Category / Oy

by EditorM

The final collection of Oopsies, Quickies, We-can-improve-its, Semi-CIDUs, Mysteries, and flops? (14th Series)

Not quite complaining about the friend’s unprompted question — it could happen, though normally you’d expect a context something like “Why won’t you X? What are you afraid of?” The problem, the detail-complaint, is with the form of Pete’s reply-question, which carefully spells out a pronunciation which marks it out as belonging to no actual regional or demographic dialect or slang.

Oops! Got the underlying myth premise precisely backwards!

And here they got the underlying business terms precisely backward. As an excuse for something like a missed payment, someone may plead that their assets are not liquid.

Okay, one joke is that there would be a rap version of a mantra. Or that she has been rapping it, or improvising it, or humming it or something, enough to disturb her friend.

But the bothersome aspect of this is how it seems to buy into some magical thinking. The dark-haired friend is linking her (later) ability to get the good parking space to performing a successful meditation now, undisturbed by intrusive mantra rapping. (Or could it be Nichiren Shōshū chanting?)

This is a perfectly fine little pun! Oh, except that there is no basis shown or hinted for why the new top provides more relief from the heat.

by EditorM

At the Gallery (repost as a bonus)

This entry was originally posted on 2020-Nov-13. We were reminded of it when reading Tom Falco’s newsletter today (corresponding to this post on his Tomversation blog), which reprints this panel along with pictures and commentary on his recent New York visit.

Tomversation sent in by Ollie. As a CIDU? Didn’t say! Is the joke like those set at modern art galleries, where a frame surrounds a stain on the wall, here turned into a window mistaken for an art object? Or is it just a fond reminder that one can tire of any quality of indoor view and welcome a glance out a window? [2022 comment: Falco’s title “The grass is always greener” would seem to fit better with that latter view.]

Next mystery: Is it meant to be somewhat realistic? So these would be a collection of posters on paper, mounted on somebody’s wall? No? An actual touring exhibition of masterpieces unlikely to be loaned out and then exhibited together? Nah.

Does it remind you of one of those paintings that show other paintings, maybe in a gallery setting? Like this one by Samuel F. B. Morse:

[2022 comment: The Picasso has been identified by commenter Olivier: “BTW, the Picasso is ‘portrait de femme au béret orange et col de fourrure (Marie-Thérèse)’, 1937.”]

And now, for something not quite completely different! Still in the realm of fine arts and popular suspicion, this OY from Cornered, sent by Olivier.

Wrong Hands can be cynical without being mean:

Oh, how those New Yorkers love themselves some art:

And The Far Side on “The Art of Conversation”. Sorry, just a link, not a copy.

https://www.thefarside.com/2020/10/30/2

And just be hush-hush about this, okay? —

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – July 23rd, 2022

(This is under the “not really a pun but word play in general” tag.)

This joke may actually date back to the Viking era, or earlier.

Thanks to Andréa for this Bizarro:

I’m sure I’ve seen this joke used before, but not whether that means this is a repeat or just that the joke has occurred to others. A cursory search does find other examples, and tempting as it is to make a whole post out of three or four of them, let’s leave it at that.

From Andréa:

Just a bit corny.

And a little Oy-Ewww on the side.

by EditorM

“It’s Horace, the guy who tells jokes so sophisticated no one can understand them.”

Sent by Andréa, who also kindly linked this Bernoulli explainer. (Which however doesn’t make the joke really clearer.)

Barney and Clyde have a whole series of these this month. They are obscure, but are they funny? Here’s another. The humor seems species-ous.

And then again there are some, like the most recent episode, which we would gleefully consign to an “Ooopses!” list if we didn’t have this post to use it in.

Let us pass over in silence the syllable count of guacamole, and get right to the point: why isn’t there superscripting? If there’s an excuse in “He’s supposed to be speaking these”, still they should be written correctly and trust the reader to vocalize them appropriately; or heck, even write out him saying “times ten to the twenty-third” and something like “inverse moles” or simply “units per mole”.

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – July 16th, 2022

I think this counts as a pun, even without doing a pun-joke.

The above sent by Andréa, who particularly notes Tom Waits getting mentioned, saying “Never thought I’d see HIM in a comic – made my day!”. And one of your editors had the pleasure of taking a couple classes from Professor Lance Rips, who liked to point out that his name constitutes a complete sentence.

Meant to post this earlier.

And the award for the best re-use of old toy parts goes to …

I learned the word prodigal in the context of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and thought it meant something like all the characteristics of the guy in the story – wandering, absent, returning after a long absence and acting all entitled, etc, all packaged in that one word. Only much later did I start seeing contexts that wouldn’t support all of that meaning, and learned the base sense spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.

And then discovered that was what it meant in the Parable, too. But there had not been enough help from the context to make that choice clear! And this fits the philosopher’s point that, if your informant points to a rabbit and says gavagai, maybe they are telling you the word means rabbit — but maybe it means finger.

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – July 9th, 2022

Thanks to Dale Eltoft for sending in the second Diamond Lil in the pair below. “This follows from the day before but I don’t know if that’s a necessary setup.” On that recommendation we’re also including the set-up one first, though it isn’t in itself an OY.

(In a followup, they make it clear that you better say it in the pun way or there is no joke left!)

I’m in an online class that’s reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and whenever I run into an invisibility-themed cartoon I have the impulse to upload it to the class discussion board. But that would be unwise.

Oy! this is so labored of a pun — but sometimes you just have to honor that labor! (Also interesting how there had to be a switch of syntactic role of me in the last panel.)

Added Thursday – This cartoon was the main topic of an Arnold Zwicky post on his blog, which says a lot more than my remark above on the parsing of the punned title in the last panel; and also brings up Stephan Pastis as a mainstay of this genre.

A multi-OY from Cat and Girl, with e3xtras from meme-land.

by Mitch4

Hey, isn’t there some holiday around now?

Fourth of July comics galore … if you’ve skipped the hot dogs, how about some Shrimp and Grits?

Thanks to Boise Ed for this Shrimp and Grits:

FYI, Andy Marlette who does this strip is apparently the nephew of the late Doug Marlette, known as creator of Kudzu and for his editorial cartooning.

But wait … there’s more!

Like most male wearers of Speedos, he really shouldn’t. With that body type, there’s nothing solemn or sacred. Scared, maybe.

In my neighborhood there are unofficial fireworks for all sorts of holidays and unexplained occasions, chiefly firecrackers. But indeed the loudest and longest-running are the official displays for The Fourth and other sanctioned events …. but always supplemented by local enthusiasts.
And so most major holidays are accompanied by topical responses in pet advice blogs, veterinary newsletters, and pet supply store tracker ads, on how to soothe and de-stress the furry friends in the face of the startling noises.

If you noticed an OY category marker for this post, and wondered which item(s) may have triggered that, here is one answer.

Back in OY territory!

And finally, time for “Ballad for Americans”


In seventy-six the sky was red
thunder rumbling overhead
Bad King George couldn’t sleep in his bed
And on that stormy morn, Ol’ Uncle Sam was born.