This seems filled to the brim with message. But … what is it saying?
And on lovely levels fifteen thru twenty …
Tundra
Robert Kinney sent this in, and asks “What in that sonagram tells us that this is a rooster? I don’t get what this is trying to tell us, or why it’s supposed to be funny.”
Second-order synchros of LOLs
What I mean by “second-order synchronicity” is that Arthur was struck by two different synchro pairs on the same day.
“Barney & Clyde matches with MGG:”
“And Close To Home matches with Off the Mark:”
“Neither are exact matches, but both immediately caught my eye.”
Synchro born on third base
From Chemgal, who was way more scrupulous about synchronicity dating than we would ever demand, asking “Does it count when one is a ‘classics’ strip?”
Random: New Yorker non-contest non-captioned cartoons bit
Frequent CIDU contributor Ooten Aboot (aka “Canadian Raising Is Real”) sent for our enjoyment news of The New Yorker working to out-do themselves with a variant on their widely-beloved Caption Contest. It’s a series of drawings, mostly by their cartoon artists, and mostly lacking captions, presented online as a “Daily Shouts” humor feature.
The intro write-up, by Dahlia Gallin Ramirez, goes like this:
Once a year, a team of demons at The New Yorker provides “cartoons” in need of captions. You, the readers—so full of hope, so charmingly mortal—upset yourselves trying to think of jokes. There are no submissions, no finalists, and no votes, but there are winners: the evil beings who created these uncaptionable images. Good luck!
We can’t print here any pictures that are their current content, but here’s that link again!
Laff Out Loud
… says the sign on the wall.
Sent by Brian in STL and by Chemgal; the latter asks “Is the ventriloquist doing voodoo?!”
I think, pretty clearly so; but maybe under a system that departs from the classic rules of voodoo?
Sunday Funnies and Minor Mysteries – LOLs and Semi-CIDUs, October 10th, 2021
Eats, shoots, and leaves.
Minor Mysteries
These are comics that somebody thought were pretty good, or even full LOL, and not baffling but a little hard to pin down. Like, you can think of a rather plausible explanation of the chuckle — or maybe two! — but there’s nothing that clinches the case that *this* or *that* just has to be the key to what’s going on.
For example, with something like this Andertoons, we might think of the minor mystery as expressed in terms of providing the missing caption. Is it about the odd feeling you’re being watched? Or more like “Oh, where did I set down my glasses?”. It could be either, do you agree?
A Minor Mystery from Darren, who says “I can’t tell if Watson’s jarns need to be interpreted as a specific term. I’m flummoxed. Apparently the squirrel is as well?”
Okay, the joke here is that the threatened punishment will involve a cannister vacuum cleaner (in what seems to be a photo clip?) rather than a conventional physical beating or the like. But it’s an unanswerable mystery just what the threat is. Torture by exposure to noisy motor, like a household pet? Being inhaled altogether? Having some portion of his body inhaled?
Saturday Morning Oys – October 9th, 2021
Boise Ed recommends Doc Rat, and this Oy from the October 1 front page at Docrat.com.au was more available than others.
And indeed Brevity is generally going to yield up some species of OY, as here:
Tuna breath
Texts from Mittens is almost always an SMS-based texting conversation between a cat and his owner (or “Mom”, occasionally “Mama”), in a layout imitating display on a phone screen. Never a drawing or other image of the kind we associate with comics.
Sometimes a different character gets in the conversation. I just today looked at the Characters tab on GoComics, which sort of answers a couple of my long-standing questions. But there are no answers anywhere to fundamental questions or consistent treatment of his unusual abilities (does he tap out messages with a paw on a physical phone, or send them via mental/physical magic connection?), his contact list, his mix of knowledge and ignorance about the human world. Oh never mind, it’s all just for cat people to read and indulgently sigh in recognition. He gets a little shirty but loves his Mom, okay?
In this one, of course Mittens likes tuna smells. But is Mom taking that into account? Or is she thinking by habit of how tuna breath would affect human companions and coworkers?
Say what?
A CIDU-LOL from dollarbill.
Yes, there is something to be “got” here, and it’s a pretty good joke, even if the CIDU element is fairly easy. There is another unexplained element, which I didn’t quite realize was in need of explaining until dollarbill mentioned it (and reviewed them!).
Comics I Don't Understand 