Do you have “The Philosophy of Modern Song”?

The questions keep branching out. What is the drawing meant to show? Empty spaces on the shelves? So then the geezer is being sarcastic about “I wouldn’t have any of that stuff in my library”? Or they really are audiobooks, on physical CDs with shiny plastic cases? And then Zack is dumbfounded because he has never heard of audiobooks? Or instead, Zack is dumbfounded because he is quite familiar with audiobooks, but always in electronic or virtual form and never before this in a physical recording?

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, November 13th, 2022


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?

But maybe this one was meant to make up for that?


Saturday Morning OYs – November 12th, 2022

And here’s another Lard for you for this week!

I wanted to say something like “This is not just a pun, but etymologically correct!”. It turns out something like that is justified, but not quite so simple and direct. Both Etymonline and Dictionary.com recognize a verb maze or amaze meaning “to daze, perplex, or stupefy” or “overwhelm or confound with sudden surprise or wonder,” but seem unclear on how it is related to the noun meaning  “labyrinth, baffling network of paths or passages” . But yes, it is related, some way.

Oh gosh, and here’s this entry mazy (adj.) “like a maze, winding, intricate,” 1570s, from maze (n.) + -y (2).! Brings back writing a paper on Book 9 of Paradise Lost, full of narrative about “the mazy serpent”.


The pun is not new, but as an oldie it is a goody!


Truss didn’t make it as prime minister long enough to outlast a head of lettuce, or the lead time for this comic.


Hard as snails

A CIDU from Dirk the Daring.

The BOB MANKOFF PRESENTS: SHOW ME THE FUNNY (ANIMAL EDITION) feed on Comics Kingdom seems to stick with some kind of animal for a week or two, then move on to a series with another kind. After a good run of ostriches, they have moved on to snails. I’m hoping for a visual to go with “Look at that S-Car go!”.

I can’t believe it’s not a synchronicity!

From Andréa, who points out for the synchronicity inspectors that although the Knight Life is a rerun or classic, its appearance on GoComics was 2022/11/08, same as the Candorville. The Candorville is a pretty good LOL at the end, too, despite edging up kinda near to partisan politics.

(Post-posting edit: As noted in comments, the following was the intended Knight Life, which actually uses the phrase “I can’t believe”.)

And for some additional fun on the “Can’t believe it” topic, Andréa also sends a link for this scene from The Vicar of Dibley. Impressive memory and facility from Emma Chambers, playing Alice.

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, November 6, 2022

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.


Saturday Morning OYs – November 5th, 2022

Some of these are somewhat CIDU for me, actually. I’m just guessing “Frankenstein’s Castle” is a thing, and “Vampire Bass” draws a blank.


Since we seem to have a subcategory under Oy for “Literalizing an Idiom”, might as well provide it some examples!


When he dons it, is it part of his gay apparel?


Should this strip have appeared on a Throwback Thursday?


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