Boise Ed submitted the French comic “Imbattable” (literally: “unbeatable”), which was suggested to him by a friend, adding: “My French isn’t totally up to this, but … Pascal Jousselin … does some great work with fourth-wall shattering“. Ed intended this strip as a CIHS, but I was astonished to discover that a translated version of “Mister Invincible” had already appeared at CIDU back in August 2021.
March 20th is French Language Day, which seemed an appropriate occasion for these strips to appear in the original version.
The second example is just the first of ten “unbeatable” pages that appeared in an April 2017 review of the first album collection “Justice et légumes frais” (literally: “Justice and Fresh Vegetables”).
… P.S. Try the link if you want to read the other nine pages in the review.
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 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.
Extending the “counting on cartoon fingers” topic from Tuesday, Mark H. also submitted this Baby Blues strip, commenting: “Isn’t Uranus the seventh planet, not the eighth?“
Mark is exactly right. The author must be missing a finger or two. Besides that, “Earth” and “Mars” are the only two planets in the whole Solar System that do not have at least one “U” in their names.
Kilby adds: I witnessed (and participated in) the most uproarious pandemonium I have ever experienced in a school classroom during a presentation about the seventh (and not the eighth) planet in junior high school. The student at the board was trying (but failing) to maintain his composure, and everyone in the room (except the teacher) was giggling at least a little bit at the sophomoric joke inherent in the repeated pronunciations of the name.
The fatal mistake occurred when the kid attempted a quick sketch of the planet’s (severely tilted) axis. His intent was to draw a circle with a horizontal line through it, much like a Greek “Theta” (ϴ), but his subconscious played a trick on him, and the resulting diagram had a vertical line, just like a Greek “Phi” (Φ), or (as we all immediately recognized) “two cheeks of the moon“. Everyone in the room blew up: all the students were laughing, and even the teacher’s unbridled fury could not restore order.
Even now, nearly five decades later, and although I have attempted to keep these paragraphs as dry and objective as possible, I cannot help but giggle at the memory of the scene, so I understand exactly the way Hammie feels in the strip above.
OK, I see there is some sort of getting-even irony here. But how is it performed? Is there really a diamond bracelet? Who is getting it, if there is one, and how is that a revenge? Or if the oddity is merely due to an omitted “not”, would that mean the husband was expecting to receive a bracelet?
Thanks to Brian in STL for sending in this FoxTrot Classics:
Brian sez, “Foxtrot dailies are in reruns on GoComics. Today’s is an okay joke on its own. … However, it’s not fully appreciated without —-” But we’re going to “leave you in suspenders” for a moment or two and invite readers to treat this as a CIDU-puzzle requiring the reference to something it was based on. (Which you can read by expanding the block below.))
SPOILER — The backstory of the reference!
“However, it’s not fully appreciated without this Apple commercial that ran around the same time as the original run of the strip:”
Brian continues “The person that provided the link in comments added this: ‘Her side of the story goes that it was late at night when they filmed the ad. It had to be done after school hours for the day. Add to that, she was on allergy medication, which made her a bit “under the influence”.‘ “
This was a CIDU for me for a couple minutes. And I’m still not sure of the intended idea.
BTW, is a clock a standard part of Twister play?
Thanks to Maggie-the-Cartoonist for this Loose Parts LOL:
I don’t know whether this is supposed to be the joke / the point of the cartoon, but I think it’s definitely a brilliant choice to have the meeting for the road-ragers take place safely online!
Sometimes Life on Earth will seize on some setting or prop or situation to use in several daily panels, without any clear intent to take them together as anything like a narrative sequence or theme-and-variations. All I can come up with about the examples below is that they all involve the game of chess, in one way or another.
(10/07)
Teresa Burritt, creator of the GoCreator designation & pin, has been practicing what she preached, and showed up in the GoComics comments for the “Strip Chess” one. She noted that the guy with the one red sock apparently had matching underpants. Hey wait a minute, just how nude is this guy?!
(10/08)
(10/09)
(10/10)
This would be my choice for “one of these is actually funny”.
Comics I Don't Understand 
