Tag / B.C.

by multipleciduers

Sunday Funnies – LOLs, November 24th, 2024

Boise Ed submitted this B.C. strip as a CIDU, but I think it qualifies as an LOL:

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Ed had questioned the illogical elements of the setup: “I had forgotten that there is a restaurant chain called ‘The Cheesecake Factory‘, but why would anyone only eat roadkill, and why would anyone drive his car through that restaurant?“, but I think that it’s not supposed to make sense, it’s just supposed to be funny. The latter is something that the current author(s) don’t always achieve, so it’s always nice to see an exception.

MarkTa submitted this Wizard of Id strip as a CIDU quite a while ago, asking “Please help – is it about flatulence? Completely baffled.“

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While “burrito” might indeed imply “flatulence“, the real explanation is simpler: the Wizard is tired of Blanche stealing the blankets, and is anchoring them on his side of the bed (with an ultra-modern medieval nail gun). Both Calvin and his dad would have appreciated the Wizard’s solution:

When a cat employs this blanketing strategy, the result is called a “purrito“:

by Kilby

Bonus: Synchronous Flushes

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“.

by Kilby

An Irritating Invention

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“.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – November 02nd, 2024

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

by Kilby

Bonus: Synchronous Heat Waves

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.

by Kilby

Astronomical Golfing Errors

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.

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – July 27th, 2024

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?

by zbicyclist

Celibate Good Times, Come On!

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?

by multipleciduers

Saturday Morning OYs – June 01st, 2024

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.