Tag / Arlo and Janis

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, October 2nd, 2022

Is it nice to pose a math problem on a Sunday?

I had a stationary bike. After a few years, I had done 12,500 miles on that bike — halfway around, at the equator. But I wondered what degree of north latitude would be12,500 miles long (so I could see what cities were at that latitude). I thought I’d figured it out, but wanted validation; it had been a long time since I was in junior high. We were having parent-teacher conferences, so I asked the 7th grade math teacher. She took the problem and said she’d get back to me. Never did. When my daughter asked about it, she said she’d lost the problem — but didn’t ask for another copy.

I repeated this with math teachers each year. Never got an answer.

Can you finnish this problem?

Thanks to Chemgal for this Zits, which earns a LOL-Ewww!

And here is your LOL-CIDU-Geezer for the week!

Another CIDU-LOL, or Arlo-LOL, and the one calling for the category tag about “There must be a popculture reference that will clear it up instantly” — if you can see putting the chess world in “popculture”. Yes, something upsetting happened recently in the world of chess, and then Twitter has its way with answering some of the questions raised.

Thanks to dollarbill for this DSOH, featuring one of their favorite tropes, counting sheep.
See also the posts in Random Comments and Site Comments on his idea for a structured-commenting game. (Please respond there, not so much here.)

And now, a mini-fest of Wrong Hands!

by Mitch4

Hey, isn’t there some holiday around now?

Fourth of July comics galore … if you’ve skipped the hot dogs, how about some Shrimp and Grits?

Thanks to Boise Ed for this Shrimp and Grits:

FYI, Andy Marlette who does this strip is apparently the nephew of the late Doug Marlette, known as creator of Kudzu and for his editorial cartooning.

But wait … there’s more!

Like most male wearers of Speedos, he really shouldn’t. With that body type, there’s nothing solemn or sacred. Scared, maybe.

In my neighborhood there are unofficial fireworks for all sorts of holidays and unexplained occasions, chiefly firecrackers. But indeed the loudest and longest-running are the official displays for The Fourth and other sanctioned events …. but always supplemented by local enthusiasts.
And so most major holidays are accompanied by topical responses in pet advice blogs, veterinary newsletters, and pet supply store tracker ads, on how to soothe and de-stress the furry friends in the face of the startling noises.

If you noticed an OY category marker for this post, and wondered which item(s) may have triggered that, here is one answer.

Back in OY territory!

And finally, time for “Ballad for Americans”


In seventy-six the sky was red
thunder rumbling overhead
Bad King George couldn’t sleep in his bed
And on that stormy morn, Ol’ Uncle Sam was born.
by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – June 18th, 2022

Thanks to Bill R, who says “It’s like they’re daring us to figure it out”. Which is why there is a CIDU category (“tag”) on this, along with the “(Not a CIDU)” for the OYs list in general. Look, don’t question it too hard. Oh, and it’s not a pun really, but gets an OY as a language-related item. Also this list was sitting bare too long …

The usage they’re disputing over was taught in my schooldays as one of “those common mistakes to be avoided”. 

OK, I think (but am not positive) that I get the alternate meaning the joke depends on — from too many crime shows, the best deals a defendant’s lawyer might hope to extract from a prosecutor would involve setting no additional jail time, so the defendant gets to “walk away” or “take a walk”.

First I thought the outside guy was wearing an odd bathrobe; but throw in his laurel wreath and I guess he is at a toga party. But not the inside guy. Oh well, it doesn’t seem to affect the joke.

Possible cross-comic banter, based on spelling of the name?

by EditorM

Saturday Morning Oys – June 11th, 2022

This took me a minute, as I don’t often use “home” for a physical house, the building.

For anyone not familiar with the comic, the character on the right, Lyndon, is a psychiatrist or therapist. So Freudian slips are like his stock in trade. But there is something funny in how this patient or client responds to the “Say again?” with an almost-repetition and not acknowledging he has made a correction.

An excellent OY that also had me at least chuckling out loud.

(But I have to confess I don’t know who the guy on the right is. I hope his identity wasn’t another part of the joke.)

Thanks to Rob for these next two OYs (and some hard-to-classify strips coming up elsewhere on the site):

I guess I’m wrong here — I would have said this doesn’t work unless he actually says “Heckuva” (variation possible for the c and/or k, but the v obligatory). But the crowd at GoComics seemed to take it in stride.

Time for some Andréa!

And a Sandal Synchronicity:

by Mitch4

How much of that is Mickey? (bonus post)

Since we previously dropped in on “Arlo and Janis, The College Years”, here is the current chapter.

The CIDU matter is, What-all is going on in panel 3? The red must come from the Mickey phone, and by panel 4 we see it has been swept to the floor on the other side. But the panel 3 scene doesn’t simply show the phone partway through its flying path — there are lots of twist indicators or something.

by EditorM

College town?

Thanks much to chemgal, who has done all of the work of writing up the background and the CIDU question:

I really don’t get the April 7th Arlo & Janis, though it is in the middle of a series, so maybe tomorrow’s comic will explain it. For those who don’t read A&J regularly, the set-up to this point is that we’re seeing a flashback to when A&J met while she was taking art and he was working at the bookstore, and in the previous couple of comics, Janis slowed things down:

So my question is, what does “college town” have to do with anything here?

And an auxiliary question from me: Who else thinks Arlo’s moustache is the most annoying thing ever?

by EditorM

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, March 13th, 2022

Well, there’s a good OY on the left, and a good LOL on the right, and I’m feeling too lazy to get out the cropper, so let’s print it twice, once today, and once yesterday or tomorrow.

Not a huge LOL, but Tiger and Punkinhead here are reproducing a classic problem in the literature of logical representation, going back to Bertrand Russell.

An Arlo-LOL from Divad who says “I’ve got a pretty good guess what was on Arlo’s mind (in general), but I’m trying to not picture what he’s specifically thinking.”

“Zzz-mailing” makes it worth it…