Category / 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.

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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 multipleciduers

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?

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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:

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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:

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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!”

by Kilby

Happy Halloween!

Besides the popular candy collection event, today is “Reformation Day” (in honor of Luther’s 95 theses), and here at CIDU it just happens to be Meryl A.’s birthday. Since she hasn’t been able to reschedule her day of honor, we will just have to wish her a very “Happy Birthday!” today.

Halloween is supposed to be a nice, innocent holiday, but some folks misinterpret it:

Then there are others who go really overboard:

Some kids are more scary than others:

Although very dated, this costume is still scary, too:

by Kilby

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!

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 27th, 2024

Kilby comments: This Macanudo isn’t really “laugh out loud” funny (it’s closer to an “Awww”), but I found the diagonal framing (and the “lensing” effect in the title panel) so impressive that wanted to share it with everyone:

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The strip is even better if you open the image in a new tab (or window), and let it fill the screen.

P.S. As long as we are reminiscing about summer, here’s how Calvin & Hobbes spent a similar day (three decades ago):

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P.S. The fact that Bil Keane drew a few of his own “grown up children” strips doesn’t make that Ink Pen any less funny.

Danny Boy was kind enough to send in these LOLs.

Nancy Classics this week gave us this comic from 1955. Half dollars almost call for a geezer alert. Relatively few of them are still made in the U.S.

Dollar coins are no longer minted after multiple failures to gain acceptance (Susan B. Anthony, Sakagawea, U.S. Presidents). The U.S. Mint does produce some American Innovation Dollars, but these are not intended for circulation and are sold at a premium.

From 2001-2020, the U.S. Mint produced half dollars only for collectors because the Federal Reserve already had plenty, but limited production has now resumed.

In 2023, the United States Mint produced a total of 11.38 billion coins for circulation. Here’s the breakdown by denomination:

  • Pennies (1 cent): 6.58 billion
  • Nickels (5 cents): 1.24 billion
  • Dimes (10 cents): 2.37 billion
  • Quarters (25 cents): 1.15 billion
  • Half dollars (50 cents): 40.2 million
by Kilby

Bonus: Hug a Sheep Day

The following pair was submitted by Chipper 42; today happens to be “Hug a Sheep Day” (make of that what you will: both of these comics were originally published on April 5th).

P.S. While I understand the editorial position that CIDU should not actively solicit “Synchronicity” comics (primarily because the result tends to be far too many mild, random coincidences), I’m not about to ignore a superb example when I see one, especially when there is an ideal date on which to present it.

by Kilby

Hägar the Enabler

Carl Fink submitted this Hägar the Horrible strip, commenting: “I think this is way too obvious to actually be an Arlo. Is there a category for ‘The Funnies just showed a young couple having sex in front of their neighbors, only slightly off panel’?“

There are a series of fine distinctions related to CIDU Bill’s “Arlo” designation. Carl is absolutely correct in recognizing that this comic does not qualify for an “Arlo Award“, because there isn’t any hidden wordplay, and nothing has been secretly smuggled past the syndicate’s censors; the hot action is right there (to the left of the second panel), for all of us (not) to see.

Whether or not this is “Arlo material” is a matter of subjective opinion. There is nothing objectively offensive about two pairs of underwear, and especially not with such frumpy ones as shown here. I don’t think that even Bill would have thrown this comic into his “Arlo Page” purgatory, and he was especially careful about not wanting to offend even the most sensitive of CIDU readers.

Nevertheless, this example is surprisingly risqué for a syndicated comic, and all the more so for one published by King Features, which in my experience has always been the most “sanitized” of all the syndicates. It also shows that someone else (presumably Gary Hallgren, for lack of any official information) has taken over the writing duties for “Hägar”. I cannot imagine that Dik or Chris Browne would ever have produced a comic like this one (even if their name still appears on it).

If this strip (pun intended) didn’t trigger the KF-censors, then it’s probably because the editor decided that the “sex” is indefinite and unprovable: concerned parents could theoretically explain to their curious kids that the new couple have just changed into their pajamas (to go to Hägar’s bed). The duplicity is psychotic, but that’s the way Americans behave about this subject: remember the “wardrobe malfunction“?

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 multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 20th, 2024

Boise Ed submitted this Cornered panel, commenting: “What a great put-down!“

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P.S. A German flasher would hope she says: “That’s gross!“
P.P.S. To which he would then reply: “Dankeschön!“

F.Y.I.: Is everyone is already prepared for the upcoming holiday(s)?

How to tell a fruit from a vegetable:

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Your attitude towards caramelizing may depend on whether you’re the one who does the dishes. Similarly with dishes such as tahdig, “a beautiful, pan-fried Persian rice that is fluffy and buttery on the inside with a perfectly golden crust, which is the layer at the bottom of the pot.” — if you make it right. The first few times might not produce “a perfectly golden crust”.

And we couldn’t leave without a couple of nods to autumn.

The character in the leaf pile is Wallace’s mom:

This one’s from 1962, when leaf burning was still a tradition: