Month / April 2024

by EditorM

Terribly sorry, I’m afraid I don’t speak English!

Think of this as a followup to our thread from last December about Searle’s Chinese Room problem. However, the cartoon there came from the Daily Nous site, where everything is supposed to be philosophy (or usually institutional news); this one graced the pages of GoComics.

How lucky that the randomly-generated sounds coming from Man2 actually constituted correct directions to the Post Office!

But how unlucky, as Man1 actually wanted to go to the metro!

by zbicyclist

Snacking in Style?

travelgirl and Boise Ed and Mdbrownmd all sent this in.

“I suppose that Wayno is contrasting the formalwear with the casual floral shirts that TJ people wear at work. That’s the closest I can come to discerning a joke here.”

“Am i dense for an inability to understand the caption as it relates to the visual? the couple appear to be married, formally-dressed, watching TV while eating food “well-dressed” people probably aren’t going to order often, at least not while wearing gowns and tuxedos…

And why Trader Joe’s? please help enlighten someone who just woke up a few minutes ago :) “

“I just don’t get it, and I shop at Trader Joe’s all the time.”

by Kilby

April Fools Review

This “Barney & Clyde” strip was submitted by Usual John:

I think the gag is that the strip itself does not have (and does not need) a gag, but I’m sure there are other possible explanations.

I went hunting to see if there were any other worthwhile April Fools’ strips, but was sorely disappointed. Almost all of the “standard” setups simply showed one character playing a typically lame practical joke on someone else. The best strips were those few that elevated the humor with some sort of “meta” component. Here are a few examples:


(I especially liked this “Thatababy” strip because this year, my daughter decided to rearrange the silverware drawer as an April Fools’ joke. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, because we all just assumed that she had forgotten the usual arrangement.)

The last two examples are from the great Comic Strip Switcheroo (1-Apr-1997):

P.S. Feel free to embed your own favorite April Fools’ comics in the comments!

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, April 7th, 2024

Keep doing variations on a theme, and sooner or later you’ll hit on one the fans don’t remember!

Have you seen the meme about the Welsh translation service?

Is the shell the choice spot for petting a tortoise?

Quite the wily allusion.

But only on condition they walk in together.

Geezer Alert!

This is the LOL-Weird entry for the week. Bizarro in more than name alone!

Thanks to Grawlix and Chemgal for suggesting this artist:

Here’s the LOL-Aww promised in the tags.

by EditorM

DUST

Is the joke just that there are social distinctions even among these kinds of items? Or is there an aspect that “dustbin” might be more of a British-sounding term and thus carry some cachet for those American cans?

Featured image (at top): “The dust-heaps, Somers Town, in 1836.” From an engraved wood print, circa 1880.
From this UC Santa Cruz site, about Dickens’s last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend (whose early drafts reportedly were titled Dust).