Category / Unintended Arlo

by Kilby

Never use a neologism without looking it up first

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.

by EditorM

More Oopsies, Semi-CIDUs, and flops, including Carl’s Corner

(Fifth batch of these.)

Okay, sometimes CIDU comes down to “I don’t understand how one cartoon can make that many mistakes”.

Carl’s Corner

Carl Fink sent in this Loose Parts and says:

1) I for one read right through the joke on the first pass. I’ve been
reading numbered lists for so long, I don’t actually notice the numbers
any more.

2) Counting is not arithmetic!

And Carl also on this Off The Mark:

Painting with … antigravity pigments?

So would a real painter glue the palette to his hand and then hold it
vertically like that? Wouldn’t the paint run off it? I say “glue”
because he clearly doesn’t have a thumb on the other side, so he can’t
grip it.

Also, why is he wearing a lab coat? That doesn’t look like an artist’s
smock to me.

This Reply All Lite could probably count as Unintentional Arlo Award. Either the artist does not know a very widespread vernacular sense of Johnson, or does not think her readers would make that association and attribute it to these characters.

Pardon my objectionable sick joke! (Which may not be instantly evident, thus the semi-CIDU category.)