I don’t get why a giant ground squirrel is funny. I don’t get the caption at all. Is there a tree around that produces giant nuts?

Why a ground squirrel? If you’re going for humor, it’s hard to beat a jackalope.

I don’t get why a giant ground squirrel is funny. I don’t get the caption at all. Is there a tree around that produces giant nuts?

Why a ground squirrel? If you’re going for humor, it’s hard to beat a jackalope.

Dirk the Daring sends in this one — a particularly curious barbecue grill.
There’s also the well-known saying, “An army travels on its stomach.”

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.


But by hitting the random button at GoComics, I see many that are understandable in any language.





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.



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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It’s very confusing how to take these Throwback comics. There is indeed a substantial history of the actual Working Daze comic strip, with different artists, and how they changed the look and how the public reacted to it. So sometimes the Throwback will realistically review some part of that.
But other directions for the Throwback feature sometimes strike me as sheer fabulism. They trace it back to different writers as well as artists, different publishers or syndicators, also even different titles for predecessor strips. And with a straight face go back to very early 20th Century. .. And yet try to say “This was what Roy was like then” or “This guy became Jay at this point” with the oddest of non-resemblances.
So I was really sus, but think we can tentatively credit the story about Zany Zoo.
I’m just not that familiar with the Jurassic legal system.


OK, I get that the flying monkey has perhaps pooped on the car, but mutiny? And is this the witch who’s hydrophobic? Can never remember which witch is which.

I understand in general terms the idea of one or two “throwaway” panels for syndicated Sunday comics. This DSOH seems to have two separate ones. Then goes on to a main comic, which to me looks like two more disconnected jokes — first a typical short-form Horace meta joke (and pretty good!), then finally an extended narrative joke (complete CIDU!). So … what’s up with these?
Just to be clear:
A word play OY:

A one-step pun:

A typical-for-Horace signifier/reality meta joke:

And a “Huh? Wha?” narrative:


Would you cut it up differently? Or see it as more unified? Or have better explanations?
Happy Halloween — a good excuse to post some monster-themed cartoons. Here’s a couple that might fit into a Halloween-themed library.



This man isn’t worried that he’s out of candy, because he’s planned ahead.

If there is something left, it might not be the good stuff.

One measure of how influential Peanuts was is how familiar the Great Pumpkin is to us all.

First mention of the Great Pumpkin, October 26, 1959. You can follow this arc at https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1959/10/26


So, Monty Python’s science was right!


Andréa sends in this synchronicity. Cartoonists are always looking for a new angle, but sometimes push it too far.


Finally, like that house at the end of the night that gives out multiple candy bars so they won’t eat them all themselves, there’s this bonanza from John Atkinson — some cartoonists would have spread these out one at a time, and gotten a whole month out of this idea.
