Category / CIDU

by EditorM

Take the A Train

I’ve seen scenes like this in movies, and it does seem sensible when taking a kid on the transit to have an emergency meet-up plan.

But some questions:

— Can our New Yorkers, or anyone familiar with the subways there, comment on whether the described trains or routes, and geography, make at least approximate sense? Not so much “Is it a wise plan for these people?” as I figure it is not, but things like whether there is a station called “Eastern Parkway” and the Brooklyn Museum is right by their doorstep..

— And for CIDUers anywhere, is the joke in the complexity of the plan? Is the “under 3” bit because he’s still thinking about diiscounted admission to the museum, or because it would help with the rescue?

Bonus riddle: “My friend Gloria threw up on the subway on Monday”. What life-lesson familiar saying cab we take from that?

by EditorM

Tundra

Robert Kinney sent this in, and asks “What in that sonagram tells us that this is a rooster?  I don’t get what this is trying to tell us, or why it’s supposed to be funny.”

While I was browsing the Tundra site (for context and to check if this one was available in color) I noticed that his Gallery page provides a few comics that some readers felt were in need of explanatiion – which he then provides, sometimes in an answer-strip!

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies and Minor Mysteries – LOLs and Semi-CIDUs, October 10th, 2021

Eats, shoots, and leaves.

Minor Mysteries

These are comics that somebody thought were pretty good, or even full LOL, and not baffling but a little hard to pin down. Like, you can think of a rather plausible explanation of the chuckle — or maybe two! — but there’s nothing that clinches the case that *this* or *that* just has to be the key to what’s going on.

For example, with something like this Andertoons, we might think of the minor mystery as expressed in terms of providing the missing caption. Is it about the odd feeling you’re being watched? Or more like “Oh, where did I set down my glasses?”. It could be either, do you agree?

A Minor Mystery from Darren, who says “I can’t tell if Watson’s jarns need to be interpreted as a specific term.  I’m flummoxed.  Apparently the squirrel is as well?”

Okay, the joke here is that the threatened punishment will involve a cannister vacuum cleaner (in what seems to be a photo clip?) rather than a conventional physical beating or the like. But it’s an unanswerable mystery just what the threat is. Torture by exposure to noisy motor, like a household pet? Being inhaled altogether? Having some portion of his body inhaled?

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – October 9th, 2021

Boise Ed recommends Doc Rat, and this Oy from the October 1 front page at Docrat.com.au was more available than others.

A CIDU-Oy of sorts, sent in by Usual John, who says “This is from Brevity, so it presumably is some kind of Oy, but I really don’t get it. I guess this is a version of Doc Holliday, but why is he offering to be my huckleberry?”

And indeed Brevity is generally going to yield up some species of OY, as here:

by EditorM

Tuna breath

Texts from Mittens is almost always an SMS-based texting conversation between a cat and his owner (or “Mom”, occasionally “Mama”), in a layout imitating display on a phone screen. Never a drawing or other image of the kind we associate with comics.

Sometimes a different character gets in the conversation. I just today looked at the Characters tab on GoComics, which sort of answers a couple of my long-standing questions. But there are no answers anywhere to fundamental questions or consistent treatment of his unusual abilities (does he tap out messages with a paw on a physical phone, or send them via mental/physical magic connection?), his contact list, his mix of knowledge and ignorance about the human world. Oh never mind, it’s all just for cat people to read and indulgently sigh in recognition. He gets a little shirty but loves his Mom, okay?

In this one, of course Mittens likes tuna smells. But is Mom taking that into account? Or is she thinking by habit of how tuna breath would affect human companions and coworkers?