by Kilby

Bonus CIDU: Barney & Clyde Quadrifecta

I understood the primary gag in the final panels, but I do not understand the meteorological setup in the first panel:

…
Perhaps it’s just the awkward expression: how can a hurricane “drop a millibar“? Did anything like this actually happen during either of the recent hurricanes?

I might as well include the previous two B&C strips, which feature Horace’s “intentional CIDUs. The solution to the first one was explained in Week 94 of the Invitational, in which Gene Weingarten solicited even more obscure “Horace” material. (The results will appear in the Invitational on Halloween, and the better ones will probably be immortalized in future Barney & Clyde strips.)

The second one I had to look up myself, but Barney’s tip in the last panel was a big help:

P.S. Given the solution, this one might also need a “geezer” tag.

Here’s a third “Horace” strip from last year, which was also included (with its solution) in the Invitational article:

by Kilby

And the Nominees are…

Back in August(†), Usual John submitted this One Big Happy strip as a partial CIDU, commenting: “I guess I sort of understand the comic, but I have no idea what movie star Ruthie has in mind.“

…
I agree with John: I cannot recognize any resemblance to a specific actress; she just looks generically old and ugly (both with and without the “app”, which I assume is the intended gag).

P.S. (†) I had a little difficulty finding this strip, because the URL was incomplete. Please remember to make sure the URL you submit is specific to the date of the intended comic, and not just the general “front page” URL for “today’s” comic.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 27th, 2024

Kilby comments: This Macanudo isn’t really “laugh out loud” funny (it’s closer to an “Awww”), but I found the diagonal framing (and the “lensing” effect in the title panel) so impressive that wanted to share it with everyone:

…
The strip is even better if you open the image in a new tab (or window), and let it fill the screen.

P.S. As long as we are reminiscing about summer, here’s how Calvin & Hobbes spent a similar day (three decades ago):

…
P.S. The fact that Bil Keane drew a few of his own “grown up children” strips doesn’t make that Ink Pen any less funny.

Danny Boy was kind enough to send in these LOLs.

Nancy Classics this week gave us this comic from 1955. Half dollars almost call for a geezer alert. Relatively few of them are still made in the U.S.

Dollar coins are no longer minted after multiple failures to gain acceptance (Susan B. Anthony, Sakagawea, U.S. Presidents). The U.S. Mint does produce some American Innovation Dollars, but these are not intended for circulation and are sold at a premium.

From 2001-2020, the U.S. Mint produced half dollars only for collectors because the Federal Reserve already had plenty, but limited production has now resumed.

In 2023, the United States Mint produced a total of 11.38 billion coins for circulation. Here’s the breakdown by denomination:

  • Pennies (1 cent): 6.58 billion
  • Nickels (5 cents): 1.24 billion
  • Dimes (10 cents): 2.37 billion
  • Quarters (25 cents): 1.15 billion
  • Half dollars (50 cents): 40.2 million
by Kilby

Bonus: Hug a Sheep Day

The following pair was submitted by Chipper 42; today happens to be “Hug a Sheep Day” (make of that what you will: both of these comics were originally published on April 5th).

P.S. While I understand the editorial position that CIDU should not actively solicit “Synchronicity” comics (primarily because the result tends to be far too many mild, random coincidences), I’m not about to ignore a superb example when I see one, especially when there is an ideal date on which to present it.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – October 26th, 2024

Mark H. submitted this Frazz as an OY, admitting that it “Took me a minute…” (to get the joke). However, since at least one Editor still doesn’t understand it, a CIDU has been added to the tags. Perhaps Mark would be so kind…?

This Carpe Diem panel was submitted back in July by James Riendeau, who wrote, “Carpe Diem tends to be one I frequently do not get, but today’s was a real head-scratcher. It must be a cultural reference I’m not familiar with.”

Niklas Eriksson is Swedish; those “P”-Jackets might actually be worn there, but I sort of doubt it.

…
Solution: The “P” stands for “parking”; the guy is a meter reader, and he’s writing a ticket for the “parked” whale.

…
P.S. Claes Oldenberg was the only real mystery, the rest of them were fairly clear.

Early voting has started. The US election will soon be over … maybe.

Some of you likely came across this a few days ago, when Danny Boy in the comments, but it’s worth another chuckle.

This cartoon circulating around the internet probably qualifies as a CIDU, but the joke depends on a wordplay, so I’m posting it here.

I searched for the original source, but couldn’t find it in the many, many times it has been posted on the internet before I saw it this week.

by zbicyclist

Bonus: And the Arlo Award Winner Is …

I had originally set Mark H.’s suggestion to appear on Valentine’s Day, but then Kilby used this comic in his post earlier today. All of this exposure proves that the text below is still relevant, so I’m posting it as a bonus for today.

Bill Bickel set up the Arlo Award tag to indicate comics that seem to have snuck in sexual references past a newspaper comic censor. Of course, the state of the newspaper business is such that comic censors, or copy editors in general, seem to be in short supply. Web comics are, of course, inedible (I mean ineligible) for an Arlo Award.

The award is a nod to Jimmy Johnson’s Arlo & Janis comic, which still has innuendos with some subtlety. But a special Arlo Lifetime Achievement Award has to go to Brooke McEldowney’s 9 Chickweed Lane.

Here’s one sent in by Mark H., who notes “Given that they’ve never been intimate, it’s not clear how she knows how big his macadamias are – except that, being a few years older, she probably baby-sat him in younger days.”

The aging of the twins in this strip has been mysterious; is she older?

But, yes, McEldowney established 3 days earlier that they haven’t had, well, you know what.

So, with the tiny power invested in me as one of the editors of Comics I Don’t Understand, I hereby give 9 Chickweed Lane a Lifetime Arlo Achievement Award.

Any acceptance speech may be NSFW.

by Kilby

Age of Consent

Mark H. submitted this 9CWL quite a while ago(+), commenting: “Looks like the visuals in the first two frames are out of sequence. What woman wraps a towel around her head before going into the shower?“

…
I agree that it does look odd, but I think the “out/in/out” sequence is necessary to make the “dash” effect work in the final panel. It’s really just that towel (on her head) that seems out of place.

P.S. (+) This strip is from August, but may have been overlooked amidst all the “swimming“, “milkshake“, and “accelerated maturation” issues we have seen in recent weeks. After all, they are all basically the same topic (the same one that we did not see just this past Wednesday, in “Hägar the Enabler“).

However, as long as we are on that subject, Mark H. also submitted the 9CWL below as an Arlo, commenting: “Given that they’ve never been intimate, it’s not clear how she knows how big his macadamias are….”

…
Perhaps she was just estimating their diameter from the effectiveness of his testosterone level on her…

by Kilby

Hägar the Enabler

Carl Fink submitted this Hägar the Horrible strip, commenting: “I think this is way too obvious to actually be an Arlo. Is there a category for ‘The Funnies just showed a young couple having sex in front of their neighbors, only slightly off panel’?“

There are a series of fine distinctions related to CIDU Bill’s “Arlo” designation. Carl is absolutely correct in recognizing that this comic does not qualify for an “Arlo Award“, because there isn’t any hidden wordplay, and nothing has been secretly smuggled past the syndicate’s censors; the hot action is right there (to the left of the second panel), for all of us (not) to see.

Whether or not this is “Arlo material” is a matter of subjective opinion. There is nothing objectively offensive about two pairs of underwear, and especially not with such frumpy ones as shown here. I don’t think that even Bill would have thrown this comic into his “Arlo Page” purgatory, and he was especially careful about not wanting to offend even the most sensitive of CIDU readers.

Nevertheless, this example is surprisingly risqué for a syndicated comic, and all the more so for one published by King Features, which in my experience has always been the most “sanitized” of all the syndicates. It also shows that someone else (presumably Gary Hallgren, for lack of any official information) has taken over the writing duties for “Hägar”. I cannot imagine that Dik or Chris Browne would ever have produced a comic like this one (even if their name still appears on it).

If this strip (pun intended) didn’t trigger the KF-censors, then it’s probably because the editor decided that the “sex” is indefinite and unprovable: concerned parents could theoretically explain to their curious kids that the new couple have just changed into their pajamas (to go to Hägar’s bed). The duplicity is psychotic, but that’s the way Americans behave about this subject: remember the “wardrobe malfunction“?

by Kilby

Hunting Vermin

Usual John submitted this Working Cats strip as a CIDU, commenting: “This is a strip about Brooklyn bodega cats, and these are the two central characters. Sula, the older and wiser cat, acts as a mentor to Taki, the kitten. But I don’t get what Sula is doing in the last panel.”

Even though I can explain exactly what is happening in this strip, I wanted to post this as a Comic I Haven’t Seen. Maritsa Patrinos has appeared at CIDU before, but only for her work on “Six Chix” (Fridays, since 2019).

…
I think my very first impression may have been the same thing that John thought: that Sula has assumed the same position that she was in when Taki mistakenly attacked Sula as “vermin”. However, what is actually happening is that Sula is calling attention to the real vermin: Taki’s tail. The weakness is that all the symbols surrounding Taki’s head distract from the marks meant to highlight her tail.

P.S. This strip is the first time that I have ever seen the term “vermin” used as a singular noun; I’ve always thought of it as inherently plural.