Category / CIDU

by Kilby

The Mercenary Spirit

An anonymous contributor submitted this Argyle Sweater, commenting that “adding a Spirit sign would have made this funny. Without that, I’m just lost“, which was a comment that I didn’t understand.

For those who might not be able to intuit the Spanish, she’s saying “But, I am Dora“. Even without that, I thought the point of the joke was fairly clear, since many airlines now charge for all sorts of services that used to be automatic and complimentary. However, it turned out that Spirit Airlines (a no frills company with which I have never had the misfortune to fly) was the first airline to charge for carry-on baggage, even though there now are other companies that have adopted same the odious practice.

P.S. The Argyle Sweater really should get a prize for the MoSt AnNoYiNg FoNt in use by any newspaper comic.

by EditorM

The getaway trick

From Bob Quixote, puzzled by a cartoon in the New Yorker — as so many of us so often are!

The quixotic one says: I hope you can help me with this cartoon from the latest New Yorker. I’ve been studying it for way too long but cannot figure it out. Why are the cows cops? Is there a hole under the torn-down fence? Why didn’t the robber just hop the fence instead of taking time to take down a section of the fence? Thanks

Phil of the editorial team adds: That’s a cattle guard, common in the West: you can drive over ‘em, but they stop cattle.

by multipleciduers

[Bonus CIDU] Well technically, …

Perfectly good comics. But you have the nagging feeling the joke or pun would work just a tiny bit better if this-or-that could be edited a trifle.
(Thus CIDUs by a polite extension — “I don’t understand why this little matter couldn’t be fixed up…”)

Here, for instance, the traditional form uses “get a haircut / hair cut” and always works smoothly; unlike in this strip, where the dialogue in panel 2 is quite unnatural. “Hey Harv, didja get a hair cut?” , “Nah, I got them all cut! Heh heh!”

A good chuckle from Arlo and Janis, sent in by Jack Applin who has a point about “breaking serve”.

As Jack explains, As I understand it, to “break serve” means to score a point in tennis when your opponent serves. However, Janis was serving (“Did you cover the charcoal fire?”), and Arlo neglected to do that, so Janis scored the point on her own serve, right? Even if we consider the entire strip one long volley, Janis still asked the initial question, so she’s serving.

by EditorM

Still in a mask? … Oh!

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!

by EditorM

It’s Insanity Streak, Jake

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.

by Kilby

The difference between the men and the boys…

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:

by EditorM

Lobstering

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.”

CIDU QUEUE REMINDER

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!