Category / Amusing, maybe not LOL

by Kilby

There’s a reason the artist picked that logo…

… and it had nothing to do with product placement for Amazon. It’s even possible that he might have been able to use Nike’s logo, instead.

…
Boise Ed submitted this “Looks Good on Paper” strip as a CIDU, commenting: “How is a truck wreck supposed to be funny? Maybe if it had spilled something funny, but that’s not the case here.“

I agree that it’s not extremely funny, but it’s still worth a small smile. The author was careful to show that nobody was seriously injured (the truck driver can be seen at the right edge of the strip). The gag is based on “anthropomorphic pareidolia“, or in other words, interpreting an expression on a face that isn’t really there. The trucks wheels look a little like eyes, so that the inverted logo looks like a “sad” mouth. Parallels can also be drawn to the inverted Jeep bumper stickers that we discussed back in July.

P.S. If anyone is interested in discovering a whole series of such “facial expression” effects, I recommend watching Pixar’s short film “The Blue Umbrella“.

by Kilby

Columbus Day Redux

This “Mr. Boffo” strip was submitted by David Curwin as a CIDU. I didn’t think the gag was that difficult to decipher, but Zbicyclist pointed out that the real question is how many historical inaccuracies did Joe Martin manage to incorporate into just this one comic?

P.S. The strip’s publication date does not count as a mistake. Columbus Day originally fell on October 12th, but that was according to the Julian calendar. It was moved to the second Monday in October for convenience, but would actually have fell on October 21st, if the modern (Gregorian) calendar had been in use back then.

by CIDU Bill

Understand it, I do (not?)

understansitidonot

Kilby writes: This is another one of Bill Bickel’s “vintage” draft posts from 2018. Back then, Bill once wrote that his interest in Star Wars completely terminated after the original trilogy, so perhaps he was not aware of the significance of the inverted word order, but he also commented that “Okay, even I know who Yoda is! … Yoda’s cat on the other hand…“

P.S. I originally scheduled this for the seventh anniversary of “Rogue One“, but it got bumped to make space for the Saturday OYs. In any case, seeing as Yoda didn’t appear in that film at all, it’s clearly more appropriate to schedule it for the fourth anniversary of “The Rise of Skywalker“. Star Wars fanatics are free to discuss which of those two films they liked better; Bill’s answer would of course have been “neither“.

by CIDU Bill

He Must Be Nuts

aug21 kevin acorns.JPG

Kilby writes: This Sunday Kevin & Kell strip‡ was drafted by CIDU Bill in 2019, but never posted. I’m not sure why Holbrook published this strip in February.† I would have thought that late fall or early winter would have been more appropriate, but perhaps the idea was to make the stash revelation completely unexpected.

P.S. (†) – Both the strip one week before and two weeks later are covered in snow; this one and the following Sunday strip look more like springtime.

P.P.S. (‡) – According to the remaining comments on the author’s website, there was originally a misspelling in the first panel, which was later corrected. Nice to see such artistic dedication!

by EditorM

Don’t forget Carol Lay!

Sometimes she’s just so brilliant … even if not actually funny (nor trying).

For the longer-term fans than I have been, has she previously made this much use of photos and photo-realism in drawing?

The sense made of the Memory Palace idea here is more loosely evocative than a strict adherence to the traditional prescriptions for a mnemonic tool (or modern self-help and DIY expositions). It’s a bit more in the direction of emotionally evocative recollection, though not going as far into that mode as, say, Nate DiMeo’s The Memory Palace podcast on Radiotopia. Nor is it madeleine-sniffing. But it’s somewhere in that territory. But jumps back to face its original speculative-fictional premise in practical-level terms.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, January 29th, 2023

There are likely some Jeopardy fans here. Isn’t is a great feeling when you get Final Jeopardy right, and none of the contestants do?

Chemgal notes that Bug Martini has been very sporadic of late, but this one brings a chuckle.

Hey, doesn’t the layout of the sticks and their backings look eerily like a face? Two eyes, round button nose, wide mouth …?

Okay, it’s nerd-amusing rather than outright hilarious …. But what a good excuse for posting a song!

by EditorM

Clips (bonus cidu/amuse)

Citizen Kane took me a moment! The Old Yeller I don’t get, but I don’t recall much about the movie. Maybe my favorite here is Vertigo.

I’m recalling (but not its name) a comics-page feature which used photos of everyday household objects manipulated and posed, to fit a comic caption. I can imaging them trying to do this same thing with real paper clips. But probably the drawings are a better way to go.

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WP tech check. L:et’s see if a WEBP image works in a WP post. It’s a bit tiresome converting them.