Thanks to Matthew McKeever, who sent this as a CIDU and says: “another stumper … … and I went to parochial school”
Should Chef Boyardee should be canonized (as a saint in heaven) or sent to the other place? Or maybe it’s the corporate moneygrubbers who own the brand (currently Conagra Foods) who should be sent someplace?
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.
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.
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!)
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.
Thanks to CloonBounty for sending this in and engaging the co-editors in discussion, starting by remarking “Can you help me out with this? I get the punny gag. But why did the one who merely listened to the ‘bad pun’ get the punishment?”
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!
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”
From Dale Eltoft, who calls it a groaner, which we are happy to understand as an Oy!
Thanks to Ken Berkun for this next one.
Thanks to Bill R, who says “It’s like they’re daring us to figure it out”. Which is why there is a CIDU category (“tag”) on this, along with the “(Not a CIDU)” for the OYs list in general. Look, don’t question it too hard. Oh, and it’s not a pun really, but gets an OY as a language-related item. Also this list was sitting bare too long …
The usage they’re disputing over was taught in my schooldays as one of “those common mistakes to be avoided”.
OK, I think (but am not positive) that I get the alternate meaning the joke depends on — from too many crime shows, the best deals a defendant’s lawyer might hope to extract from a prosecutor would involve setting no additional jail time, so the defendant gets to “walk away” or “take a walk”.
First I thought the outside guy was wearing an odd bathrobe; but throw in his laurel wreath and I guess he is at a toga party. But not the inside guy. Oh well, it doesn’t seem to affect the joke.
Possible cross-comic banter, based on spelling of the name?
This took me a minute, as I don’t often use “home” for a physical house, the building.
For anyone not familiar with the comic, the character on the right, Lyndon, is a psychiatrist or therapist. So Freudian slips are like his stock in trade. But there is something funny in how this patient or client responds to the “Say again?” with an almost-repetition and not acknowledging he has made a correction.
An excellent OY that also had me at least chuckling out loud.
(But I have to confess I don’t know who the guy on the right is. I hope his identity wasn’t another part of the joke.)
Thanks to Rob for these next two OYs (and some hard-to-classify strips coming up elsewhere on the site):
I guess I’m wrong here — I would have said this doesn’t work unless he actually says “Heckuva” (variation possible for the c and/or k, but the v obligatory). But the crowd at GoComics seemed to take it in stride.
And a Sandal Synchronicity:
This Mother Goose and Grimm is analyzed at Arnold Zwicky’s blog.
I also posted this F-Minus, with remarks, in a comment on that same Zwicky blog entry.
Several selections contributed by Andréa coming up:
“I KNEW IMMEDIATELY WHO THIS WAS, EVEN BEFORE READING THE CAPTION . . . DOES THAT MAKE ME A GEEZER??”
Synchronicity–
This Bizarro from Andréa is also taken up under the Arnold Zwicky analytical microscope. I like his term “a Desert Crawl cartoon” for the main trope here.
“SYNCHRONICITY – ABOUT *NOT* LEARNING A LESSON . . .”
And one final OY contribution:
