From billr:
Song lyrics MAY help:
Ahpanema
Author / phsiii
Telephone call for Peter Parker
Also from billr (and travelgirl):
Is it because his ears are covered by his costume? He can’t hear anything on his phone?
Indeed. My other question is where he puts that phone when he’s out webslingin’! Not really sure I want to know…
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know
From Boise Ed, who notes “Total CIDU for me”:
I have a maybe-theory but let’s see what y’all think.
Oy. I momentarily forgot which strip this was from, so I asked Google Images. The AI summary says:
This is a comic strip from the series “Bizarro” by Dan Piraro.
I don’t think so! (Yes, I was able to figure it out.)
And now it’s time for another fairy tale
Boise Ed sends:
and wonders, “I know Hagar often thrives on anachronistic stuff, but geez! Eddie having a modern pillow in camp is bad enough, but how would Hagar convince those two deer/elk/moose/reindeer to hold still for that, all night?”
I also have to ask what Rocky is doing down there on the bottom right–is one of those meese Bullwinkle?! In any case, where’s the joke?
What’s another word for CIDU?
From Mitch4:
He might be solving a crossword or, more likely, composing a letter or document. I prefer the latter, because then we can ask “What is the word he intends?”.
And then the CIDU points are: Are we supposed to know/guess it? If so, what is it? And finally, how does that become a joke?
What is it about Bruno?
…asks Dirk the Daring:
He notes,
He has a red eye and he’s waving but how do we know beavers don’t wave anyway?
It brings back memories of the book “And God Bless Uncle Harry and His Roommate Jack Who We Are Not Supposed to Talk About“, a collection of gay-themed cartoons originally published by the magazine Christopher Street.
But there’s nothing in particular about Bruno that implies he is gay. And, of course, if I had a gay uncle beaver named Bruno, I would not be ashamed about talking about him.
Your editor has a different theory here, but presents this for the hive-mind’s analysis. (And if I had an uncle who was a beaver named Bruno, I’d be thrilled!)
Casting about for understanding
From travelgirl again:
Seems to be my day… guy is asking for a podcaster with what looks like someone lying on the ground surrounded by people…
I almost feel like I’m old enough to be screaming “get off my lawn” when I don’t get some of these jokes :)
Uh, right. The fact that the gawkers are all white might be a clue. There’s a longstanding meme that podcast audiences are largely white, though that seems to be changing: a quick search suggests that “The percentage of white podcast listeners has dropped significantly from historical highs, with figures around 58-59% in 2024 compared to 67% in 2014”. I guess that’s a meaningful change, though it’s only slightly over a 10% drop. I did like a line I heard where some guy said, “I’m so white, most of my sentences start with ‘I was listening to a podcast…'” I might be guilty of this myself at times.
Notwithstanding all that, I still can’t get to anything resembling a joke?!
Something about a lanyard?!
Another from travelgirl:
Ok, it’s time for me to go back to sleep. It’s obvious I haven’t a clue when the third CIDU of the day shows up…
Kneel indeed
Must be something there?!
Not to be confused with this classic:
That one especially made me laugh way back when it ran because 30+ years ago in a small, struggling software company, we hired a new business development guy named Neil. He was surely told a pack o’ lies about the opportunity, and came in full of attitude about his importance.
At the time, the latest processors were Pentiums, and laptops were relatively rare. I had inherited IT and our one IT worker-bee, who dutifully got him a 32MB Pentium laptop. After delivering it, my guy dropped by to comment that Neil had been dismissive of the machine “only” having 32MB. So I wandered down to his office and introduced myself. In the process, I noticed that there was still a tower PC under his desk–one of our workhorse 4MB 486 machines.
“Shall I get that out of here?” I asked. “Sure”, Neil replied scornfully, “It’s not it’s good for anything.”
“Around here, that’s a developer machine.” ” Yeah, right.”
“Neil–I’m not kidding.”
He never complained about his laptop again! He actually turned out to be an OK guy once he got over his original attitude, but the name “Neil” has made me snicker slightly ever since.
I just want to tell you both good luck. We’re all counting on you.
From Darren:
who points out, “I don’t think I’ve ever referred to connect-the-dots type exercises (puzzles?) as “paint-by-numbers”. Is that what’s happening here? It doesn’t look like they’re creating a paint-by-numbers image for later fill in, and there’s certainly no painting being done.”
Indeed.
Comics I Don't Understand 