Boise Ed submitted this Rabbits Against Magic strip as a CIDU almost exactly two years ago, but his commentary may have made it seem too political to appear here. I’ve adjusted Ed’s comment to remove the political adjectives: “I don’t get it. Why would a Twitter bankruptcy make the … fox move out of his parents’ basement? Someone [else] replied ‘Because without Twitter, he’s got nothing else to do‘, but I still don’t see a connection [between] … ‘Twitter’ and ‘basement’.“
… P.S. “Xitter” hasn’t gone bankrupt since it was senselessly renamed, but hasn’t been for lack of effort.
Over the past few weeks, I have discovered several CIDU submissions of comics from The Far Side. These were never posted for a simple reason: back in July 2023, FarWorks issued a “take-down” copyright complaint to WordPress, and WP summarily deleted about a dozen comics from various CIDU posts.
Even though CIDU has always operated under the principle of “fair use”, none of us has the time, nor the money, nor the legal standing to pursue this issue. I find it especially aggravating that CIDU has been used as a scapegoat (via WordPress): FarWorks has done nothing about the thousands of Far Side cartoons posted to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Xitter. It would seem as if Gary Larson doesn’t really care so much about his work appearing elsewhere, the real sin is to present and discussThe Far Side outside of Larson’s belatedly established “hallowed grounds”.
Therefore, for this singular special occasion, I will use the same technique as in the recent “NSFW Experiment” post, providing links for the following comics (to external websites), so that everyone can confirm which one was meant, along with the text of the CIDU reader’s original submission.
Keera submitted this one (from 1981, rerun on 29-Mar-2024) as a CIDU. It shows a creature lying on its back on a standard mattress in the middle of a field, surrounded by three observers of the same kind of animal, one of which appears to have folded paws. Keera wrote: “There’s usually a caption. There are also people who comment. But I haven’t read those. I’ve decided to let you guys tell me if these are porcupines (?) at a funeral, or testing a mattress, or what.“
Solution: The animals are indeed porcupines, and it is a mattress, but it’s not a funeral. The gag is simply an inversion of the classic comic meme of a fakir “resting” on a bed of nails:
For the “Welcome POTP” comic that was originally published on 13-Aug-1988, here is the description that J-L provided: “This … appears to show a meeting/reunion of people, with a banner above reading ‘WELCOME POTP‘. The caption reads: ‘The 25th annual “Part of the Problem” convention‘.“
J-L went on to write: “I don’t get it. I found this cartoon as #3 in an article showcasing a set of ten confusing/strange ‘Far Side’ Comics from 1988 that can be found here(+). The author of the article can’t explain this one, either. Can you?“
It’s not a big laugh, but the humorous incongruity is that these idiots (for lack of a better term) are celebrating their long-term problematic status, instead of trying to correct their stupid behavior.
P.S. (+) It remains to be seen just how long FarWorks will permit Ambrose Tardive’s “Screen Rant” to remain online and unmutilated.
Finally, Maggie the Cartoonist submitted “The Old Cartoonists’ Home” (rerun on 31-May-2023) for the Sunday Funnies, because (as she put it) “… eventually you, me, and Gary Larson will all end up in The Old Cartoonists’ Home.“
P.P.S. For obvious reasons, this will be the last appearance of the Far Side at CIDU: no future submissions will be posted in any form. I wish Mr. Larson the best of luck in his mercenary campaign to close the barn doors after the horses have already left.
P.P.P.S. A similar takedown order was also executed by WordPress for “Farcus” on 22-Feb-2024, despite the fact that the authors “… are now on an extended leave of absence to pursue other creative projects… their popular comic feature continues to appear…” (as reruns). Since they have demonstrated the same lack of humor as Mr. Larson, Farcus will henceforth no longer be discussed at CIDU.
Boise Ed submitted this Lockhorns comic, asking: “What is ‘not-leg day‘ supposed to mean?“
P.S. This submission accidentally fell through the cracks. At the time, Boise Ed reported that “Comics Kingdom has apparently been on holiday since at least last night, so I’ve given the ArcaMax URL“. As I’ve explained elsewhere, Arcamax-URLs have a very limited half-life. In addition, since this comic was published, Comics Kingdom has been completely rebuilt, and The Lockhorns have changed syndicates, so that the strip is now at GoComics. Luckily, Ed’s brief, but accurate description made it easy to verify the correct comic.
Brian in StL submitted this pair of “classic crescent-moon outhouses” last year, which seemed eminently appropriate for World Toilet Day.
… P.S. Both of these strips were published last year on October 5th, but the Non Sequitur is actually a rerun from 2019, and was embedded into a comment in that year in Bill’s Halloween post about “Outhouses“.
Back in mid-June, Chak submitted one of Zach Weinersmith’s SMBC comics as a partial CIDU, commenting: “I could only find eight broken Commandments, can anybody get all ten? And if so, which of the three lists of Commandments in the Bible did they use?“
(Ordinarily the comic would appear right here, but not this time.)
Here’s why: Besides the theological irreverence present in Zach’s caption, the main problem (and part of the reason for the delay in posting Chak’s submission) is that while there is nothing visually offensive (nor “Arlo”) in the artwork, the dialog is simply much too crude to post openly at CIDU (some might even call it blasphemous). I’m not willing to risk one of those fancy “swipe” frames to hide it, because that mechanism is browser-dependent.
Since we do not have access to Bill’s “Arlo Page” to use as an asylum for this kind of material, the experiment I propose is to provide non-embedded (text) links, which may be used to open the corresponding images in a separate browser tab or window. Everyone should remember that the images behind these links should not, repeat not be opened by anyone who is easily offended (in this case, by F-bombs and other gratuitous crudeness).
Here is the link to the SMBC comic (NSFW). Reminder: you have been warned!
This second link is for the bonus “votey” panel (also NSFW). Again: you have been warned!
Anyone who wishes to answer Chak’s questions or participate in the discussion may do so in the comments below, but please remember, even though Zach used crude language in his comic, there are still standards of decorum here at CIDU, so please keep everything civil. I wouldn’t expect that this conversation will qualify for a G-Rating, but it would be nice if we could keep it below PG-13.
P.S. If this discussion method works, we might consider using it with other (especially “Arlo”) comics that would otherwise not qualify to be posted at CIDU.
P.P.S. Those of you who may feel that this experiment was a bad idea, please say so. CIDU is a community; it cannot function properly without honest, open communication. (I’m referring here to the method of discussing NSFW material, and not the SMBC comic itself, which is sure to offend a certain percentage of readers.)
Usual John submitted this Curtis as a possible Arlo candidate two years ago, commenting: “It’s interesting that Ray Billingsley managed to get this into print and, given that he isn’t known for testing the limits, maybe it was accidental“. I sincerely doubt that the author was aware of the definition to which John was referring, and the fact that the strip got published almost certainly means that his editor didn’t bother to look it up, either.
… For the [offensive slang] meaning, here is John’s link to “choad” in “Green’s Dictionary of Slang” (warning: extremely NSFW for strong language, of course). For those who just want the meaning, without the coarse citations, Wiktionary also offers a listing for “choad“.
P.S. Besides the indeterminant nature of the Arlo intent, I think another reason why this strip didn’t get posted may be because the gag is sub-standard: the telescoped neologism isn’t really convincing, and there’s no explanation whatsoever as to why both boys suddenly shifted from laughing in the third panel to fighting in the fourth panel.
Boise Ed submitted this Carpe Diem as a CIDU, commenting: “There’s a stereotypical guy stranded on a tiny island and a ship passes by. We’re supposed to laugh at this? The boat is labelled ‘United Bananas’, so that apparently has something to do with the apparently intended humor.“
… P.S. At first I was completely puzzled and in total agreement with Ed, but only after I created this post (and examined the comic about a dozen times) did I finally discover the critical detail. Now I feel pretty silly (and I understand why this didn’t get posted before), but I’m still not going to reveal the answer.
The most recent appearance of Zits at CIDU was posted 4.5 years ago by Bill, so it seems like it’s time for a few more.
This first one was submitted two years ago by Dave in Boston, but probably got lost in the shuffle because the Arcamax link had expired(+), and Comics Kingdom (back then) had a very limited memory (something like two weeks for non-subscribers). Since Arcamax links do not indicate the date, it took a bit of detective work to find the comic that Dave had intended:
… Here’s what Dave wrote: “It seems the joke is supposed to be that the teenagers are so glued to their phones that they need to check the weather app to find out that they’re being rained on. But, it’s perfectly reasonable in that situation to check the forecast or the radar to see how long it’s going to last. And then there’s no joke. Or there’s something IDU.“
Coincidentally, Chemgal submitted this recent Zits strip as a CIDU, asking, “Just what is supposed to be in that contract?“
… P.S. I don’t have the slightest clue as to “What?“, but I have a pretty good idea as to “Why?“: Friends of ours here in Germany had photovoltaic panels installed under a “lease to own” agreement that will take 15 years for them to complete.
P.P.S. (+) The moral of the story is not to trust Arcamax links for submissions. Using Arcamax links for embedding images in comments is even worse, because the image will disappear later. If you have no other option, at least mention the publication date.
Irv submitted this Wizard of Id Sunday strip as a CIDU, commenting: “The second and third frames in the second row are what IDU. If the Wizard is cheating, shouldn’t the beam and hangers be visible there as well as in the last frame? Otherwise, maybe he is cheating and conjures the beam and hangers to ‘prove’ he wasn’t using magic in the previous frames even though he was? All told, IDU what’s going on here.“
… I agree with Irv: if there is no magic here, then the logistics of the Wizard’s cheating scheme simply do not work, for multiple reasons. The same problem in the second and third panels of the second row also applies to the first, and the hooks would also be visible in the third panel of the bottom row, since the barbell is drawn a little too low. Finally, the Wizard’s arms in the first panel of the bottom row appear to be impossibly long.
At the risk of offending some readers, I have decided to post the Cyanide & Happiness comic shown below to demonstrate a point. It was submitted over a year ago as a CIDU by Pandemonium, who noted: “The [explosm] site is sometimes (often) in poor taste.” That is undeniably true. Although Bill posted a number of Cyanide & Happiness comics from time to time, only two of them have appeared at CIDU in the last four years, and this one is an excellent example of why they have been so rare:
… Pandemonium noted that “This [one] doesn’t seem to be part of a running gag, series, or topic“, and he is certainly right about that. The gag is a simple pun, conflating a perfectly normal technical term (in metallurgy, note the damage to the breastplate) with an unacceptably racist epithet (both terms having identical spelling and pronunciation).
The only possible saving grace in this comic is that the word is not explicitly named, and soldier in the background appears to object to the use of the term entirely, but the primary purpose of the comic here is just as a borderline example.
Please note: Since CIDU no longer has access to a separate “Arlo” page to “hide” potentially offensive material, please be aware that it may not be possible to post every comic submitted, in particular when the artwork or language may be unacceptable for some readers.
Comics I Don't Understand 
