I was thinking of this as a CIDU until I saw a comment at GoComics suggesting they are collecting signatures on a petition — for a candidate or for a ballot measure, we can’t say. The car does put them outdoors. Certainly there are still questions, but can we ask all to refrain from objecting to the co-occurrence of the “(Not a CIDU)” category for the LOL listing post and a stray “CIDU” categorization for the lingering doubts of this cartoon?
So it’s still snail week at BOB MANKOFF PRESENTS: SHOW ME THE FUNNY (ANIMAL EDITION).
Okay, maybe something of a CIDU-LOL. Google Translate is not as helpful as one would like — I don’t trust “cable castanets” . I do rather trust “box castanets” but why “light box castanets”? That’s not a “light box” as used in graphics arts, anyway. And I think the primary joke is our stand-in character enjoying “vulgar castanets” instead of “common-or-garden castanets”.
Is her expression already reacting to this irritating oversight?
Kilby sends this in, wondering why it was run on September 11, 2022. There are some standard characters (Ahab, Diogenes, Napoleon), among others. I’ve earnestly tried to figure out the two characters in the upper right corner of the 2nd panel, but frankly I don’t get it.
Kilby also notes that November 6th is the 50th anniversary of Frank and Ernest. Their Wikipedia entry has some interesting notes. The strip is distributed in Spanish as Justo y Franco. The strip depends so heavily on wordplay that I wouldn’t think it would translate well.
But by hitting the random button at GoComics, I see many that are understandable in any language.
This Frank and Ernest is a CIDU to me. 8 isn’t straight.
For obsessives who feel you need to see the Carolyn Hax column this accompanied, here is a guest link. For the rest of you, the connection to the cartoon is just that the advice question involves parent/child conflict.
Don’t you want to hear a few more rrrrr’s in that?
Ludwig is such a patient little guy! This semi-LOL is in truth mostly an Awww for the ailurophile crowd. And the White Meat Chicken Florentine from Fancy Feast Medleys in the 3oz can with green label is a standby in the Mitch4 household.
As we have asked a few times before, Does this Bliss cartoon work better in b/w or in color?
(As we probably have not asked before, Would this comparison slider presentation work better in this side-by-side format or in a vertical division?)
Our own Zbicyclist mentions the resemblance of the b/w paintings above to some works his family saw on a visit to the Fundació Joan Miró (Museum) in Barcelona, which features work by Miró as well as other 20th and 21st Century artists. This shot from the #FundacióMiró Foundation’s Instagram shows a work which was also shown in Zbicyclist’s family visit photo; the dot in the museum is either black or a very dark blue.
But then, don’t you also think “Such peacefulness”?
And another food-centered cartoon (older – you may have seen before):
I can forgive mispelins in comic strips, but the sloppy editing in the regular news (and the sloppy headlines) depress me.
Andréa sends in this update about Mutts:
Patrick McDonnell’s Mutts has a new look: “MUTTS might look a little different to you this week and in the future. If so, it’s because I’ve loosened up my art style, using very little preliminary pencils (in some cases none) and going straight to drawing in ink. It gives the strip more of the power and intimacy of a preliminary sketch, which I love. I’m also freehand lettering the dialogue”
Okay, it’s clearly not a CIDU because there’s no doubt what the joke is.
But this is sooooo familiar. But I don’t know from where, exactly. This is thus a Comic Whose Familiarity I Can’t Pin Down.
I think I’m thinking of a classic (or at least “very old”) bit by a comedy sketch group, like maybe Second City or The Groundlings or maybe even Nichols and May. Can anybody ID a sketch using this idea or pattern?
That is: a dialogue in which the actually uttered words are descriptions of the place in the structure of the scene occupied by the character’s turn or line; or description of the tone and effect of a line that would go there; or some similar meta-level description in place of the expected base-level line of dialogue.
Also, can you make a short and snappy name for the trope? And more examples, in any genre?
GoComics commenter “The Brooklyn Accent” posted a link to the song clip below, “Title of the Song” by Da Vinci’s Notebook, which does some of the same things and probably belongs within the same trope.
I’m delighted with how the Bizarro literalizes the idea of the fourth wall.
So then the problem-solvers’ question is “what are we seeing on the left side of the drawing?” And the answer should be “The adhesive side of the wallpaper”.
The contributor sending in the Macanudo points out that it’s a very old joke (probably could be found in Mutt & Jeff :) ), but this is still a very good realization of the idea.
And they pair well because the Macanudo is at the other end of sticking to the metaphorical.
P.S. Wayno prepares two versions of each Bizarro he makes, a squarish panel and a more horizontal strip format. Occasionally in his weekly blog he shows the variation, and in the week covering this cartoon it was the one getting that treatment. Here is that alternate image:
I had a stationary bike. After a few years, I had done 12,500 miles on that bike — halfway around, at the equator. But I wondered what degree of north latitude would be12,500 miles long (so I could see what cities were at that latitude). I thought I’d figured it out, but wanted validation; it had been a long time since I was in junior high. We were having parent-teacher conferences, so I asked the 7th grade math teacher. She took the problem and said she’d get back to me. Never did. When my daughter asked about it, she said she’d lost the problem — but didn’t ask for another copy.
I repeated this with math teachers each year. Never got an answer.
Can you finnish this problem?
Thanks to Chemgal for this Zits, which earns a LOL-Ewww!
And here is your LOL-CIDU-Geezer for the week!
Another CIDU-LOL, or Arlo-LOL, and the one calling for the category tag about “There must be a popculture reference that will clear it up instantly” — if you can see putting the chess world in “popculture”. Yes, something upsetting happened recently in the world of chess, and then Twitter has its way with answering some of the questions raised.
Thanks to dollarbill for this DSOH, featuring one of their favorite tropes, counting sheep. See also the posts in Random Comments and Site Comments on his idea for a structured-commenting game. (Please respond there, not so much here.)
Comics I Don't Understand 