Halloween CIDUs

… and some non-CIDUs



The joke is clear, if hackneyed by now, but what would the kids tip? A 20% trick?

This execution of the same joke is a bit clearer, since it’s the kid asking for money.


Not so much a CIDU as “way too much work”. Post individual clue solutions in the comments. FYI, complete solution is here.


This one tripped me up, because I assumed a Pumpkin Spice Latte only had the spices used in pumpkin pie. This used to be true: introduced in 2003, Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte contained only the spices, and no pumpkin. That made sense. Who thinks steak sauce has steak in it? or shrimp sauce has shrimp in it? Or awlspice has an awl in it? But, in response to complaints, in 2015 they reformulated to add some pumpkin puree. That was really unnecessary, because a bit of pumpkin puree adds little taste. But this does mean Blazek’s joke actually works.


Not a CIDU, but definitely an Ewww.


Not a CIDU, either, but cute.


And one last nod to Peanuts:




And, finally, an OY


There’s this synchronicity, sent in by Nebulous:


There’s Always Room for Jello!

JMcAndrew sends in this old Beetle Bailey: “I collect vintage advertising and I am very aware of the crimes against humanity committed with aspic Jello salads.”

He also sent in a bit of vintage Jello advertising:

You may wonder about that fish. Fish in Jello? But some years ago your editor worked for a US pet food company, and we wanted to see what pet foods were sold in other countries that we might sell here. One we had shipped in from Australia was “Pilchards in Aspic”, essentially small herrings in a gelatin matrix, sold as a cat food. We passed on this one.

from Wikipedia: “By the 1950s, salads became so popular that Jell-O responded with savory and vegetable flavors such as celeryItalian, mixed vegetable, and seasoned tomato. These flavors have since been discontinued.”

Old Men

JMcAndrew sends in these two, with an old man theme: “Trying to figure this one out. I’ve seen the movie “Grumpy Old Men” and don’t think that Walter Matthau looks anything like Saddam Hussein.”


JMcAndrew: I get the joke and I have seen “Blow Out” which is actually an excellent film. Submitted as an obvious eww but also considered that Travolta is now over 70 it wouldn’t be that surprising to find out he does have need for incontinence products.


Bonus: Synchronous Flushes

Brian in StL submitted this pair of “classic crescent-moon outhouses” last year, which seemed eminently appropriate for World Toilet Day.



P.S. Both of these strips were published last year on October 5th, but the Non Sequitur is actually a rerun from 2019, and was embedded into a comment in that year in Bill’s Halloween post about “Outhouses“.

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, November 03rd, 2024

Boise Ed submitted this one last year, commenting “Every now and then, Pardon My Planet comes up with a real zinger.” I think I’ve seen it before, but I can’t find it in a CIDU post, and in any case it’s worth repeating:


The not-quite-complete “Arlo” moment in this “Zits” came as a big surprise. Perhaps King Features relaxed their censorship standards when they relaunched the Comics Kingdom website?


P.S. And what if Jeremy’s mom had not left it out? What then?


Two half Arlos published on exactly the same day do not count as a whole synchronicity, but this Luann was pretty good, too:


P.S. Note the annoying, but otherwise irrelevant color error in the second panel.


Boise Ed said about this Argyle Sweater: “Perhaps this is the fifth wall, since he’s erasing four“:


Another meta Macanudo:


P.S. The title panel bears a fair resemblance to “In the Court of the Crimson King“, but it’s unlikely that it was intentional:



Danny Boy sends this in as a CIDU, but rather than post it long after Halloween we’re putting it here. “What, what? “I was making rather scary yesterday.” Is that something like “making merry”? I.e. celebrating and now hungover (and just getting into the office at a quarter to five)?

No, I don’t think I’ve answered my own question. “Making rather scary” is still pretty opaque.”

Or, trying to scare the street urchins?


Danny Boy hopes “that mechanism isn’t set up to treat the TP as reusable!”


Saturday Morning OYs – November 02nd, 2024


This Rabbits Against Magic strip looked like a simple OY at first, but now I’m puzzled:


How does “tre” count as a pun on “trace“?


This Rhymes with Orange is an OY-Ewww:


Jack Applin submitted this Andertoons as a CIDU, asking “Is the one-eyed robot unable to see the traffic lights? [OR] Is is programmed to ignore them, giving an advantage to “driverless” cars?


Mark Anderson’s original title for his comic #9221 reveals that Jack’s first question was right on the money: The gag is a reference to one of the most common anti-robot user verification tests, typically presented by the reCAPTCHA interface:


Later that same month (in 1967):


The punchline is in panel 5, but for many of us it would be a CIDU. The authors conveniently use panel 6 to make the joke clearer.

For more about the psychiatrist character, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/barney-and-clyde-finds-inspiration-in-a-little-peanuts-farming/2011/07/20/gIQAcMmeTI_blog.html


It’s that time of year again…

… and the less said about it, the better.











Finally, one bastion of sanity in a lunatic world:


P.S. All of the previous appearances of Pumpkin Spice at CIDU were posted by Bill in the Fall of 2019; three of these presented some fairly hideous pumpkin spice flavored products (some real, some fictitious); click on the link if you are interested in seeing them. (Please note that the whole “pumpkin spice” collection will be presented in reverse chronological order, so you will have to scroll down past this one to get to Bill’s “spicy” material.)

P.P.S.Edit: both links have been corrected, thanks to deety!