I (Winter Wallaby) have returned books shortly after checking them out (pre-pandemic, when I could read in the library, and either finish a short book, or read enough to realize that I didn’t like it, or that it was too difficult for me). It was not, as far as I know, a funny situation. And I didn’t have bubbles floating around my head.
Submitted by Arthur.
Does anyone set off fireworks or shoot guns on Halloween?
From Andréa.
Okay, a LOL but a sad-LOL.
I generally grudge-read PBF, along with a couple other hyper-cynical comics. But this one struck me as funny and appealing.
And really nice is the collection of rock stuff in the middle panel. That’s a Yellow Submarine picture on the wall, the album on the bed with the yellow smear is probably the banana-cover Velvet Underground first album, the open mouth next to it seems Rolling Stones related. And is the blimp picture a reference to Led Zeppelin?
Hah! Gotcha, Mothra! From Andréa. (Who suggests there is word play going on between ‘Mothra’ and treating it as a ‘moth’. But isn’t that just what the name is about?)
Absurdism, put in its place.
Contributed by Andréa, who says “Particularly funny for me, as mysteries are my favorite genre.”
Danny Boy: “Well how many readers besides the old gaffers will recognize in this a reference to the movie ‘Tea and Sympathy’? And why try to use that allusion when the situation in the comic is nothing at all like the movie?”
Sorry, sometimes I just don’t have the patience to find humor in parents making their own jobs as unnecessarily difficult as possible.
The anonymous submitter asks: “Although virtually all of the movie theaters have been shut down because of Covid-19, I would be interested to know what a “small coke” currently costs in an American theater (or, for that matter, in any fast food restaurant). I’m betting that Breathed’s presumably wildly inflated $6 (in 1986) won’t sound all that inflated now.”
Stan: “Wood you explain this, please. I get the idea, sort of, but when has this ever occurred? It seems like a pretty wild stretch just to make a ‘joke’ work. Am I missing a reference to something? Also, if it’s a ‘post-wood’ era, then what is the podium behind him made of? It looks like wood to me.”
And a CIDU-Eww from Ignatz.
From Stan, who says I’m ‘Racking my Brain’ to work it out.
But truth to tell, we just wanted an excuse to try out the poll feature and see if it really works. So here are two cases where various and sundry editors and senders-in were unsure whether and how to agree on how something would be taken, and said: let the vox pop have a say.
First up, Boise Ed sent this one in as a CIDU, asking: “What does the Casper the Friendly Ghost toon have to do with mattresses?”
However, it turns out the puzzle entirely dissolves, and the connection is clear, for people who happen to be aware of a certain fact. But is this a fact most readers will know, or only a few? And then, when you do know, is the cartoon a good joke, or a shrug?
Please record your view in the poll just below. And commenters, please refrain from explaining it all for about 24 hours, if you don’t mind. Thanks!
Next up, Andréa and Chak both sent in this Reality Check of a giant feline on the rampage!
It’s been called a CIDU, a LOL/Oy , and an Ewww. As CIDU: “What is this, just Catzilla? Or is there more to it?” . The Oy factor is the wordplay from the usual sense of “Big box store” for the kind of building, to an idea that it could mean a place to obtain a big box. The Ewww might be if you thought the giant cat wanted to find a suitably large litter box. And the LOL reading is still with the idea of obtaining a very big box, but just for the giant cat’s comfort and amusement — just like your housecat, who will play with and curl up in an empty cardboard box even in preference to the toy or pet bed that may have come in it.
Comics I Don't Understand 