Boise Ed submitted this “Carpe Diem” panel a while back, commenting that “The Dachshund appears to be the artist, with the same picture in two different shades of brown tree bark and four different shades of green grass. Perhaps this is obvious to those who would spend big money on a canvas with only a plain circle or square, but not to me.“
This appearance of “Yes, I’m Hot in This” on 29 July 2024 was a return to GoComics after an absence, with the previous publication marked as 06 September 2023. The GoComics comments for this strip were mostly on the “Welcome back!” theme, but with a few addressing the content. Her Patreon describes activities over the past year including an NBA nomination; but only indirectly talks about getting back into drawing cartoons.
(Marking as “Momentary CIDU” because it was a touch confusing at first, but not too hard to decode in general terms.)
No, she’s not a professional hoopster, you philistine!
Thanks to Boise Ed for suggesting this.
The core for Ed of why this may be problematic is whether to take seriously the appearance of a body of water along the bottom border of the drawing, with therefore some air above it. If that casts the main picture as taking place in the air, well that sort of works for seeing the flying fish as actually performing sustained flight in the air. But it is something of a fail in terms of the human diver (with air bubbles!) and the other species of water-borne life — they can’t be understood as up in the air!
But of course that strip along the bottom doesn’t have to be taken as water below air. It could be just a decorative border. Or better, it could be the seafloor, below a water scene.
Tim Harrod submitted this “Wizard of ID” strip, noting that “…the writer seems to think that Moses was a wizard“. I sure hope that the theology in B.C. isn’t starting to leak over into the Kingdom of Id.
I think the joke in the final panel is clear, but I don’t understand the gag in the second “throwaway” panel, unless it’s a topical reference to some scene in a movie. The part I liked best was the snide adjective in the fifth panel: “adult” appears to be referring to the juvenile wizards in Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books, who all use dinky little wands instead of “manly” staves. On the other hand, the Wizard’s traditional implement has always been one of those wands, as we saw in the “I’m stumped” post just last month:
Thanks to Chipper42 for sending this in:
They say “I assume he ran into the lobster traps on purpose. I really don’t follow the last panel.”
As always — but it needs saying explicitly again now and then — we like to think of this as a heavily reader-participation site, and not just for your invaluable (or anyhow amusing) comments, but for suggestions of comics to run and discuss.
Please share your specific suggestions of panels or strips, in CIDU, LOL, OY, and CIHS (Comic I Haven’t Seen) categories, either by direct email to
(that’s “CIDU dot Submissions” at gmail dot com) or by using the handy-dandy Suggest A CIDU form page! Just as Chipper42 did!
Boise Ed submitted this Argyle Sweater as a “total CIDU”. The gag must have something to do with the source of the material in the hypodermic needle, but the apparently obvious anatomical pun doesn’t seem to be present, and wouldn’t automatically qualify as an effective joke, either. There must be a better explanation.
This first one is more of an Ewww than an OY:
P.S. The weather this summer has been exceptional for snails and slugs; every few days I can go into the back yard and collect a dozen (or even a score) of the gross things.
…
This is only the third time that the Keane’s “Family Circus” has appeared at CIDU (not counting a few mashups and tangential references).
A Comic I didn’t understand the first three times I saw it. I wasn’t puzzled, just mistaken.
I thought the point was just in the dog choosing to ignore the request (command) and pursue different interests.
This atrocious B.C. pun appeared just in time for the opening ceremonies:
Tolkien wrote that the Elves made three rings, the Dwarves were given seven rings, and Sauron made nine rings to entrap the Nazgul, but where do the five rings fit into the story?
I don’t understand the joke, and I have no idea what the forbidden word is supposed to be:
What’s the joke here?
Is there a pun in the name Arlo Hoyt?
This is common financial advice (e.g. in the book The Psychology of Money, by Morgan Housel, which I just finished), or, famously, in Dickens novel, David Copperfield.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.
Or, could the joke be that Arlo Hoyt has claimed that he coined this common maxim himself, and has erected a status of himself in his honor?
For less helpful advice, certainly not what Dickens’ Mr. Micawber would have advised, we have this from Randy Glasbergen:
The GoComics comments provide many more things those initials can mean; but none that make sense in the context.
Comics I Don't Understand 