
In Illinois, single-person bathrooms are required to be labelled unisex now. It’s an obvious improvement in queuing.
Of course the men’s room line is shorter. There are no men in a convent.
The squirrel is holding a VERY badly drawn (even for this comic) highball glass with stirrer in it.
I spent a year working for an all-women college, but due to equal access laws (meant to protect women, ironically) there were equal numbers of men’s and women’s bathrooms. I never had to wait. (Another small co-ed school nearby sometimes used our lecture rooms, so there were non-faculty men on campus, just not many.)
Looks like WP didn’t like my previous comment about the squirrel since I logged in the wrong way or something. Anyway, the squirrel is holding a badly drawn highball glass with a stirrer.
I thought the squirrel was holding one of those “spirit boxes” that ghost hunters use, though that wouldn’t have fit with the “spirits=alcohol” bit.
The toilets in my nearest big art cinema, the Watershed in Bristol are now unisex. No urinals, and all the stalls have extremely close-fitting doors (and some individual stalls have sinks and a dryer in them, if you don’t like washing your hands in public).
The entrance to the facility is wide and has no door; it’s open to the mezzanine area and a staff desk, crewed for access to the theatres, with line of sight into the central basins area. So yes, queues and issues of gender identity don’t need to arise, and it’s better for men with paruresis (shy bladder syndrome) too. And with the non-closable access no one need fear being trapped inside with a madman with an axe so much.
My local swimming pool in Cheddar has long had a unisex changing room. The lockers are in the middle but everyone changes in stalls with lockable doors (though these are not so tightly sealed as the Watershed’s loo) and I imagine a small child, at least, could scoot under the partitions, and the partitions in the showers for that matter. Again, the entrance to the pool area is wide and doorless, and the main lifeguard station looks into the changing area.
I once went to a programming conference. First time (and I think last) I’ve ever seen men’s room lines that were longer than the women’s (200+ attendees, I was one of … 11? 15? women there).
I’m pretty sure the squirrel is holding a traditional eggnog with cinnamon stick. Is the 11/28 date too early for eggnog?
I’m familiar with the phrase “skip recap” but IDU the joke. Is the joke just that the nickname “Skip” is also a word? Would it be equally funny if the friend’s name were Bob Forapples or Ben Fishing? I’m just not seeing any context that makes the name meaningful.
Some old monasteries, and even some old colleges, had only men’s rooms. Because what would a — EWW! A GURL! — be doing in a monastery or men’s college?
I don’t use and streaming services, so “skip recap” was unknown to me.
My last location at Megacorp, while I was still a productive member of society, had less than ten women in the building. Some of the guys quipped that they all had personal stalls in the restroom.
One of the problems with women trying to use an active mens room is that the guys will have been using the stalls as extra urinals until that point. So they tend to be in quite a state.
“Bob Forapples” Excellent! I want a crack at this!
Phil Errup
Lou Sparts
Di Abetic
Will Umarryme
And the obvious… Rhea Latee Czech
@jajizi, what makes you think it’s a convent? It could just be a church.
@narmitaj, there are people who are shy about washing their hands?
“And the obvious… Rhea Latee Czech”
That may not be as obvious as I intended. I mixed up the comic that Andrew was referring to with Mr. Whamond’s work. As the name of the actual comic is already a name, I’m out of this. Sorry.
@Carl Fink – might be some people who prefer not to hang about in public spaces having their hand-washing technique noticed and criticised (“Eww you don’t cover all surfaces including the palm and backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails for at least 20 seconds??). And other people who prefer not to bother at all but can walk out of the sink-equipped stall looking as though they had done it.
I don’t know the real reason they put little sinks in some of the stalls, mind you.
Carl, the washing up stations in restrooms often provide vide mirrors and are used for adjusting one’s clothing and appearance, perhaps touching up hair and makeup — for men as well as women albeit perhaps to different degrees on some of those parameters. And all of this does provide a basis for being shy of strangers.
Andrew Millar, I thought the same thing when I saw the Skip Recap strip. There was a type of joke that was popular in my youth which include the name of a fictitious book and it’s title. Something like “Getting in Shape” by Jim Nastics. Had the Lola strip added that his friend Skip works for Netflix, it would have been funnier.
Thank you for explaining the Lola – and no, we mostly don’t use a streaming service. (Just for “Saturday night date night movies on TV” since Covid started and then only if he does find something on the cable channels we have. – Yes, we are old people.
We used to go to some event which was considerably heavier on male attendance than female. It has slipped my mind as to what it was – James Bond Convention? Reenactment? Computer show? Well, whatever. There was something like 5 women and a LOT of men; we ladies greatly enjoyed watching the fellows stand in line while there was – literally – a booth in the ladies room for each of us women.
And if it was a reenactment – well, men’s clothing was a lot harder to deal with for what one would gone into the toilet for than women’s in the 1700s – women did not even wear bifurcated undergarments back then, while for men – getting a shirt which hangs down to one’s knees into a pair of breeches and getting the breeches buttoned take a lot of juggling – I have seen Robert getting dressed in his “period dress” clothing. (Though to be fair, I do need his help to tie my petticoat – skirt – closed, I can never tie it tight enough – but this is not something which would need to be done if I was using “the facilities” .)