We haven’t actually seen a star fall in since we invented telescopes, but I have a list of ones I’m really hoping are next.
The opposite of gravity is levity, so of course it’s okay to laugh at black holes.
Is it possible cartoonist Randal Monroe has been watching Philomena Cunk’s mockumentaries?
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I believe the object on the left is an old style computer. I’ve spent longer than I care to admit contemplating the mechanics of how this “affair” might happen.”
This might be filed under “jokes that don’t work well anymore”. At the time this was done (1987), this would be hard. Now, linking computers to TVs is ubiquitous in several ways, most obviously via HDMI, which dates from the early 2000s. There’s some history of HDMI here: https://blog.solidsignal.com/tutorials/sordid-history-hdmi-revised-updated/
Parenting isn’t quite what it used to be, either (or, as JMcAndrew suggested, this deserves an Arlo tag).
And: would Alice’s condition be covered by United Healthcare?
Tony sends this one in, which began as a CIDU: “as I was writing this realized that the punchline was about a nose job. It didn’t even notice the change at first. I guess not having a nose must be pretty miserable, but I couldn’t even tell that sphinx was supposed to be a living creature.”
A few oldies to start us off.
JMcAndrew sends in this pair, which get a Geezer Alert. “Shouldn’t she check to see what the contents of the disk are before she gets upset? I like that she’s holding it by the corner because she assumes it’s filthy and Arlo’s very reasonable confusion here. The antiquated technology only makes it funnier 30 years later.”
If only she could. Gene’s not really wrong about compatibility, though. Our first PC was a Kaypro CPM machine, and its floppies weren’t readable by any other machine.
Boise Ed sends this one in: “Hah! I’d love to see this one in the real world.”
JMcAndrew sends this one in: “Confused about what the creators of this comic think “casual dress” is supposed to be. Is Lieutenant Flap wearing a dashiki? Do they think that Black people wear dashiki as “casual dress”? General Halftrack appears to be wearing a collared shirt and bow tie which is certainly not “casual dress”. I don’t know what is going on with Lieutenant Fuzz. Sarge might be wearing boxer shorts. His shirt just says “Go Sox” but doesn’t say which specific sports team with “Sox” in its name. I’m honestly more disturbed by his grotesque deformed feet than any of these outfits. Also why does Sarge have a different number of toes than Lieutenant Flap?”
Your editor admires the use of “Go Sox” while Sarge is wearing neither red socks nor white socks. No need to offend readers in Boston or Chicago.
JMcAndrew sends this in: “I’m almost afraid to ask what Ditto was doing that resulted in most of the film roll not being viable.”
This definitely gets a Geezer tag. These days, letting a child borrow your phone for a while to take pictures of whatever, and then review them is as common as cell phones.
JMcAndrew wonders: “Which Muppet? I’ve spent longer than I care to admit contemplating this.”
How about Janice, the guitarist for the Electric Mayhem? Ziggy deserves to have his world rocked a bit.
Targuman sends this in, along with a bit of Johnny Cash trivia:
Johnny Cash once started a forest fire that killed 49 of 53 remaining California condors in a preserve.
” in 1965 that Johnny Cash ignited a wildfire in the Los Padres National Forest that drove off 49 of the area’s 53 endangered California condors. In those days, the gravelly-voiced singer had fallen so deep into amphetamine use that the people around him feared for his life.”
I’ve been to cheesy funerals, but …
JMcAndrew writes,
I had to Google it and apparently Tenafly is a small borough in New Jersey. Is this a cartoon specifically for the 15,000 or so people who live there?
Well, yeah–or that’s all they can get for their “International” film festival!
Boise Ed sends this in: “I wouldn’t have expected this in Blondie, but this is so true!”
billr sends this in, with some CIDU aspects: “Looks like maybe a can of insecticide in Death’s hand? Or maybe the guy in the background is an impending client? Dunno.”
Phil writes: “Make sure to work “scythe sale” into the post, preferably several times!” Yes, that’s a tongue twister!
Bliss is heavy on the Grim Reaper theme lately. An improvement on the talking pet cartoons, IMO. And that sale scythe he got at the scythe sale is pretty good looking for a sale scythe purchased at a scythe sale. I wonder if I can still get a sale scythe at the scythe sale? Let me know in the comments if there’s still a scythe sale. [Happy, Phil?]
Not confusing enough to be a CIDU, but a couple of questions. There’s the English expression “Too many cooks spoil the broth”, which makes sense because you can mess up a broth or soup by messing up the seasoning (Italian herbs make a good soup; Indian spicing makes a good soup; adding both does not make a good soup). But toast?
Second, there’s 23. That’s probably just a random number pick here, but even the most casual fan recognizes 23 as Michael Jordan’s and LeBron James’s number: undeniably two of the greatest basketball players ever.
Mitch4 sends this in:
FYI: PM is short for Project Manager.
On dating shows, the contestants are hoping. Here they are also hopping.
Background: Amazon, controlled by bald billionaire Jeff Bezos, now owns the Bond movie franchise.
This reminds me of this video from Dr. Glaucomflecken:
[Yes, he is actually a doctor licensed in the US, and has some serious YouTube videos related to his specialty (ophthalmology), but he has a bigger audience for his comedy.]
Chemgal sent this in as an OY, but we’d already posted it as a LOL. They’re probably right, but it was already here. :)
This reminds me of those ads for PCs in the 1980s, when the first CGA monitors became practical. The ads would proudly show a pie chart, illustrating that the monitor would display colors and could draw a nearly perfect circle. The humor of those ads for me is (1) how many users would ever make a pie chart, and (2) pie charts are seldom the best way to show data.
Boise Ed sends in this one:
Dan Sachs sends this in as a partial CIDU, wondering “Is that an asterisk? Where is the footnote?”
So, another upgrade on the GoComics website. It’s a bit mean to post this as an LOL, but it seems like every time GoComics “upgrades” there are problems. I remember after one “upgrade” Comic Sherpa (a showcase for new comic authors) was promised to return “soon”, but never did and was eventually abandoned. In recent weeks, some Barney and Clyde comics have been missing dialogue, even though they show up fine on Arcamax. But we can hope this “upgrade” will be less glitchy.
That email to subscribers mentions that the cost will be going up to $35/yr, although they are holding the price for 1 year for existing subscribers at $20.
UPDATE: As if on cue, GoComics does it again today (Feb 16):
At the same time, Arcamax has the entire comic:
I find it hard to believe that any newspaper editor would have let Get Fuzzy strip this appear in print, even if the relevant expression is a little bit dated:
…
The last dialog bubble in the fourth panel is closer to overkill than actually necessary, but it certainly makes it clear that the joke in the third panel was intentional.
This Yuval Robichek comic was submitted as a “choice half-Arlo”, but in Bill’s day it would never have appeared on the primary CIDU site: he would have banned it to his separate “Arlo” page. (But since it is a web comic, it wouldn’t qualify for an Arlo “award”.)
Comics I Don't Understand 