Author / EditorM

by EditorM

Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer

For anyone not familiar with the character names, the woman seated in panels 1 and 3 is Ms (Rose) Trellis, the CEO at Fastrack, and the younger goth-ish woman standing is Dethany (Dendrobia), one of her key assistants.

Remote play in chess is of course a very real thing, and has been carried out employing the communication channels of any era, going right back to post cards and beyond. So use of SMS-texting or other contemporary chat options for exchange of chess moves is not really a surprise, or a joke. What, then, is?

Later: Arthur has contributed another copy of the image, possibly higher def. Thanks!

And one other. sigh.

Aannnd one more for the old college try:

https://safr.kingfeatures.com/api/img.php?e=gif&s=c&file=T25UaGVGYXN0cmFjay8yMDIwLzEyL0Zhc3RfVHJhY2suMjAyMDEyMDhfMTUzNi5naWY=

by EditorM

Happy 250! (Part 1)

Part 1 – Beethoven’s birthday in Peanuts

The Schroeder and Lucy Saga

A bonus posting for Beethoven’s (probable) birthday.

In 1953 and 1954 the characters’ appearance were still forming. Schroeder was into his fandom, but Lucy was not intervening yet.

  • 1953-12-16
  • 1954-12-16

By 1957, Schroeder was sharing his enjoyment with Lucy, but she was not on board.

  • 1957-12-16 Thinking about B but not noting the birthday!
  • 1957-12-17
  • 1957-12-18
  • 1957-12-19
  • 1957-12-20
  • 1957-12-21

A 1958 series starts here with non-birthday Beethoven content and on the 16th shows Lucy trying to share in the joy.

1958-12-16

And Lucy is an enthusiast by 1959, with this series starting way back on the 09th of December, and almost replicating her naming gaffe before erupting in a fine Lucy-rant and then pushing ahead without concern for the possibility of error:

  • 1959-12-14
  • 1959-12-15
  • 1959-12-16

In 1970 it was a very round anniversary of LvB’s birth, the 200th! Schroeder and Lucy of course noted the occasion. (With colorized reruns from 2017.)

1970-12-14 & 2017-12-14
1970-12-15 & 2017-12-15
1970-12-16 & 2017-12-16

The current series, started on 09 December 2020 , is of course NOT reflecting the 250th anniversary, since these are not new cartoons. But they are echoing, colorized, a sequence from 1973, which concluded with this unfathomable remark – makes you wonder if there was some sort of wrong-headed Wagner-based controversy going on:

Tomorrow: Other Beethoven-centered cartoons, not from Peanuts and mostly not even birthday-themed.






(Credits for portrait at top: By Joseph Willibrord Mähler – http://www.beethovenseroica.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=839673)

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, December 13th, 2020

Contributed by Andréa:

As with the first literary school of fish, there is no mystery about the point or the kind of joke, but we can exercise our memory and sense of Arizona’s 11th largest city by trying to pinpoint the writer in each case and the reason for the icon.

“Can’t remember if we used this or got sidetracked back then” Dept. Contributed by Olivier:

Another chapter in Horace’s eternal encounters with elevator buttons.
by EditorM

Bashful gorilla

Bashful guerrilla gorilla

Does anyone here know the joke about the bashful gorilla? I don’t, and can’t find it upon (an admittedly desultory) search. …

Next question: Did the audience in the 1950s know the joke? Or did some yes but some no? Edit: No, some site said these reruns were from the first two years of the comic strip, hence 1950-51 roughly. But a bit of digital magnification shows the blurry info at the left of the last panel includes what looks like a “1964”. It doesn’t matter much here, but was significant for the “Viet Nam” strip a couple weeks ago.

Next: Or was there never even a particular joke? Was it simply a tease all along? And would that matter? Would the comic strip gag work anyway, and would it be enuff?