Brian in StL submitted this pair of “classic crescent-moon outhouses” last year, which seemed eminently appropriate for World Toilet Day.
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P.S. Both of these strips were published last year on October 5th, but the Non Sequitur is actually a rerun from 2019, and was embedded into a comment in that year in Bill’s Halloween post about “Outhouses“.
Boise Ed submitted this Speed Bump as a CIDU back in April, commenting: “I don’t get why the cones would be so irritating. I’m assuming the wheel is meant to be for transportation, although it lacks the axle/footrests of the wheels in B.C. If it’s not for transportation, then I have even less of a clue what he’s on about.“
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P.S. Last Saturday (Nov. 2nd) was the 81st anniversary of Charles Scanlon’s patent (US2333273A) for a “Safety Marker“.
This Rabbits Against Magic strip looked like a simple OY at first, but now I’m puzzled:
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How does “tre” count as a pun on “trace“?
This Rhymes with Orange is an OY-Ewww:
Jack Applin submitted this Andertoons as a CIDU, asking “Is the one-eyed robot unable to see the traffic lights? [OR] Is is programmed to ignore them, giving an advantage to “driverless” cars?“
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Mark Anderson’s original title for his comic #9221 reveals that Jack’s first question was right on the money: The gag is a reference to one of the most common anti-robot user verification tests, typically presented by the reCAPTCHA interface:
Later that same month (in 1967):
The punchline is in panel 5, but for many of us it would be a CIDU. The authors conveniently use panel 6 to make the joke clearer.
For more about the psychiatrist character, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/barney-and-clyde-finds-inspiration-in-a-little-peanuts-farming/2011/07/20/gIQAcMmeTI_blog.html
Not only were these two published just one day apart, the jokes are identical, as is the fundamental physical impossibility. Neither one would appear to be related to a specific incident or place.
Bill Amend currently lives in Missouri, but Foxtrot isn’t tied to a specific location: “I’ve never established where the Fox family lives and I’m not sure the sort of place I depict really exists. It’s sort of that generic cartoon version of suburbia that a lot of strips share where it snows in the winter and is near water when necessary. I grew up in New England and Northern California, and I think bits of that come through, but it’s nowhere specific.“
B.C. takes place somewhere in Generic Cave Man Land, but Mason Mastroianni lives in upstate New York.
Jack Applin submitted this B.C. strip as a CIDU, noting that “Grog hit the ball to … Saturn? Let’s ignore the [80 minute] light speed delay [one way!]. What is that film around the planet and rings? Atmosphere? But Saturn is a GAS GIANT — all that we see is atmosphere inside the rings!“
The obvious astronomical destination would have been a black hole, but that would have been impossible to convey to readers, and the closest known black hole is 1500 light years away.
My guess is that Mason chose Saturn because it is the only planet that could possibly be recognized in comic strip resolution. Most papers that still print daily comics do so in monochrome, which could seriously deteriorate the carefully shaded images in the first three panels.
P.S. Just a week later, a very similar gag appeared in The Wizard of Id:
Both strips have a long history of using golf gags, but a little more temporal separation between these two might have been advisable.
This first one is more of an Ewww than an OY:
P.S. The weather this summer has been exceptional for snails and slugs; every few days I can go into the back yard and collect a dozen (or even a score) of the gross things.
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This is only the third time that the Keane’s “Family Circus” has appeared at CIDU (not counting a few mashups and tangential references).
A Comic I didn’t understand the first three times I saw it. I wasn’t puzzled, just mistaken.
I thought the point was just in the dog choosing to ignore the request (command) and pursue different interests.
This atrocious B.C. pun appeared just in time for the opening ceremonies:
Tolkien wrote that the Elves made three rings, the Dwarves were given seven rings, and Sauron made nine rings to entrap the Nazgul, but where do the five rings fit into the story?
Stuck in the middle with youuuu ….
Here’s John McWhorter on stress (accent) retraction. (Should work as “gift link.”)
Usual John sends this one in.
Celibacy and chastity are often confused. Celibacy means not getting married, although it is often extended to not having sex. Chastity means not having sex, or not having sex outside of marriage.
Regardless of definitional issues, this doesn’t seem to make sense. IIRC, Maude and Jake are long term partners in B.C.’s world. And who’s getting redeemed?
My friends on road trips used to enjoy “What’s that up in the road? A head?”. (Oops, accidental repeat from 25 May.)
Also fun on road trips: Look out, there’s a fork in the road!
TBH, I’m not entirely sure if “branch” in the last panel is actually intended as a pun.
There is a rather old joke involving a misunderstanding of that kind of signage (and based on a now-possibly-objectionable euphemistic term) — but wait!, it turns out this Crabgrass is not using that joke, but rather one based on a different misunderstanding of it.
Picked up from Counterpoint
Is that an electric plug in her hand, at the end of a wire? So she has unplugged a phonograph from playing one of the objectionable original versions?
It’s very simple, but (therefore?) almost perfect.
(it was established in the previous days that these are temporary tattoos)
Comics I Don't Understand 