The lion is the king of beasts,
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness.
–Ogden Nash Poems to Carnival of the Animals
Y’know how sometimes when Cornered has a Sunday duplex strip (or higher multiple!), and just one of them hits the funny bone just right? And then CIDU is stuck trying to clip or trim to get that one panel? But this time it’s a case of “Why not both?” Two LOLs for the price of one!
And if we’re still in the Weekend of Remembering nineties/oughties Songs, here is one suggested by that comic:
Thanks to jjmcgaffey for suggesting Rae the Doe, and
for calling this “a kerning pun!” to assist anyone who may find it puzzling.
And an OY-semi-CIDU from Maggiethecartoonist:
This song is in that peculiar category of musical quasi-familiarity, where I became acquainted with a piece from its use in advertising, or as a television theme song, that I probably never would have run into otherwise. “New Soul” by Yael Naim. “You’ve Got Time” by Regina Spektor.“One Week” by The Barenaked Ladies (this one I might have found otherwise). “Flower Duet from Lakmé” by Léo Delibes (this one I surely would have run into sooner or later, but did encounter first in the British Airways ads). Most of those I put in a playlist at some point or even bought further work from the same artist ; but “Mister Roboto” always remained for me just “that song from one of those car commercials” until last week, when this cartoon appeared and I wanted to verify the idea suggested by the pun. (BTW, the car brand turns out to have been VW, and the sketch uses comic actor Tony Hale.)
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.)
(This is an OY by virtue of the “language play in any general way” subcategory.)
It seems Diamond Lil concentrates on OY punchlines almost every day; so it would be a danger to keep too often considering them for our weekly OY collections. Still, every once in a while, maybe for no particular reason, one of them will jump out and say “Use me!”.
Thanks to Philip for suggesting!
And if this was a semi-CIDU for you, let Editor Phil help out by pointing out that just before this moment of dialogue, the visitor must have addressed this officer as “Skipper”.
One difference is in the balance or proportions between the “Hey, it’s a holiday! Stores should have sales! Let’s go have a picnic!” aspect, and the comparatively somber commemorative and remembrance aspect — the “memorial” part.
From maggiethecartoonist we have this Real Life Adventures, which takes a focus on the holiday picnic (or rather, barbecue) aspect.
On the Remembrance side of things, another regular reader suggests this one:
If you’re thinking “Didn’t we just see this same joke?” you may be remembering this Life On Earth we posted recently. (Hey, that was in Sunday Funnies – LOLs, May 7th, 2023 . How come the Farcus today goes in the OYs?)
Found on Facebook without good information. We’ve tagged for “Frank Svoboda” based on the (c) line; but searching that name finds someone who was a collector / dealer / agent but doesn’t say he was also a creator, and those roles could fit with copyright holder. So maybe the writing on the side of the bar is the signature? It seems to say “Phranque” and while there is a band with that name I didn’t find any cartoonists or illustrators. And maybe that brings us back around to Frank S, who could have liked stylizing his first name.
A suggestion from Maggiethecartoonist:
Discussion among Maggie and the editors suggested that there are several informations perhaps not immediately known to all readers, which are useful to unpacking the multiple jokes/OYs here. So something of a semi-CIDU.
Comics I Don't Understand 